Everyone goes quiet, their eyes on us.
Luna and I look at one another and nod at the same time, grinning from ear to ear.
“Yes, we’re officially an item,” I say.
“Anexclusiveitem,” Luna says proudly, her tentacles flapping like Animal from The Muppets beating on his drums.
She is too fucking cute.
“Isn’t that a little fast?” my brother pipes up, frowning.
I swear on all that is holy—aka Teagan and Sara and The Indigo Girls—I’m gonna teach my overprotective brother a thing or two. Right here, right now.
With all the sarcasm I can muster, I roll my eyes at him. “Please. Like you’re one to talk, shacking up with Najar faster than you can sayI have a hard-on for men with tentacles.” I cross my arms and level him with a stare that calls bullshit. “So you’renotgoing to harsh on my romantic vibe with Luna unless you want a lengthier verbal ass whooping.”
He flushes guiltily. He hasn’t got a leg to stand on about this, and we both know it.
Luna shakes her head, then leans over to whisper in my ear, “I’m sorry. I love these guys, but men can be so dumb sometimes.”
No shit. Especially older brothers.
I lighten my tone. “Besides, it’s not like Luna and I are getting married tomorrow or anything. We’ve been seeing each other for a hot second, so for now we’ll see where it goes.”
My gut’s already telling me it’s going somewhere amazing.
Luna nods her head enthusiastically, her tentacles swaying happily in the air.
Adorable. The fact that her tentacles can be cute one minute and sexy the next is a bit of a trip, but I’m totally into it.
“Besides,” Luna chimes in, “Gemma and I’ve been talking to each other for a couple of weeks now. This isn’t all that fast. At least, not for lesbians.”
I high-five her.
Felix’s eyes go wide. “How the hell have you been doing that?”
Khephren puffs out his chest proudly. “It’s all thanks to me. I created the FLIRTT system—Frequency Link for Interstellar Real-Time Transmission—to be able to facilitate real-timecommunication from our ship to Gemma’s phone throughthe texting.” He turns to Sasha. “That’s what you call it, right?”
Sasha gives him a fond look and pats one of his tentacles. “Close enough, honey.”
Felix narrows his eyes at Luna. “You’ve been secretly macking on my sister this whole time?”
“You bet your ass I was! Like I was going to waste a golden opportunity.” She takes hold of my hand and brushes a kiss against the back of it. “But to set the record straight, I wasn’t macking on her. I was wooing her with my words.” She beams at me. “Super romantic, right?”
I wink at her. “It got me in your bed—or rather, mine—last night.”
Rambo starts doing a victory loop around the table, beeping merrily as he says, “Yo, Adrian! I did it!”
“Really? Rocky?” I ask Luna, fighting back a laugh.
She shrugs. “I kind of wanted to be Sylvester Stallone when I was younger. It was a phase.”
Imagining her in a woman’s boxing outfit has me ready to swoon. “You’re so fucking cool.”
“Right back atcha,” Luna says.
Rambo pauses near us as if he was waiting for the perfect moment to say, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return.”
Okay, the little droid’s starting to grow on me. The fact that he only speaks in movie lines is a bit daunting but fun. It’s a bit of a game to guess what he’ll say next.
