glanced at the calendar over her desk. The first of September was a little over two months away. Two months to make her dad see things from her point of view. Two months to put aside the complacent good girl and find out just how strong she really was.
Her letter written, she was carefully applying ointment to her new tattoo, per the printed instructions Theresa had given her, when her phone rang. She wiped her hands on a tissue and answered it. “Hey, Jen, can you talk?”
Her best friend Shelly’s voice, rich with a Georgia accent, filled her ear. “Sure, I can talk.” She lay back against the bed pillows. “What’s up?”
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”
“What has Aaron done now?” Aaron Prior was Shelly’s newly licensed lawyer boyfriend and, to hear her talk, was both the chief love and the chief cause of frustration in her life.
“It’s what he hasn’t done. Don’t you think after dating someone for five years, it’s not unreasonable to expect a ring? A proposal?”
“Have you asked him about it? I mean, where he wants to go with your relationship?”
“Believe me, I’ve tried. But I hardly see him these days. He’s always working or involved in something else. He’s broken dates twice in the past month. I’m worried he’s getting tired of me.”
“No! He adores you.” Most men adored Shelly. The voluptuous redhead could charm the most reticent recluse, a talent which came in handy in her job teaching junior high school students. “I’m sure it’s just the pressure of his new job.”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s found someone else. A cute secretary or paralegal. Or another lawyer.” Shelly sounded utterly bereft. “That would explain why he’s suddenly spending so much more time on the job instead of with me.”
Jen leaned over to replace the lid on the jar of ointment, then arranged herself more comfortably on the bed. “I’m sure that’s not it. You need to pin him down and ask him. If you tell him what you’re feeling, maybe he’ll cut back on his hours.”
Shelly sighed like an overwrought actress told to convey frustrated regret. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about that man. But enough about me. What’s up with you?”
“Well…I got a tattoo today.”
“What!”
Jen had to move the phone away to prevent damage to her eardrum. “I got a tattoo.”
“What of? Where? When?”
Jen laughed, imagining the expression of avid interest on her friend’s face. “It’s a calla lily. Right above my left breast. And I got it this morning.”
“Did it hurt? What was it like?”
“It hurt a little. But…it was an interesting experience.” The presence of one very sexy artist had definitely upped the interest factor. “There was this guy there….”
“Oooh. I can tell by your voice he was hot.”
She laughed. “Yeah, he was hot. His name’s Zach Jacobs and he owns the place. Well, he and his sister do. Or maybe she just works for him. I’m not sure.”
“Who cares about the sister? Tell me about him.”
How to describe Zach? “He’s sort of dark and…brooding. He’s about six-two. Long, black hair in a braid. Gorgeous black eyes. Muscles. Tattoos, but not too many. Leather.” The physical description made him sound good, but it didn’t really tell Shelly anything about him.
“He sounds positively yummy!” Shelly said.
“Yeah, well, he’s really interesting, too. He’s an incredible artist.”
“Maybe I should go see him about a tattoo.”
The thought of shameless Shelly presenting her not-inconsiderable chest for Zach’s study made Jen’s stomach clench. “His sister did the actual tattoo,” she said. “Zach was just there.”
“Uh-huh. And you and he hit it off?”
“Sort of.” What had happened with her and Zach? Nothing really. But, then again, a lot.
“Your father would hate him.”
Shelly sounded so certain of this, but Jen hadn’t seen it coming. Then again, she’d never dated much, and even then only boring, respectable guys her father couldn’t help but approve of. “He wasn’t exactly thrilled with the tattoo, that’s for sure.”
“And you thought he would be?”
“Well, he’s never said anything before about the way I dressed or wore my hair.”
Shelly laughed. “Only because you’ve always been the perfect daughter. You never gave him anything to object to.”
She winced. “It’s not like I set out to live that way. It just…happened.”
“Personally, I’m glad you decided to step out of line a little. So why did you decide to get a tattoo all of a sudden?”
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I figured, since I’m getting ready to go live in a new city and start a new job, it was a good time to try a few other new things.”
“I thought your dad wasn’t too keen on you going to Chicago.”
“He’s not.” She thought of his threat to use his influence to get her kicked out of the dance company. He wouldn’t really go that far, would he? Her stomach knotted as she remembered his words about tough love. Maybe he would. But not if she could persuade him otherwise. She glanced at the sealed letter on her dresser. She’d made a commitment now. She didn’t intend to back down. “I’m going to find a way to go. I just have to make him see what a good thing this is for me.”
“Maybe you should do something so wild your dad will be happy to see you move out of town.”
“You mean something that would embarrass him because he’s chief of police? I could never do that.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of something that would lead him to believe that getting you out of town would be the best way for him to protect you. Remember when you were ten and wanted to go to camp?”
She laughed. “I’d forgotten all about that. I was so mad when he said no, I started hanging out with that group of wild kids.”
“And the next thing we knew, your dad had signed you up to be away at camp practically the whole summer.”
She shook her head, remembering. “I was so homesick the first week away, I cried myself to sleep every night. But I wouldn’t have dared to say anything to him about it.”
“Maybe you should try the same thing now. But instead of friends, you need to find a guy who would worry him. Someone he’d do anything to get you away from.”
Jen immediately thought
