Page 5 of Take the Blame (Seaside Mergers #3)

“Oh!” She brightened up instantly. Whipping out her phone, she started tapping away. “Okay, perfect! Let me just ask Ceci if?—”

“No, no, no,” I said, slipping the phone out of her hand. “We weren’t asking Cecilia?—”

“Celestia,” she corrected, referring to her fire headed sister.

I waved a hand. “Yeah, whatever. Point is, we’re not drawing for her. We know you . So you come tell us what you think, yeah?”

She bit her lip, giving her phone in my hand a wary glance before shaking herself. “Yeah, okay! Show me then, if you guys don’t mind.”

With a little bit more pep in her step, she started toward the group. As she passed me, I quickly shot a wide-eyed look at my people over her head.

Truth was, we had only just spoken about getting our sketches for Alta’s sister’s fundraiser completed by the end of next week, since the event wasn’t long after that. So I’d be lucky if any of them had a rough outline of their ideas yet, if they even started at all.

Still, everyone kept their calm and obediently pulled out their sketchbooks or tablets or whatever they liked to work on, while I followed behind Alta and pulled up a chair for her in front of the group.

The first brave soul to pull up their sketches was Gerald.

He worked off pad and paper mostly so he had to shuffle through a few large sheets and even slide his rectangular glasses onto his nose to double check he had the right one.

Looking up at her over the top rim of them, he asked in a deep voice, “Now, you said these are representing ladies overcoming their demons and what not, right, Ally?”

A soft smile touched Alta’s lips as she watched Gerald. That happened a lot when he called her that. “Yeah, something like that, Ger.”

“Alright,” he grunted, turning his papers over and handing them to her. “Well, I was thinking these flowers might work. ”

Pink lips formed the shape of an ‘O’ as she surveyed the papers on an intake of breath. “Ger! Are these lotuses?”

“Sure are,” he said, his chest puffing out with stupid pride. “They mean something about resilience and growth. Thought it might be fitting.”

“Oh, these are perfect!” Alta beamed with a praising smile. Handing his papers back to him, she added, “Thank you.”

“Any time, Ally,” he said. As if he’d had a fucking say in the matter. He drew the picture because I told him to draw the picture. But whatever. I guess the blush on his willowy cheeks was sweet.

Next was Lana. Pulling up her tablet, she scrolled through a couple pages of honestly some real unhinged shit before finally landing on a very rough sketch of two very cute characters.

They were drawn with large round figures and big animated features, each characteristic childlike in a way that was impossible not to be cute.

But there was something off about all the characters.

“Lana, where are their mouths?” Alta asked. Leaning in further.

“Oh, uh, they don’t have any. To represent, like, silence…” her words trailed off as her eyebrows pulled down. She was so full of shit . Unlike Gerald, those sketches weren’t for the event, they were just another set of her unhinged doodles.

I snickered, barely catching it on my shoulder. I wasn’t fast enough to escape the sidelong glance Alta threw me over her shoulder, her glare silently telling me to shut up. Looking back to Lana, she gave her an encouraging smile. “Um, maybe keep workshopping it, L. It’ll get there.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Lana snapped her tablet closed, her voice holding a bite to it as she popped her eyes up at me. “Needs a little more time, I guess.”

Ryan outright admitted that his design wasn’t ready but promised it would be something good. So Quis came forward next, prepared and excited to show her his drawings .

He was another tablet user, but unlike Lana’s sticker cluttered device, his was clean and simple.

On the screen he showed a girl curled up with her knees so far to her chest that they covered her eyes, her arms wrapped around herself protectively.

It was submissive in a way, but behind her there were tall sprouts of tangling roots and thorny vines shooting in every direction, and in the dead center sprouting right out of the woman’s head was a small flower.

Damn. That was a good one. Alta seemed to agree as she puffed out a silent, stunned sigh. Her body leaning forward as if drawn to the image.

Looking sideways, I was mildly jealous that his was the art that put that stunned look on her face and not my own.

“Oh,” she said on a breath as she leaned over his work. “This is gorgeous. It reminds me of my sister.”

“The redhead?” Quis asked, and I forgot he’d been here too when Alta brought her sister around to see the shop.

Alta shook her head. “No, my older sister.”

The way she said that, solemn and guarded, both made me want to ask more and change the subject. We’d just gotten that look off her face, I wasn’t trying to bring it back so quickly.

“What do you think? Are we on the right track?” I asked, still close to her shoulder.

She straightened in her seat before tipping a look up at me, her soft eyes hardening and going serious. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Where’s your sketch?” she asked.

I looked at her, trying to read her eyes.

I thought about lying and saying I hadn’t worked on it yet, but the truth was I’d sketched something the first day she’d asked us to come up with a piece for the women’s festival.

And now she was looking at me so genuinely, like she really wanted to see it.

So pulling out my phone, I flipped through my photos, mainly an array of art and sketches; and slid the rough sketch in front of her eyes .

She took the phone and stared. The image was simplistic.

Normally, I did a little of everything in my art, enjoying toying around with different images and techniques, but my main love was for the large billowing pieces with intricate lines and details.

So the simple little line art heart that decorated the screen was something different for me entirely.

It was misshapen in a way that gave it corners a heart normally didn’t have, as if it had been dented and bruised somehow.

And while it was totally intact, it was only just barely, with the ragged lines of cracks running down the length of its form.

Some of the cracks had little flowers and weeds sprouting out, and some had the undertone of blood splatter.

In front of me, Alta swallowed, her face serious as she blinked down at the image.

She didn’t gush as she did over the others, but she stared much longer.

For a second I didn’t think she would return my phone, but finally she turned her shoulders and lifted it back to me.

Her eyes met mine with more than one question in them.

I offered the easier answer before she could ask anything I might not want to disclose. “It’s not done. Something’s missing. I was thinking a word would look good with it.”

She leaned up, tipping her chin as her body came closer to me to look at the phone again. As she did, I caught a trace of her scent. Today, she smelled like lime and the faint hint of soap. I felt myself wanting to fidget in her nearness, but didn’t allow it.

Breath puffing hot over my hand, she said, “Yeah. That would be pretty.”

I refused to examine the airy feeling hearing her agree with me put in my gut. Instead, I did something else stupid. I said, “Cool. Let me know which one you want, then.”

She jerked back, her gaze snapping up to meet mine. “You want me to pick it?”

I shrugged. “Your operation, Boss.”

“Oh,” she said, that wistful sound she’d given the other guys finally coming out for me. It was like I caught her off guard and she forgot that she hated me for a second. “When do you need it?”

“Whenever you can,” I said. My hand itched to reach for her shoulder in a reassuring touch. I obviously didn’t do that, instead I waggled my eyebrows. “Now, when are you going to let us ink you up?”

Color bloomed over her face as she shifted in her seat. “Never! Amá would kill me.”

“Amá?”

“My mother,” she clarified, a smile ghosting her face. “She’d be all, ‘ay dios mio, Mija! Para que es eso? Lávate’ .”

We all blinked at her and she blushed even more as she ducked her head, clarifying, “She’d try to wash it off.”

My mouth tipped up at the sound of her perfect Spanish. I didn’t know that about her and found myself filing away the information for future examination. “Well, your Amá doesn’t have to know. C’mon. I bet your sister is still waiting for you to show it to her.”

She huffed exasperatedly. “She is, because you lied to her and told her I have one!”

“Right,” I smiled, remembering the look on both girls' faces that day. “So now you have to get one.”

Her eyes rolled, and she shook her head. “No, never.”

“Never say never, Boss,” I said. “Just let me know when you want one. I’ve got first right.”

“No fair!” Lana said. “I want to pop the virgin’s cherry.”

“Ew, Lan. Don’t say it like that.” I scrunched my nose.

She crossed her arms. “Can’t help if it’s true.”

Alta shook her head, her red cheeks just staying red as she looked around confused, “But I’m not?—”

She stopped abruptly, realizing her mistake almost as soon as she made it. If she could go any redder she would.

Tucking her chin she murmured softly, “You guys were talking about tattoos, huh? ”

“ Technically ,” Quis said as he leaned an elbow down on the counter. “But go on and tell us more of what you were talking about, Big Al.”

She flamed, her shoulders going up over her ears as her head turtled in to protect herself from the snickers and laughs filtering around the room. I felt my own laugh well in my chest, but it didn’t escape past the hot feeling of my own skin as I let my eyes travel over her.