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Shifting my weight forward, I stuff the old rag in the back pocket of my jeans and walk into the sunlit room to hover just behind Luna, dipping my head so her mom – the older version of Luna – can see me.
“Hey, Mrs. Isaak,” I greet warmly with a friendly wave.
“Kaleb!” she responds cheerfully with her bright white smile. “How are you, honey? The last I knew you were headed to boot camp,” she begins and leans in like she’s settling in to catch up.
I take a moment to quickly sum up my time in training, my promotion, and my interest in starting my own tattoo studio once I pay my dues overseas and get some education out of it – and hopefully a business loan.
“Good for you, honey,” she gives me an approving nod. “Life is too short not to do what you love.”
I know her sentiment comes from experience as she herself is a hair stylist, which is what she’d always wanted, according to Luna.
“So you’re shipping out soon?” She tilts her head with a what I can only assume is a caring mom look that makes me wonder what it would’ve been like to grow up seeing more of those.
“Yeah, in about a week,” I nod.
“Oh boy,” she sighs. “You come back to us in one piece, you hear me?” She gives me a stern look, and it does something funny to the organ in my chest. My mind flashes forward to coming back to Luna. I didn’t even think of it until now that her family could… maybe become mine. The feeling is a confusingly exciting one, but as per habit, I quickly dismiss it. One thing that’s been ingrained in me by living this particular life is to not hope for too much, and right now, I’m just thankful to have one person to come back to.
“Mom, who are you talking – Luna!” A young kid’s voice can be heard before a blue-eyed boy with brown hair commandeers the screen, leaning completely in front of his mother.
“Hi, buddy.” Luna’s eyes crinkle at the sides as she waves at him, and he gasps when he sees me.
“Hi, Kaleb!” he shouts, and I wave back at him.
“How are you doing, man?” I ask him.
“Good, bored,” he responds with a huff before looking back at his sister. “When are you coming home?” he implores urgently – and loudly.
“Probably in a few weeks when the semester ends,” she tells him gently with a head tilt.
“Will you be home all summer?” he asks hopefully, and she regretfully shakes her head.
“I have more classes, Matty. I’ve got some catching up to do.”
And now my newfound nostalgia has been thrown in a blender with my rage at the memory of what her shitball ex cost her. While I have a sudden urge to rush out to the garage and bench press my weight and then some, I allow myself to be centered by the solidarity I’m feeling with her mother at this moment. Mrs. Isaak sighs heavily with a frown that could set a glacier on fire. She only lets it linger about a second before her eyes dart to Matthew, and that seems to shake out of her stewing for his benefit.
“Well, come home for a visit anyhow,” she suggests, and Luna nods. “Your dad is getting twitchy, your grandmother wants to go shopping, and you should probably take your cat back with you. Buster’s been hardly doing anything but hanging out in your room for the last year,” she grouses and rolls her eyes.
Luna wraps up her FaceTime visit in the next couple of minutes and signs off before shooting me a smile and reaching for her pallet with her left hand and that’s when I notice something missing.
“Hey, where’s your ring?” I ask her, feeling trepidation pull at my brow.
“Right here,” she quickly assures me, pulling a necklace out from beneath the bib of her overalls with both her engagement and wedding rings looped on it. I must not look totally placated because her voice raises a little with her continued explanation. “Kaleb, look at my hands. I don’t want to wear them when I’m working because I don’t want them to get damaged, but I’m never going to lose them.”
I take in all the paint smudges and stains on her hands and slowly start nodding. It makes sense, and I’m surprised at myself for worrying about such a thing as her sporting her wedding bands… as if my tattoo isn’t enough, now I want the world to know she’s Mine with a capital M, especially while I’m away.
After giving the band on my own hand a quick worry around my finger, I lean in and place a kiss to her forehead.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper affectionately. “I should’ve known better than that.” The last word is barely out of my mouth when something cold and wet and awful-smelling gets dabbed on my jaw. Perplexed, I straighten up and touch my fingertips to it to find they come away blue.
“What?” I look at her disbelievingly as she giggles like a little devil.
“Let that teach you never to doubt me,” she says righteously as she turns back to her easel and picks up a brush like she didn’t just smear me with blue paint, and she’s getting down to business as usual.
“Well,” I blow out on a cleansing breath as I swipe my fingers through the white paint and flick them at her. She gasps as white paint sprinkles her face, and she looks at me in horror while I grin back. “Let that be a lesson to not mess with the bull, silly girl.”
Clearly I’ve opened a can of worms, because Luna’s face morphs into a frightening mix of irritation, mischief, and excitement. Her lips curl in together as her eyes widen and she dips her brush in the blue.
Fuck.
