I’m out and around to Luna’s door before the engine’s all the way off.
She comes into my arms half-folded, and I take her weight, and the heat off her now is a different country from the cider tent. The honey’s gone thick and the gooseberry edge is all sugar. It reaches down into me and turns a screw I didn’t know I had. I breathe through my teeth and get an arm under her knees.
“I’ve got you,” I tell her. “Let’s get you inside.”
“Wait.” Her hand flattens on my chest. “Wait. Put me down a second. I can stand.”
She can. Barely. But she does it, both feet under her, one fist still knotted in my shirt as Maren climbs out of her little hatchback.
“Mar.” Her voice is rough at the edges. “Babe, I’m so sorry I’m—” she doubles over, breath hissing out between her teeth. “Now I’m doing this. I wish we could’ve hung out longer. I’m sorry.”
Maren crosses the gravel and takes Luna’s face in both hands. “Hey. No. You do not apologize to me for your own body. Not ever.” She thumbs a damp strand of hair off Luna’s forehead. “And I was heading out tonight anyway. Now, you go take care of yourself.”
Then she looks past Luna, at the three of us. “You take good care of her.”
“We will,” I say.
“On our lives,” Reed says, and he means it so hard it comes out crooked.
“She’s the apple of our eyes,” Ash murmurs.
Maren’s mouth tips up. She seems to approve.
“You sure you’ve got to drive tonight?” I ask her. “It’s a long road back to Lakeview in the dark. We’ve got cabin seven made up, clean sheets, woodstove.”
For a second she really looks tempted, her eyes going off toward the dark shapes of the cabins.
“Tempting,” she admits. “God, that bed sounds good.” Then she shakes her head. “But no. I’ve got things waiting on me back home, and if I head out now I can cut the drive in half, get a room somewhere around the midpoint, finish it fresh in the morning.”
She pulls Luna in one more time. Luna folds into her and holds on.
“Sorry, babe,” Luna says again, muffled.
“Stop that.” Maren rubs a slow circle on her back. “It’s really fine. Don’t you spend one second of your heat feeling bad about me.” She pulls back and holds Luna’s eyes. “I’ll see you back in Lakeview. Soon.”
Luna grabs her hand, making a face which can only mean she’s in pain. “Love you. Love you, okay?” She squeezes Maren’s fingers. “Don’t forget the wine party. My place.”
“As if I’d miss it,” Maren says, offering a soft smile before she finally steps away and climbs into her car. Her taillights find the lane and shrink into the distance, the car rocking over the pothole on the way out. Then, the sound of her engine fades completely, leaving just the four of us standing in the yard beneath the glow of the porch light.
The second the road’s empty, Luna lets go of standing.
She sags, I catch her, and this time she doesn’t tell me to put her down. The honey that rolls up off her starts a growl and a purr in my chest at once.
“Okay, sweetheart,” I say, and lift her, and she turns her face into my neck and goes still there. “Okay. We’ve got you. You’re home.”
Home... her.
43
Reed
“Tell me you’ve got eyes on him,” I tell my friend on the phone.
“Petey’s parked at the gas station where the county road meets the nine. Matt has the bridge. Anything rolls through that doesn’t belong out here, we’ll know inside a minute.”
“Don’t forget,” I say. “It’s a gray Silverado with a dent in the tailgate, driver’s side.”
“You said it twice,” he says. “Don’t worry man, we’ve got it.”
