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The situation takes some clever maneuvering and a lot of laughter from Paige and Dash. I’m not sure the shot of me, all long limbs draped over Luna’s compact body, is wedding album material, but the silly pose breaks some of the tension of two relative strangers posing together.
My awe of Dash’s sister multiplies exponentially when Luna not only lifts me off the ground but performs the feat in heels on a swaying boat.
This woman is a beast.
When we’re back to standing, Luna wears a thoughtful expression, getting into the silly exercise.
“If I sit on the railing, our heads might be level.” She taps the metal bar, measuring with her eyes.
“Sit on the railing? Are you kidding?” My disbelief squawks out in an unfortunately high pitch.
Luna gives me a grin that sparkles, and I swallow my vocal box.
“I’ve got outstanding balance. You just lean back. I’ll climb up and use you to steady myself. Come on, it’ll look…” She pauses, then rolls her eyes as she laughs out a sigh. “Cute.”
I get the sense that Luna doesn’t often let herself do cute, silly things. The fact that she thought this pose up herself means there’s no way I can turn it down, even if the idea of her putting herself in a precarious position makes my stomach roll worse than the waves.
“Okay. Where do you want me?”
Luna proceeds to torture me by grabbing my waist and using her hold to back me up against the railing. Her guiding hands maintain my balance while causing me to fight off an embarrassing twitch below my belt. To keep any unwanted things from arising, I try to remember exactly what the roadkill opossum I spotted on the drive here looked like.
Not a thought I expected to bring up at my best friend’s engagement party.
When the railing presses into my back and I’ve got a firm grip of the metal with both hands, Luna scales the rungs with nimble grace, setting her butt on the bar at my hip height. She doesn’t seem unsteady in the slightest, but I give into the urge to wrap my arm around her waist, moving close to her side and providing support.
The photographer offers a thumbs-up, then clicks away. I throw a quick glance at Luna’s face and once again watch a stiff, unnatural smile crease her tempting lips.
Tilting my head closer to hers, I whisper, “When I was fourteen my parents took me to Disney World, and when I met Princess Ariel, I got a boner and had to hide it behind my cotton candy while my mom insisted I take a picture with the mermaid.”
Luna barks out a laugh just as the camera clicks, and I hear another flash of the shutter when she grins down at me.
“You would be a difficult person to blackmail, Charlie Keller. Telling all your embarrassing moments to the world like that.”
“Ah, but I didn’t tell the world though. I told you. And now you can hold that knowledge over me for the rest of my days.”
She chuckles again, and I know the pictures have to be amazing, because there is no way that smile doesn’t glow on film. Somehow taking my eyes off of Luna, I look ahead again to see Paige and Dash watching us. My friend has an encouraging smile, but her fiancé glances between Luna and me as if unsure about something.
“Got it!” The photographer lowers her camera and glances around. “Now let’s get some shots of the parents. First the bride’s, then the groom’s.”
Luna goes stiff against my arm, and I glance up in time to watch all the humor from a minute ago drain away, replaced by a carefully neutral mask.
Dash clears his throat. “Uh, no parents on the groom’s side. Let’s just stick with Paige and the Herberts.”
“Give me a hand,” Luna commands. I extend my palm, helping her easily leap down from the perch.
“That’s silly,” says a familiar voice from my childhood. Ginny Herbert steps forward, approaching her daughter. “We already have plenty of pictures with just Paige and the two of us. We want all four of us to be in the shot.” She opens her arms, gesturing the couple forward.
“I don’t—” Dash begins.
“You’re our son now,” a stern, take-no-shit voice says. Another I heard growing up. Mr. Herbert, in all his intimidating, looming power, steps up behind his wife. “You’ll be in the picture.”
Though the commanding way he spoke the words don’t sound like a heartwarming sentiment, I can’t help noticing how the declaration affects the gathering. Paige rubs a comforting caress over Dash’s chest as he blinks rapidly. Mrs. Herbert beams up at her husband. And Luna’s hand, which still rests in mine, clenches hard. When I glance her way, she has her lower lip pinched in her teeth.
Of course, it’s during this touching exchange that the boat plunges nose-first into the wake of a speedboat, causing the slightest shudder in the yacht’s swaying. Barely enough for anyone on board to notice, but way too much for my equilibrium to stay in check. Suddenly, I’m stumbling backward, losing hold of both Luna’s hand and my footing.
Then the world tilts and spins as I topple over the railing.
ChapterFour
