I watch her as I hear the buzzing start up, rubbing gentle circles on her wrist in an effort to move her focus from the needle to my face. It doesn't work, but her mouth pops open in surprise.
"How did that feel?" I hear Tyler ask.
Hailey swallows thickly. "It's... not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It kinda feels like a cat scratch."
I grin. "I told you." She shoots a glare at me and motions for Tyler to continue.
"So why a compass?" he asks as the gun starts up again.
Hailey doesn't take her curious gaze off her ankle as she answers. "My family always traveled a lot when I was growing up. My parents taught my sister and I that it was important to see other cultures to better understand the world, so it just became this inherent thing to travel. By the time we were old enough, my sister and I were obsessed with seeing as many new places as we could."
She pauses when Tyler hits a sensitive area, squeezing her eyes shut and forcing herself to take deep breaths. When it passes, she continues talking. "I've always wanted a compass tattoo as a reminder not just to keep traveling and learning about the world, but also to keep doing the things that make me happy. Some of the best memories of my life were on trips with my sister." She sighs and drops her head back against the chair. "It's probably the ideal timing to get it inked right now. I haven't been anywhere in almost two years. So much for prioritizing the things that make me happy..."
She trails off at the end and she looks so unhappy that I squeeze her hand—that I have yet to let go of—in order to get her attention.
"That's an easy fix, Hailes. You can hop on a plane whenever. I'll take you to Spain tomorrow, if you want."
She’s still distracted by the pain when she says, “So we can get arrested together? Not sure that’s my idea of fun, even if Iamimpressed that you could sweet-talk your way out of the station.”
My mouth opens in shock. My college roommate is the only one that knows about my drunken argument with a group of locals that ended with me outraged and committed to proving to them that circumcised dicks donotlook like naked mole rats. If I had seen the cops standing across the street, I may have paused long enough to at least question the decision, instead of dropping trough without a second thought. Thank God the cops were amused by the argument and too tired to actually arrest me.
“How did you…?” I trail off in amazement.
She grins, and for the first time, she doesn’t seem completely wrapped up in the pain. “I know you just as well as you know me,baby boy.”
The nickname shocks my eyes even wider—and then they narrow suspiciously. “That doesn’t answer my question,baby girl,” I growl. “How did you know about that? Even Remy doesn’t know. And I know she doesn’t know because if she did, she would never let me live it down.” I actually shudder at the thought of the teasing I would receive.
She chuckles, finally oblivious to the hum of the tattoo gun. “It was the one country of your European spring break trip that you never talked about. You’d always blush and change the subject. And you always get really nervous anytime someone talks about getting arrested when they’re drunk, so I just made the connection.” She shoots me another grin. “The sweet-talking your way out of it was just a guess.”
For a moment, all I can do is blink at her.She picked up on all that? When she was ateenager?Even my best friends didn’t know me well enough to deduce all that.
Tyler’s chuckle breaks me out of my shell-shocked stupor.
“Sounds like she’s got ya there, man.” He grins, sharing an amused look with a smug Hailey.
“So what was the actual arrest for?” Hailey teases.
I swear to God, Ifeelthe blush flame my face. And I know it’s visible because Tyler and Hailey immediately crack up.
“It’s not funny,” I grumble, even though my heart is soaring at the sound of Hailey’s laughter. “I can never drink anything with Vermouth in it again because of that night. I didn’t drink atallfor the rest of the trip.”
Hailey’s giggles finally subside. “One day, you’ll have to tell me what happened because I’m fairly positive the ideas I have are way worse than whatever it is you actually did.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that,” I mumble under my breath.
She smiles at me, and I immediately forget my embarrassment, my annoyance, my reluctant amusement, all of it. Because she’s giving methat smile.
The smile that she only ever gives when she’s truly happy. The one that makes her eyes shine and that lights up her face. That stretches her lips in a way that makes me incapable of focusing on anything other than how badly I want to kiss her. That makes me singularly obsessed with finding all the things that could possibly cause this smile to appear.
The one that I haven’t seen in over a year.
“Okay, so maybe no Spain,” she teases.
“Whatever you want,” I agree in a breathless trance. “No Spain.” I shake myself out of my daze and focus back on the original topic. “We’ll go anywhere else. What do you want, baby girl? Italy? Finland? Japan?”
She considers my question. "I always think about going back to Italy. I feel like Remy and I have spent so much time in the smaller cities but never enough in Rome. I think I'd like to go there."
"Done. When are we going?"