Chapter 5
“So, what happened? It must have been something big if you cancelled on an appointment.” Hen says as she walks into Eddie’s house.
They were going to go to Hen’s house, but she was still at the shop, telling Eddie she’d stop by after she was done. “I don’t know what to do.” Eddie groans from where he’s pacing the living room, both Isabel and Chris were in the boy’s room watching a movie. “I got a phone call while I was at the shop.” He pauses, stops his pacing and looks at his friend with wide eyes. Hen nods, gesturing for him to continue. “Ana’s giving her up.”
Eddie says it so softly that Hen nearly misses it. “She’s what?”
“She’s giving her up.” He repeats. “Giving me full custody. I don’t think there was ever a work trip, I think this was just all a ploy.” Eddie says and runs a hand through his hair.
“What the hell.” Hen breathes and walks over to Eddie, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll figure it out, I’ll help.” She tells him and he just nods, thanking her.
---
Eddie cancels his appointments for the next two days to get things situated at his house. He needed to set up the spare room that was now Bell’s room and he had to get the things that she would need. He did all of that with the help of Hen and a couple of other friends. But that also meant that he had a full day of appointments on Saturday, so he couldn’t spend time with the kids that day like he wanted to.
“Alright Hen, who’s my first appointment today?” Eddie asks as he walks into the shop on Saturday morning, immediately going to his station.
Hen looks up from her iPad and smirks at him. “Pretty sure it’s your daughter’s hot daycare teacher.”
Eddie just groans at that. “I regret that I even told you that and who took a new client for me?” He raises an eyebrow, looking around, eyes landing on Chimney who was whistling and keeping himself busy with literally anything. “You told Chim?”
“Of course I did.” Hen just shrugs and Eddie sighs.
“Alright, do we know what he’s getting?” He asks as he sits down and pulls out his iPad, ready to get to work.
Chim just shrugs. “I don’t know.”
Eddie rolls his eyes at that and sighs heavily. “You’re supposed to ask them what they want Chimney, so I can have everything drawn up before they get here. That’s going to add extra time, and I already have a full day.”
“Sorry.” Chim mumbles and goes back to what he was doing originally.
The shop door opens, and Hen opens her mouth. “Hot daycare teacher is here.” She sing songs, making Eddie blush.
“Shut up.” Eddie hisses, trying to hide his face from the man who just walked into the door.
Thankfully it didn’t seem like the man had heard what Hen had said. He walked up to the front desk where Chim was sitting. “Hi, I have an appointment this morning. I forgot the name of the artist though.” He tells the man.
Chimney nods and before he can ask any questions Hen walks up and gives Buck a smile. “Hey Buck, you’re with Eddie today.” She says and points towards the other man.
Buck looks over and his eyes widen as Eddie turns around and gives him a small wave. “Oh, mister Diaz, I didn’t realize you’d be my artist today.” He says nervously and tries to look anywhere but at the other man.
“I told you; it’s Eddie.” He mumbles and goes back to getting his station set up. “Is that going to be a problem?”
“No, of course not.” Buck says and runs a hand through his hair. If he had known hot dad from the daycare would be his doing his tattoo he wouldn’t have made the appointment. He didn’t want to make a fool of himself. “But oh, look at that, I’m being called, I got to go.” And with that Buck bolted out of the shop, leaving Hen and Chimney laughing loudly.
Eddie turns around and furrows his eyebrows. “Did he just leave?”
Hen nods her head and catches her breath. “He did, I’m pretty sure you’re not the only one with a crush.” She teases, making Eddie groan loudly.
“It’s not a crush Hen, we’re not in middle school.” Eddie grumbles and sighs heavily.
Eddie let’s the two tease him about Buck the rest of the day, it doesn’t get on his nerves, it really doesn’t. Except it does, but he doesn’t say anything to them about it, he knows they’re just messing around and don’t mean anything by it.
By 5pm Hen and Chimney were already gone when the bell rang, signaling that someone had walked into the shop. Eddie stopped what he was doing to turn around only to see Buck standing there with an apologetic look on his face.
“Your appointment was this morning and I’m closing up.” Eddie tells him, folding his arms across his chest.
Buck nods his head quickly. “Yeah, I know. I just came by to apologize; I wasn’t sure what time you closed.” He tells him and runs a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry for just leaving.”
Eddie shrugs his shoulders. “It’s not a huge deal, it happens. But now if you try to make another appointment with me, I may turn it down.” He tells him and the man’s face falls.
“Oh, I wasn’t trying to do that. I got flustered when I saw that you were the one that was supposed to do my tattoo, and I left.” Buck started to ramble.
Eddie was amused by now. “Flustered?”
Buck’s face turned tomato red, and he ducked his head, looking down at the floor. He rubs the back of his neck with hand before speaking again. “Uh, yeah. I got flustered.” He admits. “It’s not everyday that one of your students’ hot dads is your tattoo artist.” He mumbles, hoping that Eddie didn’t hear it.
But of course, he did. “Hot dad huh?” Eddie raises an eyebrow in amusement and Eddie didn’t think it was possible for Buck to blush anymore, but he did, his cheeks now brighter than before.
“I need to stop talking.” Buck mutters, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. “But I just came to apologize for skipping out on my appointment. I wasn’t trying to do that.” He tells the other man.
Eddie just nods his head and hums softly. “Well, I know that I said I was closing up.” He starts. “But What were you trying to get done? If it’s small enough I could do it before I leave.”
The blonde lifts his head and shakes his head. “No, it’s not that big of a deal.” He tells him. “You probably need to get home to Isabel; I literally just came back to apologize because I felt really bad.” He laughs to himself.
Eddie nods his head. “I do need to get back to her and her brother. But they’re in good hands.”
“You have another kid?” Buck questions, finally walking further into the shop, taking in his surroundings.
“Yeah, Isabel has an older brother, his name is Chris.” Eddie informs him.
“Cool.” Buck hums and shoves his hands into his pockets. “I’ll let you finish up so you can get back to your kids.” He tells him and turns around but before he left Eddie spoke up.
“For the record, I think you’re hot too.” And with that Buck was out of the shop making his way to his jeep, he didn’t know how to respond to that, he’d just assumed the man would think he was weird for letting out that tidbit of information, but no, he had said the same thing and now his mind was reeling.