13. Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
Carson
My parents don’t fucking understand how serious this is.
“Just calm down, son,” my dad says, guiding me to sit on the front step.
“I’ve got to find her,” I say, pulling away from him. “She could be anywhere!”
My mom taps around on her phone, looking at the cameras on the property.
She gives my dad a funny look before telling me what she’s found.
“I’m sorry, baby, but it looks like she packed up and took off around four this morning.
” She hands me her phone. A video from their front porch shows Luna pulling out onto the main road in the dark of night.
“Okay, so she couldn’t have gotten terribly far.” I glance at my watch, but inside I’m dying because she could be hundreds of miles away by now.
“Do you have any idea of where she might be headed?”
I fall to the step, burying my face in my hands.
“Where is your brother?” my mother asks.
Cole pulls into the driveway as if she summoned him, followed by our friend Carver. I jump from my seat and head toward them.
“Luna left,” I tell him, throwing my hands in the air.
He looks at Carver. “Follow this road and it will lead you back to our place. We’ll meet you there to unload the bikes.”
“Did you hear me? Luna is gone!” I yell.
“Yeah, I heard you. Why are you so surprised? She’s a wanderer. Did you really expect her to stay?”
Carver rests his foot on the bumper of his truck, watching the two of us with more interest than I’ve ever seen him show in anything.
“What the fuck are you looking at?” I ask him, walking to the back of his trailer to unload my bike so I can search for her.
His wild brown eyes follow me. “Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible for the two of you to disagree on anything.”
“We aren’t disagreeing. He just doesn’t realize the urgency because he hasn’t spent enough time with her.”
My brother laughs. “If you didn’t hog all of her attention then maybe I’d have a clue as to what makes you think she’d want to stay here. She didn’t even want to stay with her own brother in Cheyenne.”
“Go on and get ready for your appointment,” my father says to our mother, urging her back toward their house. “I’ll handle this.”
He gives her a kiss on the forehead before gently turning her around on the sidewalk.
“Unbelievable, if this was anyone else’s woman the whole damn club would be out looking for her right now.”
Cole laughs. “You think she’s your woman?” He pretends to look around the yard. “If that were true, she’d be here right now, not halfway across the state on the run.”
My dad grabs me when I jump from the trailer, making a beeline for my brother. Carver steps in too, pushing Cole back. “That’s enough,” he and my dad bark at the same time.
“Maybe if you would have been a little kinder to her, she wouldn’t have felt like she wasn’t welcome here,” I yell at Cole.
My dad gets right in my face, blocking my view of my twin.
“This isn’t going to bring her back.” He places his hand on the back of my head, shaking it lightly.
“I will help you find her, but getting worked up like this isn’t going to help.
You need to get your wits about you. Your brother isn’t your enemy. ”
He’s right. I’m just worried about her. She’s been alone for so long, and she doesn’t have to be anymore.
Carver and Cole are having a hushed discussion, and I’m sure he’s telling him the same thing. My brother and I don’t fight often … ever.
Something behind me pulls my dad’s attention away.
Gravel crunches under tires, and I turn, finding Luna pulling up behind Carver’s trailer.
Dad smacks me lightly on the cheek, forcing me to look at him. “I see how much you care for this girl, but you need to rein it in. I didn’t raise you boys to be hotheads. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.” I look back at her van as the driver’s door opens and she jumps out. “I just don’t want her to be alone anymore.”
“That’s something she needs to decide for herself, son.”
Luna walks toward us, shielding her eyes from the sun. She looks at my dad for a full two seconds before resting her eyes on me. “I’m sorry I left without telling you. Knee-jerk reaction,” she tells me honestly.
“It’s okay,” I say, even though I was definitely not okay with the thought of never seeing her again.
“I was scared, but …” she pauses, glancing at my brother before she continues, “but I got a flat tire, and had to pull over.” She points to the donut on her van.
“Anyway, it gave me time to think about things and about where I wanted to go. My mind kept taking me back to the same place. Well, not really a place, but a person.”
She gives me a nervous smile, then studies the ground.
I know my dad told me I had to keep my cool, and he’s right. I need to keep my head on straight for her, but I’m not about to hide my feelings.
I reach for her, placing my hand on her cheek and tipping her head back slightly. “I really hope the person you’re talking about is me, because it will help ease my embarrassment over losing my fool head over finding you gone.”
“That’s an understatement,” my dad says under his breath.
Her grin widens, but her eyes sparkle in the sun with unshed tears. “How can you miss someone you just met?”
“We didn’t just meet. Don’t you remember the plans we made before coming to this planet?”
She giggles. “The one where I agreed to deliver you a pizza to get your attention?”
“That’s the very one.”
My dad chuckles, shaking his head and walking away. “Cole, take Carver and go on up and get those bikes unloaded, then you need to come back by here and pick up your brother for church.”
“He can’t drive himself?” my brother asks.
Dad doesn’t say anything, and I assume Cole got the don’t argue with me look from him. No answer is the answer. Vehicles start around us, but Luna and I don’t break eye contact.
Everything in the world is perfect right now.
My soulmate is back, and she finally recognizes me.
I lean down and place my lips at the very corner of her mouth. Her breathing picks up, but she doesn’t pull away.
Her fingers hesitantly land on my chest.
“It’s okay. I’m glad you came back,” I whisper against her skin.
Her fingers begin to curl into my shirt.
“Next time you want to leave, we do it together. Promise you won’t leave me behind.”
Just like the moonflower, my heart will die when the thing that awakened it disappears from the sky.
Her head tilts back and she looks at me. “You’d leave for me?”
“Absolutely.”