11. Sunshine
Chapter 11
Sunshine
“ S orry about Talia.” I shook my head. “Everything keeps getting more and more complicated the older we get.”
“That’s the truth.” Julian let out a puff of breath. “We’re all adults, I thought we would have the answers by now.” He sounded as mystified as I felt, and it was a relief. Where was the instruction manual on how to be an adult, anyway?
“Exactly.” I glanced over at Julian. He was only a little bit taller than me, so I had a very close view of his sharp cheekbones and annoyingly kissable pouty mouth. “She used to sit up all night with me.”
It just came tumbling out. Julian was so easy to talk to, which was what had started our friendship to begin with. I’d been visiting Logan’s new catering company shortly after they moved here from Hawaii, and, despite his chipper attitude, I’d known something was wrong. I’d asked him about what they’d seen in Half Moon Bay so far, and we ended up talking for hours.
I bit my lip. “My whole family is pissed at her about the thing with Becca, and it hurt me too, but it’s not as simple as her being a bad friend.”
Julian took my hand and squeezed it. “I hope you don’t mind that I stayed. Leaving seemed…rude.”
“I don’t mind. It’s embarrassing but…” I shrugged.
It wasn’t he didn’t already know my life was a hot mess. What was one more incident?
Besides, a voice whispered, it wasn’t like we were ever going to date.
“Why did she stay up all night with you?” Julian asked, bringing me back to my other train of thought.
“After my parents died. I didn’t handle it well.”
Losing my parents was hard. The nighttime was the worst. My siblings and cousins would be asleep, and I’d wake up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding in my chest, utterly certain someone I loved had died.
“She would stay up with me, on the phone or Internet, and talk to me about boys we liked, what we wanted to do with our lives, or books we read.”
“Oh, babe.” Julian hugged me. I relaxed into his arms and sighed. He felt so warm and safe.
Some of the jagged edges of the stress dissolved.
“Thanks.” I squeezed him and stepped back.
“Can we talk more about this? Later?” He looked hopeful.
I nodded. “Later sounds good.”
I walked him over to their booth. It was technically two booths in one. One side had the calendar and gift baskets that had been donated by local businesses to be raffled off, and the other had a small, raised stage set up. A plastic tub big enough for two people sat next to a few chairs.
Firefighters roamed around, doing the final touches.
Julian raised his hand and then pointed at me. “Everyone, this is my friend Sunshine. Sunshine, this is everyone.”
A woman rolled her eyes. “Very helpful.” She held her hand out. A beta woman maybe a little older than me, she radiated calm competence. “I’m Chloe.”
The rest of the crew introduced themselves, but I immediately forgot their names. Which was probably why Julian didn’t introduce me to everyone all at once.
The only one I remembered was Chuck, and that was because of Julian’s stories. He was exactly like I’d pictured, a middle-aged alpha man with brown hair and a goatee—handsome in a gym rat sort of way, and very full of himself.
The alpha barely glanced at me before looking at Julian. “Thought you said your pack was closed, Kahele.”
The ice bath station seemed like a harebrained idea, but they had a massive poster talking about the health benefits of ice baths and how sitting in ice would raise money for their charity because local businesses pledged donations.
Julian frowned. “When did I say that?”
“You keep telling everyone that hits on you that you like your pack small.” Chuck made it sound like an accusation.
I stifled a giggle. Maybe Chuck had a thing for Julian, hence all his pissy aggression.
“We do like our pack small.” Julian crossed his arms over his chest. “I never said our pack was closed.”
My brain frizzed out. I’d made the same assumption. I’d heard Julian tell people they liked their pack small plenty of times. My mouth dried up and my mind circled the tone in Julian’s voice, of confusion and annoyance, how he had said, ‘I never said our pack was closed’.
I almost asked about Logan telling me years ago they weren’t dating, and then more recently, Luca echoing the same thoughts. They didn’t need the matchmaking services because they weren’t dating.
“This is the same beta you talk to at work all the time and play games with.” Again, Chuck made it sound like Julian was slacking off.
“Right,” Chloe cut in drily. “And you aren’t always texting like ten people. But you’d prefer not to settle down.”
Chuck huffed and stomped off to move tables around.
Julian turned to me. “I’ll see you around seven?”
I nodded, still feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. He said their pack wasn’t closed, but they didn’t need the dating service from Cosmic Bonds. It didn’t make sense to me, and I wanted to ask him now, before the moment was lost forever.
He looked at the booth. “Things should be winding down around then.”
Chloe nodded at me. “You’re going to jump into the ice bath?”
“Julian said he would do it with me.”
“I did.” Julian grinned, his dimples flashing.
“Awesome.” Chloe held up a blue towel with the fire department’s insignia. “I’ll save you one.”
“It’s okay.” I tried not to fidget. Even though everyone was working, it still felt like they were all looking at me. “I can always steal one from Julian later. Let the customers have them.”
Julian and I said bye, and I headed back to the Cosmic Bonds booth.
Stella and her alpha, Evan, were talking about the crystal arrangement, and Luna fiddled with the essential oils. Raina looked at me, and I braced myself.
I didn’t want to talk about it. I was too full of feelings, overstimulated before the day even began.
“I’m sorry.” Raina let out a puff of air. “I didn’t mean to put you between us and your friend.”
“Even if she’s treating you like crap,” Ember muttered.
Raina shot her sister a look before continuing. “If you really want to, we’ll put the cupcakes out. I just thought we all agreed today would be about Cosmic Bonds, not any of the other vendors we work with.”
Raina could make statements like that, and it didn’t fill me with guilt. For all of my cousin’s overbearing need to have everything perfect, she was direct. There wasn’t a passive aggressive bone in her body.
We’d had a meeting and decided we weren’t going to advertise for anyone else today. Not even Talk of the Town, which would have been my pick.
“You’re right, we did.” I rolled my shoulders. “I didn’t expect her to suggest the cupcakes. I’m sorry, I was on the spot, and I couldn’t figure out a way to make everyone happy.”
Raina cocked her head, concern filling her face. She was only two years older than me, but sometimes it felt like those two years made all the difference. “Sunny, you can’t make everyone happy all the time. It’s impossible to try.”
I knew this. And yet, it didn’t stop me from feeling like crap when someone was mad at me.
“She put you on the spot and made it about your friendship, when she should have respected your boundaries.” Raina picked up her planner, the sparkly pink unicorn cover completely at odds with her tough, no-nonsense alpha persona.
Raina gestured with the book. “I shouldn’t have been in Talia’s face, I know she hates it. But it makes me angry how she’s been treating you.”
“It’s okay.” I grabbed my cup of coffee. Jerrick, Stella’s beta, had gone to Grinder’s and brought us all our favorite drinks. “You’re basically my big sister. It’s been really complicated with her lately and I don’t know how to make it less weird.”
“Maybe it would be less weird if she stopped pretending it’s okay she’s still talking to Becca,” Ember piped up. “Just saying.”
I shot my cousin a look.
Ember held up her hands. “I’ll let it drop.” She looked at West. “We ready to go?”
The taller omega nodded. He had silky black hair he kept in a braid that Ember was forever playing with. If anyone else tried to touch his hair they got a death glare, but for Ember he would crawl over broken glass.
Which was how it should be. Ember deserved happiness.
I sighed. We all did.
I finished helping to set up the booth and the rest of the day flew by. People stopped by, making sarcastic jokes about the healing powers of crystals, but still took brochures. A few of them bought crystals and essential oils, and most of them signed up for the free fifteen-minute consultation we were offering to those who donated to the First Responders’ Charity.
Logan stopped by with Luca in tow and dropped off several trays of food. Logan gave me a stink eye, told me to eat, and then left. Luca crowded my personal space again, asking for a personal tour of the grounds soon.
His smolder made my breath come in shorter, and I almost asked him right there what he’d meant by not needing the matchmaking services if his pack wasn’t closed. But we had an audience, so I settled for smiling.
We descended on the food like piranhas who smelled fresh blood. The brisket was charred perfectly, the baked beans magical as ever, and the grilled corn salsa pulled it all together. I went back for seconds of the peach cobbler and then regretted eating so much in the middle of the day.
At the end of the festival, Zephyr waved me off. “Go do your ice bath thing, we’ll break the booth down.”
“Hell, we’re going to watch. The booth can wait.” Ember popped up.
Decided, my entire family walked behind me as I went to meet my fate.