I pointed to my hip. “Right here.”
He frowned, his brow dropping low. “You didn’t tell me you were thinking about getting a tattoo.”
“I’ve been considering getting one for a while, then Giselle and I started talking while I was waiting for you, and I figured there was no time like the present.” I pushed up on my toes with excitement. “Do you want to see? It’s so pretty.”
“Of course I want to see.”
I took him by the hand and guided him over to one of the chairs in the waiting area. “Sit. You’ll have a better view if you’re lower.”
His frown deepened, but he allowed me to push him into the chair, putting his face in line with my midsection. I turned to the side and lifted my shirt. Giselle had applied a clear bandage over the tattoo, so it was a little blurred, but still visible.
Cormac leaned forward, his breath a warm breeze over my exposed skin as he read the words floating along the small, winding river.
To the river and back
Our childhood motto. We’d said those words more than hello and goodbye. They’d started as a challenge and had become something more. Sunshine and fun. Laughter and freedom. The best memories. The lightest, longest days that always slipped away too fast.
This time, when I left, I’d be able to touch them, to look down at them or see them in the mirror. And maybe I could get those feelings back, if only for a moment.
He reached out, like he wanted to touch me, but stopped himself, dropping his hand heavily into his lap. His gaze flicked to mine. “To the river and back,” he whispered, his voice raspier than before.
“To the river and back,” I repeated.
“Let’s see this.” Jett came around my side and bent to check out my very first tattoo. “Okay, okay. This is cool.”
When he straightened, his mom slipped her arm around his waist. “Pretty, right?”
“For sure.” Jett peered down at Cormac, who was still staring at my hip. “Hey, man…’To the river and back’—isn’t that what you—”
Cormac sprang up from his seat with lightning speed, shaking his head. “It’s not.” Then he turned to Giselle. “If she hasn’t paid yet, add it to my bill.”
I tugged his sleeve. “You don’t have to.”
“I want to.” He pulled free from my hold. “We’ll head out in a minute, all right?”
He followed Jett to the reception desk, not waiting for my answer. Giselle looked at me with one eyebrow raised, and I shrugged.
I knew Cormac well, but there were times I wasn’t sure I understood him at all, and this was one of them. He seemed angry about my tattoo, but that wasn’t quite it.
I really didn’t know what was going on in his head at all.
Cormac insisted I needed to eat so I didn’t get woozy after getting tattooed. We stopped halfway in a tiny town nestled in the Medicine Bow National Forest. The steakhouse looked like a log cabin from the outside, but the back wall was almost entirely made of glass, and the view was breathtaking. A crystal-clear lake sparkling in the sun at the base of a bare-faced mountain was so pretty I had to stop for a moment to soak it in.
“Wyoming isn’t real,” I said.
Cormac sputtered a laugh, then rapped on the solid table. “Oh yeah? How do you explain this? Feels real to me.”
I gestured toward the window beside us. “How can that be real? Explain it to me.”
He gazed outside for a moment, his eyes darting over the rocky terrain beyond the lake. “I see what you mean. Doesn’t makesense to be able to live somewhere so beautiful. I forget how lucky I am to be here and see this every day.”
“You are,” I agreed.
He turned back to me, scanning me the same way. “How are you feeling? Any pain?”
“I’m okay. It really is a little tattoo.”
His brow hitched with concern. “Did Giselle explain how to take care of it?” He picked up his fork, flipped it over, then moved on to the knife. “If you need any help or have questions, I’m here.”
