Page 67 of Wild and Wrangled

“Yeah.” He nodded.

“That’s…um…”

“Permanent.” Shannon finished for me.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding at the tattoo artist. “Permanent.”

Dusty shrugged with one of his shoulders. “So are we.”

Even though he was leaving, I couldn’t argue with that. We felt permanent. I thought that would scare me, but it didn’t. It made me feel like I could take on anything as long as I had Dusty.

“I’ll get one, too,” I said, almost without thinking. I thought once the words were out of my mouth, I’d want to take them back. But I didn’t.

“Seriously?” Dusty said after a few seconds.

“Seriously,” I said. “We’re permanent.”

“Oh lord,” Shannon said under his breath.

“What do you think?” Dusty said.

“I think it’s stupid,” Shannon said as he worked. I felt my shoulders fall a little. Maybe it was. “But sometimes the stupid things push us forward, so if you want ’em, I’ll do ’em.”

My heart started to pick up speed. Was I really going to do this? When I looked at Dusty he was grinning, and that’s when I knew the answer. Yeah. Yeah, I was.

I grinned back at him.

“Any ideas, Shan?” Dusty asked, but his eyes were still on me.

“No full names,” he said. “I still haven’t figured out how to cover up or change Betty’s name on my arm.”

“Betty from the diner?” I asked, shocked. Shannon nodded, and Dusty and I both burst into laughter.

“Hold still, kid,” he said to Dusty. “I’m almost done.”

“Sorry,” Dusty said, still laughing, and then he turned to me. “What if I got an A for Ash?”

“Feels a littleScarlet Letter,don’t you think?” I said.

“But it works because we started passing notes in English, and we readThe Scarlet Letter.” He smiled earnestly, his eyes sparkling. How lucky was I to find a man like him, a love like this, so early? And how was I supposed to be thousands of miles apart from him? How was I supposed to say goodbye?

“Where will you get it?” I asked.

Dusty brought his right hand up to the side of his neck and tapped at it with his pointer finger. “Right where you like to kiss me.”

Less than an hour later, Dusty had two new tattoos, and I had my first one: the letter T on my hip. For Tuck or Tucker or Dusty’s full name. It didn’t hurt as bad as I was expecting. Plus, the pain didn’t matter. Now I had a symbol of the mark Dusty left on me. Forever. I was changed now…and I knew I never wanted to go back.

—

When I looked at it in the mirror after we were done and before Shannon covered it to heal, I’d never felt more beautiful or more powerful or more me.

“Dusty,” I said as we walked toward his car, hand in hand.

“What’s up, angel?” he asked, and I pulled him to me, careful to avoid the cling wrap and gauze on his neck. When I looked up at him, I felt resolute.

“I want to go with you,” I said.

“Where? Are you hungry? Do you want to go get something to eat?”