Page 49 of The Chances We Take

“No backing out now, right?” Ellison apprehensively lay down.

“You’ll do great.” I think Willow’s cheerful voice eased some of Ellison’s nerves.

“I’ll be right here. If you need to squeeze my hand, you can,” I told her as I sat down on the velvet stool next to the chair Ellison was in.

The buzz of the tattoo gun filled the space as Willow got to work. A few times, Ellison tensed up, but it only took about thirty minutes. We made small talk with the artist as she worked, talking about Ellison’s upcoming wedding and how meaningful the tattoo was for her.

“All right, Ellison, my friend. You can stand up and take a look.”

Ellison took a deep breath and walked over to the mirror. As she looked over her shoulder at the design, a fine line pair of cowboy boots with angel wings and the date of her father’s death, I noticed a tear fall down her cheek.

“It’s beautiful. Thank you.” She wiped her eyes.

“Thank you for letting me be part of your special day. I’m sure your dad would be so proud of you. And now you get to have him with you forever.”

My eyes watered as I watched the exchange between them before Willow wrapped Ellison’s tattoo and we went to pay.

“Where did you guys go?” Colter asked when we got out of the car. The boys were all waiting for us out on Colter and Ellison’s front lawn when we got back.

“Ellison had a tattoo appointment!” I smiled.

“Ooh, let’s see it!” Jake got up from his seat. He had a few tattoos on his arms but didn’t have full sleeves like Mikey.

Ellison spun around so she could show them.

“Did you get a tattoo, Isa?” Mikey asked, and I narrowed my eyes a bit at him.

“No…” I knew to tread lightly with Mikey and not give him anything to work with.

“Do you have any tattoos?” he continued.

I rolled my eyes. “No visible ones, and no, you can’t see.”

“Leave the girl alone, Michael.” Reid came behind him, throwing his arm around Mikey to put him in a headlock. Mikey clawed at Reid’s arm until he finally let go.

“I love it, Ells. I think your dad would love it too.” Colter pulled her in for a hug, leaning down to kiss her forehead.

“Are you guys coming over to Reid’s with us?” Hayden walked over to me.

I looked over at Ellison. “Uh…”

“Yeah! Let us get changed and we’ll head over with you guys.” Ellison pulled away from Colter and nodded at Hayden before heading into the house.

I followed her with a shrug, letting the door swing closed behind me as I walked into the house.

Ellison dug through her closet looking for clothes we could wear as I flopped down on her bed.

“Seems like just yesterday I was the one always digging through your closet,” I joked as a T-shirt hit me in the face.

“What, like that?” Ellison looked over her shoulder with a grin. “Now you know what I had to deal with all the time.”

“What are we doing at Reid’s?” I asked.

“Probably going to hang out. They might rope a bit. Who knows? It’s the Silver Creek boys.” She emerged from the closet with a pair of jeans to replace the shorts she was wearing. She already had on a tank top, and it looked like she wasn’t going to change out of that.

“I’ll be right back, then.” I walked over to the guest room to change out of my shorts and off-the-shoulder crop top. I slipped on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt then headed back to Ellison’s room.

“What, you’re not going to wear somethingsexy?”

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