June (Calendar Girl #6) by Audrey Carlan Read Free Book Online

the bare spot just above the heel and up the side of my inner ankle about four inches. I nodded. “Then the petals blowing in the wind will have each letter you chose as part of the stem. Incognito right?” Her gaze met mine and she grinned.
    “That’s right.”
    This time I laid back and let Mask do her thing. The prickling sensation started anew the second that gun touched my ankle. It stung, sending a sharp bite of pain through my leg. I gritted my teeth and waited for that pain to turn to pleasure once more. After about ten minutes, I was flying on pure endorphins.
    “I’ve got the W and the A done.” Mask pointed at my foot where two little wish petals were blowing across the text alongside several others. Only these two were unique. One had the letter “W” to represent my time with Wes and the other an “A” for Alec. “How did you want to do the T and the H again.”
    “If possible I’d like both of them somehow intertwined on the same petal wish-type thingy.”
    Mask looked at my foot, again rotated it back and forth in the light, then nodded succinctly and went back to work.
    “Finished with the M and the single T, too. I put a couple more plain ones here and here,” she pointed to the simple ones interspersed between the special ones. “But you mentioned that you might want to add to this later in the year so I left some space down the foot?”
    I nodded. “Yeah, if the year goes as planned, I could have several more petals with new letters to add.”
    “I think this looks good and doesn’t look incomplete but you can easily have an artist add to it though I’d prefer it was me. Kind of like having my tats be mine, you dig?”
    I held up my hands in peace. “Absolutely. I’ll be back toward the end of the year if I need to add to it. I promise.” I held out my hand and she shook it.
    “Well, all right. Check it out?”
    The dandelion was incredible and realistic. It framed the text so beautifully, showing exactly how much I wanted the saying to pop, yet flow with the meaning behind making wishes. Along a gust of wind you can see each dandelion petal. Five of the fifteen interspersed have a letter intertwined in the stem of the blown petal. Wes, Alec, Mason and Tai each have a single letter etched into the movement of the stem. Tony and Hector are a TH combo on the same tiny petal.
    The importance of having a piece of each man with me, treading that path each day was not lost on me. It’s something I knew in my heart I needed to get me through the remainder of the year. Having those men, the first letter of their name, hovering around the text that has become my own personal theme was utterly perfect. I looked down at the text, admiring the statement as it became a part of my life and truth, forever printed on my body.
    Trust the journey…
***
     
    My foot ached as I made my way back into the house and limped up the stairs toward my room.
    “Sweet heavens, what happened? Did you hurt yourself?” Kathleen rushed up the steps and took hold of my shoulder, cradling me into her chest as I limped up the remaining steps. She helped me get to my room, which took an inordinate amount of time. Every step hurt more than the last and more than the entire process of getting the tattoo all together.
    I hopped on one foot once we made it to my room and landed in a heap on the bed.
    “What’s wrong?” she said inspecting every inch of my body until finally settling her gaze on the shiny area of my foot where Mask had slathered petroleum jelly. “Oh, my. It seems you’ve done this to yourself then.” She leaned down close and inspected the area.
    “It’s very beautiful and it looks like the meaning behind the text is very important to you.”
    I smiled around a grimace. “It is. Thank you. I don’t know. I woke up today and just knew what I had to do. Since I don’t have to be at an event for another few days, now was the best time,” I told her.
    Kathleen nodded prettily. “I’ll get you