Remy frowned as he thought about it, but I wasn’t surprised by this. He was just like me—there may have been popular people in school, and a lot of people would never forget their names because of it, but neither of us had really paid much attention outside of our group of friends at school, so we didn’t find them as memorable. Back then, they were just people, and now they were just stories.
“What happened?”
“Well, she didn’t like him…” he trailed off and cringed slightly.
“You went out with her, didn’t you?”
“Kinda,” he said awkwardly, making me giggle.
No, I didn’t feel any jealousy about it. Remy had a past, but he was with me and loved me, so what was there to feel jealous about now? I was more comfortable in our relationship than I ever thought I’d be, and he brought me the balance I’d never known I needed. It was like I’d found my place in life for the first time.
At least, it would when my brother woke up, and I could see he was definitely going to be okay.
“So, because I can’t remember his name, we’ll call him ‘Jock.’ As I said, she didn’t like him back, so Jock began harassing her and would grab her hand and try and pull her to wherever he was going. It was bizarre, almost like because he decided it, that’s how it was going to be. His friends never stood up to him, and the girls were too busy bitching about the Australian exchange student to stop him—not that I think they would have, anyway.”
More than likely, they wouldn’t have. I vaguely remembered the football team, cheerleaders, and the popular group in my grade, and I doubted they would have done anything if it had been them.
“I was off school because I had a chest infection, and the guy used my absence to drag her under the bleachers in the gym. Croix found them when he heard the girl screaming and lost his mind. He beat the absolute shit out of the entitled Jock. A couple of people managed to video it, so I saw what he did, and that’s when I decided MMA was the best career for him.”
“Instead, he joined the Marines,” I said dryly. “Imagine that.”
“Baby, he’s got a whole new world ahead of him now. It’s easy for me to say that because I’m not in his position, but he does. You just have to open the door for him to see it. And you not having a plan at twenty-four—you write, you look after Tobe and me, and you work on the ranch. How is that not a plan? I can’t do more than one thing at once physically without freaking out, what does that say about me at twenty-fucking-five?”
He had a point. I was so used to publishing quietly now and dealing with that part of my life secretly it was easy to forget about it.
“I just miss Toby,” I whispered, rubbing my face on his chest. “I think that’s a big part of what’s wrong.”
“I miss him, too. It feels like I’m missing something essential without him being here, but I need to be able to focus on you.”
Pulling back so I could see his face, I felt something inside of me click into place. “I’d be lost without you.”
Skimming his thumb across my bottom lip, his eyes glued to it, he murmured, “Ditto. I’ve been thinking about getting two tattoos on my ribs with yours and Tobe’s names because that’s what it feels like y’all were made from. You’re a part of me down to my soul.”
That was beautiful and resonated with me in a big way. I should have been with my family, but now that he’d mentioned his idea, I wanted to go and get a tattoo myself.
“Let’s do it.” I pulled away and reached into my pocket to get my phone. “I’ll find the nearest tattoo places to us, and we’ll go and get them at whichever one has good reviews and can take us.”
“You’re getting one, too?”
“Hell, yeah. I want your name on a rib with ‘Bub’ on the one under it on my left side. On my right, I’ll do another one for my family. That way, I have all the most important people with me all the time.”
Remy looked at me like I’d grown a second head until he saw how serious I was.
Finally he gave in. “Okay, just direct me to where we’re going.”
So that’s what we did. He had my name and Toby’s tattooed on his side, with shading in between them of the gap between each rib.
I decided on getting the same design on either side, one dedicated to my boys, the other to the family like I’d planned. My design was a heartbeat reading—like from the machine Croix was hooked up to—with the names of my family members running up and down each sharp spike. I’d considered getting my nickname for Toby on his and Remy’s one, but I went with Remington and Tobias in the end. They’d hurt more than I’d thought they would, but the result was worth the pain.