Page 110 of Blue

She fought tooth and nail, literally, for something that didn’t work out of fear. Then forsook all her pride, gave him what he wanted—and what she needed. She came to him, stood at the end of his driveway, and asked him what to do. She still thought he had all the answers, and for the life of him, he hadn’t a clue how she got to that conclusion.

As his emotions surrounding Angela morphed, he witnessed the storm of hazel calm in Blue’s irises. Sympathy filled them before she turned her focus back down to the papers. “You two got married hella young.”

“Yeah,” he affirmed as Mooky scooted toward her on the bed.

“Are you sureyou’reready to let this go?” she asked as she rested her head on his shoulder.

His arm coiled around. “I’ve never been surer of anything.” He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “You are the new chapter in my existence. I have a new beginning with you. You are my future—my ol’ lady. I’m ready for my real life to begin.”

The feel of her snuggling into him, the smell of her filling his nostrils, the view of her, the sound of her content little mews she didn’t know she made when she was happy filled his heart to the point of bursting.

“We have to get dressed and head to the clubhouse. Church is in about a half an hour, and I want to show you off, so everyone knows.”

EPILOGUE

Blue

6 Months Later

Blue applied a generous amount of ointment before wiping it away. With pride in her chest, she tilted her head to the side as she admired the fresh ink she’d just packed into Mooky’s skin. It came out just as she’d imagined. Bold colors. Solid lines. This didn’t look like an apprentice’s work.

“Are you ready for the big reveal?” she asked as she did a happy chair dance. Glancing toward the two spectators who’d been waiting, none-too-patiently, while she scratched the design into their father, she lifted her brows.

“Yes,” they squealed in unison. They jumped from their chairs and charged toward them.

The memory of their first meeting danced in her head and just how far they’d come from that awkward dinner at Mooky’s house. She’d tried to cook a roast and, of course, had burned it. The carrots were mush. The potatoes were lumpy. Nothing had gone right.

Then again, with Blue and Mooky, that was par for the course.

Thankfully, pizza had come to the rescue.

Fast-forward to a few sessions of mani-pedis and thrift shopping, Blue could confidently say Starla might actually like her. River, on the other hand, had accepted her the moment she convinced Mooky to let him play an extra half an hour of video games.

Another pass with ointment. Blue met Mooky’s gaze.

The kids sniggered. No one, by a decree of the man wearing the ink, but Blue could see the design prior to completion. Even while she inked it on him, they weren’t allowed to look, which caused quite a few gripes.

Thankfully, she hadn’t gone terribly large. But she’d done some intricate details. So, it took a few hours to complete. She couldn’t blame the kids for being antsy. There was only so much surfing social media they could do. Mammoth and Stella did their best to help entertain them, but ultimately, the complaints were plenty. But she refused to rush it.

“I feel like we need a drum roll,” Mooky suggested as he pulled out his phone from his cut.

“Oh my God,” Starla lamented. “Seriously, this doesn’t need to be a big thing. It’s just a tattoo. You have like a hundred of them.”

“Yeah,” River grumbled. “I’m hungry. Can we just see it?”

“Wejusthad pizza.” Starla glared at her younger brother.

“That was an hour ago,” the younger of the two kids whined.

Blue did her best to bite back her laughter at the kids’ impatience. Honestly, she was right there with them. She wanted to see his reaction too. However, she respected Mooky’s wishes and kept the cloth over his new tattoo to keep the ink hidden from anyone’s view. So, if he wanted a drum roll…

The ba-da-da-da-da-da of the drum roll came over the phone, and Mooky met her eyes. When he gave her the dip of his chin in permission, she dragged the cloth back and revealed her work.

That’s when it hit. Holding her breath, clenching her teeth, doubt collided with her. This might be the best work she’d ever done, but did it compare to a professional? She wanted him to be impressed, to see her vision, for the three of them to realize it.

With tight shoulders, she shifted her focus from one face to the other, trying to interpret the expressions. She wanted to catch each of their reactions the instant they saw it. Would they understand each piece she’d included to make a cohesive image?

Colorful ink decorated Mooky’s skin. It peeked out of his shirt and ran up around his neck. Images stretched over his wrists and down the backs of his hands. For Blue’s personalized design, she chose black and gray. Some of his other tattoos held meanings, others matched, a few followed a theme. He even had a couple that were random images he enjoyed. Blue inked something with deep meaning onto him, or so she hoped.

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