Tattoos: A Novel by Denise Mathew Page B

the one part of the plan that needed a bit more work and of course his help. My stomach joined in on the action, doing flip flops while my heart beat a staccato.
    “I’d need to find people in need, you know like, they can’t pay their rent, or they need money for something important…I’d need you to help me though,” I said turning my face to Jax, who just happened to turn toward me at exactly the same time. His breath was light on my cheeks and smelled like juicy fruit gum. With our lips less than an inch apart I forgot about everything else, but what it would feel like to kiss him. To have his gorgeous mouth pressed against mine. His lips parted and he leaned in a little closer. I knew it was going to happen. It felt like his kiss was something I’d waited for my whole life.
    “Jax?”  
    I saw Jax stiffen. He hopped off the bed as if he’d been sitting on a live wire.
    “Hey Chip, how’s it going?”
    The man, probably in his late forties was dressed in a too tight light blue shirt and black pants that hung below his huge belly. He fingered the oversized key ring clipped to his leather belt as if uncomfortable.
    “Pardon me miss, I didn’t mean to bother you but I wanted to talk to Jax for a moment if that’s okay,” Chip said. He grazed the top of his shiny bald head with a chubby hand and smiled.
    I cut my eyes to Jax, gauging his reaction for any sign that he was in trouble. Either Jax was a very good actor or there was nothing to worry about. I hoped it was the latter and that Harold hadn’t gone back on his promise and reported Jax after all. The last thing I needed was for him to lose his job because of me. Chip tipped his head at me and moved into the hall, Jax followed him. I watched them talking outside for a few minutes, still I couldn’t judge what was going on. When Jax finally came back in his face was as relaxed as it had been when he’d walked out.
    “He just offered me another shift,” he said before I had a chance to ask. He plopped down in one of the chairs at my bedside and leaned back, stretching his long legs out in front of him. I more than wanted him to move back onto the bed with me. So we would have another opportunity to kiss, but it didn’t seem to be in the cards.
    “Good. I was worried that you were in trouble after what happened with Harold and Mom.”
      I hissed out a long exhalation, relieved that I’d read it wrong. And just like that the mention of my parents made me deflate. All the hope and excitement I’d had just moments before, slipped away and I was saturated in a feeling of loss. It felt like someone that mattered to me, or two someones in this case, had died.
    “Just because they’re your parents doesn’t mean that you have to like them. Hell if it were up to my parents to take care of me I’d be in some foster home in the Strip,” he said. Once again he’d divined my thoughts as easily as if I’d written them all out for him.
    I nodded. “That bad huh?” I said, not sure what else to say. Stupidly I’d never really thought about Jax’s life outside the hospital. Suddenly I wanted to know everything about him, but I was too scared to ask. I wasn’t sure if he’d be willing to share his personal stuff with me.  
    “Well my mother was a crack head who tried to sell me when I was five months old, and I don’t really know who my father is.”  
    He shrugged as if it didn’t matter at all. I felt like a crybaby for ragging about my parents and was left speechless.
    “Hey don’t feel bad, it was the best thing that ever happened to me because if my mother hadn’t of done it, I would never have met my Gran.”  
    He crossed his legs at the ankles, putting his hands behind his head. He appeared surprisingly comfortable in a chair that seemed almost too small to contain his large frame. A simple black ink tattoo that looked like two sixes stacked in opposite directions atop each other, peeked out from the underside of his forearm. I