Page 109 of Under the Ink

Her mother didn’t notice her at first because she’d been talking to the woman sitting next to her, but her father was just starting to sit down and spied her right away. “There’s my beautiful daughter,” he said, waving her over to the other side. “It’s been a while.”

Naomi walked over to stand next to him, feeling the eyes of the church people on her—but she wasn’t here for them. “Not really. I saw you on Memorial Day.”

“For an hour. And that was quite a while ago. Your mother told me you’ve been quite the traveler.” Barely breaking eye contact, her father walked around to the empty chair at their table and brought it over, setting it between his and her mother’s seat.

Her mother turned, finally paying attention. “Naomi, my child.”

“How’s Leah?” Unlike Naomi, her little sister had been the paragon of perfection in her parents’ eyes, a child to be put on a pedestal. But ever since that child’s senior year, her sister had kept contact at a minimum—and, since the young woman had graduated high school—had even distanced herself from their parents. She’d earned a scholarship to Mesa State—close to the Colorado border with Utah—and rarely came home nowadays.

Naomi understood why.

“She’s working and going to school—but doing fine. What brings you to us?”

“I just wanted to say hi.” Which she’d done—but they weren’t going to let her off the hook that easily.

After Naomi sat, her mother kissed her on the cheek. “So you’re back home now?”

While she had no idea if she planned to stay—she was definitely back for some time, and there was no sense denying it. “Yes.” Ginny and Walker had told her she could stay in the rental apartment over the garage of the house they’d just closed on last week. That was kind, but she knew it wasn’t furnished, meaning she’d be in a sleeping bag on a tile floor. Not exactly luxurious.

But beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Were you thinking of moving back in with us?”

It was then that it hit her— that she couldn’t hate her parents, no matter how deluded they seemed to be, getting sucked into that cult of a church. She couldn’t be angry with them for not completely understanding her plight when she hadn’t known how to voice it. And even though she didn’t believe in the Bible like they did, she couldn’t despise them.

In fact, now she felt almost sad.

She could feel the eyes of the old biddy across the table on her, and she didn’t care. But it took everything in her to not flip the stupid woman off. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I might move out of Colorado.”

“Oh, honey,” her mom said.

“Dear, she’s a grown woman.”

Naomi sucked down a deep breath. “I just wanted to say…I’m sorry. I know I didn’t always make you proud—”

“Nonsense,” her father said. “We weren’t always the best parents, either. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re our family…and we love you.”

She would take that as a win. There was no going back, no way to change her past, but she could certainly mold her future. She might have lost any chance she had with Sage, but she wasn’t going to take that out on her parents.

She needed someone in her corner.

“I love you both, too.”

“Now…one other thing, honey,” her mom said, placing her hand on Naomi’s. Although there were tattoos on her wrist, her hands themselves were still as naked as the day she’d been born. She nodded, letting her mother continue. “We talked about it over the phone, but I’d be remiss not to tell you again how worried I am about your soul.”

Swallowing, Naomi shifted her eyes from her mother to her father and then back. Even though there was sappy pop music playing in the background, she knew they could hear her—and maybe the tunes would drown out her voice from the other people at the table.

Because they likely wouldn’t care for what she was about to say.

“I appreciate that you worry about me in the ever after—but I’m just trying to survive day by day, and I have to take one step at a time. Sorry. That sounds really clichéd but it’s true.” Did she want to tell them she didn’t believe the way they did or would it be best to leave it alone?

When her dad said, “We love you no matter what,” she decided not to say anything else, instead giving them both a hug and telling them she loved them. Although she understood that, if she continued a relationship with them, this conversation would come up over and over again, for now, she could let it go.

She’d never known forgiveness could be so damned liberating.

* * *

Naomi also had never knownthat something akin to the opposite could be equally true. After sitting with her parents for another ten minutes, she got up to return to the wedding party table—but, on her way, she spied her mortal enemy.

---