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)
And I scream.
59
LUNA HALE
Headphones on, I listen to a joint playlist that Donnelly created for us, and I wait for him to return to the bunk after his security meeting ends. “Dreams” by The Cranberries makes me smile. I flip over my arm and run my fingers along ink. Lyrics in Farrow’s handwriting.
Being on a tour bus hasn’t sparked major memories of the FanCon from the past. Not many bits or pieces either. Sometimes it feels like a make-believe world where Donnelly and I had so much time together that I’ve forgotten. But then I have these physical reminders in indelible ink.
I hug my arm to my chest and stare out the tiny bunk window. We’ve been stopped for a few minutes, and the landscape isn’t such a blur anymore. Stars twinkle against the moonlit sky, and I press my fingers to the glass and connect a constellation.
And then I tunnel into the luminescence. I go completely still. A memory so jarring—I choke on breath, tears crease the edges of my eyes, and emotions feel more like anchored weights in my belly. My fingers slip off the glass, and I double over from the power of it.
Donnelly…
Ripping my headphones off, I spring out of the bunk in my thin nightgown. I’m half-running into the main area of the bus. All the bodyguards whisper quietly among themselves—but I don’t see Donnelly or Oscar.
O’Malley and the Wreath brothers send me confused looks.
“Donnelly?” I ask.
“He took a walk,” Ian says.
Took a walk? I frown and then remember…we’re parked.
I make a dash to the very front of the bus. No one stops me, which I think is odd until I climb down the steep stairs and see Oscar outside. He’s propped against the hood. He’s staring off in the distance, but his attention veers to me when my bare feet touch the warm pavement.
“Hale,” he greets.
“Where’s—?” I start.
Oscar points towards the sandy flatland, and that’s when I see Donnelly a hundred feet away. The only human among cacti and pricker bushes. And beneath a clear desert sky.
Without thinking, I race towards him.
60
PAUL DONNELLY
My throat is raw, and I’m just looking up. Searching for a better feeling that’ll rid the one in my body. It’s beautiful out here. No place to mope. I wonder if we’re in UFO territory. If I’ll encounter a little green guy, or purple. Hell, aliens might be the color of a tropical Fruit Roll-Up.
Think Luna would like that.
“Donnelly!” Her voice floods my ears.
I twist around and see her running after me. The brightest light in my world is coming towards me. I’m entranced, engulfed into her orb. Her bare feet sink into the desert—her breath rushed, heavy. She pulls up a fallen spaghetti strap of her nightgown when she rolls to a stop in front of me.
“Luna…”
She skims my eyes, which must be bloodshot, and she says very, very quietly, “What are you doing out here?”
I can’t take my gaze off her. “I think I was waiting for an extraterrestrial. Five-foot-five. Light brown hair. Gorgeous amber eyes that I never wanna stop looking into.”
“I’m sorry I took so long.”
“Nah, don’t be.” I clear my throat, but a glassy film is over my eyes. “I’d wait an eternity for you.”
She reaches out and hooks her fingers with mine. “I know what we are…”
I ease. “And what are we, space babe?” I draw her closer, and my hands settle on her hips.
“It’s been written in the stars,” she says with all the love of every timeline, of the past and present and our future. “And this—it can never be unwritten.”
I’m almost knocked back. How could she know…? “You…?”
“I remember.”
A dam ruptures inside me. I fall to my knees. She drops down with me, and she’s holding my face while our tears leak out. I hug her to me. She remembers. I’m crying.
I never imagined she’d remember me on the Hale’s rooftop under a night sky, where I told her we’re written in the stars. I never imagined she’d repeat it back to me.
It’s not heartache that’s tearing through me. It’s the immensity of my love for Luna. Of the hope I’ve been cradling as it explodes into blistering light.
I’ve never experienced anything this powerful in my life.
I cup her cheeks. “You remember,” I choke out, pure elation, joy, love rushing at full-speed into me.
“I remember.” She presses her forehead to mine, her cheeks wet. “I’ve realized…that I could never truly forget.”
I do the only thing that makes sense. I kiss the moon.
61
LUNA HALE
We collide like a comet impacting a planet. We are the Big Bang, destroying and creating all at once. His hands are on my cheeks. My hands grip his hair. Our lips search and seek and we’re teeming with life and energy and discovery.
Not everything is lost.
Not everything is found.
But I am no longer floating. I’ve landed on solid ground, and in the aftermath of my arrival, I’ve been taken into loving arms.