Gage threaded his muscled arms over his chest. Today’s T-shirt slogan announced: I’m a Firefighter—What’s Your Superpower?
“Beck’s been stalking you on the Web, trying to piece it all together Sherlock-style. Those pics . . . Darcy Cochrane, you are a stone-cold fox!”
“Sometimes I wonder if this gay thing is just a phase,” Beck muttered, drawing Wyatt’s low huff of laughter.
“Oh!” Surprise perked up Darcy’s face, and she considered Gage with renewed interest. “That’s right, you’re gay. Mel is going to be stricken with grief.”
Gage winked. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”
As he stripped off his gloves, Beck recalled the details of his investigations on Darcy, which had turned up far-flung locations like London, Paris, and LA. She lived a nomadic lifestyle, always leaving her clients—and no doubt her many admirers—wanting more. In the tattoo world, Darcy Cochrane was a big fucking deal. She had won contests, displayed her art at something called the Body Expo, was a respected force in the business of drilling pigment into the skin. She’d even inked a well-known rock star, and there were rumors of a brief, combustible relationship, if TMZ was to be believed.
Gage was still gabbing. Jesus. “I couldn’t believe that in all this time, he’s never once looked you up. I mean, that’s what the Internet is for.”
“I thought it was for cat videos and porn,” Darcy deadpanned, catching Beck’s eye with a glint in her own.
“But it’s also for snooping,” Gage said with authority. “I’m always checking up on my exes, usually with my fingers crossed that one of them has made it onto some revenge porn site or that they take a really bad mug shot.”
Amusement curved Luke’s lips. “Does anyone take a good mug shot, idiot?”
Gage double thumbed in the direction of his head. “This face is incapable of having a bad day.”
Darcy laughed warmly, just like Beck remembered, not that he had ever given her much reason. As a kid, he was too nervous around her, his skin so tight he felt like it would snap right off his bones. He liked to think he had lightened up in his old age, but he would never have Luke’s innate charm or Gage’s easy good humor.
Jealousy of his gay brother gnawed his innards. These two would be fast friends before the day was out; tequila and pillow fights would cement the deal. Still, another part of him enjoyed that she dug his family. He wanted her to be part of this thing that was so important to him.
“What did you need to talk about?” Beck asked, cutting in on the Gage and Darcy Show.
“Oh, right.” She opened the big-ass purse on her shoulder and extracted a piece of paper. “I wanted to show you the design for the tattoo.”
Her moss-green eyes were alight with a brew of fire and apprehension as she handed it to him. The names of Sean and Logan in Celtic lettering hit him like a right hook out of yesterday. Even after all this time, he felt it. The void they had left.
“The black script is a bit hard on the eyes,” Darcy said, “so I thought I’d soften it with a shamrock on one side for Sean and the CFD logo on the other for Logan.”
Beck struggled to get the words out. “Two separate tattoos, then?”
She placed her hand on his bicep. “One for each gun,” she said softly, her fingers cool to the touch from being outdoors. He felt the sizzle as the heat between them expanded, and for a moment everything fell away and it was just him and Darcy, eyes fusing like their bodies had two nights ago.
Several heartbeats later, she lowered her eyes, then her hand. “I can do something else. Just tell me what you need.”
Everyone stared at the design, trapped in their own vortex of memories and pain.
“It’s awesome. We’re in,” Luke pronounced, breaking the heavy silence. “Unless you want this just for yourself.” He held Beck’s gaze, worry that he had spoken out of turn clouding his eyes.
The unabashed rightness of this struck Beck squarely. It was for them all.
“If you guys want to be a part of it and Darcy can manage the work, then that’s fine by me. She’s in high demand and . . .” He trailed off as the memory of how long she’d be around sucker punched him in the solar plexus. She was planning to skip town by year’s end, and shit on a hot dog, that sucked.
“I can do you all.” She bit down on her lip and took in the ring of Dempseys staring at her avidly. “Well, you know what I mean.”
“If I was gonna turn, Darcy, you’d be first on my hetero bucket list,” Gage said, ever the outrageous flirt. He added to Beck with a wink, “CPF, man.”
Beck’s scowl at that was cut off as the alarm sounded, the mechanical voice of dispatch echoing its siren call through the firehouse. “Engine 6, Truck 43, Ambulance 70 . . .”