Ink Flamingos

Chapter 54

I looked up to see Harry standing over me, a grin spread across his face.

I stammered something like, “Hi, hello, I’ve got to go,” but he held tight on my arm, and I couldn’t leave.

“I was coming over here to meet up with Ace, but I see him taking off with Terri, and then I see you standing here.” The smile was, despite him holding my arm, infectious. I found myself smiling back.

Sad thing was, despite how Jeff’s kiss had made my toes curl, Harry was more my type. At least what I’d always thought my type was. And I remembered his kisses, too, although they were different than Jeff’s.

I shook off my thoughts. I couldn’t be standing here analyzing kisses from two men while Jeff was off chasing Ace and the girl who was impersonating me.

“She pretended to be me,” I explained, then had another thought. “How do you know her name?”

Harry’s eyebrows rose. “She pretended to be you?”

“Yeah, Jeff met her at Cleopatra’s Barge, you know, the night you and I…” My voice trailed off, and I was back to those kisses again.

“She doesn’t look anything like you,” Harry said.

“I know, but she had some sort of disguise, and she left it in the ladies’ room, and I found it the next day.” It all sounded rather ridiculous.

“Where did they go?”

We whirled around to see a sopping wet Tim standing next to us. Harry finally dropped his hand.

“That way,” I said, pointing.

Tim lingered for a second, staring at Harry.

“This is Harry Desmond,” I said, “and this is my brother, Tim.”

Tim nodded, no handshake this time. “I recognize him,” he said, and I knew he meant from the pictures on the blog. More blushing on my part, but I was sure no one could see. I hoped.

“Watch her, okay?” Tim asked Harry. “I’ll be back.” And he took off after Ace, Terri, and Jeff.

“Nice to have the brother’s permission,” Harry said jovially.

“No,” I said, “that’s not what he meant.” Was I going to have to deal with another guy who thought we had a thing? I had to change the subject. “Why were you meeting with Ace? Are you doing another tattoo party?”

“You know about those?” Harry asked, and while I couldn’t see his expression because of the darkness, his tone was more serious now.

“You could’ve told me,” I said. “Why didn’t you? You let us all think you were out of work.”

“I didn’t want you to think I was competition or anything.”

“That wouldn’t be competition,” I said. “You don’t have a shop.”

“Ace said I should ask you for a job. You’ve got an open room now that he’s gone.”

“Is that why you encouraged him to quit? You wanted a job?” I didn’t point out that I had four rooms total, and even with Ace, only three tattooists, leaving one open. He didn’t need anyone to quit.

“It’s good for him,” Harry said lightly. “He can concentrate on his art.”

I found myself looking past the fountain with the flamingos toward the building, wondering where everyone had gone.

Harry indicated the wedding chapel entrance. “We can go in through there and get to the casino. It’s a short cut, if you want to catch up with them. I’ll show you.”

The last time I’d been to a wedding chapel had been with Jeff under false pretenses. It felt like bad karma to go into another one with another guy I had no intentions of having a relationship with. But he looked so earnest, now that he’d stepped under the light from a lamppost.

I hated that I was missing something, so I nodded. “Sure, Harry. That would be fine.” I didn’t have my phone to check in with Jeff or Tim, but I saw Harry’s phone clipped to his belt. I could use that if we didn’t find them inside.

We crossed the lawn and went toward the chapel, but the door was locked. Great. Harry indicated we could go down to the pool and through the pool entrance just a little ways away.

“We could just go back through the gardens,” I suggested.

“We’re already over here,” he said, and he had a point. I allowed him to lead me down the steps and then through the doors inside.

The area was crowded with resort guests. I’d started to feel a little nervous with Harry-I wasn’t trusting much of anyone these days-but when the casino came into sight, I breathed a sigh of relief, even though I didn’t see anyone I recognized anywhere.

“Do you know that they tore down Bugsy Siegel’s suite when they did the renovations here?” Harry said, turning into tour guide.

I nodded.

“Do you know all the windows were bulletproof in his suite?”

Okay, that was semi-interesting.

“And that even though there was only one way in, there were five ways out?”

Even more interesting. “Too bad they tore it down,” I said. “It would be such a cool tourist thing now.”

“Too bad Bugsy didn’t do those things at his house in L.A., where he got gunned down,” Harry said. “He would’ve been safe here.” He turned to me. “You’re safe here, you know that?”

I nodded, even though I hadn’t felt safe in days. I just wanted to find Tim and Jeff and hope that they’d caught up with Ace and Terri.

“Who’s Terri?” I asked, trying to make lighter conversation. “How do you know her?”

“She’s my wife.”