Page 38 of The Leaving Road

This caused her to laugh. “Okay, babes, you do that.”

I threw another napkin at her, and that just caused her to laugh harder.

“Say, I have an idea…let’s go to Montgomery’s tomorrow night. Jace invited me, and I’m pretty sure Matt will be there.”

“Sounds like a plan. Let them know I’m in.”

Chapter 25

Magnolia

The following day passed by in relative calmness. I had planned on getting up early and tackling some projects around the house, or at least getting to the store to buy some more supplies we would need. Neither happened. I woke to the sun beating down through the window and realized I had slept until almost noon.

Sleeping that late had basically made all my plans for the day nonexistent. I even tried to talk Lexie out of going tonight—my gusto for the date drying up with the dawn of a new day.

“We could go to home improvement stores instead,my treat.” I naively thought it would work because Lexielovedto shop, and she especially loved to redecorate.

“We’re going,” she sing-songed at me.

“Think of the possibilities!”

“The possibilities will still be there tomorrow. Now go shower.” She sniffed in my direction and then plugged her nose to really drive her point home.

“Lexie…”

“Shower. Now. And shave.” She threw a towel at me and stomped off, letting me know that my plan to cancel tonight wasabsolutelynot going to fly.

As I scrubbed myself clean, and did in fact shave all my important bits, I had to admit I felt significantly better than I had yesterday evening. A good night’s sleep and talking it out with your bestie did wonders for your soul. The thought of Matt filtered through my mind and I sighed. Why did I agree to a date?

Yes, he’s super cute and nice, but if I was being honest with myself, my life was a bit of a mess right now. Adding someone else to it seemed unfair. Frowning, I got out of the shower and started drying off and wrapped my long hair in a towel, so it started to dry faster.

Lexie barging her way into the bathroom interrupted my regret. “Please let me dress you, and please let me show off your tattoo.”

Lexie loved my tattoo, and I had to admit, I loved it as well,obviously.It was a mixture of dark and light, and the artist had done a fantastic job.

The small towel showed the bottom of it—the tree’s roots glided down my thigh, the roots connected to a beautiful rendition of a weeping willow. The branches of the tree reached from the middle of my back down to my ribs and glided into the twisted trunk with the roots that graced my thigh. I let my towel fall a bit to expose my back where the branches started and uncovered the bird cage drawing that nestled in there. It was one of those wire cages you would have expected to see in the Victorian era.

Although, instead of a bird in the cage, it was the silhouette of an angel with broken wings and the birdcage was left open. If you followed the branches down, you would find the saying, “Heaven’s not a place that you go when you die; it’s that moment in life when you actually feel alive.”

I never intentionally hid my tattoo, but it was such a big piece, and like I said, the artist had done beautifully so the attention to detail was immaculate. But when I showed it off, it was like a free pass for anyone andeveryoneto ask me about it.

“If it means that much to you, fine.”

She squealed in excitement. “There’s no way Matt will be able to keep his hands to himself!” She clasped her hands together, further showing how happy she was with this, completely missing that her remark made my stomach knot uncomfortably. Instead of giving her a smile, all I could really muster was a grimace, but the damage had already been done.

“Finish up here and meet me in my room in fifteen minutes. It’s already five o’clock!”

Dragging my feet, I finished my facial cleansing and moisturizing routine, then headed to Lexi’s room.

Almost two hours later, I felt as though I was prepped and primed andwayoverdressed for a night out in Rockland, Maine. I had to admit the outfit Lexie put me in wassexybut cute—though a bit too sexy for me, but she wouldn’t budge.

I took a cursory glance over myself one last time while Lex touched up her makeup. My outfit was a white cut-off top that had barely any spaghetti straps, and while it was tight around the front there was basically no back. It flowed when I walked due to my larger chest size, and you could make out the entire side of my ribs. Thankfully, she put me in dark-washed, cut-off jeans that complimented the white shirt, but there were enough rips in them to showcase how the tattoo extended from my back all the way to my thigh. If I wasn’t careful, someone was going to be getting way more than an eyeful.

Jace had kindly offered to pick us up, so we still had a few minutes left of “get ready” time.

“Lex, you ready?”

“Just about! I’ll meet you downstairs.”

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