With Dauntless Abandon

Chapter 19

 "I've been taking her to thedoctor every month, you know, keeping up with her care, but... Imean, being a bartender isn't exactly a gold mine... it's reallyhard, and she's under a lot of stress with all of this... trialstuff."

"Well... what about payment?"

"Don't worry about that. I'msure we can work something out." She shrugs. "You aren't thefirst person to come through here with a limited budget. Thelimitations you see in yourself will fall away, you know."

"I know," he says roughly."She... she showed me that they could."

~~~

"Well how did it go?"

"I—okay, I guess. I don't knowif I like this yet."

Tris smiles and leans into him."That's okay. It was only your first appointment. Maybe... if shethinks it's a good idea, I can go with you."

Four thinks about that. "I think Iwould like that." He looks over at her. "What's that smile,Little Sparkler?"

She bites her lip, but she can'treally contain her excitement. "I ran into someone."

"Someone? Someone who?" Hefrowns. Who's making her smile like that, dammit?

"Um, the guy that did my tattoo."

He studies her. He remembers when hefirst noticed the tattoo on her back.

"Hey, what's this?" Hisfingers traced over the words on her back, the silky skin theremarked with words and a million colors. He doesn't miss the number 4that is vaguely formed in the middle of the artwork.

"Do you like it?"

He nods. "It's... did you drawit?"

"I did!"

"What does it mean?"

"I just..." she flushes. "Thewords stuck in my mind. That band is one of my favorite bands in theworld. No matter how bad I feel, I always end up smiling a lot when Ilisten to them. They have this way of making even the worstfeelings... feel good. I was... feeling sort of blocked in my artstudio. And that song came on, and the words caught my attention. Ifelt..." her cheeks turn pink. "I felt like how it feels to thinkabout you."

He thinks about that. "What'sthe song called?"

"It's called 'Not With Haste'by Mumford and Sons."

He'd heard of them. He'd bought afew of their songs at her suggestion, actually. She's right. They dohave a way of expressing things, emotions, that make the listenerfeel them keenly, too. He smiles.

"There was other stuff too...that was right before the fire, you know... the arson that burned myplace and my studio down." She draws a breath. "I just... backthen, we were having problems and I just... needed the reminder thatwe have all the time in the world, and that I didn't—couldn't—forceyou to come to the conclusions that you needed to."

He swallows. They almost didn'thave any time at all. It was because of her faith that they had time.

He pressed his lips to her spine,over her tattoo. "I love it. I love you."

"Show me."

He did.

She smirks a little, and he knowsshe's probably remembering the same thing he is. He frowns. Whoeverthat tattoo guy was, he's seen her top naked, and now she's allsmiley and giddy. He doesn't like how that adds up.