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“Farrow is a caring bean,” I say, letting out the last anxious breath.
“Nah, he’s a kidney bean. Full of piss…” He trails off at my laughter, and his smile matches mine until the noise dies down.
Time is ticking. Someone will come in any minute now. Donnelly surprisingly risks another round of the nurse’s wrath by sitting on the edge of the bed.
I pick at my thumbnail. “I’m a really shitty intergalactic detective. I thought I had a baby.” I speak so softly; I doubt he hears. “I would’ve never guessed he was Moffy’s. He would’ve been last on my list.”
“You’re not a shitty intergalactic detective,” he tells me, which jars me in surprise. “I’d hire you.”
“For all your interstellar troubles?”
“I’ve got plenty of those.”
“Same. A lot can go wrong in space,” I say and relax into the casualness of this conversation. I like how it’s broken into the intensity of the others. “Everything can really be solved by discovering a perfectly mined mineral on an otherworldly planet. Then you’ve created super space medicine. Super space condoms. Super space lube.”
“You sharing your super space products?”
“Maybe.” I shrug. “For a fee.”
He sucks in a breath. “Girl, take…” He doesn’t finish, his voice dropping off.
“What?” I look over at him.
He skims my features. “Take my money,” he mutters, sounding sad.
I struggle to speak because it hurts how he’s seeing me. His face is fracturing. Pain lances his blue eyes as if he’s realizing that he’s lost something too.
Lost me.
He’s stopped pretending that I remember him.
I blink back tears, but I swallow the lump. “I could use a partner in this detective case,” I say. “The Case of Luna’s Missing Memories.”
He smiles, even if it’s a sorrowful one. “Sign me up.”
Chatter escalates outside until I hear a forceful knock. “Don’t leave,” I remind him, a little more whiney than I meant.
“If I can help it, I won’t.”
28
PAUL DONNELLY
“Donnelly,”Farrow says with a sigh and an eye-roll like I’m in deep shit this time.Don’t I know it.Luna thinks I’m just some run-of-the-mill bodyguard. Background. Wallpaper.
She thinks I’m no one.
The girl I’ve given my heart and soul to doesn’t know she even has my heart and soul.
But she’s alive. She’s awake. Can I really ask for more?
The fact that she’s demanding I stay is another checkmark in thepluscolumn. Gotta hang on to those good things. They’ve been hard to come by, and this whole night, morning, whatever has crushed me enough.
“He needs toleave, Dr. Hale,” Nurse Macy says with heat while she’s latched to Farrow’s side. “He can’t be in here.” Her glare slices to me. “And get offherbed.”
My ass is barely on her bed. “Sure, Becky.” I stand, trying to brush her off, but Luna panics, her chest rising and falling in uneven patterns.I’m not going anywhere.I reach out and hold her hand, showing her I’m staying.
She has a tight grip, but I can tell she’s weakened from either the pain meds or just everything tonight.
