Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“Thank you, Dad!” Taylor throws her arms around me and plants a kiss on my cheek. “Love you.”
“Love you too, Tay. What time will you be home?”
“It’s on the calendar,” she mocks, repeating what I always tell her when she asks me the same question. “I have work after school, so not until late,” she calls out as she hops into her white two-door Jeep Wrangler that she calls Snowball and then takes off.
Once she’s gone, I let Becky out into the backyard and then heat up my coffee and make breakfast. While I sit at the table, eating and going through my calendar, I text my brother to see if he’s up for any company today.
Eric and his wife, Katie, own a health club in town called Brookside Health Club. Before they opened it, the only fitness center was almost forty minutes away in the next town over. He saw the need and took a risk, and it paid off because the place is always busy.
Since I’m off five days a week, thanks to my two twenty-four-hour shifts, I go in a few days a week to teach various classes and help. It not only helps me stay in shape and gives me extra money in my pocket, but it also keeps me busy since my parents are gone a lot and my daughter is busy with school, friends, extracurriculars, and her job at the local bookstore and coffee shop.
Eric
I was just about to text you. Katie has a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, and I have a new member consultation. Wanna run through it for me?
Katie and Eric are expecting their first baby in May, and they’re finding out soon whether it’s a boy or a girl.
Me
Sure.
After I finish eating, I throw on my gym attire and head to the health club. I’m getting out of my truck when my eyes land on the business sign a few doors down—Exposed Ink—and my mind goes back to last week when we were called out to Neptune’s for an allergic reaction.
Even though she had a swollen and splotchy face, I could tell the woman was beautiful. That normally wouldn’t be enough to pique my interest. I’ve rescued plenty of pretty women during my fifteen years as a firefighter paramedic. But there was something about the way her blue eyes peered into mine as she begged me not to take her to the hospital that caught my attention.
After I finished the paperwork, I had every intention of leaving to go back to the station, but before I could question what I was doing, I was heading down the hall to the room I knew she was in to make sure she was okay—despite knowing she was since I’d left her completely stable. The only thing the doctor had to do was give her some fluids to be on the safe side and monitor her for a few hours before discharging her.
I could tell from my brief conversation with Kinsley that there was so much more to her than met the eye, and I wanted to dig deep and find it all out. I wanted to ask for her number, but then her friend showed up, and despite her making it clear I should reach out to Kinsley, when Kinsley got embarrassed—her pale skin turning a beautiful shade of pink—I second-guessed myself and left without her number.
Every day for the past week, I’ve been thinking about her. Every time I go to the health club and see the Exposed Ink sign, I consider walking in and asking to speak to her. But I keep chickening out.
My phone dings with an incoming text, so I pull it out and see it’s from my brother.
Eric
Hope you haven’t left yet. Newbie canceled due to an emergency.
Me
No worries. Let me know if anything changes.
I pocket my phone and head inside, figuring since I’m already here, I might as well get a workout in. The entire time, I can’t stop wondering if Kinsley is a few doors down. She obviously works at Exposed Ink, and based on the ink on her body, she’s no stranger to being tattooed. But I’m not sure what she does there.
As I was leaving her hospital room, I saw what looked like her parents—judging by the number of tattoos they were both sporting and the matching Exposed Ink shirt the guy was wearing. Maybe she’s a tattoo artist.
After I’ve gotten my workout in, I take a quick shower, get dressed in a change of clothes I keep in the locker room, and then head out.
I’m halfway to my truck when I change direction and end up standing in front of the tattoo shop. The open sign is illuminated, so I take that as my sign to go in.
A young guy with spiky black hair and several piercings in his face smiles at me as I walk up to the front desk.