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Thanks to AJ’s parting words, Brett had a bitch of a ti her clients would be thrilled to know, seeing as tattooing required patience and infinite concentration One blunder could affect a person’s entire life, whether it was a slip of the hand or one misspelled word And sure, laser tattoo removal was commonplace nowadays, but Brett refused to put any of her clients through the process because of a careless h her brain was in full-blown AJart and not think about how badly she wanted to have sex with hiht o’clock rolled around, the shop had e up a back piece for her last client, she left her station and settled behind the front counter in theon a sketch pad as she waited for walkins Thebehind the curtain of Rob’s workspace served as a soundtrack for her sketching She loved everything about working at the studio The people, the sun

But she’d love it even e, and not just another e brother to order around

She lifted her head and glanced at the coht blue bubble flashing the current tiave her the okay, but she was dying to leap out of her chair and drive straight to Sin She squirmed in her chair as she watched the il on the door and praying that nobody walked in de a last-minute consultation The rule of thumb at Conlon Ink was to never turn a client away Even if so, Brett was expected to stay as late as necessary in order to tend to the custo on so slowly? She was tes to nine o’clock and tell Rob her shift was over, but the new and improved Brett didn’t pull stunts like that Besides, Rob was too sroan when the bell over the door chireet the unwanted custo open, her unhappiness dissolved into relief

"Hey, princess," her father said cheerfully His heavy black boots thudded on the tiled floor as he strode to the counter "C’"

Brett leaped out of the chair and walked into her dad’s outstretched arave her "Hey! What are you doing here?"

"Just cahter"

She rolled her eyes "I’hter"

"Says who?" Jimmy Conlon flashed a sly smile "Maybe I have a secret attic family I never told you about"

"Ha Mom would’ve ripped your throat out with her bare hands if you pulled that crap on her"

"Never," he declared "Your mother was a pacifist"

Hardly Brett didn’t have as many memories of her mom as she liked, but from what she did re and outspoken, Brett’s mom hadn’t taken crap from anyone, and Brett knew she’d inherited her temper from her spirited mother