Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Disbelief touches her. “You’re so full of light without me.”
“I’ve lived to find you,” I breathe. “You are my light side, Luna Hale.”
Her chin quivers, and she holds me around the waist.
Our future. We’re not spelling it out. She’s not asking where I see myself in five to ten years. But I’d have an answer.
I’d say, with her.
With Luna.
It’s simple, I know. But for me, drawing Luna has never been some basic, plain picture. It’s so alive. I can almost smell and taste the composition of her. It’s a billion cosmic scents captivating me.
Luna has hopped up on the sink counter. Feeling better, she’s nibbling the bagel I made. I only left the bathroom to grab it. The Cobalt brothers have reignited the same argument in the tour bus’s lounge.
“Eliot can’t put it to rest,” Luna whispers to me. “He’s most used to stoking the flames, not extinguishing them.”
“Charlie could end it. Just apologize for sending Ben on a wild goose chase.”
“I think he’s hoping Ben will be so annoyed with him, he’ll just drop out.”
“That’s not a very nice brotherly thing to do.” I tiptoe around calling him shitty because A.) he’s Beckett’s twin. And B.) he’s become a friend to Luna, strangely.
I value friendships, and I’m not gonna knock hers.
“Maybe it’s his way of trying to protect Fizzle,” Luna shrugs.
Still, what Charlie did would irk me too. Ten-minutes before the photo shoot, he told Ben that Chett Prickner needed him to pick up his dry cleaning. Ben missed the photo op since Chett never sent his laundry there, and he never even gave Charlie those instructions to begin with.
It was a lie to derail Ben.
He succeeded. Ben looked like a flake to the board.
Worst part is, Ben trusted his older brother, and Charlie shot a hole through that trust.
“You shouldn’t have believed me!” Charlie yells, and our heads swing to the shut door. The fight on the other side. “Why would Chett ever ask you to pick up his laundry? He has a personal assistant for that, Ben. You’re competing to be the CEO, not a fucking errand boy. What if Gunther asked you to take coffee orders for mid-level employees? Would you do that too? Would you get down on your knees if Adaline insisted?”
“Moffy would’ve done the same thing!”
Luna slides off the counter, hearing her brother’s name. She opens the door, and we look out at Eliot standing cautiously between both brothers.
“Precious Moffy,” Charlie mocks.
Luna has bristled, her nose crinkling.
Charlie sees her, then my disappointment. Guy doesn’t deserve a bagel for the Maximoff slander. That’s my best friend’s husband. My girlfriend’s older brother.
He exhales a tight breath. “Moffy is nice and so far from naïve,” he tells Ben. “You’ve never seen him in the corporate world. He’s forceful and persuasive. He’s not the wrecking ball. You are.”
I feel around my neck for my mic cord and earpiece hanging over my shoulder. Took it out when I was in the bathroom. I’m so close to radioing Oscar in the other bus.
Ben lunges for Charlie.
“Whoa!” Eliot yells, pushing him back. “Brothers!”
“Let’s breathe together,” I suggest. “Heard meditating makes your dick grow an extra inch.” It’s a joke that falls extremely flat.
Tough crowd.
I lift Luna’s wrist and bite into the bagel in her hand. She smiles over at me, but it vanishes as Ben groans out, “You’re not even giving me the chance!”
“You don’t even want it,” Charlie sneers.
“You don’t know that!”
“Drop out!!”
“Why don’t you?!” He tries to bulldoze Eliot to reach Charlie, but Eliot is strong enough to physically corral his brother.
Charlie shoots back, “If you can’t hear this shit from me, how are you going to hear it from anyone else?” He didn’t just hit a nerve, he hacked at it.
“Ow,” Luna winces.
Ben’s face breaks, anger doubling, tripling. “Did it ever fucking occur to you that I’d rather hear it from anyone else?!” he screams. “Did it?! Maybe I don’t want to hear it from my own brother!”
Eliot speaks urgently to Ben in French.
“Relax?” Ben growls. “Why am I always being told to relax?! Why is no one ever telling him to shut the fuck up?”
“I’ll make this easy for you,” Charlie says. “Since you seem to want tricycle wheels.” He beelines for the front of the bus and speaks to Ian behind the wheel.
Comms sound off in my ear. “SFE lead to Oscar, Charlie’s requesting to stop the bus. I’m pulling over.”
“Everything okay?” Oscar asks.
Ian doesn’t reply since he’s dealing with hauling this massive vehicle to the side of the road. I do the proper thing and alert my friend.
I click the mic and whisper, “Ben and Charlie fight.”
“Fists?” Oscar asks.
“Nah. Harsh words though.” Luna peers out of the window. Nevada’s desert provides a beautiful but desolate landscape. The bus’s headlights illuminate dirt as we pull onto the side of the road.