Tattoos and Transformations (21 page)

“Hey, Dad.”

He held out his hand and nodded to the floor. Her body froze. Not only had she never danced with her dad, but he wasn’t the type to ask her to do so. In fact, she had no idea if he even knew how. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to turn him down.

Taking her hand, he led her a few feet, close to where Jade was dancing with her dad. A lot of other guests joined them. He touched her waist, picked up her hand, and began to move in an amazingly fluid motion.

“I didn’t know you could dance.”

“Never had anyone to dance with, but I used to always dance with your mom.” He looked away, and she swore his eyes watered.

“You never talk about her.” Actually, he’d refused to talk about her.

“Your mom wanted a man who could make her proud. I wasn’t that man.”

“Then my mom was a fool.” She meant every word.

He looked down at her and smiled. “Even without a woman around, you turned out just fine.”

Wow
. She had no answer for that. “Thanks.” His smile never left his face. “You look beautiful today, by the way. You remind me of your mom, but there is a sense of calm about you that your mom never had.”

Where was all this emotion coming from? “You look pretty spiffy yourself.”

“My new lady friend, Amanda, is helping me open up, as she likes to say.”

“Ah.” That answered a lot of the questions. Dakota spotted the woman at the edge of the crowd, smiling. “She seems nice.”

“She is. If I don’t get around to saying it, I’m real proud of you
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and I hope you find as much happiness as Jade.” He nodded his head.

“From the way her two brothers haven’t taken their eyes off you, I’d say I might be attending another wedding pretty soon.” She grinned. “I hope so.”

The song ended, and her father kissed her on the forehead. “Have fun with your men.”

He let her go and headed back to Amanda. It seemed as if any internal scars that had formed were beginning to heal. Morgan motioned she come near. He enveloped her in a big hug. “How did the dance go?”

She told him about what he said and about her dad’s new lady friend.

“That’s wonderful. I can see I need to have a heart-to-heart with my dad, too.”

She furrowed her brows. “About what?”

“It’s about time I come clean about a lot of things. One is my tattooed ass. I’m thinking of having you give me another one.”

“You want a mate?” She meant a matching panther, but from the way his eyes sparkled, maybe he thought she meant a wife. Wouldn’t that be fantastic?

“Yes.”

Friends and family came up and chatted, giving them no further time to talk. Food was served, but since they sat ten to a table, they were surrounded by so many people throughout the day that they had no time to discuss anything private. All three of the Callen brothers and their families were present. Add in Parker’s theater group and Logan’s construction and development people, and there had to be close to four or five hundred guests.

The liquor flowed freely and the noise was never ending. It was probably close to midnight when only the immediate family remained.

Her body was tired, but she was filled with joy at the same time.

Seeing Jade so happy filled her with happiness.

Dakota had finally gotten a chance to talk with Jade just as Clint

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walked up to her. “Can I steal you away for a moment?” She hugged Jade good-bye and took Clint’s offered hand. He led her into the den. Morgan and their dad were in there. Morgan was pacing. That wasn’t a good sign.

Morgan turned around and faced his dad. “I thought this was a good time to tell you a couple of things.” Mr. Callen looked to each of them. “What’s this about?”

“I know you knew Harley and probably heard about him getting fired.”

“I’ve known Harley a long time, and I can honestly say, I’m not surprised. He might call himself an artist, but he dipped his hand in a lot of places that he shouldn’t have.”

Morgan shrugged. “I wish I had known.”

His dad looked at him like his son was hiding something. “Why?”

“I bought D’Ink Coda when it was going under.” She held her breath waiting for the barrage of comments that were sure to come. “Are you making money?”

His tone came out with a chuckle. What was up with that?

“I was until I had to partially shut down.”

“Shame. It seemed like a good business deal.” Even Morgan looked a bit confused by his father’s statement.

“Dad, there’s more.”

To her surprise, Morgan turned his back, unzipped his pants, and dropped trou. Her beautiful panther made its appearance.

His dad laughed. “Well, that’s a bit odd.” She didn’t want Morgan to be humiliated. She stepped forward. “I did the tattoo. It’s a panther, which is a leopard that has black spots you can’t see.”

Clint laughed. “Now I see why you picked that. Morgan used to claim that leopards didn’t change their spots. I guess they don’t, but sometimes they can blend in nicely.” He leaned over and kissed her lightly.

Morgan re-dressed and looked over at Clint. “Your turn.”
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Clint’s chest puffed out. “Fine.” He unbuttoned his shirt and opened it wide. “I got a ton of tattoos, too.” Mr. Callen’s face turned a little red. “I never thought I’d see the day when my boys got tattoos. I got one myself, but it’s a private spot, so I’m not ready to share. If you’re curious, you can ask your mom.” All of them burst out laughing. She thought that was the end of the show-and-tell until Morgan stopped his dad from leaving.

“There’s one more thing, Dad.”

His dad turned around. “Yes?”

Morgan pulled a blue box from his jacket pocket, opened it, and presented the most amazingly shiny ring to her.

Both men got down on one knee. “Dakota Smith, would you do Clint and me the honor of marrying us?”

She couldn’t help but shoot a look at Mr. Callen. She would have loved her dad to be here, but since she’d probably spent as much time with Mr. Callen as she had her own dad, he’d do.

She didn’t hesitate. “Yes!”

Mr. Callen blocked the path between the two men. He lifted her hands and kissed the back of each one. “Let me be the first to congratulate you, Dakota.” He turned around. “What took you two so long? You’ve been pining after her for so many years I thought I’d be having her wedding before Jade’s.”

“They have?” The news of them asking her was still so new.

“You bet, but my sons, especially Morgan, have too blind to see it.

I can die a happy man now.”

They all hugged.

“Since it’s getting late, I think we’ll bring our fiancée home to celebrate in private.”

A grin bigger than the Callen ranch claimed her. She couldn’t wait.

Both her men leaned over and kissed one cheek. She hoped she could get them to kiss a lot more than that as soon as she got them in bed.

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THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Unlike most other authors, I started writing late in life. Writing stories in high school and college was not for me. Only after I graduated did I fall in love with romance novels. For the next twenty years, I read voraciously. It got to a point where my book-buying habits cost as much as my groceries. At that point, my husband suggested I write a book. Hey, it looked easy, right? All the stories started in the same spot (hero and heroine at odds) and ended the same way (happily ever after). Only it was anything but easy. Eleven years and fifteen completed romantic suspenses later, I finally published. I never would have gotten that far had it not been for two local chapters whose generous members shared their amazing wealth of knowledge.

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