Page 95 of Fall Into Me

“What do your new tattoos mean?” She wasn’t looking at me when she spoke, instead I could feel her focus on my neck.

“You won’t believe anything I say.”

“I will.” Her hazel eyes snapped to mine. “I promise.”

I waited a second, weighing her words, and in the end it didn’t matter. “They’re all about you,” I whispered, but I think she knew that already.

Her fingers moved across the sheets, gently tracing over the timepiece that you couldn’t really see on the left side of my neck.

“This one?” she breathed.

“A pocket watch.” I swallowed, knowing there was no turning back once she heard it all. “That was the time I woke up and realized you were gone.”

Her fingers froze, but she didn’t look at me. I saw the way her lashes fluttered, a quiet shudder rolling through her as her hand moved to the rose inked on the opposite side of my neck.

Cali didn’t look at me, but I saw her eyes, the way they got imperceptibly glassier.

“This one?” she rasped, hands dancing over to the other side of my neck, to the rose.

“I think you know that one.”

She nodded, and one tear spilled over the edge of those wide, trusting eyes of hers. “Cali Rose,” she said. “For me.”

“For you.” I reached out to swipe the tear she let run free, and her hand reached out for mine. Dainty fingers wrapped around mine, holding it to her chest like an anchor.

“This one.” She asked about the design that climbed up the center of my throat.

“I thought it looked really cool,” I admitted, a grin tugging at the corner of my mouth. She hiccupped a laugh, rolling her eyes.

She reached for the hand she wasn’t holding. Fingers gliding over ink on my skin before locking her gaze with mine.

“Ursa Major. Your constellation.”

She stared at it for so long I didn’t dare interrupt, afraid to disrupt whatever was running through her mind. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet. “And this one?” Her hand hovered over the compass inked on my other hand, forever pointing north.

“So I’d find my way back to you,” I rasped, and the air between us grew impossibly still.

Cali closed her eyes, and I watched as she tried to hold it together. I knew that none of this made sense to her, that she still didn’t want to hear what I had to say. I was half torn wanting to even tell her. It had been my cross to bear for so long that it would be easier to just not. I knew she wouldn’t believe me, and I couldn’t bring myself to tell herwhywhen I knew she wouldn’t listen.

But she heard everything I said just then, and when the silent tears started to rack her frame, I pulled her into me, humming into the hair on the top of her head. Breathing in her cherry blossom and milk-and-honey smell that soothed all my jagged edges. I held her long after she’d fallen asleep, like if I gripped her tight enough,longenough, I could fix everything I’d broken.

It didn’t matter that we hadn’t finished our game. That she’d only asked one of her three questions. That I hadn’t asked any of mine.

I fell asleep wrapped around her, her legs intertwined with mine, feeling at peace despite it all for the first time in years. Like this was right where I was supposed to be.

When I woke up, I was still wrapped around Cali, and I opened my eyes to find hers already bright and clear. Looking at the tattoos on my neck, the tattoos on my hands, and then finally, to me.

“Was it true?” she whispered.

“Every word.”

I saw how she was battling herself on it. Wanting to both believe me and not trusting herself to all at once. Her eyes drifted over me once more before she took a deep breath, and her body practically sagged into the bed. I saw the tension and apprehension and uncertainty ebb away.

The little smile that appeared on her face might have been the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“Okay.”

“I have one more thing to say,” I murmured.

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