Page 34 of Back To You

And I like using my teeth to smile and make Annie blush.

Within an hour of the girls being out tonight, Eddie was already texting me that he was bored and wanted to crash girls night. We didn’t want to intrude on their dinner, but we agreed that anything after was fair game.

The sun is starting to set, and Eddie is tracking Mia’s location on Find My Friends so we can make sure we beat them to the bowling alley.

“Interesting choice, considering Annie turns into Emmett when she bowls,” I laugh.

“Grumpy and mean?” Eddie jokes.

“Grumpy andmeaner.”

Emmett is home with Lennon, refusing to leave her side, and he called us idiots for crashing girls night, even though we know he would be here with us if Lennon was old enough to be left with a sitter.

Since he can’t be here, we decided to do something partly in his honor.

“Where did Emmett say the shop was?” Eddie asks as he looks left and right, waiting for the red light to turn green.

“It’s just up here,” I say, pointing to the sign with a big rose and tattoo gun on it.

When we stopped by his house to see Lennon earlier tonight, it came up that Emmett’s buddy who does his tattoos just opened his own shop.

I knew exactly what Eddie and I would be doing while the girls were at dinner.

I also took it as a sign from the universe when I heard the name of it.

“Roses and Thorns Tattoo Shop. Right there,” I direct Eddie as the traffic light turns green.

Annie likes to pretend she doesn’t remember all the memories we have together, and that’s okay. I remember them for the both of us. Like how she refused to let me use her crayons in second grade because she said I flattened the tip of them. Or how we sang a duet at our choir concert in sixth grade. Or how I asked her to be my girlfriend with a single rose and gave her one on that day every year until she left.

The name of the shop was a sign that Annie isn’t someone you give up on. The same way when she told me that the golden retriever at the animal shelter's name was Rosie.

I like to think the universe is on my side when it comes to making Annie fall in love with me again.

Emmett let his buddy, Casey, know that we were coming, and we both had small ideas that wouldn’t take too long. Eddie goes first, getting a sun with a rain cloud on the outside of his forearm, filling in an open space on his arm. Casey tattoos in an American Traditionaliststyle, so the tattoo fits perfectly with the others Eddie has gotten over the years.

Once Casey finishes with Eddie, he cleans up and re-sets his station. I show him the kind of pieces I want and where I want to place it on my thigh, and within the hour, we are on our way to officially crash girls night.

We get to the bowling alley a good ten minutes before the girls, so we grab a lane and start putting on our rental shoes.

I try to ignore the flip in my stomach as we wait. It feels like I’m back in high school and going on my first date.

No.

It is much more nerve-racking than that.

I can’t stop pacing or glancing at the door, but all my nerves melt away when I see Annie walk in.

She’s walking between Mia and Drew, and even with the bowling alley’s blacklight and neon patterns all over the floor and walls, Annie looks drop dead gorgeous. Her brown waves are pulled halfway back in two little ponytails, her red tube top accentuating her tan skin. Her brown eyes are framed with her long lashes, and her lips match her top.

She looks good enough to eat.

It takes a second for her and the girls to notice, but when she does, her face is priceless. She goes from surprised—wide eyes and an opened mouth—to happy and smiling, to glaring at me like I just “pissed on her campfire” as she would say.

“Surprise!” Eddie yells as the girls walk up to our lane, but my mouth is dry, and I have to clear my throat to avoid an embarrassing crack in my voice.

“What did we say about these stalker tendencies?” she teases. “I mean, come on, bartender. Following me around? What are you, a dog?”

I know what she wants me to say.

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