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Natalie laughed. “Really, M? I thought we made a deal that you weren’t going to do that anymore, that your bizarre powers of persuasion were only to be used for good, like convincing Ross to let us borrow jewelry for special occasions.”
Mia’s mouth gaped. “It was an accident! And I meant toactlike you were going to kiss him on the cheek, not actually do it. I wasn’t trying to get Luna to make out with the guy.”
“Whoa, what? You made out with this guy? Good for you.”
“No, I didn’t make out with him. It was a quick peck and not anything to make a big deal—”
“I got a picture,” her cousin said to Natalie, her eyebrows doing a playful wiggle under those terrible bangs.
“Mia Russo! You better delete that photo right now or you can forget about getting information to a new hairdresser.”
A sweet smile and slight lift of a shoulder was the response, a picture of amusement. “You actually look really cute in it, but I’ll delete it if you want.”
Luna shut her mouth as she considered this. What if she really did look cute in it? She should at least take a peek, right? And, perhaps, she could take another look at her future landlord, in the interest of becoming more familiar with a guy. Shouldn’t she be on friendly terms with him since he was going to let her improve her new apartment? It made sense to her. And what was the harm?
“Can I at least take a look? Come on, Luna.” Natalie gave her a nudge.
“Fine. Let’s take a look but I’ll probably hate it.” She feigned a sigh and crossed her arms as if in complete resignation instead of being curious.
“Yay!” Mia retrieved her bag from the floor. She pulled out her camera, flicking through the images. “Aw, I love it.” She leaned toward her friend first, sharing the image.
“Okay, I will admit it’s a pretty good photo,” Natalie said.
Luna jumped from her chair, her interest now piqued, coming around the table. She squeezed between the two women to get a view of the camera screen. Sure enough, the impromptu moment of shock was caught by the camera. Luna’s puckered lips made contact with Sam’s, her body leaning into him, her left leg slightly lifted in a typical romance kiss pose. Even more surprising, one of her hands had fisted Sam’s T-shirt. Luna didn’t remember doing any of this. Her eyes were closed, looking completely serene and relaxed. On the other side, Sam’s eyes reflected clear shock as if this simple kiss was the biggest surprise of his life. The image had a modern Norman Rockwell aspect to it, an unexpected slice of life. If it wasn’t Luna and Sam sharing this embrace, she would have agreed it was sweet, funny, and photo-frame-worthy.
But itwasLuna and Sam, and she couldn’t forget how he made her feel like repulsive trash afterwards. Sure, he didn’t treat her like that at the apartment complex. In fact, if she didn’t know any better, there might have been a spark of interest from him, but she’d been wrong the first time. It was better not to take the chance of looking foolish again. In the end, there was no other option than to delete the image because there was no point in keeping it.
“So, the guy is your new neighbor?” Natalie asked.
“Apparently, my actual next-door neighbor is a firefighter.”
“Really? That is a perk,” Mia said. “Maybe he could take some couple photos with you next time.”
“Are you kidding? I’m done with your bright ideas. Anyway, Sam’s the apartment manager. Can you believe that?”
“Wow, what are the odds?” her cousin said. “Well, at least Sam seemed nice. And he takes good pictures. Am I deleting this or not?”
“You can do whatever you want,” Luna responded, but she took one more glance in case Mia did delete it. She made an internal note of how Sam had pressed his hand to the small of her back. Luna could still feel the warmth, as though his touch had left a mark.
“Sam? Wait, let me see that photo again.” Natalie leaned closer to Mia to study it. “Is this apartment a Sunderland property?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I lived in one of their apartments when I first moved out. It was owned by his parents. They had a managing company I’d go through, so I didn’t really deal with them. But I remember Sam. He and his brother used to race their cars on the street near the apartment complex. It was irritating as hell. We even called the cops once or twice. We got kids playing on that street. We didn’t need arrogant, reckless white boys using the street as a racing track.”
Mia adjusted her glasses. “What? Are you sure? He seemed nice.” She flicked to another image, one where Sam was facing the camera.
“Yeah, that’s Sam Sunderland. I’d know that asshole alliteration anywhere. Those boys were trouble. There was a car accident a few years ago. I don’t remember the details except that Sam was supposedly really drunk and his younger brother was killed.”
“Good Lord.” Mia covered her mouth with a hand.
Luna was also shocked but, most of all, it instantly changed the way she saw him. Ross’s parents were killed by a drunk driver, and there was no way she’d ever be friends with someone who went through life making bad decisions and ruining lives like her cousin’s. To even consider it could be a betrayal, and Ross was the most important person in her life, the only person she had left. She’d already felt she’d wronged her cousin by flirting with Sam, even though she hadn’t known any of this. One thing was certain—she couldn’t afford to keep being wrong about her future landlord.
While Luna was originally disappointed to be getting a Schnell Ridge apartment instead of the Old Town duplex, she tried to assure herself it wasn’t settling if she was able to take something boring and basic and make it less so. Luna could be creative and resourceful when it came to decorating and she had planned to hang curtains on the windows or put things on the wall. But now she didn’t care what Sam thought about any of her ideas or whether she was on friendly terms with him. And who was he to lay down any sort of rule anyway? Him being a stickler for rules had to be the ultimate hypocrisy.
His endearing awkwardness, dry delivery, sharp cheekbones, and warm brown eyes no longer held any currency for her.
She was going to do what she wanted to get the apartment of her dreams.
