I mean, could I go the rest of my bestie eternity with Raye never telling her I had a thing with her man’s best friend?
I didn’t think so.
I didn’t even want to.
“Promise, Luna,” he said in his soft, sweet voice. “We need to make a pact right now to keep that just ours so that’s all it’ll ever be. Ours.”
Ours.
Well, since he put it like that.
“Promise,” I muttered.
He smiled and gave my hand a squeeze.
I let that happen before I pulled free and grabbed my buttermilk.
“Eat up, bud,” I invited.
He gave me another smile.
We ate and drank coffee and chatted, just like friends.
For my part I did it not because I wanted to.
But because I had no choice.
I came to work the next morning twenty minutes late on purpose, just to be a bitch.
I was at the register, clocking in, when Raye was on me like a rash.
“Back off,” I said to the register.
“Can we go to the staff room and talk?” she requested.
I turned my head to look at her.
She recoiled when I did.
I knew why.
My eyes were puffy and bloodshot from practically zero sleep and a whole lot of crying.
“Luna,” she whispered.
I turned fully to her. “You know, I’ve tried to be a good sister to Dream.”
“Honey.” She was still whispering.
I could see the mortification in her face, and I knew how bad she felt about what she’d said.
Even so, I kept talking.
“I did my best. Recently, as I’ve already told you, I’ve been trying something new. And it’s coming to me that I was doing what I thought she needed, but she might need something else, and I have to figure out what that is. I think I’m actually making headway. I’m not sure we’ll ever be best buds. What I am sure of is that I went to her after Knox got shot, and she didn’t shovel even the minutest amount of shit. She took care of me. It didn’t last long, but she has sister in her. I just have to find out how to dig it out.”
“Okay,” she replied.
“I know you never got that chance with Macy.” Macy, not incidentally, was Raye’s sister who’d been kidnapped and murdered. “There’s no debate what you lost and what I’ve struggled to have are two entirely different things. But that was tremendously uncool, you threw that in my face.”
