Read Online Permanent Ink (Something to Celebrate #1) by Laura Simcox - Free Book Online

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    Holding up a finger, she glanced around the table. “In fact, I have a lot more in the works than sprucing up the parade. In order to bring more people in to watch, we could have a carnival the day of the Fourth. And in the evening? How about a black-tie event on the town commons? Fireworks and champagne. What do you think?”
    “Ooh, classy!” Shelia said.
    Barb nodded. “I love it.”
    Paula took a bite of her doughnut and nodded with enthusiasm.
    “But what about the other item on the meeting docket…that festival. Won’t it be a problem?” Sheila took a bite of donut and looked at Blair.
    “The what? What other item?” Blair frowned.
    Paula giggled. “Ink Fest. Right here in Celebration. But it’s the week before the Fourth, so I don’t see why it should be a problem, Sheila.”
    Shelia waved a hand in the air. “It doesn’t hurt to be prepared is all I’m saying. I’ve heard those tattoo festivals can get out of hand.”
    Tattoo festivals?
    Ben.
    The festival was the week before the Fourth? No way in hell. Her hands would be completely full of parade preparations.
    She’d nip that idea in the bud the minute she saw him. In forty minutes. Her stomach jumped and she ignored it. She’d set him straight…she’d…take a deep breath right now and act casual, that’s what she’d do.
    The door jingled, but Blair barely noticed. She took that deep breath and plowed on.
    “Is there even a schedule for this—what is it—Ink Fest?” she asked politely.
    “The proposal says that ends the day before the parade,” Shelia answered. “Blair, the Fourth of July parade is the biggest one of the year. We line up floats the night before—we shut down the area around the town commons to do it. I don’t see how Ink Fest wouldn’t get in the way, since there will probably be hundreds of people still hanging around town.”
    Hundreds?
    Blair gave a dismissive wave. “No, no. Don’t worry. Ink Fest won’t be on the town commons, so don’t worry.”
    Shelia frowned. “Where else is something that size going to be?”
    “It can move to the moon for all I care. Which I don’t.”
    They still looked worried.
    Sheila shook her head. “The town council will probably approve Ink Fest. What are you going to do then?”
    Damn. Why hadn’t she taken Lola’s advice and kept her mouth shut until she got the lay of the land in this town? Blair raised her eyebrows and bought some time by taking a bite of doughnut. “Mmm.” She chewed. “This is delicious.”
    When she’d swallowed the bite, she smiled at them. “Look, I don’t know a lot about tattoo people, but aren’t all…artists kind of unreliable? Undisciplined? Who knows if that festival will even get planned, much less take place? Let’s just focus on the parade, ladies. Okay?”
    All three women stared at her for a few seconds more and then in unison, they turned their gazes upward. A shadow fell across Blair’s side and she looked up, too. Right into the deep brown eyes of Ben Lambert. She froze, her mouth full of chocolate frosting.
    “I’d like to know the answer to Shelia’s question, too,” he said in an easy tone. Too easy to be authentic. “Care to elaborate about what you’ll do when Ink Fest happens? Because it’s going to.”
    Blair managed to swallow the bite and wipe her mouth with a napkin. Her heart was hammering and it wasn’t only from being grilled by the accounting girls. Like yesterday, she’d managed to insult him without even trying. And now she had to meet with him? In private. Oh, Jesus.
    Plus—Ben was even better- looking than he was yesterday. And he smelled really good. Clean, with a whiff of something spicy. Something dangerous. He wore a T-shirt, which left his arms bare and her gaze stopped right there.
    She’d seen plenty of guys with tattoos and never thought much about it, but this guy? The combination of everything else amazing about him plus the tattoos did something to her. Her brain went