Page 111

She squeezes my knee and nods. “I’m going to start with the outline and then work my way in. It shouldn’t take long to get it drawn, but I’m planning to shade it in with some yellow afterward. If we get to that stage and it becomes too uncomfortable or you don’t want to continue, we’ll stop. I can finish it another time.”

“I’ll be fine, Bryce. Just focus on the art, and I’ll worry about everything else,” I soothe.

“You’re always my priority. Everything else is just background noise.”

My chest flames. “Your passion isn’t background noise. This is what you love to do. I’m just feeling really grateful that you want to share this part of yourself with me in the first place.”

She holds my gaze for a moment, and I swear I can hear the combined sound of our erratic heartbeats. We’re two complete opposites, yet for some reason, we’ve found each other. I feel like that makes me one of the luckiest people in the world.

“I like sharing things with you,” she admits.

Reaching for the tattoo gun, she faces away from me. I didn’t miss the red tint of her cheeks but choose not to tease her about it.

Bryce does a handful of things with the tattoo gun before moving on to the ink. She pours the yellow and black into separate tiny caps and then changes her gloves. The gun starts buzzing for half a second before turning off again.

Wheels move along the floor as she comes to the edge of the table. I stop rubbing my thighs together at the last second and puff out a relieved sigh when she turns her attention to my thigh.

“This should be the easiest position, but if it gets too uncomfortable for you, tell me. I’m serious,” she says sternly.

“I will.”

“It shouldn’t hurt necessarily, but it will feel uncomfortable at first. Like a bee sting or a slight pinch in one spot repeatedly. I always find that it becomes less noticeable the longer it goes on.”

The gun starts buzzing again, and I try not to hold my breath as I wait for the needle to touch skin. Bryce’s fingers are hot through the gloves as they stroke my thigh and then pull the skin taut.

“Try not to jerk,” she murmurs.

And I don’t. The first press of the needle to my thigh isn’t painful. It’s surprising, but I keep my cool, breathing slow and steady.

Folding my hands and laying them between my legs, I say, “That’s not too bad.”

“Good, Sunshine. I shouldn’t take too long with this outline.”

I wouldn’t mind if she did, which is probably pretty weird. The constant reassurance that her non-tattooing hand provides with only a constant pressure on my thigh has me content sitting here. She’s even moving her thumb back and forth as the needle turns the blue lines black, as if she needs the contact as much as I do.

I keep my head down so I can watch her. “So,doesPoppy know about Shade?”

“Yes. But she’s never met him.”

“Why not? I thought you two were best friends.”

She uses a piece of paper towel to wipe away some of the excess ink from the tattoo and then continues with the outline.

“We are. But this isn’t a piece of myself that I was ready to share with anyone before. Not even Poppy.”

“But you were ready to share it with me?”

Her eyes flick up to mine before falling to my thigh once again. “You’re different.”

“How so?”

Okay, yes, I’m digging.Sue me.This is my chance to poke and prod inside of her mind, and I’m not going to waste it.

“Poppy’s been in my life since I was just a kid. She will always be my best friend. But you’re more than that. There are some things that Poppy just doesn’t need to know to be my best friend, but that you do if you’re going to be more than that.”

She pauses to wipe my thigh again, and this time, the gun doesn’t start back up right away.

“There are pieces of my life that I’ve always kept just for me. My relationship with the only person I’ve ever let get to know me outside of my family in Cherry Peak is one of them. Shade might be an asshole at times, but he’s important to me. He’s hardly older, but it still feels like he took me in like a big brotherthe day I showed up here. Keeping him and this place to myself was just instinct. But you’re not someone I met in childhood and who knows me the way Poppy or even Anna does. You need to get to know me as I am right now, today, and Shade is an important piece of that.”