Chapter 7 #2
Nodding, I started to stand from the booth. “I do know. I’m going to go check on him, okay? I’m also going to try to show him some of that happiness if he lets me.”
“Please. He needs a friend who isn’t related to him for once. Or someone who’s more than a friend. Either way works.”
I held my phone out to him with the keypad open so he could type his phone number into it. “Are you trying to set me up with your brother, Crescent?”
He shrugged and handed my phone back. “You can take it however you’d like, Emerson. I think you’d be good for him—if you’re into guys, that is. And single. But friends is good, too. Moon just needs love, whether it's platonic or not.”
To my knowledge, I wasn’t into guys, but I’d never been one to say never. “How about I’ll just be there for him in any way he needs me to be? Does that work?”
“Yeah, that works. As long as you don’t break his heart. You’ve seen what the Millers can do when their loved ones are threatened. It isn’t just Moon.”
“I don’t doubt that for one second.”
Right as I’d left Muffin Haven, the rain had switched from a light trickle to a full downpour. I’d regretted not taking Crescent’s offer of an umbrella, but Moon didn’t live too far away. His apartment complex was barely a walk, almost right by the bakery.
My phone started buzzing in my back pocket just as I’d made it outside the complex. Running to the covered parking, I juggled the to-go bag and my coffee into one hand, pulling it out of my pocket. I’d be pissed if it was Moon calling and I’d missed it.
But no, it was just Olivia. Nosy, wonderful, instigating Olivia. “Ol, this isn’t a good time, babe.”
She groaned immediately, sighing loudly. “It’s never a good time with you! Where are you? Shouldn’t you be home asleep?”
“If you thought I was home asleep, why are you calling me?”
“Wow. What if I had an emergency, huh?”
“It isn’t.”
“No, it isn’t, but I was really hoping you’d be nicer about it.”
I leaned against the pole that held the metal covering up. “Listen, I’m seriously too busy right now. Can I call you back later?”
She hummed, giving the illusion that she was actually thinking about it. “Even better, how about I call you in, say, two hours? You have a habit of not calling back when you say you will.”
“Okay, yes, you can call me then, but I reserve the right to not answer if I’m still busy.”
“Jesus, Em, how long are you planning to be busy for on your day off? Wait.” She gasped loudly, straight into the speaker and into my ear. “Are you going on a date?”
“Okay, Ol. I’m officially shutting down this conversation. I love you. Bye.”
She was laughing the entire way through her response, even as I hung up on her. I loved Olivia with my entire heart and soul, but she could be a lot sometimes.
The stairs were much easier to navigate without a very drunk Star attached to my hip, leaning and falling against the railing every five seconds or so.
I shifted my coffee and to-go box back into one hand and knocked on Moon’s door.
There wasn’t an immediate response, leaving me out in the rain, alone, for another few minutes.
I was already soaking wet—what was a little longer?
When he finally came to the door, he opened it just enough to look at me through the crack. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
I held up the bag. “Hello to you, too. I have gifts. And I’m soaking wet. Can I come in?”
I waited for another prickly response, or maybe even a complete refusal on his end, but Moon shocked me once more as he pulled the door open entirely. “Come on. Just stand in front of the door in here, and I’ll get a towel.”
Probably a good idea. For the second time, I walked into Moon’s apartment, this time bringing what felt like an entire man-made lake in with me. My shoes squeaked against the hardwood floor, harmonizing with the ringing in my ears.
I did exactly as he’d told me to, planting my feet right in front of the door and not moving a muscle. Moon was already gone by the time the door closed behind me, so I let myself drip onto his floor in silence until he came back with a towel.
“Here, dry off.” He handed it to me, then pointed at the bag in my hand. “What’s that?”
“Lemon poppy seed muffin, made just for you from your favorite bakery.” I looked around for a place to set it, giving it to him when he held his hand out.
He untied the bag slowly, looking almost wary. “What for? You never told me why you were here.”
I dragged the towel over my body, wiping off any excess water I could.
I was trying not to stare at him, the tattoos he had back on display in his white tank top, or what looked to be prominent nipple rings poking just beneath said tank top.
The color made the black and gray ink on his skin pop out even more, enticing me further.
I wanted to look. I shouldn’t look, but I wanted to.
“I ran into your brother. He asked if I’d heard from you.
I told him I hadn’t since I’d left here. It was a gut decision.”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “A gut decision?”
“Yeah. I had a gut feeling about you not answering the most important people in your life. Me, I understand. Your brothers? Not a chance in hell. So, I came to check on you, and I told Crescent I’d let him know you were safe.”
“Why?”
I let my arm drop, the towel going with it, hanging by my side.
His confusion hurt, but it didn’t hurt because of his distrust in me—it hurt because it meant he’d been failed by someone.
At some point, he must’ve been failed by someone so badly that he no longer believed someone like me could show up with an act of genuine kindness.
That I couldn’t care about him in the most basic, human way.
So the real question here wasn’t why but who had hurt his heart and soul so much that his eyes spoke to me in distant echoes? Echoes from a cavern it seemed no one had tried to explore before.