Starting Over

Today was Friday with no school and Matt so graciously offered to watch Jace and Zander while I was working on Brian’s and Michelle’s tattoos the night before when we met the park to let the boys run around for our bi-weekly playdates. I was rushing around the house to make sure I had towel, sunscreen, and anything else you could think of for a day at the beach packed for Matt for the boys in case things happened. I think I had rushed passed Jace for the tenth time that morning while he was just watching me intently.

“Mom breathe,” he said, “I’m pretty sure Matt is going to think you’re crazy with this giant bag packed.”

I then stopped and looked at my six-year-old and saw him smirking.

“Are you making fun of me?” I asked smirking, “You know what happens when you make fun of me.”

I then saw the small panic run across his eyes as I grinned and started tickling him all over while he started laughing hysterically.

“I’ll show you,” I said laughing as he was screaming for Zander to come help him.

Once Zander came running through the room, I trapped him and started tickling them both. It was times like this that I loved spending time with my boys. They were my number one priority and nothing would ever change about that. The minute I had them, they had my heart and my number one goal was to give them the best life that I could possibly give them. Our tickling fest was interrupted when my phone started ringing and I had to hold in an eye roll when I saw Val’s name pop up on the caller ID.

“Hello,” I said out of breath.

“Already at it?” she asked, “That’ a girl!”

“Ew you gross person,” I said, “No I’m tickling my six-year-old and three-year-old to death. God what type of person do you think I am? I’m totally offended.”

“Speaking of offense,” Val said, “You haven’t called me for the past week.”

This time I rolled my eyes as I finished packing the tote bag of extra clothes and telling the boys to go grab anything else they wanted to bring with them to Matt’s house.

“I didn’t think I needed to since you would pull information out of Matt,” I said.

“And I did by the way,” she said, “How come you didn’t say that Derek called and he saw the letdown that happened? Also, you’ve spent Tuesday and Thursday together instead of just dropping off the boys and have been texting throughout the day every day since you've met?”

“Because I figured it was awkward enough to have him listen in on it than to repeat it out loud,” I said, “Val it was so embarrassing because you and Matt are so flexible and are on the same page. Usually Derek and I were like that but since we had Zander, he’s a completely different person. And I figured I better get to know him since he was going to be home for a while since he just got off tour.”

I decided to not answer her other questions about texting Matt every day since I met him last Friday. In my head, I figured it was a good way to get to know my sons best friends father since we literally spent two days out of the week together for a good couple of hours. I always wanted to make sure that we as parents were kind of on the same page when it came time for play dates.

“I’m sorry love,” Val sighed, “But Matt said he did find you quite attractive and was really excited that you were you and how and I quote chill you are.”

I just laughed at her man voice and changing the subject and shook my head.

“Boys in the car now!” I exclaimed as I opened the front door and watched my boys rush to the car parked outside the garage.

“Headed over there now?” she asked confused, “But it’s not Tuesday or Thursday.”

“Yesterday Matt offered to watch them while I tattooed Brian and Michelle,” I said, “I took him up on the offer because he already bribed Jace and Zander with the beach and ice cream and two both my parents are out of town and Charlie is going to be at the shop today too.”

“Ah yes,” Val said, “He’s pretty good at negotiations. Well expect a call from me later when I get back to the hotel. I want details.”

I just laughed and shook my head. Val was definitely going to push this putting Matt and I into a relationship if it was the last thing she did.

“I would hope not,” I said, “Enjoy your vacation with Jonah, Val. We can talk about my next to nothing love life when you get back in a couple of weeks. Have fun and be safe. Love you sister.”

“Love you too girlie but you’re not getting off that easy,” she said, “Have a good day.”

She then hung up the phone before I could even respond. Again, I just shook my head and smiled lightly as I made sure to lock the front door and turned to see that the boys already had the car running and had Breaking Benjamin blasting in the car. My boys may have gotten all their looks from their father from their brunette hair and green eyes but they got their personalities and love of the arts from me which I was grateful for. I climbed into my pride and joy. I currently owned a beautiful black Autobiography Land Rover and took care of my car just like it was a third child I had. The three of us were rocking out as I put in Matt’s address and headed our way a couple blocks over to drop the boys off. After my embarrassing call with my ex-husband Matt and I talked about how close we lived and I was thankful for that since I didn’t want to have to cross town a million times since I already did that for my job. By the time we pulled up to the house, Matt, Cash, and River were loading up what appeared to be a Jeep for their day at the beach. Zander and Jace quickly got out of the car as I climbed out and went to the back of the car to grab their beach bag.

“I swear you take care of this car as it was like your third child,” I heard Matt’s voice and I shut the rear door.

“I do,” I said smiling at him and handing him the bag, “Now please don’t think I’m some crazy mother who overpacks her children because I really am.”

Matt just laughed at me as he grabbed the bag and put it in his trunk.

“Well I promise to make sure they have fun and are sugared up for you for the evening,” he said and I just laughed and rolled my eyes.

“You’re the worst babysitter ever,” I teased and Matt smiled.

Over the last week, Matt and I definitely had created a friendship which I actually enjoyed. I didn’t have a whole lot of friends in Huntington and most of my friends in LA couldn’t understand why I couldn’t just drive up whenever since they didn’t have kids or want kids. Matt and I both seemed to have the kids best interest at heart and it was really refreshing to have.

“Well this horrible babysitter will have dinner ready for when you come back to pick up these terrors,” Matt said pointing to the four of them, “Well at least your two terrors unless you want to take mine too.”

I just laughed and shook my head.

“As much as I love your kids,” I said, “I’ll just take mine back at the end of the day. Have fun and try to keep them alive.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said saluting me, “Okay Jones kids come say goodbye to your mother!”

Both Jace and Zander quickly ran over to me to give me a hug and kiss and promised to be good for Matt and then I was on my way to the tattoo shop. When I parked in the parking lot, I already saw Derek’s car parked in the parking lot and I sighed to myself.

“Nothing can go easy, can it?” I muttered to myself as I got out of the car and headed inside.

The minute I stepped inside, I smiled when I saw Brian and Michelle sitting on the couches. Lenny was sitting at the front desk and gave me his infamous what the hell look since he noticed Derek’s car as well.

“Derek’s car. . .” he stated and I nodded my head.

“I know we’ll see how long it take him to get the balls to get out of the car,” I said and I smiled at Brian and Michelle, “If you want you can wait out here or we can walk into the back and talk about what you guys want for tattoos for that little cute baby you have.”

They both looked at me and I just laughed.

“I don’t live under a rock you two,” I said, “I did know you had a baby a few months ago. And might I say he’s adorable. Val showed me pictures.”

Both of them chuckled and followed me back to my tattoo room. They took a seat and I put my things up and away. When I turned around they were sitting in the chair and I pulled out my sketch pad in case I would need it.

“Alright,” I said smiling, “What are we doing and where are we doing it?”

Michelle and Brian looked at each other and then back and me and smiled.

“It’s not an artistic tattoo but we want something similar to each other,” Brian said and I nodded my head in encouragement, “I want Nicci’s footprints and then his name above them and his birthdate under them. Michelle wants Nicci’s handprints and his name above them and birthdate under them.”

“I think that’s perfect,” I said smiling lightly and showed them my thighs of my tattoo of my boys, “I got Jace’s handprints on my left thigh and Zander’s footprints on my right thigh after they were born.”

Michelle then just smiled lightly at me and they told me where they wanted them and I told them to relax and asked if they wanted anything to eat or drink since I needed to go get the tattoo transferred to the proper paper and I would be back. I was tracing Brian’s first since I figured his would be a bit easier since he had so many other tattoos when Lenny came to the tracing room.

“He’s graced us with his presence,” he said and I nodded my head, “He wants to know where his kids are.”

“Tell him I’ll be out when I’m done with this tracing,” I said playing it cool.

Before Lenny could leave we heard yelling and I sighed standing up and walked into the shop to see that Brian was holding Derek back from Josh, one of the artists that followed me when I quit the shop I owned with Derek.

“You think you’re so much better is that is Josh?” Derek yelled with his face covered in anger.

“What’s going on?” I asked as everyone was looking at the scene in front of them.

The minute the words left my mouth everyone turned to look at me.

“Maybe you should keep your artists in check McKinley,” Derek snapped at me.

“Derek, you and I both know Josh doesn’t just yell at anyone without a reason,” I said calmly, “What happened and don’t give me a bull answer.”

“He stated this was a piece of shit establishment and probably was crawling with HIV,” Josh stated and I looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

“It probably is,” Derek stated clearly, “Now where are my kids?”

I smiled lightly and told Brian to head back and thanked him for trying to calm the situation down but I had it under control. Lenny, Josh, and Brian didn’t believe me but I kindly and by kindly and I mean I dug my nails into Derek’s arm without leaving a mark and dragged his ass out of my shop and into the parking lot.

“You can’t see your kids,” I stated calmly, “You stated that you were at a convention this week and cancelled. I made plans for them.”

“Are they at your mother’s?” he asked, “I will find them Melrose.”

“No, you won’t Derek,” I stated calmly as he continued to get red in the face, “You cancelled your weekend this month. I will contact you at the end of the week to try and reschedule.”

Derek then got really close to my face as a car was driving up and I stood my ground. Derek could try to hit me but I wouldn’t let him get that far.

“I swear if they are at that man’s house I will take you for everything you own and you will never see them again,” he threatened narrowing his eyes at me.

“Please back up,” I asked politely as I saw my older brother and partner in my new shop get out of the car quickly.

“Do we have a problem here Derek?” I heard Charlie’s voice, “I believe Mel asked you to back up.”

Derek narrowed his eyes at Charlie and stepped away from me.

“And it’s not a threat sweetheart,” Derek said nastily, “It’s a promise.”

He then got into his car and sped off and I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face. I looked over at Charlie and just shook my head signaling that I would tell him what happened later.

“I have clients I have to tattoo,” I said and walked back into the tattoo shop trying to shake off the crappy morning I just had and to make sure that Brian and Michelle had a good experience, “Oh and Charlie everyone who had to witness that gets 10 percent off their tattoos today.”