He turns back to the woman and urges the paper down. He’s tattooing her nipple. I look away. “It’s all right,” the woman says. “He did beautiful work. I don’t mind if you see it.”

He’s doing a tattoo. Of course he is. All the breath rushes from my body in a huge exhale. He’s doing a tattoo. I look over his shoulder as he’s finishing up. He’s not just tattooing her nipple. The tattoo is her nipple. What the hell?

“Double mastectomy,” she explains. “Logan does free tattoos for mastectomy patients.” She arches her back, pressing her br**sts out. “What do you think?”

They look like real ni**les. The shading around the edges is perfect, and he’s drawn a simple nipple with a large areola. But there’s nothing simple about it. It’s a work of art. The color is the same shade as her lips, and I can’t believe how real they look. “Wow,” I say. What do you say? Nice ni**les? Beautiful boobs? “That’s amazing.”

Logan holds up a mirror for her, and she looks from one to the other. “They’re perfect!” she squeals. She throws her arms around his neck, and he hugs her tightly, smiling over her shoulder at me. He steps back from her, and bends down, softly placing a kiss on the top of her breast. Her eyes fill up with tears, and so do mine. “I’m going to show everybody,” she says. She holds the paper over her br**sts as she walks out into the shop. The girl that runs the front of the shop comes over to admire them, and Paul pretends to look everywhere but at her boobs. There’s no one in the shop, but I get the feeling she wouldn’t care if there was.

“She wanted to feel sexy again,” he says quietly, yanking the curtain so that we’re behind it.

“You did beautiful work.” I bat my guitar case against my shins, not sure what else to say. It really was remarkable how lifelike they looked. The shading and the colors and the way they fit the size of her new br**sts – it was all perfect.

“She needed them.” He shrugs. He’s so humble.

She bounces back behind the curtain, looking so pleased. She tugs her shirt over her head and takes money out of her purse. “I don’t have much,” she starts.

He presses it back into her purse, shaking his head.

“He won’t take it,” I say.

She narrows her eyes at me. “Who are you?”

“No one.”

She nods. She kisses Logan on the cheek, waves at me and leaves.

He starts to clean up his supplies. He looks over at me out of the corner of his eye and says, “Why are you here?”

I open my mouth, but can’t think of the right thing to say. I close it again. He stops and leans his hip against the table, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Can I buy you dinner?” I blurt out. I have no idea where that came from. But there it is.

He smiles. “Yes.”

Logan

“What do you want to eat?” I ask as we leave the shop. Kit asked Paul to join us, but I think he saw the pleading in my eyes when I looked in his direction. I need some time alone with her. I need to take her on a date. Technically, she asked me out, but I’d never let her buy dinner for me. Ever.

“I don’t care,” she says with a shrug.

I realize I have no idea what she likes. “Italian?” I point to an Italian restaurant on the corner by my apartment.

She nods, smiling at me.

“I didn’t think you were going to come back.” I hold the door open for her, and she walks into the dark restaurant ahead of me. The waitress leads us to a corner booth and she slides in across from me.

“I shouldn’t have.” She puts her guitar under the table, banging me in the shin with it in the process. “I’m sorry,” she says, wincing. She’s suddenly uncomfortable with me.

Is she sorry for knocking me in the shin or for leaving me this morning? “What did you do today?” I ask.

She makes a face and points toward her outfit. “Playing in the subway.”

“How did it go?”

She shrugs. “It was cold. My butt is still freezing,” she admits. I get an immediate and strong image of me helping to warm up her ass. I saw that perfect globe that is her ass cheek this very morning. “What?” she asks.

My thoughts must have played out on my face. “Nothing,” I say. But a grin tugs at the corners of my lips.

“What’s so funny?” she asks, her head tilting to the side.

I shake my head. “My mind was in the gutter if you must know,” I admit. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. Please go ahead.” I motion for her to keep talking using my hands.

“You were thinking about my butt,” she says. And now she’s grinning too.

Heat creeps up my cheeks. She’s so damn pretty.

The waitress comes to the table with menus, and lays one in front of each of us. “Welcome,” she says. “Do you want to know our specials?” She blinks at me, trying to catch my eyes. I make it a point not to look at her.

Kit nods in answer to her question. She rattles off some menu items and their prices, and I see Kit reach into her pocket and count her money beneath the table. There’s no f**king way I’m letting her buy dinner.

“What can I get for you to drink?”

Kit arches a brow at me and I motion from her to me and back so she’ll get me what she’s having. “Root beer?” she asks.

I nod. The waitress leaves us with the two menus. I open mine and she doesn’t. “Do you know what you want?” I ask.