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)
“We can make long distance work, Luna,” he says.
“I know that,” I whisper. “I know that.”
He pulls back to see my face. “Then why not try it out? If it’s easier on you—”
“It won’t be easier for me to be away from you,” I say quietly. “What would be easier is if I went to New York and didn’t go to an Ivy. The course load would be manageable on top of everything else.”
He considers this. Embers eat the paper of his cigarette. “You really wanna live in New York, babe?”
“I really want to live with you,” I profess. “I want to stay in the same spaceship and make the landing together.”
“Well, when you say it like that,” he says, a grin edging across his mouth. “Which planet you think we’ll be touching down on? Yours or mine?”
It’s the clearest answer in the sky. Maybe it’s always been there. Already written in the stars.
“Ours,” I smile up at him. “This time, it’ll be ours.”
79
PAUL DONNELLY
Oscar and Farrow carry handfuls of beer bottles at the neck, bringing them over to a wooden high-top table near me. I’m unpacking my tattoo machine and ink on a lower round table that I already sprayed with disinfectant.
The Philly billiards bar is closed until July. We got special permission from the owner to use the space for security today. “Anything you need from us,” Oscar asks me.
“Keep this area free of pussycats, please and thank you.” I count the individually wrapped pre-sterilized needles I brought for this special occasion.
Oscar shoos a stray tabby out from under the table. “This can’t be sanitary.”
“Brewery cats are a thing,” Farrow says, his arm relaxed on the high-top.
“Yeah, they chase the rats away,” I slip on thin-framed reading glasses. “Don’t see McKenna anywhere.”
“Good riddance.” Oscar tips his beer to his lips at that major firing. We heard Akara and Price made McKenna cry on his way out the proverbial door. He’s being sued for breaking his contract, and they’ll be squeezing a pretty penny out of him. I hope it deters any newbies from running their mouths for an easy buck.
I snap on gloves, careful about the order of operations here. Cleanliness is the most important thing to me when I tattoo. Art always comes second.
“Look at that,” Oscar nods to the bar.
I cast a grin in that direction. Where a six-foot-seven Moretti draws the bartender over the counter mid-conversation and kisses the hell outta her.
“Thatch, already hitting on the owner,” I say loudly enough everyone can hear.
Jane smiles brightly against the kiss and laughs, which causes Thatcher to pull back and shoot me a strict, reprimanding look for breaking his make-out time with his wife.
“What?” I smirk. “You don’t like facts now? Thought they’re your favorite thing.”
Thatcher starts to smile and returns his attention to Jane.
We’re not at just any billiards bar. We’re at the billiards bar in Center City—the one that stinks of fried tater tots and Marlboros. The one where security has spent late nights unwinding and chalking cue sticks and sipping watery tap beer. The one that stays open past closing if you’re having a bad night. The one where many have tried to run us out for being “from L.A.” when we’re all born and bred in this great state of PA.
It’s The Independent.
Jane Eleanor Cobalt saved it from becoming a Taco Bell, a Chipotle, some fast-foodery chain with no heart or history inside Philly. And she’s expressed her wishes to keep it exactly how it’s always been.
With the addition of any lost cat.
Today, she’s just a temporary bartender until the official reopening, but Luna said she could see Jane filling in wherever necessary when the bar is short-staffed. That it’s just in her nature to do many things and help when needed.
“So what’s the deal with New York?” Oscar asks me.
“Besides your favorite person moving back there?”
“Jack Arizona Highland-Oliveira. You mean that favorite?”
“Nah, meant myself, but I can make some room for this Jack guy.” I’ve missed spending time in New York with Oscar. Those days protecting Beckett feel like a lifetime ago now. I really didn’t think I’d ever go back—especially while in a serious relationship.
“This Jack guy,” Oscar repeats with a shake of the head. “Seriously, bro. Should I be popping a bottle of champagne and toasting to you coming to New York or do I need to include Luna in the toast too?”
“I’m going,” I tell him. “That’s all we know for sure.”
After a lawyer examined Fizzle’s contract, Luna made a counteroffer—which included a stipulation that she could complete the remainder of her undergrad education at Manhattan Valley University. Where Xander will be.
To have both the girl I’m in love with and her brother that I’m protecting on the same campus—it’s the dream scenario. I just can’t see how hard the board will fight to have Luna remain in Philly.