“Oh.” I feel the heat hit my cheeks again. “That’s, um … that’s my tattoo.”

“What?”

There were only three other witnesses to this story, and I don’t speak to any of them anymore, so I always figured this could be my little secret. But now it feels like I’m an open book of sorts to Wyatt.

“You have a tattoo? It’s a line.”

I can’t stop myself from laughing—whether the story is actually funny or I just want to prolong him knowing the truth, I have no idea. “I was at this party one night when I was, like … fourteen.”

“Fourteen?”

“Listen—we all make mistakes,” I say. “They had a tattoo guy and my friends convinced me to get something, but when the needle hit my skin, it hurt too much and I chickened out.”

“What was it even supposed to be?”

“No idea. The tattoo artist was just doing whatever, I never even saw the stencil.”

“Oh my God.” Wyatt laughs. “This is golden.”

“If you tell anyone, you’re toast,” I tell him. “Not even Samuel knows about it.”

“Wow, I feel so honored.” Wyatt takes his hands away, and I have to resist the urge to ask him to put them back. “Do you still want to go to dinner? We could just order room service or something.”

“No, no, the aloe is working. I’ll be fine.”

It’s not like I’m lobster red the way that some tourists get.

“Besides, I promised you.”

“It can wait, dude.” He keeps massaging.

“No, I’m hungry. We’ll just go to the hotel’s restaurant downstairs; that way we can bail if it hurts too much.”

“Whatever you say.” Wyatt chuckles softly. “I’m going to take a shower real quick.”

“I’ll be here,” I say, lying back on the bed to stretch my body out. The aloe is definitely working already, my body feeling a few degrees cooler after just a few seconds. I grab my phone, still hooked on the charger.

I posted the pictures to Instagram while we were on our walk, nothing too elaborate, a touch-up here, orange filter to get that golden-hour vide, sun emoji as the only description. I debated about posting the one with the kiss, knowing if I posted it, Josh would definitely see it.

So I kind of had to, right?

There aren’t that many comments; most of them are from the guys. Hoon and Julien both left kissy faces, and Lindsay commented with a heart emoji.

Samuel texted me right away.

SAMUEL: um …………….

SAMUEL: that picture

SAMUEL: you’re both so cute omg

SAMUEL: not gonna lie, I was sus about this whole thing.

SAMUEL: it screamed “elaborate plot to get back at josh”

SAMUEL: but y’all are cute or whatever

SAMUEL: does wy-guy have a cousin? or a brother? we could be in-laws!

ME: No brother, but he has a sister.

ME: She’s four.

SAMUEL:

SAMUEL: i just want a boy of my own with a southern accent and cute green eyes