When I entered the bakery the next day, Lynn was standing at the front counter. Her face broke into a large smile as soon as she recognized me. She rushed toward me, her short legs closing the distance in twice as many steps as it would have taken me.
“Hello, Liam.” She grabbed me in a tight hug, squeezing my bruised body before pulling away and grabbing my hands in hers. The intimate gesture had my skin crawling. I wasn’t in the mood for her chipper fucking attitude today.
“I’m so happy you were here to help Luna the other night. I don’t know what we would have done if something happened to her. Thank you so much.”
I forced a hesitant smile at her, glancing around to find Luna standing in the doorway to the kitchen. “It was no problem, really.” I brushed her off.
Lynn’s gaze dropped down to my neck in horror. It was finally starting to heal, but still looked gnarly to anyone who hadn’t seen how it looked before. That paired with my fresh cuts from last night made me look like I couldn’t hold my own in a fight. I hated the attention it drew.
“Oh my goodness, Luna didn’t mention that.”
Her already large eyes widened, and she twisted to direct an accusatory look to Luna, scolding her. Luna just shook her head in response and my stomach flipped at the injustice. If they only knew.
“It’s no big deal, really. You should see the other guy,” I smoothed, another awkward smile taking over my face in a pathetic attempt to ease the tension in the room. Luna shot an apologetic frown toward me as her mother tsked.
“It seems like there was more to this break-in than Luna has led us to believe. I might check into that police report this afternoon to see if I can get the real story.”
She raised a sly brow toward her daughter, and I watched Luna wilt before Lynn turned back to me with a new smile plastered on her face.
“Anyway, Liam. I don’t know how to thank you. Why don’t you let us take you to a nice dinner?”
“That’s really not necessary.”
I’d rather swallow broken glass than sit through a dinner in public with Lynn and I knew how uncomfortable it would make Luna without even looking at her panic-stricken face.
“No, no, it will be good. Luna has been refusing to go out with us lately, so it’ll be refreshing to see her in public again. She needs to get out and rejoin the living. Oh, maybe even Cara can come. You know she’s been dying to see you.”
Lynn looked back over her shoulder at Luna, who moved to stand next to her while she spoke. The wheels turned in Luna’s head, frantically trying to come up with a way out. Frustration toward Lynn’s ambivalence about the situation clawed at me.
Is she really that blind? How is a stranger able to read her daughter’s mind better than she is? And was I really a stranger anymore? It didn’t feel like it.
“Why don’t you just cook dinner at the house, Mom? I’m sure it would be more of a treat for Liam to taste your homemade sauce and raviolis instead of some restaurant’s mass-made version.”
Luna smiled as she complimented, her almond-shaped eyes wide, hoping she would take the bait. Lynn blushed, unaware of the diversion. Ignorant.
“That’s a great idea! Do you like ravioli, Liam? What am I saying? Everyone likes ravioli, especially my homemade ones. Are you available this Saturday? We’d love to have you and I won’t take no for an answer.” The woman was too peppy.
“Well, then I guess I’ll be there.” Another unnatural smile tugged my lips despite the dread curling around my stomach. I didn’t do parents, and this was somehow turning into a meet-and-greet with all the key players in Luna’s life in her childhood home.
“Wonderful. Six p.m.,” Lynn responded before walking over to greet a couple who had just entered the shop.
Luna waved me into the kitchen for privacy, her shoulders slumped.
“I’m so sorry about that. She wouldn’t have been so pushy with you if I hadn’t gotten her all riled up before you came.” The words spilled out in a rush as soon as she had the kitchen door closed behind me. “You can’t ever say no to an Italian woman offering food.”
“No worries.” I shrugged, playing off my own anxieties about it. “What’s for lunch?”
Luna’s face lit up before she caught herself and forced the smile back into her usual, miserable pout. Both looked beautiful on her.
“I thought we could go to Double Dee’s subs. I know it sounds stupid because it’s just a liquor store, but they have the best subs, and Larry is amazing.” She bit her lip, nervously awaiting my approval.
I shoved my hands into my pockets before they lost control the way my mind had and reached out to grab her. I’d never craved physical contact before, yet Luna had me itching to be near her whenever an opportunity presented itself—an everlasting tug to be closer always nagging in the background of our exchanges.
“Let’s go then.”
Oblivious, she led me out the back door and we walked side by side to a dumpy looking liquor store that sat about two blocks away from her bakery in the middle of the residential area. Truthfully, I’d never heard of the place, but she ranted and raved about it the entire way there, defending its appearance and claiming the owner of the dump took good care of her whenever she visited. The returned smile on her face had me following her into the store like a lovesick puppy. I would eat garbage if she asked me with that face.
“So, I know you think I should be telling my parents the whole story about Cooper, but I don’t think any of us are ready to handle that right now,” Luna started her speech as soon as we sat down with our food at one of the small café tables outside of the store.
Her back sat as straight as a rod while the obviously rehearsed words fell from here lips. “I would really appreciate if you just paint this to them as a robbery that you happened to walk in on. It’s just easier this way.”
I took a bite of my sub, grateful for the extra time it bought me to process what she said. She was right, this was the best sub I’d ever had. It didn’t matter what excuse she presented for keeping things from her family, I’d already made my mind up about it anyway.
“If that’s what you’re comfortable with, then that’s what I’ll do,” I finally responded.
Chomping into her own sub, she mumbled, “good,” through her mouthful of food.
“But.” I held my finger up and her face fell. “What are you going to do if your mom gets a copy of that police report? Or when the detective on his case contacts you to come forward with your statement?”
It was my pathetic way at prying for information on the case. She hadn’t mentioned to me if the detective reached out yet, but it sounded like he was trying to build a strong defense. It was only a matter of time. As much as I wanted to see Cooper rot in jail for what he’d done, I couldn’t wait for him to get out and I could really punish the fucker.
“She won’t get her hands on that police report… I’ll make sure of it. And detective Wilson already contacted me about Cooper’s case. I figured I just wouldn’t tell them when I went to court to testify against him,” she stopped, looking down at her sub to avoid my stare. “I was actually hoping maybe you would be willing to go with me, though? You know, since you were there that night and heard whatever Cooper had said beforehand. Unless you don’t want to, that’s okay too.”
My first instinct was to say no. People like me didn’t go to court unless they were ordered to, and I had never been on the other side of a case. I considered what it meant that she was asking me to play such a supportive role. The tug of being needed felt unnatural, but I was willing to try. For her.
“I’ll be there,” was all I said about it, hoping that was enough.
“Good.” Luna nodded, scarfing down the rest of her sub with dressing dripping off her chin and seeping through her fingers.
I hadn’t ever seen a woman eat so carelessly in front of me before, and I probably would have been disgusted by it, had it been anyone else but her. Instead, I sat across from the beautiful creature before me, counting my lucky stars—or whatever corny shit you counted when things were going your way. Without either of us realizing it, she was saving me, pulling me out of the grave I was buried alive in and breathing life into my collapsed lungs.