Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 136025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
I sit calmly next to Maximoff, but hearing his dad talk reminds me of the years I spent beside Lo and Lily. And each time he turned to me, talked to me.
Trusted me.
At a café breakfast while we waited for Lily in the bathroom, Lo told me, “I woke up this morning, and I went, goddamn, I’m an adult. It still blows my mind that I lived this long, and Lil and I somehow managed to gift the world those four dorks.” He stared lovingly at his teenage children, a few tables away.
Kinney, Xander, Luna, and Maximoff loudly discussed who was better: Batman or Iron Man.
“Parenting never gets easier,” he said to me. “Not when you love them, and you need to be hard on them, but you’re afraid to break them. And you think you’re doing everything right as a parent because you know what’s wrong, but still, it’s inevitable. We’ll fail. We always do, but if I learned anything in my fucked-up life, it’s that picking ourselves up is what matters. And Lily and I—her and me—we can survive anything. And if we can, they can.” He nodded, then looked to me. “Words of wisdom from an unwise man. Take it or leave it.”
I told him, “It’s better than anything my old man has ever said.”
He put a hand on my shoulder. “No offense, I’d believe you more if you weren’t fighting with him.”
I smiled. “True.” But I tried to find a memory where my father looked at me the way that Loren Hale looked at his kids.
Medicine was supposed to bring me closer to family, but I’d never felt the strength of one until I joined security. Shit, I could feel how deep and connected Lily and Lo were to their kids. It doesn’t surprise me how empathetic Maximoff is when he has parents like that.
On the tour bus, Maximoff digests his dad’s words slowly. “So…” he says. “You want Luna to stay?”
“Do I want her to stay? Hell no,” Lo tells him. “But when she talked to me and your mom, she said she felt internally ‘trapped’—like she couldn’t breathe, and she just needed to get out.”
Fame is a motherfucker. Stifling. And Luna is flighty, restless. With that combination, I’m not that shocked she’d try to leave Philly if the opportunity appeared. And it did with this tour.
I unwrap a piece of gum, and Maximoff lies back on the couch, his legs outstretched over my lap. Phone on his chest. He fixates on the blinking lights.
I wave a hand in front of his face. Come on, wolf scout.
“Huh?” He rubs his eyes.
“Can we FaceTime?” Lo asks, concern in his voice.
“I’m alright.” He licks his lips. “So let me get this straight. Luna is staying here?” He tries to sit up, but he just falls back down.
I restrain a laugh and pop gum in my mouth. He flips me off.
“We’re hoping a short experience away from home will make her feel better,” Lo explains. “One month on the bus, then we’re flying her back to finish homeschooling. And she’s agreed to see a therapist again.” He pauses. “You can say no, Moffy. It’s a lot to handle, and if you’re too stressed—”
“No,” he says quickly. “I mean…no I’m not too stressed, and yes, I want her here. I can take care of Luna, I promise.” Maximoff pinches his eyes. His head is spinning.
“I know you will, bud,” he says strongly. “Hold on.” He hangs up too fast for Maximoff to protest, and then calls back for FaceTime.
“Fuck,” Maximoff groans.
I grab his forearm and pull him to a sitting position. His shoulder against my shoulder, and the phone falls to my lap.
“Do I look like I’m high, honestly?” Maximoff asks me.
I chew my gum, studying his reddened eyes, his ashen cheeks. He’s Maximoff Hale, the chance that anyone—his family or security—would think he’s high would be slim to none.
But truly, he looks 5% high and 95% close to puking.
“You look sick,” I tell him.
“I can go with that.” He angles the phone towards his face. Keeping me out of the frame, and then he answers FaceTime.
Lo pops up on screen. A ten-foot Christmas tree decorated in garland and gold bows twinkle, and a towering cardboard cutout of a twenty-something Connor Cobalt stands behind him, a Santa hat on and scarf around its neck.
In December, that cutout is shifted through the lake house every morning. A tradition for their families. People have Elf on the Shelf. Maximoff has a six-foot-four replica of his uncle.
Lo’s brows cinch. “What happened?” He’s talking about Maximoff’s busted lip.
His eyes widen. Paranoid.
My mouth stretches. Maximoff. I squeeze his knee. Speak, man.
He blinks rapidly a few times. “I’m high.”
Shit.
“What?” Lo laughs. “You’re kidding.”
Maximoff cringes. “I’m not. I ate an edible and it tasted like shit.” He rubs his face. “I can take care of Luna. This isn’t a reflection of the tour…she’s not around drugs or anything. I promise.”