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“Don’t knock it till you try it,” Luna joked, placing a brown bag on the table. “I got coffee and bagels.”
I dug into the bags and set the food on our respective plates. The first hit of coffee fortified me enough, but I knew I had to keep moving.
My mind reeled from the conversation—or lack of conversation—with Sebastian last night and yet I still had to finish my work for my showing.
Delilah called to confirm a walkthrough for tomorrow. We’d set up what we had and try to determine how we wanted the display to look. Figure out the order, the story I wanted to tell, and that would draw patrons over to my corner of the gallery.
Suddenly the bagel felt heavy in my stomach. “Is there a place I could set up to work?”
Luna wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Mmhmm. Let me show you.”
She grabbed my hand and towed me upstairs to a small landing. Books lined one wall while a floor to ceiling window separated the home from the outdoors.
“This light is incredible.”
“Right? And it’s the best place in the house to read.” Luna pointed to a well-worn chaise lounge. “Sometimes I’m too tired from work to make it all the way up to my floor so I just crash here. It’s a nightmare when the sun rises but at least I know I won’t ever oversleep.”
I looked at my feet. “What about the flooring?”
“I can grab an old sheet and lay it down on the ground. You can’t be that messy. I don’t remember that being a problem when I saw your studio at Sebastian’s.”
The doorbell rang.
“Who the hell could that be?” Luna muttered, reaching for her phone. I recognized the app immediately, leaning over her shoulder to get a better look only to find Beck staring daggers at the camera. “What is he doing here?”
I winced, and Luna caught it. “Riiight. Your bodyguard came to visit. Fan-fucking-tastic.”
Luna took the stairs two at a time, and I struggled to keep up. She flung open the front door and sneered at the man in front of her.
His eyes blazed for her and for a second I wondered if they shouldn’t just bang it out and get over whatever this was between them.
I swept past my friend, hoping the distraction would thwart the impending bloodshed.
Beck seized my upper arm, his grasp simultaneously gentle yet firm. There was no mistaking that he expected me to keep up.
“Leaving in the middle of the night? You thought that was a good idea?”
“He watched me leave. It wasn’t some big surprise,” I countered.
As if he knew exactly where to go, Beck released me right in front of one of Luna’s couches. “Make yourself comfortable.”
Luna planted her hands on her hips. “You just barge in here and think that’s okay? She’s keeping a low profile here, she’s fine.”
Beck glared at the woman who sheltered me. “You’re not the one being paid to keep her safe.”
I pointed to myself. “You know I’m in the room, right?”
Neither of them paid me any attention.
Luna swallowed the gap between her and Beck. “And if you weren’t paid, then would you just let this go?”
I reached for my bagel, taking a generous bite as I watched the two of them go at it. They were exhausting, the pair of them.
“If my friend wants someone he cares about to have protection, then he’ll have it.”
Luna turned on a dime, her curtain of hair flipping dramatically as she did. Beck and I both watched as she dug into a nearby drawer, taking out what appeared to be a checkbook.
No she didn’t.
