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Romero was far from impressed with Isobel’s new job, and he came in some days just to sit in a chair and glare at her.

I had decided to find the whole thing amusing instead of stressing out about it. My dad could work out his own relationships, and I didn’t need to be a part of that. Dash was staying out of his dad’s business too. Either that, or he was completely oblivious to what was going on.

Rain had shut the shop down early just for me. It was another one of those father-daughter bonding moments, and I was more than happy about it. It was how Rain did sweet, and he did it really well.

“Alright, baby girl, where am I putting this little guy?”

I hadn’t really given much thought to where I actually wanted to put the tattoo on my body. I’d been more interested in obsessing over the actual tattoo itself. That had been the really important part to me.

I wanted him how he’d been when I first met him, how I always wanted to remember him. Rain’s drawing of a black cat with its back arched and its tail curled up in the air was a damn good replica of Binx.

I had a lot of free space to work with on my body, since I’d only allowed Rain to ink me so far, and he’d only done it the one time with the tattoo on the inside of my wrist. Maybe I should fill that arm up, and then I could move onto a different part of my body.

I placed my right hand on the table, palm flat against the surface. “Right here on my hand will work nicely.”

“Are you going to close your eyes really tight and keep your head turned away?” Rain teased me in a lighthearted voice.

He might have thought he was being funny, but I thought it was great advice. I freaking did not like needles, and there was no way I could watch this go down. I had to look away.

I didn’t understand it. The actual pain didn’t bother me, but the stupid sight of the needle made me a little sick to my stomach.

He talked to me while he worked to distract me from what he was doing. Just nonsense things about how Baxter was doing now that he was home. Rain had been teaching him about his magic and just all the goodness Rain had in him to give to the little boy.

I thought I’d be jealous because Baxter was getting something I had been robbed of, but I really just loved the little boy so much I was just happy that Rain was there to give him these things.

I was learning the hard way that life was far too short to waste my energy on obsessing over things I could not change. The past was the past and could not be changed. It was the future that mattered, and if I allowed all the bullshit to get me down, then that future would likely be a lot less bright than what it actually could be.

I could learn. I might be slow at it, but I eventually got where I needed to be.

It took Rain about forty minutes to finish everything up. I didn’t look at it once until it was over. The final product was everything I wanted it to be.

I had Binx inked into my skin forever. I would never be able to forget him now. It was perfect—sad, but perfect.

Other people I met would see it, and they’d think it was just any old black cat and assume maybe I was superstitious or something. Nobody would know the importance of the tattoo, and I liked it like that.

“Thank you, Dad.” I smiled at him with tears in my eyes. “I love it.”

And I did.

I loved just about everything I had going for me in my life. Things far from sucked, and I had earned some damn happiness in my life.

I planned on enjoying every second of it.

“Anything for you, baby girl.”

The End.