Just as I'm picking up another delicious savory pastry, Ben's phone rings. I catch Asher's name emblazoned across his screen, and Ben hesitates to answer it for a second. "Go talk to him," I whisper, careful to make sure that Connor is facing in the other direction.
"Okay." Ben struggles to his feet and heads for the door, and I decide to follow. Someone else needs to monitor this exchange because it could get heated, and there is no way that a woman, even one as special as Luna, should come between us all.
Outside the dressing-room door, Ben frowns at me. He's annoyed that I'm not leaving him to handle this, and maybe he's slightly justified. Mainly he just has a chip on his shoulder, imagining he’s less of a man since he lost his leg.
If he'd only realize that a man's worth comes from inside him, he'd be a lot happier.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" he hisses into the phone. Not the friendliest greeting that Asher will ever have received.
I lean closer, trying to hear Asher's response. "She asked me to draw her. She pushed me and I…I couldn't resist," he says. "Now I don't know what to do."
"Yes, you do," Ben says gruffly. "You know exactly what to do, but you don't want to do it. You have to tell Connor, and you have to insist that it was a one-off with Luna. She has to know, or this is going to get messy."
"It already got messy," Asher says.
"Are you seriously deciding your future with your cock?"
"I don't know…you don't have to tell me." Asher sounds worn down and tired, even though he's probably the most rested of all of us right now.
"Just…just…" Ben seems lost for words, and I don't blame him.
"Yeah. Just is about the only word I can think of right now." Asher exhales noisily, making the phone crackle with white noise.
"Maybe one of us should talk to Luna," I whisper. "Find out what she's planning."
Ben nods. "How about I talk to Luna," he relays. "Find out what she's thinking."
"I guess," Asher says. "I won't be able to speak to her until later. I mean, we talked after, but she didn't want to go into anything serious. I just wanted to be able to stay with her…you know, treat her like she deserves to be treated, but after you disturbed us, I knew it was too risky."
"I'll talk to her," Ben says.
"Okay. And don't say anything to Connor. If anyone is going to tell him, it's going to be me."
When Ben lowers his phone, swiping to end the call, he shakes his head. "What the fuck was he thinking?"
"Heat of the moment," I say. "He was rushing to not get caught."
"That worked out well on all counts," Ben snorts.
"So, what do you think Luna's going to say?"
"I have no idea. I don't even know if I'll be able to catch a moment with her alone without drawing attention to myself."
"Maybe Elijah can cause a distraction?"
"Good idea."
Ben re-enters the dressing room with renewed purpose. Luna has already emerged from the bathroom dressed in a plush black robe, with her wet hair wrapped in a towel turban. The hairdresser is new – a very stylish Greek dressed in designer jeans and a white button-up shirt that’s left undone at the collar. He’s unpacking all the tools of his trade, humming a tune I don’t recognize.
"Take a seat, my darling," he says, with a roll to his r's, his dark eyebrows rising expectantly. "I'm gonna make you look beautiful."
Luna sits, distracted by her phone. I try to stand close enough to look at her screen over her shoulder, but it isn't easy. I want to find out if she’s messaging Asher but she's swiping through fast and typing in a really small font. Tutting under her breath, she begins dialing a number.
"Greg. What is it?" Her tone is clipped and frustrated.
A man's voice rumbles through the phone, but not loud enough for me to hear. The hairdresser begins combing through Luna's wet hair and she's blocked from my view.
"What?" Luna snaps. "But Tyler promised me he'd look after her."
There's more rumbling chatter before Luna responds, swiping away the hairdresser's hand so she can focus. "Which hospital?" When she hears the answer, her hand flies to her face and rubs over her forehead. "I'm going to have to come home," she says.
Connor's ears prick, and the hairdresser catches my eyes in the mirror, raising his eyebrows and shrugging his shoulders, more excited by the gossip than he is concerned about Luna. We all know that she’s contracted for this tour.
"I'm going to come home," she says again, as though Greg is arguing with her on the other end of the line.
"But she needs me," Luna says, tears welling in her eyes. The sight of her distress feels like a shard of glass to my heart. I never was good at witnessing women cry. Instinct takes over, and I drop to my knee, taking her free hand. It's what I would do when my mom or sister was upset. Just the silent reassurance was enough to get them through difficult times. Luna blinks with surprise, then stares down at my hand wrapped around her slender fingers. She doesn't draw away through. "Tyler should have done better," she says. "Can you send me regular updates? I want to know if anything gets worse…okay thanks."
Dropping the phone into her lap, she inhales a shaky breath. "Are you okay?" I murmur. When she shakes her head, I squeeze her hand just for a second. "We're here," I say. "If you need anything."
"My mom's sick," she says, then shakes her head. "She's sick because she started taking drugs again." Her throat moves as she tries to swallow down her emotion. "She promised me she wouldn't go back."
I nod, holding her pretty green eyes with my own. "We can all make promises. Sometimes we keep to them, and sometimes we don't. But always, we disappoint ourselves the most."
"She doesn't care," Luna says. "She never has."
I shrug gently. "We aren't all strong. Some of us have weakness and emptiness inside that we try to hide or fill with other things. Pray for her…if not to God, then to the universe. Ask for her to be filled with light and positivity. It's all you can do, sweetheart because we can't fix what is broken without help."
Luna nods, reaching out to touch my thumb with her free hand. "Thanks," she says. "I'll be okay."
Smiling, I squeeze her hand again, moving to stand so that the hairdresser can get on with his job. But even as I flop onto the sofa in the corner, I can't forget the feel of her skin against mine or the pain in her eyes.
Asher has taken a step over the line, but he's not the only one who wants to hold this girl close and fill her life with happiness. There's a long line of men behind him.
13
LUNA
All the way through my performance, my mind is whirring. My mom is in hospital. Again. I trusted my brother to look out for her, and he's allowed the very thing I didn't want to happen. He's allowed her to go back to her old ways. He's let her hurt herself, and, in the process, he's hurt me. I paste on a smile as I belt out a trivial song about a cheating ex who isn't even real, dancing so fast that my heart feels like it's going to beat out of my chest. I'm aching between my legs too—a memory of another mistake that has bruised my emotions.