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“I could, too. But things change.”
“I don’t understand.”
I slowly peeled the plastic back from my forearm, then lifted the gauze. The original tattoo was a single, small, black bird alone in its cage. Jimmy at Dark Ink had done a few of my tattoos over the years, so I knew what I wanted would be an easy fix. He’d modified one of the bars and turned it into a door, and now the cage was open. I’d also had him add a second bird just outside the door.
“It’s in color!” Autumn smiled. “I thought you said you didn’t think anything was important enough to put in color.”
“It wasn’t. Until now.”
“Wow. Well, it’s beautiful. Before it was so lonely, one bird locked in a cage. But now it almost looks like the little red bird is leading the other one out.”
I smiled. “She is.”
“She? The red bird is a she?”
I nodded. “She’s you, Red.”
I watched Autumn’s face as she stared down at my arm. She’d been smiling and teasing, and her face suddenly fell. I wondered if maybe it was too soon and I’d freaked her out. When her eyes filled with tears, I thought I might’ve really fucked up. But then she got up and walked around the counter.
Autumn leaned down and kissed just above the top of the bandage that was still partially in place. “I love it.” She looked into my eyes. “And I love you, Donovan.”
My head dropped as I let out a loud rush of air. “Jesus. Thank God. I thought I’d upset you.”
“Upset me? God, no.” She placed her hand over her heart. “I just got a little overwhelmed with emotion, that’s all. I love it, and I love what it represents to you, though I think you have it backwards, Donovan. You’re the red bird who helped open my cage and set me free, not the other way around.”
I leaned my forehead against hers. “This was meant to be, Red. You know what else I realized earlier?”
“What?”
“You have to sign a release form when you get a tattoo—at least in the legal places I go to now. I had no idea what the date was, so I asked the guy behind the desk. Today is September thirtieth. It was one year ago today that you stole my luggage.”
“Really?”
I nodded.
“Are you sure? I know the bachelorette party was after Labor Day, but I don’t remember exactly when.”
“I checked the date on the picture I took of you. It was the morning after we’d stayed up all night. The date was October first.”
“Wow. So a year ago today. That seems like a lifetime ago.” She smirked and wrapped her arms around my neck. “You’ve been crushing on me a long time, then.”
I smiled. “Damn straight. You might’ve disappeared on me, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you. For a long time I couldn’t understand why that was. But it all makes sense now. I couldn’t let you go, because I wasn’t supposed to. We were meant to be.”
EPILOGUE
* * *
Autumn
One year later
We arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early. Donovan had driven us, even though we typically walked or took the subway to a place this close. But the sky-high heels I had on for our celebratory dinner weren’t exactly concrete friendly.
“Hi,” I said to the host. “We have a reservation for six people at eight.”
“Last name, please.”
“It’s probably under Decker.”
Donovan walked up as I waited. He wrapped a hand around my waist and leaned to kiss my bare shoulder.
“I’m sorry.” The maître d’ shook his head. “I don’t see a reservation under Decker for eight PM.”
I looked over at Donovan. “It was for eight o’clock, right?”
“It’s under your name.” He winked at me before speaking to the maître d’. “The reservation is under Wilde. Doctor Wilde.”
The man scanned his book again. “Ah yes, here we are. Dr. Autumn Wilde.”
I rolled my eyes at Donovan, but I also hadn’t been able to get the smile off my face since they’d called Dr. Autumn Wilde at the graduation ceremony earlier today.
Donovan whispered in my ear. “I can’t wait to get home later. I’ve never fucked a doctor before. And those heels stay on when I rip that dress off of you, doc.”
Just like that fateful day we’d met at a coffee shop to exchange luggage two years ago now, butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Things never dulled with this man, and certainly not over the last twelve months. So much had happened, but all of it had made us stronger.
In the weeks that passed after I’d gone to see Braden, I couldn’t stop thinking about the face he’d made when I’d mentioned praying for his other victims. The countless hours I’d spent torturing myself by watching videos of us after he’d attacked me had finally paid off. I knew in that moment that I hadn’t been the only one he’d hurt. At first, I’d just let it niggle at me. After all, I was trying to lay that part of my life to rest and move on. But eventually I realized that was impossible. If there were others, there might be more in the future, and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to stop that from happening. So I asked Donovan what I could do, and that started a chain of events that would forever change our lives.
