Page 38 of Ash Fall

She finally turns, golden brows lifting as she gives me the kind of look that probably makes customer service workers cry. "Would you like an itemized list, Torrin?"

"No. I'd like to know if I'm going to lose my rear axle before we make it to the farm."

Reid puts his shoulder into the tailgate until the latch finally catches. "In her defense, most of this is food."

"Thank you." Kara points at her brother before turning back to me. "Some people appreciate my contributions to our continued survival."

"I appreciate the food. I'm questioning whether the apocalypse requires four Louis Vuitton bags."

"Five."

My eyes go back to the truck bed and recount. Five it is.

Luna and Elenor packed enough food to keep all of us fed for months. At least, that's what I thought when we loaded their stockpile this morning. Kara took one look at the contents of her parents' kitchen and butler's pantry and decided to tell them to hold her fucking beer.

The woman nearly doubles what we already have. Every cupboard in that massive kitchen got emptied. Canned goods, rice, pasta, flour, sugar, spices, coffee, tea, jars of sauces and things I don't even recognize. Reid found enough baking supplies to open a small shop, and Kara refused to leave behind anything she considered useful. Her definition of useful is broad enough to include several bottles of champagne.

Reid eyes the champagne case with open suspicion. "You know we're going to an old coal mine, right? Not Milan."

"Yes, Reid. Thank you. I was terribly confused when nobody offered me champagne during check in."

Luna laughs beside me, and my attention moves to her without any conscious decision on my part. It keeps doing that.

She's been helping load food for the last half hour, and a loose strand of slivery white hair has escaped her ponytail to curl against her cheek. She looks tired and messy and so fucking good that I have to drag my eyes back to Kara before Luna catches me staring.

I don't just want her because she's beautiful, though she is. Christ, she is. It has never once been only that.

It's that she spent the last half hour making sure Reid wasn't drowning while we tore apart his childhood home. She kept finding reasons to bump her shoulder into his or hand him something, so he had to focus on her instead of the empty rooms around him. That's who Luna is. She notices the exact second a person starts to go under, then throws them a rope without ever making it look like a rescue.

She does it to me too. My head has never been a quiet place to live, and it goes quiet around her.

Which brings me to the thing I can't explain about this morning.

I came home wrecked. Two days of driving on no sleep, a fight I barely remember winning, and a bone deep exhaustion that had settled in somewhere around Saskatchewan and refused to leave. Then I fell asleep with my head in Luna's lap while her fingers moved through my hair. I woke up without a single ache in my body. Not one single ache. The tiredness is gone, the stiffness in my shoulder is gone, and I feel better than I have since before the moon cracked.

Probably just sleep. People fell better after they sleep.

"Earth to Torrin."

I blink at her. Luna is standing directly in front of me.

"Sorry. What?"

Her eyes narrow before she reaches up and presses the back of her hand against my forehead. Every thought in my head immediately abandons me.

"You look so much better than you did last night."

"Do I?"

"Way better." Her gaze moves over my face. "Seriously. You looked awful."

"Cheers, love."

"You know what I mean."

"I do." I catch her wrist before she can lower her hand and move it to my cheek, for another second of feeling her against my skin. "Must've been your magic touch all night long. You're very good for my stamina."

Her eyebrows pull together. Then understanding hits and a flush creeps into her cheeks.