Beautiful Mess(73)

Cole looked at her disbelievingly. “You, a juvenile delinquent? I don’t believe it.” He shook his head and laughed.

“Well, I wasn’t out smoking pot or stealing cars,” Bri clarified. “It was mostly skipping class, and hanging out with kids that my dad didn’t approve of. I admit, my hoodlum days were pretty tame, but it was a big deal for me, and my dad didn’t know what to do with me.”

“So, what brought on this small bout of defiance? No offence, but you don’t seem the naturally rebellious type.”

“No,” she laughed softly. “It was mainly the fact that my dad started dating Summer. My mom hadn’t been gone very long, and it felt, to me anyway, that he was just brushing her memory aside and moving on without a second thought. A new city, a new house, a new girlfriend. A new life. I know I was young and didn’t fully understand, but I felt like he was betraying my mom, and by extension, me. It made me angry. That’s when my friend Rosa and I decided to stop caring about what our parents thought.”

“Rosa? The one who taught you how to knock a guy out?”

“Yep,” she smiled. “She was my best friend. We were total opposites, but we understood each other. And we did everything together. If one of us was going to rebel, the other would too, just as a show of support.

“So when my dad and Summer got engaged it turned the world I’d spent the last couple of years trying to rebuild, back upside down. I wanted to find a way to show my dad that I could knock his world on its side, too. That’s when Rosa came up with the tattoo idea. Her cousin worked at a tattoo shop, so she set everything up. We went one night when her cousin was closing the shop alone, and we both got tattoos,” Bri shrugged, pretending that was the end of the story.

“Rosa got one, too?”

“Yep. Hers was in a much easier to conceal place, though, so she could hide it from her parents.”

“And what did Rosa get?”

“A small butterfly, low on the front of her hip. She made sure her bikini would cover it.”

“But you weren’t worried about covering yours.” Cole picked up Bri’s hand and held it in his. “So, why did you choose a lily?”

Bri took a breath. She’d been hoping he wouldn’t care about that part.

“Well, my mom’s name is Lillian, and ironically, calla lilies were her favorite flower.”

“Did you choose it to remind your dad what he was forgetting?”

“No, but that’s exactly what my dad thought at first,” she shook her head, remembering her dad’s initial reaction. It hadn’t been pretty. “No, I picked the lily because, well, I’d begun to forget things about my mom. Little things, like the smell of her hair, or the sound of her laugh. So I put the lily here,” she pulled her hair away from the tattoo, “because there was something I wanted to make sure I always remembered.” She paused a moment when Cole reached up and softly stroked his thumb over the lily.

“What did you want to remember?” he asked softly.

“My mom would always tuck me into bed, every night. She’d snuggle the sheets tight around me and then lean down and give me a hug. Then she’d turn her head and give me a kiss goodnight, right there, before telling me she loved me so much. I wanted to make sure that no matter how old I got, I would never forget that,” Bri smiled sadly.

Cole leaned in a placed a lingering kiss on her tattoo.

“So, was your dad angry?” he asked as he pulled away.

“Angry would be an understatement,” she laughed. “He was livid! But when he was calm enough to listen, I explained about wanting to remember Mom, and he began to understand. It took him a full six months, and a move across the city, before he finally forgave me, though.”

“A move?”

“Yeah, my dad had decided that Rosa was the cause of my whole delinquency phase, and was responsible for my tattoo. I’d told him that it was all me, that Rosa had nothing to do with it, but he didn’t believe me. He decided that the only way to get me “back on track” was to get me as far away from her as possible. Plus, he and Summer were wanting a house that would be theirs, together. So we moved to a different suburb of Dallas, right before my sophomore year.”

“Did you and Rosa keep in touch?”

“We did for a while, but we slowly just drifted apart. I never saw her again after we moved.”

“Oh, Bri, I’m so sorry.” He looked as sad as Bri felt.

“Life goes on, you know?” she shrugged. “You have to move on with it.”

“So, did it work? Did moving snap you out of your hoodlum phase?” he smiled.