Chapter 23 - Torrin
I check the road again even though there is nothing new to see. Empty gravel stretches between the farm and the county road. I make myself stop looking at my watch, because I already know exactly how long it has been since I last checked.
We’re ready to go. Everything Anders wants from the house, barns, and equipment sheds is packed into whatever space we could find. All that's left is getting the livestock loaded once the neighbors arrive to help, then we can finally get moving.
Anders finally pulls his truck back into the yard and backs up to the livestock trailer. He was only gone half an hour helping his neighbors secure the last of their things, but I spent most of it watching the road for him anyway, ready to get moving.
"They're right behind me," he tells Gage as he climbs down. "Shouldn't be more than ten or fifteen minutes."
Ten or fifteen minutes shouldn't bother me this much, but it does.
I want to get to the mine and see exactly what we're working with.
There's sleeping space to sort out, vehicles to get under cover, and a hell of a lot of work before that place will be habitable.
I've been moving for days now and waiting to move for days before that.
Driving, fighting, searching, packing, loading, making one decision after another while the world finds new and creative ways to end around us, and I'm fucking tired of being in transit.
I need somewhere to stop long enough to catch my breath and figure out what the hell normal is supposed to be now. Even if normal means sleeping inside an abandoned coal mine while a broken moon hangs over a planet full of erupting volcanoes.
Mostly, though, I want time with Luna. Real time.
Not five minutes stolen while we're loading a truck, and not just her hand in mine while I drive.
I want enough time to figure out what has changed between us since I came home.
Every time she looks at me and then looks away a little too fast, I feel it.
Unfortunately, judging by the mood around here, I'm not the only one trying to figure that shit out. Gage stalks past me with a toolbox and drops it into the back storage compartment of the motorhome hard enough to make the whole door rattle. I watch him slam the compartment shut.
"You good?"
"Fine."
Yeah, right. I've known Gage for years now, and the man rarely gets pissed off.
When he does, there's usually a damn good reason for it.
He can be worried, stressed, bossy, overprotective, and occasionally so fucking stubborn that I want to hit him with something.
But genuinely foul tempered is rare, and he's been in a shitty mood for almost an hour.
My eyes shift across the yard and find the most likely source leaning against the Jeep, looking smug.
It isn't his normal smug either. Jules wakes up every morning convinced the rest of us should be grateful he has chosen to share a planet with us, so a certain level of arrogance is his natural state.
Right now, though, he looks especially pleased with himself, and every time Gage sees his face, another muscle in his jaw starts twitching.
I walk over and stop beside him. "What did you do?"
Jules slides his sunglasses down his nose enough to look at me over them. "You'll need to narrow that question considerably."
"Whatever has Gage two minutes away from burying you under the barn."
His mouth curves, which is answer enough on its own. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Bullshit."
"Well, Tor, maybe he's struggling with the emotional weight of civilization ending."
Across the yard, Gage looks over at us. Jules gives him a cheerful little wave and gets the finger in return.
"Nope, definitely you," I tell him.
"I've been delightful all afternoon."
"That's never been true on any afternoon."
He pushes his sunglasses back into place and keeps smiling. Whatever happened, I'm going to find out eventually. We are about to live together underground, and secrets are going to have a very short shelf life.
Mars comes past me with a crate of jars balanced against his chest and stops long enough to look from Gage to Jules and back again.
"What's with those two?"
"No idea."
"Gage looked ready to put him through a wall an hour ago."
"He still does."
Mars waits a second, and when nothing else comes he shifts the crate higher and keeps walking toward the motorhome.
He's been doing that all day. Every time there's something to lift, carry, load, or tie down, Mars is already halfway to it.
He hasn't taken a break, hasn't asked anyone for anything, and hasn't gone near Luna once since we got here.
I watch him hand the crate up into the motorhome, then turn around and go looking for the next thing.
Reid won't be helping me investigate. The Escalade is parked in the shade of one of the big trees near the house and he’s locked himself inside it with the windows up, the doors shut, and both hands pressed over his eyes.
Reid lasted almost forty minutes after the chicken incident before admitting that Luna's whole let-it-flow-past-you technique isn't enough for this place.
Cows, chickens, Penny, and whatever else has been screaming inside his head since we arrived all got through it anyway.
I knock gently on the passenger window, and one hand lowers enough for him to look at me.
Pointing toward the house, I mouth, "Water?
" He holds up the bottle in his other hand, so I give him a thumbs-up and leave him alone.
There's no point dragging him back into the noise when we have enough people to finish without him.
His magic is doing something none of us understand yet, and this is another reason we need to get settled in one place so we can start figuring it out.
He deserves twenty quiet minutes inside a semi soundproof metal box if that's what his brain needs.
The girls all disappeared about half an hour ago after Elenor declared that nobody was driving another mile until we ate something. Even Briar went with them, although her expression suggested she was being marched toward a public execution instead of a kitchen.
The screen door bangs open, and I turn toward the house as Luna steps out with a large platter piled high with sandwiches. Kara follows with another tray, then Briar with bags of chips tucked against her chest. Elenor brings up the rear carrying a stack of paper plates.
"Food!" Luna calls. "Come get it before Gigi starts assigning portions based on how much she likes you."
"That's not fair," Elenor says as they reach us. "I would never punish someone through food."
Kara glances at her. "You said Julian was only getting half a sandwich if he doesn’t stop being a pest."
"He knows what he did," she says, but there is a big smile on her face when she says it.
Jules points toward Gage. "Why am I being punished when he's the one sulking?"
Gage doesn't even look at him. "Fuck off."
Luna's cheeks immediately turn pink, and my attention sharpens on all three of them. Jules catches me noticing and grins wider, which tells me most of what I need to know about who this is really about.
Before I can start putting the rest of the pieces together, Elenor shoves a plate into my hands. "Eat. We made enough sandwiches for everyone, and before any of you start whining that cold cuts do not qualify as a proper meal, there are two slow cookers full of chili secured in the motorhome."
That distracts me almost as fast as Luna's blush did. "Chili?"
"With beef, beans, peppers and lots of spice. They'll cook while we're driving so we can have a hot meal when we arrive."
My eyes go to the motorhome, hoping to see straight through the walls to the promised food inside. "I think I love you."
"I have that effect on men."
Anders coughs into his fist, Elenor turns slowly toward him, and his ears go red. That is a development none of us are equipped to handle today. Kara sees it too and immediately looks away, pressing her lips together so hard they almost disappear, while Gage makes a strangled noise beside me.
Elenor gives all of us a warning look. I’m careful to keep my expression blank until she looks my way and then smile at her.
She points at me. "You're my favorite today."
"He's getting a whole sandwich?" Jules asks.
"Two if he keeps his mouth shut."
I take a second one off Luna's tray before the offer can be withdrawn.
A sandwich will do for now but the thought of a hot bowl of chili sounds almost obscenely good right now.
I try to remember the last time I ate a meal that wasn't reheated or thrown together from whatever we had on hand. It happened before the moon cracked, back when sitting around a table with food in front of us was so ordinary none of us knew enough to appreciate it. I can’t wait to get back to that.
Luna carries the remaining sandwiches toward one of the hay bales stacked beside the barn and lowers herself onto it. There’s room beside her so I move to take it before anyone else can.
Her shoulder bumps mine when I settle in, and that restless feeling under my skin eases a fraction.
I tear the crust off one corner of my sandwich and glance toward Gage again.
He's standing by the motorhome eating with one hand while glaring at Jules over the top of it, and Jules smiles back at him until the glare gets darker.
I lean closer to Luna. "Do you know what's up with Gage?"
Her expression freezes and her eyes widen as a flush sweeps across her cheeks. Then she stuffs a bite of her sandwich so fucking huge in her mouth I almost laugh.
"That's a lot of sandwich, love."
She chews furiously and shakes her head, so I wait her out. "Would it have anything to do with why Jules looks even more insufferable than usual?"