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Prologue

I don’t want to let her go

She’s going to leave h life, confident with the fact that she’s always there Working withwith me, and sometiht e’re all alone, crying with me

Lying inaround a trellis Her hands inme feel so alive I want to tell her how I feel Tell her what she makes me feel

But I’ve never had the courage to confess

Now, she’s leaving Wants her freedo her back I’rateful She appreciates everything I’ve done for her And I’ve done a lot—probably too much

Guilt eats away atfor her out of that sense of guilt Truthfully, it’s my fault she left her fa to s no woman should ever have to do Until I swept back into her life like so her from a world of shit

As tiuilt I felt slowly but surelyelse

So real

I have to be honest and tell her how I feel I need her Desperately Losing her would be like losing a part of myself I can’t risk it I thinkholy shit, I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her

But I’ those I’m closest to No way could I do that to her

No way can I let her leave me, either

Chapter 1

Jen

“So why a butterfly?”

I lean forward, ainst the back of the chair I’ve been sitting here for what feels like hours, a needle pressing relentlessly into the sensitive skin on the back ofout all the chaotic noise that usually occupies it

I much prefer that incessant buzz Easier to deal with compared to the endless streah my brain

“Yo, earth to Jen” Fable waves her hand in front of ers twice Brat! I wish I could s them like a little wimp

“What?” I grit out fro when the needle sketches over a particularly sensitive part

Oh, who a? All the parts are sensitive Ti a tattoo would be a cinch I’ve dealt with a lot of emotional pain in my life, but not tooin a chair under a needle?

Apparently, it’s pretty shitastic, considering how et through it all

Girdsilly my mom used to say Back when she was happy and carefree and our family hole

Noe’re broken and distant I don’t talk toand drunk

It sucks That’s why I had to get away fro to escape this place now

“I want to knohy you chose a butterfly for your tattoo What’s thebeyond irritated with , so I know she’s not She came with me don to Tattoo Voodoo, the little shop she recoet our tattoos

She got one too but she’s already finished, considering it was only a line written in elegant, simple script A surprise tattoo for her boyfriend, fiancé, or whatever you want to call hi they can’t keep their hands off each other for too long, I’ he’ll discover his “surprise” sooner rather than later Drew Callahan is so

But it’s also cute Super, super cute, especially since it’s a line from one of the poe irl swoon She’s pretty hardcore She’s had to be, ith the things life has dealt her

I could take a lesson or two from her I’m too soft I let people in

And then they stonore me completely

“Freedo stops and I feel the washcloth brush across my freshly tattooed skin “I’ cocoon calledon someone else A butterfly’s a perfect representative of that, don’t you think?”

I can practically taste it Freedom I’ve always relied too heavily on others My friends My family My brother especially, not that I can anyht have run away that one time and tried to make it on my own, but I failed

Spectacularly

Not this tih I’ve saved money This time, I have a plan

Sort of

“You really believe leaving is the best thing for you?” Fable asks, her voice incredulous, her expressionsad She’s my closest friend, the first real friend I’ve made since I fledShe’d never look at me the same if she knew “Do you want to leave because of what happened to you before?”

Nodding, I wince when the tattoo artist—Dave—wipes the washrag across ain “Finished,” he says matter-of-factly

“Yeah, I can’t deny that my past comes into play” I’d told Fable what happened for the ers, that sleazy strip club on the outskirts of town My family doesn’t know, and I swore Colin to secrecy The public story is that I was a cocktail waitress The private story is that I stripped

The secret, no-one-else-can-know story is one I can hardly think about, let alone admit

“We all have a past,” Fable points out She has a pretty bad one, not that anyone calls her on it Dreon’t allow it

“I know I justI can’t stay here forever Even though you wantlook in Fable’s direction I don’t want the lecture again, especially in front of our new friend Dave I don’t think I can stand it I know she means well, but the words she says halfway convince le time I hear them

“I’m not the only one ants you here,” Fable points out, brows raised, a knowing look on her face