“All for dolphins, and dolphins for all.”
I shake my head at Grinder because that makes absolutely no sense.
Wait, actually, it kinda does.
No. Absolutely not. This isn’t happening.
“This is happening,” she says as if she can actually hear my thoughts. “Come on! It’s a great idea!” It really, really, is not.
“‘Sup, brother? Y’all ready to do this?” Shade is sitting on a stool, sterilizing his work station, all his tools laid out like a surgeon’s mayo tray.
“You’re in on this?” Parker’s mouth drops, the shock in her eyes clear as day. “How did I not notice?”
“Girl, when you’re in the zone, a fanfare of wild, buck naked dudes could walk by and you’d ignore them.” We all think on that visual and it occurs to me that Shade is on point. When Parker is tuned in, she’s one hundred percent unshakeable.
“Can’t deny that.” She shrugs and walks over to the tablet where a drawing is laid out on the screen, ready to be used. On us, apparently. “Oh, Shade, that’s fuckin’ tight!”
Looking over her shoulder, I tilt my head to one side, then the other, appraising the design and visualizing it sitting on my body somewhere, permanently, forever and ever, until my skin deteriorates after my death.
“Huh.” It’s all I’ve got.
“That sounds an awful lot like ‘fuck yeah, we’re doin’ this!’”
I don’t even bother rolling my eyes at Grinder, it’s a wasted effort.
“I think Spenny’s on board. He hasn’t protested in nearly thirty seconds.”
I’m surrounded by smart asses.
“To be clear: no consent, no tattoo. I don’t need no lawsuit on my back.” Turning to Shade, I narrow my eyes, hoping my face sayswhat the fuckas clearly as I’m feeling it.
“Easy, Doc. These two troublemakers are rubbin’ off on you.”
“Apparently so. All right, fine. Let’s do this.” My consent inevitably brings us to a circle of jumping and hugging, which leads to kissing, and soon Grinder’s hand is down my pants.
“Y’all fuckers can get naked when I’m done, but not while I’m here.”
My grin is more about being nervous than uncomfortable. Our sex life is an open book to the club since Grinder is incapable of filtering his thoughts. When he says he’s an open book, he’s not exaggerating, but we’re okay with that. It’s one of the things we love most about him.
“Cross my heart, no fuckin’ ‘til we’re branded.”
Parker jumps up and down, clapping her hands, clearly on board with Grinder’s promise.
“Can we not call it a branding? It sounds a bit too…” I can’t find the word that describes it without hurting Grinder’s feelings.
“Neanderthal?” Shade says without moving his gaze from the tablet.
“Yes, that. We’re getting matching tattoos, not branding ourselves.” Right? There’s a distinct difference.
“To-mayto, to-ketchup.” This is why we need to be three. There has to be room for the voice of reason.
Almost four hours later, we’re all looking in the mirror at our new tattoos.
“Never thought I’d lose my virginity again.” Parker breaks the silence like only she can, using humor to dissipate the heaviness of the moment.
“Same. Kinda feels nice, though.” I mean, I just had a needle poking me for over an hour, again and again. The fact I don’t feel like swiss cheese is reassuring.
“Well, fuck. Now I need to do something so I can lose my virginity, too.” Parker and I look at Grinder standing between us, his chest on full display. I’ll never get over how stunning heis. When he turns his gaze on me, his eyes soften just a little. Then he turns to Parker and I can feel the love growing even stronger between us, like the tattoo has some magical hold over this relationship.