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Farrow chews his gum slowly, looking me over. “Don’t lie during the eval.”
I’m going to.
“Doctor advice?” I ask.
“Friend advice.”
“Appreciation.” I sling an arm around his shoulders.Don’t worry about me.But as soon as I think it, I’m reminded of what Loren Hale told me, and I can’t say the words out loud.
“Gutter ball,” Luna sing-songs on her way over. “Farrow is up.”
While he heads for the lane, Luna swivels on a chair, sipping a cranberry vodka. Adorable in her alien waitress costume, and I’ve imagined coming inside her waytoo many times tonight. Hell, I’ve imagined picking her up and fucking her on the lane. Thank God her therapist can’t read my mind.
Maximoff asks her, “Are you calling him your boyfriend now?”
Luna goes motionless in the chair. “I, uh…” She’s avoiding my gaze.
My pulse picks up speed, and I’m glad I’m not sitting or else my knees would be jostling under me.
“No,” Luna shakes her head very slowly. “I barely know him.”
Shit.
Feels like I’m being buried alive, but the way her body reacts—chest tightening, breath shortening—I know she’s dumping dirt on herself too.
“Luna?” Maximoff says, worried.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Luna says, more to me than to her brother.
“I know,” I nearly whisper. “It’s alright.” And I tell Maximoff, “Can I have a minute with her?”
“Yeah.” He sends me one brotherly warning. Not as threatening as his dad’s looks, but it does its job. He stands up. “Rip, you want to push that green ball?”
“Yeah!” Ripley cheers, taking his dad’s hand and joining Farrow at the lane. As they squat down to help their son, I take a seat beside Luna.
She might not be my girlfriend yet. We haven’t labeled anything, but she isn’t someone I ever want to lose. Not in my lifetime. “It’s alright,” I tell her again.
She’s slumped, face torn. “It doesn’t feel like it is.” Her amber gaze drifts around the neon-lit bowling alley, seeing the bodyguards and family members who keep their distance. “They all have the right idea, you know,” she whispers. “It’s dangerous to be around me. I’m not saying the right things anymore.”
I tip my head towards Luna, catching her gaze. “Maybe I like a little danger.”
She gives me a look. “Really? Because it didn’t hurt when I said I barely knew you?”
I don’t break her gaze. “Not gonna lie to you. It hurt like hell.”
Her face shatters, and she blinks back tears. “I’m horrible. Horrible.Horrible,” she mutters.
“You’re not,” I say so quietly, my voice aches. “You’renot.” I rest my arm against the back of her chair, but Luna bows toward me. I can’t tear my eyes off her, and she’s so locked into me, the bowling alley might as well be empty. Colorful lights strobe over her features, but the greens and blues soften the despair on her round face.
I barely pick up her whispered words, “It hurt me too.”
“I know,” I breathe.
“How?”
“It was written on your face.”
Her fingers graze the rip in my jeans on my kneecap. I stop myself from holding her.She barely knows you.She knows me. She’s looking at me like sheseesall of me, and I can’t explain how she could.
