She gave a light laugh, careful not to jostle him. “I figure that’s a good place to hide it when I need to.”
“Yep. Excellent.” His machine buzzed on for a moment as silence settled again. He fought it hard. “A doctor. I could never shoulder that much responsibility. I fuck up enough that I don’t need someone’s life to depend on me.”
“I hope you don’t mean you fuck up your tattoos,” she said, the little note of teasing humor in her voice stirring things that didn’t need to stir right now.
“Oh, hell no. That’s not what I meant.”
“Well, see? You shoulder plenty of responsibility. People wear your art for the rest of their lives. That’s pretty major, I’d say.”
He grinned, not liking how her approval made pride swell in his chest. He knew it was major, no matter what his fucking stepdad said. And it was an honor that people put that much trust in him. He loved what he did; he couldn’t do it otherwise.
Gabriella gave a long, shaky exhale, and he quickly withdrew. “Need a break?”
“No, I’m good.”
“A drink of water? Anything. Don’t be afraid to speak up.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
Brian took that moment to stick his head in the door. “How’s it going back here?”
“She’s a champ,” Ian said.
“Go away,” Gabriella said at the same time.
“Go away? You wanted me to do it! Now I can’t even come in? Aw, hell no.”
Ian chuckled and lifted his needle as Brian walked in and peeked over his shoulder. “Looking awesome, dude. ‘Dunce’ doesn’t have an ‘s’ in it, though.”
He bit down on laughter as Brian turned and ran out, thinking Gabriella wouldn’t appreciate his approval of the joke. “Oh my God!” she yelled after Brian. “I’m so glad now that you’re not doing this, you little shit!”
“You big shit!” came Brian’s gleeful voice from the front. Ian got the distinct impression it was a common insult between the two of them.
And this woman would make the coolest doctor he’d ever met. But then, he hadn’t met many, at least not outside of their offices…or his stint in the hospital several years back. He didn’t want to think about it.
“Now do you need a break?” he asked. “Got your blood pressure up?”
“It’s always like that with us,” she said, but there was no small amount of affection in her words. “I swear, sometimes he’s no different than when he was a freaking teenager.”
“Ah, well, where would be the fun in growing up?”
That induced her to silence again, and he got back to work. It lingered for a while this time, filling the air thickly, and he didn’t know why it bothered him so much now. Usually he was pretty content to keep the chatter to a minimum, but with her…
“Are you okay?” he blurted, and though he wasn’t talking about the pain of the needle, she would probably take it that way.
“Fine.”
“I guess what I mean is…why the phoenix?”
“I’m rising from the ashes.”
“Right.” He couldn’t muster the courage to be nosy enough to ask what ashes she was rising from. It was obviously about her failed relationship, but that was her story to tell.
And then she surprised him. “I was supposed to get married in March.”
“Yeah?”
“It didn’t happen.”
“Sorry about that.” Sorry that it hurt her. Not sorry that she wasn’t with some prick who didn’t deserve her. “That sucks.”
“Better that I should find out he wasn’t into it before the wedding rather than after, I suppose.”
“Good way of looking at it.”
Bitterness twisted in her words. “I just wish I hadn’t found out at the wedding.”
On that note, he had to stop for a second and shake his head. “Son of a bitch.”
“I mean, why? Why let it get that far? Obviously, this wasn’t something he realized ten minutes before he was supposed to meet me at the altar. He had to know this well in advance.”
“What was his excuse?”
“It wasn’t what he wanted. That’s all I got. He denied there being anyone else. He actually said if we could keep going on as we were without getting married, he’d be happy. Well, to hell with that.”
“Yeah, fuck that. I hear you.”
“Sure, let’s go on living the way you want to live, doing what you want to do. Never mind what I want,” she all but snarled, as if she were talking to her ex-fiancé right now.
Oh man, he probably should have heeded Brian’s warning and not opened this can of worms. Or even encouraged its opening. “Like you said, at least you found out beforehand.”
“It’s hard to focus on that sometimes. I just want to know why I had to find out at all. Why this had to happen. It was so humiliating.” She fell silent for a long, pain-filled moment, and when she spoke again, he could barely hear her. “So humiliating.”
He wanted to touch her somewhere, to comfort her. But he couldn’t, not without being highly inappropriate. Glancing toward the open door, he rolled his chair around to her head. She raised it slightly to look at him, her eyes wet and, goddamn, so bright, sparkling like precious emeralds.
“I think you’re doing a good thing,” he told her. “This is therapeutic for a lot of people, you know. The pain is cathartic. So I’ll shut the door if you want, and you can cry, or cuss him or scream, do whatever. I’m cool with any of it. And we’ll get this done, and it’ll be this beautiful testament to some very harsh shit you went through only to come out stronger on the other side.” He gave her a small smile. “I’ll even shut the fuck up from here on out.”
She shook her head. “No. Keep talking to me.”
“I can do that too. Take a deep breath.”
Smiling, she did as he instructed, inhaling deeply and letting some of the tension ease out with her breath. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s keep going.”
“All right.” He wheeled back into place, rolling his head on his shoulders in an attempt to ease some of his own tension. A woman near tears had that effect on him, but this one was even stronger than most. He eyed his work critically, thinking the soft blue lines on her skin just invited fingers to trail along them. But not his. Before he got started again, he shut the door as he’d promised, hoping the move wouldn’t bring Brian sniffing around again. Brian and Gabriella might give each other shit, but Ian had the distinct impression Brian might throttle anyone within reach who upset his sister. He’d mentioned how Evan, his brother, had physically hauled him away from the guy who jilted her. For that, Ian wanted to buy Brian a beer, and really it was unfortunate Evan had intervened so soon. Surely he would’ve liked to see at least a few punches get thrown. Ian certainly would have.
They chatted on as he worked. Nothing too deep, nothing too emotional. She didn’t cry or cuss or scream, but she’d loosened up, and he liked her that way. He really liked her a fucking lot, more than he should.
Once they were done, he explained aftercare and walked her back up front where they set up her next appointment. She gave him a hell of a tip, even though he wanted to tell her to keep it. He’d nearly caused her to have an emotional breakdown with his prying, and he felt bad about it. Maybe she’d needed it, though.
After she’d walked out the door, he watched her through the windows as she crossed the street to her car. No barely leashed anger in her steps anymore. No, she almost seemed to float along now. She’d even had pleasant words for Brian before she’d left.
“You’re a brave man,” Brian said from beside him. Ian turned, not having realized he’d walked up. “Thanks for taking one for the team.”