Chapter 15 #2
“Yeah, sure. I get it.” Ward blew out another heavy breath. “I’m going to win you over, you know,” he said, his voice rumbling. “I’ve been thinking on it these last four weeks, and I’ve got plans. Plans that involve you falling head-over-heels in love with me in the end.”
Luna was silent at first. Nigel could all-too easily picture the way her cheeks must have flushed the most adorably delicate pink. “I, um. I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve got in mind,” she answered at last.
And Nigel’s soaring soul crashed right back down into the mire of his roiling innards.
“Brace yourself,” said Ward. “It’s going to be big.”
“Consider me braced, Officer Ward.”
With that, Nigel listened to the sound of those big, clompy officer’s boots retreating across the floor. The shop door opened; the bells tinkled. Then Ward’s voice sounded one last time: “Remember—stay away from the warehouse district tonight. Got it?”
“You have nothing to worry about,” Luna replied. “Now go on! Do your duty. Be the hero this city needs.”
“I’ll be seeing you, Luna Talbot.”
“Goodbye, Officer Ward.”
And with a last peal of tiny bells, the door shut. Silence fell upon The Arcane Bouquet.
Nigel remained where he sat. He knew he ought to rise, make some kind of stomping show of descending the staircase, and emerge. Pretend he hadn’t just overheard everything. But for the moment he couldn’t seem to find his feet.
It had been too easy simply to forget about Officer Ward.
He hadn’t been around, and Luna never brought him up.
Granted, Nigel and Luna hadn’t been speaking to one another hardly at all save about work-related topics for the last four weeks.
Still, he’d been able to let himself idly pretend that things had cooled between his employee and her handsome beau.
But nothing changed the reality that the last time he’d seen them together, Luna was wrapped in Officer Ward’s brawny arms, receiving an absolutely stunning kiss.
An activity that was immediately picked up again the moment of his return.
Which implied their relationship was a lot more established than Nigel wanted to believe.
He had to respect it. If he cared about Luna at all, he had to respect her relationships, her choices, and . . . and . . .
She turned down Ward. For you.
The thought prickled in his brain, momentarily lifting his spirits once more.
But then . . . oh gods. Had she done it out of some sense of obligation?
To her boss? Because he paid her salary?
What a terrible idea. He couldn’t let their professional dynamic interfere with her love life.
No matter that he desperately, selfishly craved time with her.
That wasn’t a line he could allow himself to cross, even inadvertently.
There was only one thing he could do in this situation.
“Damn,” Nigel whispered and buried his face in his hands.
Suddenly, he heard Luna heave a loud, blustering sigh. “Where is that man?” she muttered.
A ruffle of wings answered, followed by a, “Never mind?”
“Well, he said five minutes, didn’t he? It shouldn’t take him this long to make himself beautiful!”
Nigel swallowed hard. She was waiting for him. And he needed to get out there and do the honorable thing. Damn it.
Heaving a sigh, he pushed himself to his feet, shook his head, and checked to make certain his hair was still slicked back. Then he tiptoed back up a few steps, spun, squared his shoulders. With a loud clatter, he made a big show of descending and emerged from the stairwell into the shop.
Luna stood behind the counter, bending over idly to peruse the newspaper.
She looked up at his appearance, and the spontaneous smile that broke across her face was so bright, so brilliant, so exquisite, it completely stopped his heart.
If it weren’t for the fact that he’d just seen her wrapped in the amorous embrace of another man, Nigel would have considered himself perfectly happy in that instant.
But he had just seen her wrapped in the amorous embrace of another man.
So that smile felt more like a lance, shattering his sternum and piercing his heart.
Nigel stopped short, forced to brace himself with one hand on the doorframe. “Erm, Miss Talbot,” he said.
“There you are, Mr. Grimm!” she said and reached for her hat and coat on their peg. “I’ve just finished up everything. I even spritzed the double-delight, so she can’t complain about ill-treatment. We just need to—”
“Actually, Miss Talbot,” Nigel hastened to say, “I realized that . . . that I’ve got an order coming in this afternoon.”
Luna froze in the act of settling her hat on her head. Her face went still, her features shuttering. “An order of what?”
“Erm, Mama Morgana’s,” he replied. “We’re running low. Of the Miracle Manure, you know. We’ve got a big shipment due to arrive, and one of us needs to be here to receive it.”
“Oh.”
It was a very short, simple sound. More an expulsion of air than a word. But Nigel watched the last traces of that smile vanish from her face.
“You should still go,” he said hurriedly. “Have lunch, with . . . with whomever you like. Take the half-day, since you didn’t get one yesterday. Paid time, of course.”
Luna looked him in the eye. Her expression was entirely unreadable, a perfect blank.
Then, without a word, she snugged her hat on her head, buttoned up the front of her green coat, and stepped out from behind the counter.
She left the hinged part to bang loudly behind her, and, without so much as a last look his way, strode across the shop.
The flowers turned to watch her go, but she ignored them.
When she pushed the door open, even the bells tinkled a little more brusquely than usual.
Nigel watched her through the front windows as she looked both ways before crossing Addle Street. He continued to watch as she strode down the far sidewalk, took the turn onto Nettleton, and out of sight.
Only then did he release his breath and drift back behind the counter. He felt as though he moved through fog.
“Never mind?” Debbie inquired as he passed her.
Nigel turned to her rather sharply. “What else can I do?” he snapped. “I don’t want to take advantage of her. Ever. She deserves that much from me, at least.”
Debbie shook her head, bright black eyes blinking.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Nigel growled and went to slump in the cane chair by the stove.
All the strength seemed to have gone out from his limbs.
He could do nothing but stare stupidly at the dilapidated old kettle on the burner.
In his mind’s eye, he kept seeing Luna’s face.
That brilliant flash of smile and the way it so swiftly faded.
Was there even a chance she was . . . disappointed?
That she had actually been excited to spend time with him and not with Officer Ward?
Nigel bent forward, sinking his face into both hands. With a little mutter and a croak, Debbie flapped over and landed on his shoulder, pecking affectionately at his stiff hair.
“Oh, Debbie,” Nigel sighed. “I’m such a fool!”
“Never mind.”
“You don’t have to agree so quickly.”
“Never mind?”
“I don’t know. Maybe remind me that it’s a complicated situation. That anyone would struggle to know how to navigate such treacherous waters. Or something.”
“Never mind!”
“Yes, well, all right. I’m a fool. A bloody, idiotic dolt of a human being. And I don’t deserve—”
The shop bells rang out brightly.
The sound of heeled boots crossing the floor banged a percussion in Nigel’s ears.
He sat up, turned in his seat just in time to see Luna appear on the far side of the counter.
She leaned over it, a look of fierce determination in her face, and spotted him where he sat in the nook.
Her eyes locked with his. Then, setting her jaw, she lifted the hinged portion of the counter and stomped into the narrow space behind it. Taking a stance, she folded her arms.
“Bother that order,” she declared.
Nigel, not entirely convinced he wasn’t dreaming, got to his feet, slack-jawed. “What?”
“I said, bother that order. And I meant it.”
“I . . . Miss Talbot, I don’t understand—”
She stomped her foot. Actually stomped it, her heel coming down in a smart crack on the tiles. “You’re taking me to lunch, Mr. Grimm. Do you hear me? You’re taking me to lunch, and then we’re going to feed the ducks at Bally Park.”
“We are?”
“Yes, we are, so help me, Goddess! And when that’s through . . .”
Nigel held his breath, staring down into bright and burning dark eyes. “Yes?” he managed in a low voice.
Luna gave her head a sharp shake. “I haven’t decided yet. But it’ll be something. Either way, Mr. Grimm, you are coming with me. I hereby declare you kidnapped!”