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My hands drop to palm her ass, squeezing gently. “I like roses.”
* * *
A few hours later, the biggest bouquet of roses I've ever seen lands on my desk, closely followed by the ass of my smirking girlfriend as she perches on the edge. I lean back in my seat, glancing between her and the flowers with a smile. “For me?”
“No, for Hunter. I just wanted to get your opinion first.”
Scoffing, I tug her onto my lap, kissing the smirk off her face. She relaxes into me easily, a content noise leaving her when I wind my hands through her hair. “Have a good day?”
Lu hums happily. “It was fun. Line and I made Lux sit down every twenty minutes. She put up a fight but we're very persuasive.“
Jesus, again with theLine. “I can't believe my sister and Caroline voluntarily spent several hours together without pulling each other's hair out.”
“They're friends.” Luna shrugs. “I think Line's been helping her a lot lately.”
I must not hide my skepticism very well because a bony elbow jabs me in the stomach. “Come on, it must be pretty lonely here, everyone gone all the time. You should be glad she has a friend.”
“I am.” But I just kind of wish my ex-girlfriend wasn’t that friend. “You don't think it's weird? Her being around a lot?”
“You mean am I jealous?“ Lu smirks, hands creeping up my chest to curve around my neck, leaning forward to rest her forehead against mine. “No. You love me. I know that.” Her head dips to catch my lips for a moment. “Besides, believe it or not, you're not hot enough for Line to risk the wrath of me and Lux by trying something on you.”
“If you're trying to sweet talk me, it's working.”
That laugh I love tickles my cheek, as does her hair when she shifts a little, turning to glance at my desk at the beginning of a sketch starting to take shape. “What're you working on?”
One hand clamps down on her hip to stop her from leaning forward, the other hastily covering the work-in-progress. “Nothing good.”
Nothing I want her to see yet.
I draw her attention back to me by tapping her thigh. “You wanna take Clyde out for a while? He's missed you.”
She's up and out of my lap so fast I almost get whiplash. “God, I thought you'd never offer.”
56
LUNA
It'swild how much things can change in a year.
A year ago, I didn't know who my dad was. I didn't know I had a sister.
A year ago, I was breaking up with the boy I loved because I couldn't bear to drag him down the shame spiral quickly descending on me.
A year ago, I felt like my life was ending.
A year later and I'm watching the love of my life cross a stage to receive his diploma, screaming myself hoarse and deafening everyone in my general vicinity.
In my defense, I'm not the only offender. Jackson's sisters are giving me a run for my money. They're all here, even Lottie who's trying her best to keep up the sullen teenager act but I swear I see a sheen to her eyes that isn't usually there as she watches her brother. And Lux, who most definitely shouldn't be here considering she's about to pop but God help the person who tries to stop Alexandra Winona Jackson from watching her brother graduate, eight-pound baby in her uterus or not.
Ben might be on the opposite end of the row, but I can still hear him loud and clear. He managed to sneak one of those party noisemaker things in here, and he's been blowing it non-stop, much to the chagrin of... well, everyone. Amelia's sobs are loud enough to burst an eardrum but I don't even blame her. All the emotions I'm feeling, Mils has got to be feeling tenfold. I've just got my boyfriend up there, she's got Nick and Cass to cheer on. I thought her eyeballs were going to burst with how hard she was crying when Cass did that weird hand signal thing they do to each other before his games, and she returned it with wobbly hands. James, Cass' brother, had to clamp an arm around her shoulders to stop them from shaking with her sobs.
Everyone else—Kate, Sydney, Pen, the parents—is fluctuating between pretending they don't know us and cheering on our friends.
My chest feels like it's about to burst. My heart is so full it hurts. I'm so proud of him that I physically can’t fucking take it.
As he returns to his seat, proof that he made it in his hand, brown eyes lock on me. A smile splits his face as one eye winks shut. I pause my incessant whooping to stick my pinkies in my mouth and whistle as loud as possible, and he brightens, his hair falling in his face as he shakes his head in a laugh.
When—a veritable lifetime later—the ceremony finally ends, I hang back as everyone makes a beeline for the graduates, letting the girls congratulate their brother before I elbow my way in. I watch as they all borderline tackle Jackson, him staggering back a step as they attack him with hugs and kisses and excited congratulations.
