Page 4 of Take the Blame (Seaside Mergers #3)

Chapter Three

AUGUSTUS

I watched her quietly from the side of my eyes. She wasn’t acting like herself. Aside from her usually not acting like herself around me, she wasn’t acting like herself around the other guys either, which was concerning.

Normally so talkative and giggly, she was now quiet. On a typical day she would come in and log right onto her computer. As it loaded, she would start her rounds. I called this her princess tour because it was like she had to “greet the people” before she got any work done.

After chatting Jules up at the front counter, she would go to Ryan, our traditional color guy and ask him if he had made any progress on his never ending search for the “best ink in the game.” Then she’d go to Quis, a newer artist and the shop’s biggest flirt and ask him if he’s staying out of trouble.

Next she’d find Lana, our manga girl who changed her personality with every new story she dove into, and find a way to be surprised when she realized her hair color changed again.

Gerald was next, an older guy in his fifties who had absolutely perfected the art of traditional Japanese imagery and florals.

And finally she would reach me.

She never shot the shit with me. By the time she got to the back where my station was set up she was all business. Ready to talk numbers and graphics and projects and whatever else she had for me that day.

But today was different. Today, she’d walked right in and huddled up to her board—the one that consisted of Polaroid pictures in the orientation of a social media feed.

She came up with the idea when she was first proposing a social page and I was against it—I didn’t want to keep up with something that would stress me out when I didn’t know what to post. She noticed I liked hard copies of things, judging by the array of sketch sheets I had covering almost every surface of the shop walls, and came in the next day with a costly instant camera and started snapping shots.

Minutes later, we had the “Feed Board” and by the end of the day, we had our first post on all the most popular apps.

She was pretty versed with social media which left her time to focus on other, more nuanced parts of the job.

Typically spending her time on behind-the-scenes incentives or email automations, she gave us free rein to move the Feed Board photos around as we saw fit.

But today she’d been staring at the board since she walked in.

“What’s up with Big Al?” Quis asked from somewhere behind me.

Currently, I was hanging around the receptionist desk, pretending to look at the appointment log. It was Tuesday, and I had a serial appointment rescheduler on the books so I wanted to make sure they were still coming in. That’s when I noticed her over there.

“Gus?”

“Yeah?” I asked, blinking to the man behind me. Tall, dark and handsome—yes I could admit it, was the perfect description for Quis.

“You’re staring, man,” Quis said, his elbow knocking into my own.

Damn .

Looking away from the girl across the room and back down to the appointment book, I tried to focus on what I was doing. My attention was quickly caught by motion in my periphery. Alta had shifted from crossing her arms to biting down on her manicured fingernail.

“I think he’s broken,” Ryan said from his spot on his chair.

He was cleaning his station following an appointment, rubbing down the nozzles of his tattoo machine with precision and care.

His focus solely on the equipment. That is until Lana appeared beside my elbow, leaning hers down on the front desk.

His attention then moved to her ass as she sighed.

“They both are. Why don’t you go over there and talk to her, Gus?” she said breathily.

“Me? Why?” I asked while reaching an arm back and knocking Ryan on the head.

He could fool around with any ass in town, just keep it out of my shop.

I liked my team, and didn’t want random hookups fucking that up.

In response, I was met with two blank stares from the lovely ladies at my sides.

I grinned. “ Ohh! You guys are saying cause I’m so lovable I should?—”

Two smacks to the back of my head shut me up. Lana, tsked. “No, you idiot. You’re just the only one who is used to putting that look on Mother Theresa’s face over there, so we vote you go see what’s up.”

“I’m not going over there,” I said, even while I still eyed her from my spot in front of the appointment book.

Jules promptly snatched her book back from me and bumped me with her hip.

I scowled down at the little blonde, not budging.

“No way. I was the one who dragged her murderous ass in here to begin with. You go talk to her.”

“Murderous?” Quis asked. “I thought she was taking photos of the plants.”

I grunted, unwilling to oust Alta for her strange behavior in front of the rest of the guys. Not when I still wasn’t sure what was going on with her.

“Whatever she was doing, she looked pissed when you brought her in here,” Lana said.

“She smiled at you,” I pointed out, looking down at her as she currently sported bright pink braids in the formation of two big buns on the top of her head.

What I didn’t add was that she never smiled at me.

Lana shrugged. “It was a weird smile. And now ever since your big ass barreled out there and killed her thunder, she’s been staring at that dumb board in a daze.”

“I don’t kill anyone’s thunder, I’m a fucking party,” I crossed my arms. “And you know, if you guys are worried about her, you can just say that.”

“Yeah? And what about you?” Jules asked.

“What about me?”

“You’re worried about her,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “Yet I don’t see you saying shit. Instead, you're staring at her like a creep while you pretend there’s an appointment you need from my book.”

I pursed my lips. Was I that obvious? I mean, sure, I was worried about her.

She was acting weird. I would worry about any one on my team who was acting strangely.

I didn’t move though, still not committed to going over there.

Going over would be like walking through a minefield naked.

Nobody else seemed to see it that way, but I knew better.

With me, Alta would be on guard. Ready to strike at any second even if I came in peace. I had to be careful.

Tilting my chin, I decided to chance it, calling out casually, “Hey, Boss?”

Nothing. Not even a tilt of her head to show that she’d heard me. I exchanged looks with the crew, everyone sharing a mix of expressions between amusement and genuine concern. Inside, my own concern ratcheted up even though I knew there was nothing to be that alarmed about.

Sure, little miss goody two shoes was nice to everyone else, but I had a feeling she was more than that on the inside.

I didn’t know what was in there exactly, but sometimes, when she let long looks slip between the two of us—holding onto my eyes like life rafts in the sea, I could see storms raging behind her irises.

Rushing and turbulent and more extravagant than maybe even she realized.

I saw a lot in her, yet she only let so much out into the world.

That’s why I never minded she chose me to let some of her storminess out on.

That’s also why I was the one sighing after another minute of her silence.

Because I was the one who would have to walk over and wave my hand in front of her face, careful not to touch her, while standing far enough that she couldn’t lean forward and snap at me with her teeth if she felt so inclined.

She didn’t of course. Instead of using any teeth—shame—she turned her eyes up to me, her thick eyebrows pulling down in a deep frown.

The look caught me off guard. She looked so upset.

Even more so than when she was strangling the plant.

She looked like she did that first day, after I let my mouth run off.

So much so that I almost let it run off again, this time to ask her what was wrong in hopes to get the truth about what I did to fuck up that day.

Blinking, she looked perplexed as she took in my expression. “What? ”

I cleared my throat, pointing over her shoulder at the congregation of tattoo artists behind us. “They’ve been trying to get your attention, Boss.”

“Oh?” She turned but cut a look up at me. “And they sent you?”

Ouch . I let the jab roll off my chest, shrugging. “I’m hard to ignore.”

She merely huffed before returning her attention to the rest of the crew. I swallowed my laughter. What a trip . But at least she wasn’t staring at the wall anymore.

Taking in the faces of the people in front of us, I saw her wince.

That quick, she started feeling bad about her own feelings because they were affecting others.

I swallowed a groan. I almost liked her better sneering and snipping at me than catering to everyone else’s emotions, especially when hers were so obviously suffering.

But I said nothing as I watched her paste on a weak smile for my employees.

“Sorry guys,” she said, her eyes skipping over the group. “What’s up?”

They read her like a book. Granted, she wasn’t really hiding it well, her overly chipper tone seeming suspicious even for her.

Instead of asking what was bothering her, my crew looked to me with wide eyes as if I was supposed to do something about it.

And when I gave them a flat look in return, their wide eyes got even bigger, nudging me along.

I sighed, the whooshing air enough to move the hair off her shoulder. She glanced at me, and took a step to the side.

Nice .

She really did hate me. But my crew was looking at me like it was my fault miss pisses rainbows was acting weird, so I guess it was up to me to fix it. Pointing at the guys, I leaned my shoulder her way, “We were brainstorming tattoo ideas for your sister’s thing. We need your opinion. ”