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“This better not be the way I discover people refer to me as Big Tuna Luna.”
He laughed, tracing the different parts of her hand. He liked how hers were smaller and more delicate than his. “What? No, you’re just regular Luna.”
Luna snatched a throw pillow, smacking him in the shoulder with it.
“What the hell was that for?” he asked.
“I don’t want to be just regular Luna.”
“You’re right. There’s nothing regular about you.”
“You’re damn right there’s not.”
He kissed along her neck. “Anyway, Nicholas met a lady friend at some dog club and he’s moving in with her.”
“Aw, good for him. I’m happy he found love.”
“Yeah, me too. Can I talk to you about something?”
“It’s not something serious, is it?” Her shoulders stiffened, clearly betraying her dislike of the idea of a serious conversation.
He pushed away the unease of what this meant, especially if he wanted to have a serious conversation about their relationship at some point. “Well, it’s serious about the apartment complex. I just want your opinion.”
She relaxed into him. “Oh, in that case, talk to me. I do love giving my opinion.”
“I’m trying to convince my dad to turn Schnell Ridge into a low-income apartment complex, one that accepts housing vouchers for rental assistance. I’ve looked into it and it provides some tax credit and benefits from the city, but my dad is pretty conservative about that kind of thing, like it’s somehow going to ruin our reputation.” He rolled his eyes at this.
“I want to make Schnell Ridge into something more unique than other low-income options, something that truly offers people a second chance and part of it is making the individual units something special. I don’t have a very big budget, but Nicholas has been in the place a long time so I pretty much will have to replace everything. Anyway, as far as the design is concerned, you have more of an eye than me.” He brushed a strand of hair from her neck, placing a kiss there. “Maybe you wouldn’t mind helping me, give the apartment the Luna touch.”
She turned to him, her gaze soft. “Really?”
“Yeah. It can be like old times. Hashtag new Schnell Ridge apartments.”
“Wow. You’re really terrible at coming up with hashtags.” She smiled, weaving an arm around his middle. “But, yes, I’ll do it. I’ve really missed doing apartment improvements.” His heart did a kick knowing he had made her happy again.
*
“Is everything okay?”Zabe asked a few weeks later.
“Hmm?” Sam glanced away from his phone, returning to the small box planter he was putting together for the girl. “Yeah, fine.”
It was fine, except hereallywanted to see Luna and his phone remained frustratingly silent. The problem with having a one-sided code word was he didn’t have one for himself. This was a definite flaw in the system.
She studied him. “You leave a lot lately. My dad said you might have a girlfriend. Do you? What about Luna?”
Sam fiddled with the tool in his hand because there wasn’t a good answer. He wasn’t sure if what they had was as solid as a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. The words had yet to be uttered. He wanted to do something normal such as bring her a plant or go for a walk and hold her hand, but he wasn’t sure about anything. It was tricky trying to balance his normal management work, helping his mother on the weekends, and then trying to see Luna in the evenings. How strange it was to experience having a full life again. “I’ve been hanging out with a friend,” he replied to the kid.
When she wasn’t paying attention, he slipped the phone from his pocket and took a chance.“Miss you,”he sent in a text.
Five minutes later Luna replied,“Funny. Just got the same message from my dentist. I’m due for a cleaning.”
Sam shook his head. Anything resembling a relationship-type sentiment always got sidestepped.“You’re due for more than that. You free tonight?”
“Going to Ross and Mia’s to see the baby and have pizza.”
Well, so much for his plan.
He was shocked when her message was soon followed with,“Want to come with me?”
