Kurt, page 5
“Uh-huh.” Seemed that way to her. “They said they’d keep in touch but didn’t sound very worried.”
“They said you have to be vigilant?” Kurt held her hand. “It’ll be okay.”
“It will.” Talking to the police helped ease her mind. “Let’s get some lunch and play with Axel until you have to go to work.”
“Sounds great.”
Kurt drove to the boardwalk to the burger place she loved. He knew her so well.
“What would you like?” he asked and parked. “I’ll order it on the app.”
“You know what I like.” She laughed. “Same thing as always.” She wasn’t good with change.
“Cheeseburger with Swiss, lettuce, tomato, pickle and guac with fries?”
“Yes.” She could be so predictable, but she loved knowing what she’d get. He knew her, too. “You didn’t even have to ask.”
“I did, but I thought maybe you’d have found another favorite.”
“No.” She’d always had the same favorites -- burgers with Swiss and guac, fries, glitter and Kurt. “I’m very usual.”
“You’re more.” He tapped in the order. “Done. Should be brought out when it’s done.”
“Thank you.” She admired the way he smiled and how he thought of others so much before himself. “What made you move here?”
“Wow.” He scooted around on his seat to get comfortable. “I’d met Jimmy and knew we needed to be in a place where people would want to get tattoos. When I saw this town, I was drawn here. I just needed to be here.”
“Think it could’ve had something to do with the magic?” she asked. It could be quite a pull.
“Maybe.”
She’d grown up here and never expected to leave. She lived in the house her parents had owned. Her magic was rooted here and so was her love of the town.
“My heart tends to know what I want while my head takes longer to figure it out,” he said.
She grinned, not caring how she looked. He made her happy. The more she looked at him, the more she wanted to perform the spell, but why? She didn’t need to meet him. She needed them to fall in love again. Maybe she could find a spell for reunification.
“You’re thinking.” He kissed her knuckles. “About?”
“You. Us.”
“And?”
“I’m still not over some of the stuff that happened, but I’m ready to move forward.”
“With me?”
“With you.” She spied the server bringing the bag. “Dinner’s here.”
“Great.” He opened the window and accepted the food. “Thank you.” He handed Sarah the bag.
She opened it, then checked the boxes to ensure the order was correct. “It’s good.”
“Perfect.” He rolled the window up, then left the parking lot. “We’re at the start of something.”
“We are.”
He held her hand again as he drove to his house, but she swore it wasn’t just his place. It was more like theirs. It felt like it was where she belonged. Her mess-ups, family past and issues weren’t important. He cared about her.
Maybe she could adapt the spell? Find a reunification one? She had no need to meet the man she knew so well. Was it possible for her to fall back in love with him in seven days?
It just might be.
Hell, she’d already started falling now.
At the house, she ate with Kurt, then set up her laptop. She’d have to bust her ass to complete her work on time, but she’d get it done.
Always did.
At three-thirty, Kurt showered before dressing for work. She debated sneaking in to watch him but gave him privacy. He emerged from the bedroom in all black -- a tight Tattoo You branded T-shirt, black jeans and his boots. His clothes fit him like a second skin.
“You look amazing.” She abandoned her laptop on the counter. “Are you tattooing a bunch of people tonight?”
“Two tattoos and three piercings. We stopped doing walk-ins Monday through Thursday.” He offered her his personal phone. “You know the number if you need me. I’ve got my work phone on me at all times. If I’m in the middle of a tattoo and don’t answer, call the main shop number. Karey’s there, and I bet she’d like to see you.”
“Hear from me.” She refused to leave the safety of the house.
“True.” He grinned. “I don’t know what to do.”
“What do you mean?” She wanted to touch him, to curl around him and never let go.
“We’re trying to be us, right?”
“We are.” And trying to heal.
“You’re in my house.”
“I am.”
“I can’t go back to where we were.”
Her heart ached. Can’t go back. Shit. She hid her fears. “Why should we?”
“I suppose.”
She hooked her fingers in his front pockets, needing his warmth. “We aren’t the same people we were back then. We shouldn’t go back to what we were.”
“We need to do this with the people we’ve become,” he replied. “Yes.”
“Yes.” She eased her arms around him. “We’re older and wiser.”
“I’m older,” he said and nodded. “I don’t know that I’m any wiser.”
“You are.” She needed to relax him. If she had more time, she’d have given him head. “We’re still us, but we’re more nicked and scratched. We can do this.”
“We can.” He kissed her. “I never wanted to lose you.”
“You haven’t.” She nuzzled his cheek. “We have a way to go, but we’ll do it together.”
He sighed. “Just don’t break my heart. I can’t handle it again.”
“I know.” She wouldn’t. He meant too much to her. She also had a lot of work to do -- both on the computer and in her life -- to win over his trust. She had to get her friends back and move forward with her life -- and with him.
“It’s almost four, and I need to go. Call me if you need me.” He kissed her again. “I’ll call you on my break.”
“Okay.” She let go. “I’ll be working on my coding.”
“Sure.”
She noted his hesitation. “I’ll be okay. I won’t open the door to anyone, and I won’t go anywhere. I’ve got Axel, and I’ll be fine. Maybe I’m overthinking this. Maybe he’s moved onto his next conquest and I’m nothing.”
“I’d like to think that’s the case, but he’s a monster.” Kurt sighed. “I know you can take care of yourself, but I can’t shake my concern.”
“I’m in the safest place I could be because I’m here. You’ve got a better security system anyway, and I’ve got my spells. I’ll be all right.”
“You will.” He tucked his wallet and second phone into his pockets before picking up his keys. “Keep the doors locked.”
“I will.” She walked him to the garage, and Axel bumped her legs. “I’ve got a bodyguard.”
He chuckled. “You do.” He kissed her once more. “See you at midnight, and I’ll text you.”
“Good deal. Thank you.” She lingered with him another moment before he slid behind the wheel of his car.
She stepped back into the house and waved before closing the door. She listened for the main garage door to close, then locked the steel door. Things were still touchy between her and Kurt, but she trusted that their connection would strengthen. She and Kurt had come back together for a reason.
She scratched Axel behind the ears. “Want to help me get my work done?”
Axel barked. He swished his tail and trotted ahead of her to the living room.
She turned on the radio for him before sitting before her laptop. Once she started working on her coding, she flew through the first big chunk of her work. She had at least six hours’ worth of work ahead of her.
After the second hour, she took a break. Time to stroll the house and stretch. She’d managed to get more done than she’d expected, which helped.
On her walk, she ventured into Kurt’s bedroom. He’d painted the walls blood-red and the trim white. She snorted. When he’d bought the house, the realtor warned him not to use bold colors or he’d kill the resale chances.
“Guess he’s not planning on selling any time soon,” she murmured.
She ran her fingers over the dresser. He’d purchased a new bedroom set, too. The bedframe reminded her of one from a 1930s movie -- all iron bars and heavy-looking. He still didn’t have any photos on the walls. Didn’t he want to be reminded of the things he’d done?
Sarah left his room and returned to her computer. Time to get more done. As she sat down, his phone lit up. She glanced at the screen, expecting it to be Kurt. Instead, Dicey’s name showed up. Should she answer?
She let the call go to voicemail. She wasn’t sure how to forward the message to his other phone, but if Dicey texted, she’d send that one to him. The icon for voicemails didn’t change, but the one for a text did. Dicey had left him a text.
She pulled up the message.
We need to talk.
“I’m sure they do.” Sara debated her next move. She should forward him the text, despite wanting to delete the woman from his phone. She forwarded it with the additional message.
This is from Dicey.
Once she hit send, she tried not to let her imagination get the better of her. Dicey wanting to talk could be something or nothing. The problem was in his hands now.
His phone rang, and she expected to see Dicey’s name again.
Tattoo You. Her hand shook as she answered. “Hello?”
“Hi,” Karey said. “You’re at Kurt’s?”
“Yeah. Crazy, huh? Are you on a break?” She hadn’t expected Karey to call her. “I’m sorry I got all intense.”
“You get right to it -- and I didn’t say anything about intensity.” Karey laughed. “I got to leave early tonight. They’re slow, and Jimmy let me have the night off, so I thought I might come over. Kurt said you could use a friend.”
“I could.” Her work could wait until later.
“I’ll be over in ten.”
“Just… call me when you get here. It’s been a wonderful few days.”
“So I heard, and I will.”
She should’ve been upset that Kurt said anything, but she wasn’t. “Thanks.”
“’Bout ten minutes. I’m leaving now.”
“See you then.” Karey had given her just enough time to shut down her computer. She finished the row of code, then saved and closed the program. She shut the lid and sighed. Rebuilding her friendships wouldn’t be easy. Natalie still hated her as far as she knew, and she’d made Mandy cry. She hadn’t been nice to them when she needed them the most. At least Karey was speaking to her, and Nikki still gave a damn. All wasn’t lost.
She carried her overnight bag to Kurt’s room while Axel sniffed everything. “Thanks, big guy.”
Axel snorted on her bag before leaving the room. He could be gross at times, but he was loyal.
She made her way over to Kurt’s dresser and withdrew one of his sweatshirts. She needed his arms around her, and the sweatshirt would be the next best thing.
The phone rang, and she hurried into the sweatshirt before answering. “Hello?”
“I’m in the driveway, and I brought pizza,” Karey said. “See me?”
She hurried to the front window. “I do now. Come on in.”
A moment later, Sarah unlocked the front door and welcomed her friend into the house. She loved Karey. Where she was blonde and curvy, Karey had dark hair and with her curves, she could model. Karey was the perfect balance of mousy and smart. She was adorable and chic. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Karey shut the door behind her. “How are you? Where’s Axel?”
The dog barked just as Sarah took the pizza from Karey.
“There you are.” Karey knelt on the floor and petted the dog. “I’m glad you took the pizza. He’d have knocked it out of my hands.”
“I know he would’ve,” Sarah replied. “He’s still quick to steal food.”
“I know.” Karey stood. “How are you?”
“Better than I was.” She carried the food to the counter. “Can I get you a drink?”
“Sure.”
“He told you everything?”
“The highlights.” Karey sat at the bar. “Brady had no right to do that. He was wrong.”
“He was.” She withdrew two glasses from the cupboard, then filled both with water. “I hate that it happened, but maybe it was for the best. It got me to talk to Kurt and admit my feelings. Got me here, too.” She put the glasses down and retrieved two plates.
“It did.”
“And now I’m talking to you.”
“You are.” Karey opened the pizza box. “It’s a harsh way to get back together.”
“It is.” She offered up a plate to Karey, then sat beside her. “I needed the jolt, though.”
“Why? You’ve always loved him.”
“I needed to be honest with everyone and me. I never stopped caring about him, you’re right, but I wasn’t ready to tell him that.”
“That’s not great that it had to happen, but it’s good that you’re at this point,” Karey said.
“He has unfinished business with Dicey, though.”
“Dicey.” Karey groaned. “Ignore her. She wanted to force stuff. Seemed like every time we turned around, she was at the shop and acting like she was the model for every tattoo.”
“Lovely.”
“Jimmy finally had to tell her to leave or get inked again, because she wasn’t our model. Once she told him to fuck off, he refused to speak to her. Put Kurt in a terrible position.”
“Swell.” She plated a piece of pizza. “But he’s got history with her.”
“Sort of.” Karey bit into her slice. “This is good, and it’s still hot.”
The pie smelled good, too. She flicked her fingers to warm her plate and keep her slice hot. “I have to tell you something.”
“What?” Karey fought with the cheese on her slice.
“I’m a witch.”
Karey chewed the cheese, but otherwise froze. “You can be a pain in the ass, if that’s what you mean.”
“No, I’m a witch. The spell I found for us to find husbands came from a book, a tome of spells. It wasn’t random. I went looking for it so I could help us out of our relationship dry spells. It worked.”
“Wait.” Karey coughed. “You can do magic?”
“I can cast spells.” She’d get into her wonky ability to cast those spells later.
“So it wasn’t just a coincidence?”
“Not exactly, no. I knew you had a thing for Jimmy, and the spell helped you connect with him. Same goes for the others. They didn’t know who they truly wanted right away, but they knew what, and I helped it along. Once you all fell in love, the rest fell into place.”
Karey wiped her hands on her napkin. “Well, shit.”
“I knew I should’ve told you, but I wasn’t sure how.” The disgust with herself was almost too much to bear. “It wasn’t right to hide it.”
“Maybe not, but it did help us. You worked magic, and I’m thrilled. I’m also not entirely shocked.”
“Why? I didn’t want to upset you, but I knew it wasn’t right to withhold that information.”
“Okay, I’m a little hurt that you didn’t talk to me before now or that you didn’t trust me to know.” Karey picked at the remaining cheese on her slice. “But it explains your wanting data. You needed to know that the spell worked.”
“I did.”
“It did for all four of us.”
“You’re right.”
“So why don’t you use it for you and Kurt?”
“I was afraid. Then Brady happened, and it all became a mess.”
“So do it now.”
Karey made it sound so easy. “I don’t need to meet him. I already did.”
“Do you have one to bind you together?”
She shook her head and took a second piece of pizza. “You can’t force love. It has to happen naturally.”
“But your spell worked.”
“You fell in love because you wanted to. The spell and the seven days were just nudges.”
“Damn good ones.”
She supposed so. “I can ask the Fates to bring him to me, but he’s already here.”
“And he’s a bad boy.”
“Sort of.” He looked the part, but he had a heart of gold.
“He looks rough.”
“He does.”
“How about a spell that… I don’t know. It just… you deserve a happy ending. You should have your bad boy.”
“I know.” She didn’t have a spell for this, but she had the scrolls. “I could always beg the Fates to keep my love true and show my bad boy this is where he belongs, with me.”
“I love it.” Karey resumed eating, “After dinner.”
“Yes.” She retrieved the scroll from her bag and wrote Kurt’s name on it. After she and Karey finished dinner, she and Karey stood on the patio while Axel did his business.
Sarah lit the end of the scroll. “I have the man I want, my bad boy, so I call on the Fates to bless our love and make it last for all eternity.” The scroll burned up, and she tamped down her fear.
She’d done it. She’d used her magic for herself.
Now if it would just work…
Chapter Six
Kurt couldn’t avoid the counter forever. He also couldn’t allow Jimmy to be alone, but he didn’t look forward to Dicey’s arrival.
“She’s your eight-forty-five,” Jimmy said. “Booked over a month ago -- when you were still talking to each other.”
“I know.” She’d requested two piercings and a touch-up on her back tattoo -- a tattoo he hadn’t done. He’d told her not to have both done at once because the pain from the piercings would make holding still for the line work nearly impossible. “I’ll try to complete the work.” He had no choice.
“What happened?”
“With her?”
“Who else? What made you split, other than you were awful for each other?”
Jimmy had a point. “For one, she wanted me to get rid of Axel. She said he was a bad dog, and he reminded her of my past, so he had to go. I refused and she hated it. For another, she hated my house and wanted me to buy something bigger. I don’t need anything bigger. Besides that, she wanted to have kids. I am not a kid person.”
