Our Favorite Days (My Favorite Mistake #3) (12 page)

“You can do this, Missy. No big deal.” He winked and then gave me a panty-melting smile. I didn’t even feel the first touch of the tattoo gun. It was a buzz against my skin and then a quick dash of pain.

“Oh. That’s not so bad,” I said, looking at Rush.

“We haven’t even started, baby girl. Let me know if you need a break.” I nodded as carefully as I could because I didn’t want to move and mess him up.

So, it wasn’t the worst pain I’d ever had, but after a while it became annoying. Plus, my arm started to ache from holding it in a weird position.

“You wanna get up and stretch?” Rush asked. I said I did and Hunter helped me off the table after Rush wiped me down.

“Doing okay?” Hunter asked as I gingerly rolled my shoulders and turned my head. This was a marathon and not a sprint.

“We probably have about another hour and a half to go,” Rush said, looking at the design. It was a little weird showing everyone in the shop my belly, but I’d had to do it when I’d gotten my belly ring. Still, that had taken a lot less time.

The next hour and a half lasted what felt like an entire day. By the time Rush cleaned me up, slathered something on me and then put what looked like plastic wrap over the tattoo, I was done. So. Done.

“Do you need me to carry you, baby?” Hunter said. He only rarely called me that and it kinda drove me crazy. I just gave him a withering look and tugged my shirt down.

Ow. Seriously. Ow. Moving hurt. Everything hurt.

“Make sure she eats and if you have any questions or problems, please let me know,” Rush said as he gave the aftercare instructions to Hunter since I was still too focused on the pain on my side. It was kind of like a sunburn, only worse.

Hunter helped me out to Sassy and lifted me into the passenger side, buckling my seatbelt for me.

“Ow,” I said, pouting. He kissed my lower lip.

“I know, Missy. But I’m gonna take good care of you.” I raised my eyebrows because there was no way in hell I was up for any kind of sexual activity.

“I swear, if you even breathe on me in a sexual way, I’m going to hurt you,” I said, wincing as he hit a pothole in the parking lot and I bounced in my seat. I wanted to use every single curse word in existence right now.

Why did I think this was a good idea?

“I definitely wasn’t thinking of that. Something more along the lines of making you tea and rubbing your feet while you lay in bed and watch whatever the hell you want on TV.” Now
that
sounded more like it.

I looked over at him and he smiled at me.

“I know what you need,” he said with a most smug smile. I hated that he did and was so pleased with himself about it.

“I guess,” I said, pretending apathy.

“You know I do,” he said, pretending to sing.

“Ugh, shut up and drive,” I said, closing my eyes and resting my cheek against Sassy’s cold window. He’d finally conceded that his car was officially dead, no bringing it back, no resurrection. We had to make the time to find him something else. I wanted to go to a dealership, but he was all fine with buying something off to a Joe Six Pack from Craigslist.

“You did really well. Didn’t even shed a tear. I cried for my first,” he said in a low voice that made me open my eyes and turn slowly to look at him. Motherfucker, that hurt even worse than getting the damn tattoo.

“You did?” I asked, not really believing him.

“Yup. Bawled like a baby. The only one who knew was the guy doing the work and I swore him to secrecy. You took it like a champ, Missy. Like everything.” I snorted and for some thought back the first time I’d gone down on him.

“Well, now I’m second-guessing every single decision I’ve ever made,” I said, wincing again.

H
unter did carry me upstairs and put me to bed, but not before everyone crowded around to see the tattoo. It was universally heralded as “wicked awesome” and I was pretty sure they weren’t just saying that because I had this permanent thing on my body.

“Are you going to tell your mom?” Hunter asked as I flipped through the channels with one hand and sipped a vanilla chai tea with the other.

“Um, have you met my mom? She’s going to murder me in a very messy way if and when she finds out about this. I’m just going to keep hoping she never finds out.” I shrugged one shoulder and settled on a marathon of something stupid on MTV. Watching other people make terrible decisions in their lives made me feel better.

“She might surprise you. Maybe she’ll think it’s cool that you have your lucky talisman on your body forever.” Our eyes met and he gave me a smile that was tinged with sadness.

I still remembered the night when I finally told him everything. Pulled all the skeletons out of my closet and laid them at his feet to judge. And he’d looked at them and told me he loved me anyway.

“Yeah, I don’t think so. But nice try,” I said, putting down the remote and patting his leg.

“It was worth a shot, wasn’t it?” he said.

“Yeah, sure.”

S
leeping that night was hell. I couldn’t find a comfortable position. Everything hit the tattoo and I was cursing my past self for deciding to get it on my ribs.

I finally passed out just before the sun came up and Hunter let me sleep until the early afternoon.

“Fuck fucking fucks,” I said as I got up.

“So I’m guessing the tattoo healing is going well?” Renee said, lurking in the open doorway. She smirked at me, as if this was somehow funny. She wasn’t a fan of tattoos, mostly because of the potential for them to go wrong and need medical attention.

“Shut up,” I said, pointing at her and slowly shuffling to the bathroom. I had to clean the tattoo, but the idea of getting in a shower made me want to cry.

“Now, now, be nice to the person who brought you not only water and painkillers, but also some goo that’s going to help you heal better,” she said, pulling out the items from behind her back.

Okay, so that was a nice thing to do.

“And, I got you out of Chore Day with Darah,” she said as I took the pills and opened the water to take a swig.

“Well, that’s nice. Where’s Hunter?” I was surprised he hadn’t come up to check on me yet.

“There’s something wrong with Dusty’s Golf, so all the ‘menfolk’ are out in the yard looking at the engine and discussing things as if they actually know what the hell they’re doing.” I snorted. Hunter could fix a few car issues, but he was no certified mechanic.

Renee helped me to the bathroom and helped me peel off my shirt. I’d left the plastic wrap-like stuff on, but today there was some clearish-red fluid oozing out under it that had gotten on my shirt.

“Ew,” I said as I used a clean towel to wipe it away.

“Yeah, tattoos are gross. Wait till you get to the peeling stage,” Renee said with a grin. I didn’t even want to know about that.

I ended up making it into the shower, but the lukewarm water still stung. By the time I got out, Hunter was there, holding a towel for me.

“You figure out what’s wrong with the car?” I asked.

“Think so. Mase took Dusty down to the parts store. How’s the tat?” I hissed through my teeth as the towel made contact with my raw skin.

“Fantastic, yours?” He held out an arm that was shiny with the same stuff Renee had given me. Must have put it on earlier.

Hunter helped me slick on the goo and get dressed again. The pain was starting to subside, so I went downstairs to see what everyone else was doing.

The smell of fresh baking hit my nose and I moaned. I was starving.

“You are not allowed to make that sound when I am not in a position to be alone with you,” Hunter growled in my ear.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said innocently and then made the sound again.

“You are in so much trouble,” he said as we made it into the kitchen to find Darah surrounded by plates and trays of cookies.

“Okay, what is happening here?” I asked. “Are you and Hope having a bakeoff?” That would be seriously awesome. And seriously fattening.

“No, I just… felt like baking!” Darah said in a voice that was high and definitely not normal. Her eyes were a little wide under the shadow of her bangs. I gave Hunter a look out of the corner of my eye and he shrugged. Well. Something was going on with her.

“Uh huh,” I said, reaching for a snickerdoodle.

“Can’t I just feel like baking?” she asked, pulling yet another pan of cookies out of the oven.

“Sure, absolutely you can,” I said and nudged Hunter to agree with me. Darah smiled, but it was tight. We were all so used to her being the one who was organized and on time that seeing that she didn’t always have everything together was kind of a shock.

Maybe I needed to have a little chat with her when no one else was around. I owed her for all her wisdom from the other day.

Practically reading my mind, Hunter squeezed my shoulder and went back outside to see what was what with the car. Since Renee was working at the hospital and Jos was down in her room, that left me alone with Darah.

“Dare?” I asked as she started frosting some extremely tiny cookies.

“Yeah?” she said, not looking up from the cookie.

“You okay?” She nodded jerkily and I walked over to take the pastry bag from her hands. When she raised her head, there were tears sparkling in her eyes.

“What happened?” I said, my mind running through a million possibilities at once, all of them terrible.

She blinked and then blew out a breath that stirred her bangs.

“Mase wants to get married.” Was there something in the water in this house?

“And?” I asked, yanking back all the words I wanted to say and reserving judgment until she told me what was bothering her.

“And… I just… I want to. I really do. But…” She put her hands in the pockets of the cute little apron she always wore when she made cookies.

“But it’s a lot, right? It’s a huge step,” I said and she nodded.

“Plus, my family is just crazy.” Even after knowing Darah for this long, I still really didn’t know a whole lot of details about her family. She always pulled back when anyone tried to talk to her about them. Even Mase had a hard time getting her to open up.

“Uh huh,” I said, hoping she would go on. Sighing, she pulled out one of the dining chairs and plunked down in it. I did the same and jumped a little when there was the loud sound of an engine starting up in the driveway. Guess they fixed the car.

“My family is… difficult. They’re, for lack of a better word, distant. My parents were very hands-off with me when I was little. I can’t even remember them hugging me. I thought everyone’s parents were like that until I got to school. And it’s not just my parents that are like that. It’s my aunts and uncles and everyone else. It’s almost like a family disease or something.” I couldn’t even imagine someone not wanting to hug Darah. She was sweet as a freaking peach and loved harder than almost anyone I knew.

I didn’t want to call her parents assholes in front of her, but they were definitely assholes.

“So that means I have some messed up ideas about what marriage is and what families are and everything. I mean, I am not opposed to marriage, but what if I can’t do it? I’m sure my mom wasn’t stone-cold when she was my age.” Oh, I knew what she was afraid of.