Page 137 of Safe With You

“Mine,” Mama and I said together.

He leaned back in his chair. “See, this is why I should’ve bought a cake.”

I laughed and got up to help with the dessert plates.

Ellis could wait.

The surprising part was knowing I’d text him back later.

Somewhere between cinnamon rolls, coffee, lunch, and a little girl drawing six purple dragons, Ellis Monroe had become someone I found myself looking forward to.

And for now, I was okay with not asking what that meant.

By the time Saturday came around, Luna and I had settled into something that felt surprisingly easy.

We talked when there was something to say and left each other alone when there wasn’t. Tuesday, she sent me a picture of a handwritten sign Naomi had taped behind the café counter that read STOP JUDGING PEOPLE’S COFFEE ORDERS! THIS MEANS YOU! Wednesday, I sent her the first edited portraits from the shoot. She called almost immediately just to tell me she liked them, and somehow that turned into forty-three minutes on the phone.

Somewhere over the last week, Luna had become somebody I talked to. Not every morning or every night. Sometimes hours passed before one of us responded. Sometimes an entire day did.

I liked that.

There was no expectation attached to it. Something happened, one of us thought the other would find it funny, and that was usually enough.

By Saturday morning, my sister had called me three times.

The first was at eight-fifteen to ask if Mila and I were still coming over. The second came twenty minutes later to tell me she needed me to bring ice. By the third, I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror with clippers in one hand, trying to clean up the edge of my beard without taking off more than I intended.

Tasha’s name flashed across the screen again.

“Damn.”

I set the clippers down and answered. “What?”

“Why you keep sending me to voicemail?”

“I was doing something.”

“For six minutes?”

I looked at myself in the mirror. “Do you need something?”

“Two bags of ice.”

“You said one.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Of course you did.”

“And don’t forget them like you forgot the rolls at Easter.”

“I’m hanging up.”

“Two bags, Ellis.”

I ended the call before she could add anything else and set my phone back on the counter.

“Daddy!”