I take the white paper out of my back pocket and hand it to him. “What are you doing?” Kallie asks me when she sees me hand him Gabriel’s footprint.

“Sit down. I’ll start in a second,” Donnie says. I pull off my shirt and hand it to her.

I sit in the chair, and she looks at me, holding my shirt close to her chest. “Okay, let’s get this started,” Donnie says, rolling to the side to get his ink gun. “What date do I have to add to the cross?”

“November thirteenth,” I say, the birth certificate memorized.

“Oh my God,” Kallie whispers, and I look over at her as she stands there with tears in her eyes.

“You can have a seat over there.” Donnie points at another chair in the corner. She walks over to the chair and brings it to my side.

“Is this okay?” she asks, and he nods his head at her and smiles.

“We’ll get the date added on here,” Donnie says, cleaning my pec, “and then we’ll add the footprint right under it.” He gets up and walks over to the paper. “I’ll be right back.”

“Sounds good,” I say, and he walks out of the room.

“You are adding Gabriel to your cross?” she asks, wringing my shirt in her hands.

“He’s my son,” I say and reach out to grab her hand. “He belongs on me.”

“And his footprint?” She now loses the battle of her tears.

“It’s the closest that I will ever get to him,” I say and bring her hand to my lips and kiss her.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Kallie

I sit on the chair right next to him, holding his shirt in my hand as he gets the footprint of our son tattooed right under his birthday that was added to his cross. When the doors first opened, I had no idea what this place was, and when I saw the chair, I still didn’t know. But then everything clicked into place.

He sits in the chair, not even flinching when the needles go into his skin. Donnie does a little line and then wipes it off, repeating it over and over again, and I can’t wait to see the final product. “I want one also.” My mouth moves before I can even comprehend what I’m saying. Donnie looks up at me, and Jacob turns his head to look at me.

“On my wrist,” I tell them, “right over my heartbeat.”

“We can do that as soon as I’m done with his,” Donnie says, and I just smile at him.