Evanescent Ink (Copperline #4) (18 page)

“You know, blonde would be much more becoming on you. You could be almost as lovely as your sister.”

“Tried it once,” Raven replied. “It made me look kind of washed out.”

“I’ll talk to Alessandria. We’ll find out where she goes to get her hair done. She has someone who is simply a miracle worker. Not that your sister needs it, but she took a friend there who was simply pitiful. By the time they were done, the girl looked like a model. She might be able to do something with…
that
.” She waved her hand around indicating pretty much all of Raven.

I couldn’t help it. I was trying to, but it was starting to piss me off the way her mother was belittling her.

“I love the purple.”

Raven gave me a quick shake of her head, but it was too late. It was out there.

And her mother caught it quickly.

“Good heavens, who is that?” she asked, as if I were a panhandler on a street corner.

“He’s a friend,” Raven replied. “His name is Drew.”

Her mother wrinkled her nose. “You really need to start picking your friends more carefully. How will you ever fit in if you keep finding people with piercings and tattoos.”

“I have piercings and tattoos, too, Mama.”

“We can fix that. I'll talk to my surgeon. She can do grafts even. We can work with what you’ve got to make you
almost
as beautiful as your sister.”

“What the—?”

“Drew, don’t,” Raven whispered.

I pressed my lips together and stood silently, trying to ignore the blatant insults and comparisons her mother tossed around. The woman was vile. No wonder Raven had been glad to leave. Granted, she was in a nut house now, but I got the feeling that the only difference between her jibes then and now were that she didn’t
know
she was in a nut house now.

But, because I knew Raven didn’t want me to say anything, I didn’t. I bit my tongue. I toyed with my labret piercing and puffed up my chest with every dig, but I didn’t say anything.

By the time we left, the sun had set. It was only just after five o’clock, but darkness came early on a Montana winter evening now that daylight savings had passed us by. After constantly being berated for the last hour or more, Raven appeared exhausted, so I drove her Jeep on the way back to Ophir. It was a quiet drive, sometimes with Raven gazing out the window, sometimes with her eyes closed and resting her head on the seat back. But, aside from shifting gears, my hand lay warm and comforting over hers on her thigh.

“You gonna be okay after today?” I asked as I pulled up in front of Ink next to my pickup.

“This isn’t really anything new, Drew.”

“Can’t be easy, though.”

“No,” she smiled sadly, “it's not that, but I’ve gotten pretty good at dealing with my mother. She’s actually a little better now that she’s lost the plot because she forgets a lot. The doctors keep thinking it will be good for her to see me, but I’m clearly not the daughter she wants to see.”

“Yet you keep coming back.”

“She’s my mom.”

She said it with a shrug, and I gave her hand a quick squeeze before I opened the driver door and climbed out. She maneuvered out of the passenger seat to settle behind the wheel, then reached back to buckle her seatbelt.

“If you need anything at all, I’m only a text away.”

“I know.” She gave me a steady look, powerful in its directness. “Thank you, Drew,” she smiled. “Thank you for today.”

I sat in the music room strumming along, working out some licks to tie together a song Denny had written.

“Denny, dude,” Justin said from across the room, “why is your kid staring at me like that?”

Denny, Cody, and I all looked over at Justin. Eoghan, Denny’s almost-two-year-old son, was watching Justin in awe, seeming enthralled.

“Eoghan, come 'ere, ya little snapper,” Denny laughed. “You’re gonna give Uncle Justin hives by standin’ that close to him.”

The dark-haired little boy ran across the room. He always seemed to run full-bore, no matter if he was traveling two feet or twenty. It was like the kid didn’t know how to walk.

“You know, that kid is never going to know how to spell his name, right?” Justin scoffed. “Why couldn’t you just spell it O-W-E-N like a normal person.”

“It’s Irish, ya eejit,” Denny replied.

“Yeah, but you’re in America, you fucker,” Justin retorted.

Cody, who was almost a stepdad to Ilsa’s little boy Max, piped in. “Justin, jeez… language around the little dude who’s learning to talk, huh?”

Justin opened his mouth to reply, but closed it without spewing the usual slew of profanities. Maybe even he could be taught. Stranger things had happened.

Right about then, Brannon showed up, smiling from ear to ear. The guy looked positively euphoric as he walked in the room and plopped down on the couch.

All four of us guys, five if you count Eoghan, stared at him. He almost acted high.

“What the fuck is up with you?” Justin blurted out.

Okay, so maybe he couldn’t really be taught. Short-term memory.

Brannon grinned up at us, all starry eyed. Kinda dazed. “I’m going to be a dad,” he murmured.

“What the fuck?” Justin choked.

Cody, Denny, and I took it a little better. Especially Cody and Denny, really. It was like Brannon was joining a club. They slapped him on the back and high-fived him.

“Whoopity doo,” Justin said, evidently still kind of appalled, “Brannon and Sophie failed at birth control. I’m not sure this is really a good thing.”

“We haven’t used birth control in a year,” Brannon replied with an airy grin. “We wanted this to happen.”

“What the fuck?” Justin gasped in horror.

“A fuck?” little Eoghan parroted. I tried, unsuccessfully to hide my amusement, but it was hysterical. None of us could really help but laugh a little.

“Bloody hell, Justin,” Denny shook his head, doing everything he could to keep the smile off his face, “Fliss is going to kick my arse for that, d’yaknowhwhatimeanlike.”

Eoghan, seeing all of us guys trying to hold it in, smiled wide. “A fuck?” he repeated. “A fuck… a fuck… a fuck…”

Denny covered Eoghan’s mouth with his hand in an attempt to stem the profanity streaming from his lips. “You know, she’s never going to let me bring him back without her here.”

“Fuck you,” Justin laughed, “he probably learned it from her. That wife of yours swears like a fuckin’ sailor.”

“Not around him, she doesn’t. She'll be right cheesed off the first time that little gem pops out of his gob.”

“Argh, speak English you fucker,” Justin shot back.

Through all of this, Cody came out from behind his drums to shake Brannon’s hand.

“Really, though, man,” he said, “that’s awesome. Congrats.”

“Thanks, Cody,” Brannon grinned. He looked a little pale all of a sudden. “Shit, I’m gonna be a dad.”

“You'll be a great da, Bran,” Denny nodded. “It’s not easy and your life will never be the same,” he looked down at Eoghan who now had his thumb firmly planted in his mouth, “but you'll never want it any other way.”

The tone in Denny’s voice stayed with me all through the weekend. I found myself thinking about it at work on Monday, sitting back at my desk as I sketched out a tattoo design. I remembered back when Felicity got knocked up, how Denny had been over the moon. The two of them had a rocky road, right out of the gate up until then. Denny was on the verge of being deported, and Felicity could have been charged with fraud.

But that all came to a head when the irrefutable proof of their love became known.

They were happier than ever. Happier than either felt they had a right to be, but both felt the other deserved.

And Cody, by marrying Ilsa, was turning into a family man, too. Granted, that wasn’t a real shocker for any of us. If ever a guy was supposed to be a dad, it was Cody. They had filed adoption paperwork to make Max officially his by law, right alongside Ilsa. Cody couldn’t have been happier.

And now Brannon. Sophie had been hinting for a while, but we all kinda figured they’d get married first. Oddly, it wasn’t former super manwhore Brannon who was dragging his heels, but Sophie dragging hers. In her mind, they already were committed. Together. Married by common law, even. She didn’t need the ceremony. She didn’t want the pomp and show of a wedding. She just wanted him. She wanted a family with him.

They were dropping like flies. At least I could count on Justin not to get tied down. That fucker would probably still be sleeping around until he was ninety.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even hear Raven come into my office. It wasn’t until she spoke that I realized she stood beside me.

“That’s a nice one. Very gothic,” she murmured, looking at the dragon I’d penciled out. “Who’s it for?”

“That guy who’s coming in at two. He kinda described what he wants when he made the appointment and asked me to draw it. He said it’s the beast that used to control him before he quit drinking. He’s gone a year without booze and wants to commemorate it.”

“That’s pretty cool. I admire people who can face their demons and overcome them.”

“Yeah, especially when the world around you is always changing.”

Raven tilted her head, giving me a quizzical look. “You okay? You seem… off. Did Maggie do something?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” I said, wincing at the thought of my ex. “It’s a good thing, actually. Brannon and Sophie are having a kid.”

He eyes widened. “Intentionally?”

“Yeah, very intentional.”

“Huh… Are they getting married?”

“Who knows? Maybe. Sophie would be perfectly happy to just be together without ever being married. She already goes by his last name.”

“Yeah, I guess. In her mind, they already are, more or less.”

“Her biological clock, on the other hand, is like a ticking time bomb. She started getting that look in her eyes when Felicity got knocked up, and then she saw Max…” I smiled at the memory. “Hit her like a fucking lightning bolt.”

“Oh, jeez,” Raven giggled leaning up against my desk.

“No shit… they were over at the Mofo house for a barbecue when Cody brought Ilsa and Max. Sophie took one look at him and was struck with baby fever. Her and Brannon immediately disappeared into the music room.”