“What did you need, love?”
Erin stared at the blue carpet that now felt like home. How could she leave?
“Erin?”
Ear-in.
“I was wondering whether you would give consent for me to get a tattoo.”
Felicity paused. “How do you think your parents would feel about that?”
“That’s the thing. I want one to remind me I don’t need to follow their path. I have to go back for now, at least. But I don’t have to continue the rat race. I don’t have to push myself into things I don’t particularly enjoy. A tattoo will help me hang onto the peace and headspace I’ve found here.”
Felicity took two deep breaths. “You know, tattoos are harder to hide on swimmers.”
Erin swallowed hard. “I’m not sure I care about that.”
“Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Well, I have already thought about my mother and, you know, the rest of my life. I could hide it on my butt, but then I’d never see it. And the whole point is to see it all the time. Below my navel, in the bikini area, is certainly an area she wouldn’t find it but, you know?” Erin blushed, thinking of Hank. “Someday, someone else might find it and it’s not for them, either.”
Felicity nodded. “When I was on my O.E., I went out with this bloke. I was in England. His name was something royal. Charlie? George? It hardly matters anymore. Anyway, we were getting … intimate. And his knickers were black with the name Amy in pink cursive all over them. Bad time to discuss it.”
“No!” Erin might miss Felicity—being Felicity’s daughter—more than she’d miss New Zealand itself.
Felicity said, “So, not the bikini line. Good decision. Where, then?”
“I was thinking of getting it wrapped around my middle finger, where almost no one would see it, but I would, every day.”
“Under your ring?”
“Yes.” Erin twisted the ring so its diamonds scattered sunlight across the ceiling. What if Claire confiscated the ring when Erin landed? All these months gone, and Claire had never mentioned it. Erin felt confident in her case for keeping it.
“Legal age of consent in New Zealand is just sixteen. I couldn’t stop you if I wanted to.”
They held each other’s gaze for a long minute. Erin whispered, “Do you want to stop me?”
“I don’t.” Felicity’s smile was kind. “I think you’re a different girl than the one who landed here almost a half year ago. You’ve shown your true self. I agreed to take care of you and provide for you, and even in the beginning I was going to do that. But, over these last five months, you’ve impressed me. You are a smart young woman. You’re choosing your own way and making decisions that, frankly, I didn’t expect when I met you.”
“So you think it’s a good idea.”
“Nope. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m delighted to be tattoo-free. But I trust you. I trust that this is the right decision for you. I trust it’s what you want. And it’s your body.”
“Thank you.”
Felicity pulled out her bookmark and returned to her novel.
“Felicity? Could you drive me?”
SEVENTY-NINE
It hurt more than she’d expected, and she was grateful for choosing something small. Her tattoo artist, Jo—a tiny woman with one arm bare and one tattooed—warned that finger tattoos didn’t always have the staying power of tattoos on other areas of the body.
“You’ll need an artist to touch it up every few years.”
Erin was adamant: it had to be under her ring.
Jo recommended Erin get the tattoo on her right hand, since a wedding band might force Tea’s ring to her right hand.
Erin had nodded her agreement, but as the needle pierced her flesh over and again, she almost wished she’d let Jo talk her out of it.
Almost.
Two hours later, she admired her right hand. New Zealand’s islands ringed her middle finger; no matter what happened, they would be part of her forever.
EIGHTY
Hank picked up Erin after her last tea with her kiwi family.
They wound up naked on his sofa again, and an hour later retired to his hammock in very little clothing.
“You never taught me the butterfly.”
“We need to do it in a pool.”
“Sounds naughty.”
They giggled, and Erin realized how much she would miss his smile, his deep brown eyes, his hands.
“I don’t want to go.”
“You can teach me when you come back.”
“I mean, I don’t want to go, ever.”
“Life goes on,” Hank said.
“All the time.” Erin expected a shooting star to punctuate the moment, but the deep starry sky didn’t change. “I hope to be back soon enough. I just feel so good here, especially when I’m with you.”
He kissed her forehead. “I know what you mean. You make me feel good.”
“You make me feel … like myself. Like it’s okay to be myself.”
They dissolved into warm kisses, their hungry bodies entangled.
Between kisses, Erin said, “I got a tattoo this morning.”
He pulled back. “You’re joking.”
“Nope. I did it.”
He was almost giddy. “Well, what is it? Where is it?”
She bit her lip. “Maybe you should go looking for it.”
“Sweet as.” He kissed her navel and up her torso, between her breasts. “Well hidden, eh? I’ll keep looking.”
It took him an hour of stimulating searching to find it.
EIGHTY-ONE
Pippa bawled at the airport. “You’ll always be my sister.”
Erin, who had never wanted a sibling, was suddenly losing one. She kissed Pippa on the head.
“I’ll try to come back as soon as I can. If I come back for college, we’ll see each other all the time.”
“Yeah!” Pippa said.
“And you’ll move back in with us?” Hamish asked.
Erin looked from Hamish to Felicity. “If you’ll have me.”
Her words hung in the air for an eternity before Hamish spoke. “You’re part of our family, Erin. And you’re welcome back any time.”
Erin nodded.
She hugged them all, and the whole family had wet eyes.
Hank’s eyes were dry when she got to him. Erin whispered, “Thanks. This has changed my life.”
“I hope your life
