“See the one on my lower back?” she asked.
I peeked down and sure enough, there was the vine she’d told me about, banded around her lower back. I reached down with the sponge and traced around the colored tattoo of a flower I couldn’t place.
“Yeah,” I said as I went back to washing her, “what kind of flower is that?”
“It’s a peony,” she said with pride. “Mom loved the pale pink ones, but pale pink doesn’t register well on my skin tone. So I made it a slightly darker pink with the right pale pink shading.”
On the one hand, it was beautiful, the art that she dedicated to her parents’ love sprawled out over her body. It showcased just how much she wanted to be loved, like story-telling art that reminded her of the love that she deserved.
On the other hand, she was just a little girl, searching for her parents in anything she could find.
My God, I love this woman.
And after we were all out of this godforsaken danger, I’d tell her.
I’d shout it from the rooftops.
I’d grow her a flower garden if that was what she wished.
After I learned how the fuck to do that in the first place.
22
ANNA
“CHUUUUUURCH!”
The bellowing of Cap’s voice stirred me from my slumber. I groaned as I rolled over, and hitting the cool sheets next to me made my heart sink into my chest. Two for two, I thought to myself. Second morning I allowed him to be here, second morning he wasn’t.
Until I heard voices outside my door.
“You heard Cap,” Bee said, “we have t?—”
My brother’s voice came out as nothing but a growl. “If you fucking hurt her, I will kill you.”
Christ, that was better than a gallon of caffeine. I bolted upright in bed, my hair moving about as I tried swiping it out of my face. I was ready to give my brother a piece of my mind. Who the fuck did he think he was, threatening Brutus like that?
I threw the covers off me before I heard Bee’s voice. “I would never, King.”
“I don’t fucking care what you think you’d do or not do. She’s been hurt before. I’ve watched her collapse over the men in her life that trample all over her heart. It won’t happen again. I won’t hold her and dry her tears again, I’ll just wring your fucking neck.”
“I know, Kay,” Bee said with so much sincerity in his voice that it brought tears to my tired eyes. “I see it written all over her face every time she comes out of that room when I should be there. I know she’s been hurt.”
My brother practically snarled. “I swear to fucking hell, Brutus, if you?—”
“King, you have to believe me, all I’m trying to do is be good enough.”
I hung my head as my lower lip quivered. The idea that Brutus thought he wasn’t good enough for me made my heart shatter into pieces. Cap bellowed at the top of his lungs again, and I heard Amanda curse him from somewhere in the house. I didn’t even stick around for the rest of the conversation. I simply silenced my footsteps on the carpet like my brother taught me how to do a long fucking time ago, and I made my way to the bathroom.
I needed to clean up.
I allowed myself a moment in the shower to just cry. His words echoed off the corners of my mind like a whisper in a haunted house. He was just trying to be good enough.
Ineeded to be good enough.
“We’re gonna shave, girl,” I mumbled to myself as the hot water poured over me in the shower. “We’re gonna shave and dress up and splash on some lip gloss.”
Because if Bee put in the effort, then so was I.
