AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Just then the staff arrives with our food, and I mull over Luna’s story as they arrange everything on the table.
A strange concoction brews in my chest. Relief that Luna’s not about to commit to someone for the rest of her life. But also a pervasive melancholy at the dismissive tone she used to talk about a lifelong partnership.
And then there’s sadness. That the one thing left to her by this woman she obviously loved is out of her reach.
“But then I talked to my brother.” Luna’s determined words bring me back to the conversation. One that isn’t over.
“Dash?”
“Leo.”
Ah. The one still in the illegal family business.
Luna swirls her spoon in her bowl, eyes on the brown broth. That’s when I realize I haven’t taken a bite. Making sure the gumbo makes it to my mouth and not my shirt, I briefly take my focus off Luna but keep listening as she continues.
“I know he wants an out. Of the business. Problem is that the work is like quicksand and he’s buried up to his neck.” She abandons her food for more tea. “There’s one thing that’ll get him out. A language they all speak.”
I can guess. “Money?”
Luna nods. “Money. And I know how to get some.”
I wonder if someone walked by and kicked out the legs of my chair because my brain whirls wildly off-kilter.
She can’t be leading up to what I think she is.
With a clatter, I drop my spoon into the bowl. Brown droplets splatter on my crisp, white button-down, but for once I don’t have the headspace to cringe at my clumsiness.
The fierce woman sitting across from me claims every iota of attention. “Why did you ask to talk to me, Luna?”
She sets her own spoon down with more control than I’d managed.
“Because, Charlie Keller. I want to know if you’ll marry me.”
ChapterThirteen
CHARLIE
Things need to get messier before they can get better.
I try to believe this wisdom as I stare around my disordered living space. There are cardboard boxes and random piles of belongings and packing material skewed everywhere.
So much for being able to pack up my life quickly.
But I haven’t relocated like this in a while. I’m not moving across town or to a place a couple of hours away. My possessions need to cross an ocean.
My phone buzzes on the coffee table.
Swiping it up, an excited sweat breaks out over my body when I read the name on the screen.
Luna.
“Hey!” My greeting comes out more enthusiastic than necessary. But I’m bottled up after the days I’ve gone without speaking to her. Without seeing her.
Last time was at that cafe in the French Quarter. When she proposed.
“Charlie. Hi. It’s Luna.” Her voice sounds stiff, and I wonder if it’s our connection. More likely she’s calling to back out of this whole thing. My hopes waiver on a cliff edge.
“Yeah. I have your number saved. How’s it going?”
