“How about we call Eli first? He’ll know what to do.”
“I got the license plate of the car the guy was driving too,” she told me.
I groaned, just as my phone rang. “Oh there, see? He’s calling.” As I was about to answer it, a wave of fear washed over me, and it was ridiculous. Why was I afraid of what he was going to say? “Hi,” I greeted him.
“Hey,” he said sweetly. “Where are you supposed to be?”
I cleared my throat.
“Hi, Eli,” Luna said loudly from beside me. “We might have a lead!”
“Okay, so I might have forgotten your mandate from last night, but in my defense—”
“I’ll be right there,” he said and hung up.
She looked at me expectantly.
“He’s on his way.”
“Does he have you LoJacked or something? How does he know where you are?”
“I suspect he’s tracking my phone,” I whispered, leaning back in my seat, hands over my face. “And you should say any last words right now, because he’s going to murder me when he gets here.”
She didn’t say anything, and when I moved my hands and looked at her, she was trying hard not to laugh.
“What?”
“You and Eli have been dating for three years,” she insisted. “I just think someone should let you know.”
I shook my head.
“Did you want me to break the news to him too?” she asked, chuckling. “I mean, someone should clue him in as well. I’m more than happy to help.”
Perhaps I’d missed something important.
“Men,” she whispered.
Luna paid the check,which was nice of her, and we waited outside, looking like we were homeless.
“Oh look, there he is,” Luna announced, pointing down the street to where Eli had gotten out of the passenger side of a nondescript sedan and was walking toward us. “I like that peacoat,” she volunteered. “He could model with those shoulders and his height, you know. I like the walk too. Big fan of a man with a swagger.”
So was I.
“Have his eyes always been that dark?”
“He’s mad,” I said, girding, straightening up, ready for the yelling.
But he walked right up to me, took gentle hold of the back of my neck, and pressed me forward, tucking my face into the hollow of his throat. I could feel the shiver run through him.
“I’m sorry I left the apartment,” I murmured, wrapping my arms around his waist, loving that in our new state—we were dating, after all—I could hug him and lean in and be as close as I’d always wanted to be, all the time. “But if I hadn’t, Lu would have never let me know she had a lead.”
He exhaled a deep breath, then turned so he could drape his arm around my shoulders. He took gentle hold of Luna’s bicep and led us down the sidewalk toward the car, where Jer was now standing outside the driver’s door, leaning on the roof.
“Who’s that big, beautiful man?” Luna asked me.
“That’s Jer, and he’s married.”
“Married is fine.”