Page 200 of Safe With You

Instead, I let her decide whether she wanted to give me more.

She did.

“I think sometimes you can know something isn’t right and still spend a long time trying to make yourself want it to be.”

Her eyes stayed on her glass as she said it.

I didn’t need to ask who she was talking about.

Lucas had come up enough for me to know that whatever happened between them wasn’t as simple as two people waking up one morning and deciding they were done. Five years didn’t disappear that cleanly.

“Why?”

Her gaze lifted to mine. “Why what?”

“Why make yourself want something you know isn’t right?”

She sat with the question for a moment.

“Because leaving means admitting all the work you put into staying didn’t fix it.”

I didn’t say anything right away.

Neither did she.

The restaurant continued around us, dishes clinking somewhere behind the counter while a table across the room broke into laughter, and the waitress passed our booth carrying a tray balanced against one hand.

Eventually, Luna gave me a small smile.

“That got serious fast.”

“A little.”

“Sorry.”

“For what?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Bringing all that to breakfast, I guess.”

“You didn’t bring anything I didn’t ask about.”

Her eyes stayed on mine for a moment before she nodded.

“Okay.”

I reached for my coffee, and the quiet that settled between us felt lighter than the one before it.

Luna watched me take a drink.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re looking at me.”

“I do that sometimes.”

“I noticed.”