For the first time in a very long time, Lola felt hope. She might just get everything that she never thought she could have but always secretly wanted. She smiled at Saint and he smiled back, a huge unguarded smile that raised the apples of his cheeks and caused his eyes to crinkle in the corners. She hadn’t seen that smile since they were teens and in that moment she realized just how much everything had weighed on him. Her eyes began to water. She never again wanted him to carry such a heavy burden alone. “I love you, Saint. You are completely selfless and brave and I am in constant awe of the way you love the people in your life without limits.”
There was a second of quiet happiness and relief between them, before Lola launched herself at Saint, unable to hold back anymore.
He caught her as if he’d been waiting for it and in moments they were wrapped around each other as tight as they could be. Saint’s arms banded around her back and clenched.
Pain, like scraping sunburn and poking a bruise, shot across her back. Lola hissed at the soreness.
Saint immediately released her. “What happened? Did I hurt you?”
“It’s okay,” she soothed. “My back is just a bit sore.”
“Did you get hurt? How?”
Lola figured it would be better just to show him, so she slipped her arm out of her blazer and turned as it slid down to reveal her surprise. She knew the second he saw what caused her tenderness, because the silence became weighted and heady.
A finger brushed over her new tattoo as soft as a butterfly wing. Lola shivered but this time it was in pleasure.
“You finished the tattoo.”
“I did.”
“Tell me about it.”
Lola pictured it in her head. The previously incomplete lioness was now fully fleshed out to the point that she looked ready to jump off Lola’s shoulder blade, but that wasn’t all. “I think the roses speak for themselves.” Colorful roses of various sizes encircled the lioness’s head from ear to ear, making it look like she was peeking out of a rosebush.
“Rosie,” he whispered.
She nodded.
“And the sun?”
Golden yellow lines spread up and out like a sunset haloing the lioness’s head. “It’s not technically a sun.”
“It’s not?”
“It was really hard to find a way to represent you, Saint. Thankfully, I remembered when we met. You told me Santiago actually means Saint James, the patron Saint of Spain. You were very proud of that for some reason.”
Saint groaned in embarrassment. “I was such a dork.”
Lola laughed, “Yeah, but a cute dork.”
He groaned again. “Finish telling me about your tattoo.” Another brush of fingers.
“Well, I figured there had to be a symbol or something to represent ‘Santiago’ and I discovered his emblem is a scallop shell.”
“A scallop shell? Really? It’s not something cool like a snake?”
“Sorry. I’m pretty sure that’s Saint Patrick. He’s the one who scared all of the snakes out of Ireland.”
“Hmm, so how did a shell become a sun?”
“That’s the stylized shell used to represent the Camino de Santiago. Remember you also told me about the route used by believers to make the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia?”
“Why do I find this long explanation so fucking sexy?”
“Because, as we’ve previously discussed, you’re a dork.”
“Probably.” He turned her to face him, his brown eyes warm. “Now tell me why you added roses and a saint’s emblem to your tattoo. I know you didn’t do it for me.”
