I didn’t want to hope. Not yet. “And my brother? I have a feeling you are close with them?”
She looked guilty but eventually nodded. “We have always been friends. They came out to Boston to see me sometimes. I told them to promise me they wouldn’t tell you anything about me. I wasn’t ready to forgive you. I wasn’t ready to face you.”
“And now?” I asked, my voice hoarse. The next words that left her mouth determined my fate.
“I’m not ready to trust you, Easton. You really hurt me. I’m trepidatious, but I’m willing to try to trust you again, as the man you are today, not the boy you used to be. The world keeps bringing me back to you…I…” She lifted a shoulder, not knowing how to explain it. “It’s maddening, but sometimes we have to face our pasts to get to our future, right?”
“I’ll never hurt you again, Luna.”
“Don’t,” she shushed me, placing a finger over my mouth. “Let’s not talk about that right now. I just want you to get better. Everything else can wait.”
“Are you kidding? I’ve waited long enough.” I wanted nothing more than to talk to her for hours and get to know her all over again, but pain was making me ornery and tired. My patience was thin. “Kiss me,” I said.
She did that cute smile that I loved, the one where she bit her lip to stop herself from showing how happy she was. Luna shook her head. “I’m not kissing you for the first time in a hospital bed, Easton.”
“The first time isn’t going to be the last time. You better remember that, Luna. Promise me you won’t back out on me,” I asked, needing to hear her say that she would really give me a second chance. My eyes started to droop, and sleep started to grab me and pull me under.
“I promise,” she whispered.
“Really?”
“Forever and ever, Easton Moore.”
Forever and ever, Luna Nightingale.
Chapter Thirteen
Luna
It had been two weeks since the fire.
Two weeks of visiting Easton and Ethan. Ethan was still in a medically induced coma, and Easton was healing at a quick rate. I wasn’t surprised. Easton always did things quickly.
I felt better too.
It was like a part of me healed the day of the fire. I hated that it had to be something life-threatening to shake me out of my bitter stupor, but I was lucky that Easton got a second chance at life, and maybe we could have a second chance too.
I was still scared and apprehensive about us. He wasn’t. He charged full speed ahead, making plans for us way in the future, and it scared me because I wanted to take things slow.
Sloth slow.
And Easton was fast, like a cheetah, ready to run as quickly as he could.
I couldn’t keep up.
Today, I was picking Easton up from the hospital. How I even got roped into this, I didn’t know. One moment, the doctor was asking who was getting him, and his mom went to say she was, but I butted in, shouting that I would do it. I held my hand over my mouth like I had been caught speaking out of turn or something. His mom just winked at me and then left the room to visit Ethan.
I was nervous.
“Girl, you are sweating up a storm. It’s gross. Calm down,” Oliver said as he swept the floor of the boutique. We just got rid of a few glass cases and now the floor was clear.
“I can’t help it,” I swallowed. My throat was so dry. This wasn’t a good idea. “Maybe I should call his mom after all? We have been in a bubble, Oliver. Easton and I, when we are out in public, it will be different. I don’t know—”
“You have to stop being scared. Not just of him, but of any potential men you want to date. You need to move on and if that’s with Easton, great, if not, sucks for you because that man is fine,” Oliver sang into the end of the broomstick as if it were a microphone, and I laughed. He leaned against the broom and let his shoulder fall as he sighed. Oliver leaned the red broomstick against the wall and sauntered over to me, swaying his tiny hips. He grabbed my hands and then tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. “You’ll be okay. It’s time, honey. Easton was meant for you. He was an asshole, but guess what? He isn’t now. At least, not to everyone, to his brothers for sure, but he has been nothing but kind when London and I always gave him the cold shoulder. It’s okay to try to be happy with him. What is the worst that could happen? You break up? It’s not like you’re in school now. People can’t hurt you.”
Oliver was right.
There was no reason for me to be scared anymore. Now, it was just about taking a chance. Easton was always special. I always thought he would be my first kiss, my first love, my first everything. Time had other plans. Maybe we needed to grow into other people, better people, different people to really love each other the way we wanted.