“Finally.I am so happy for you two.”
“Thanks, Mrs.Vaughn.”
“Oh my God, no.Call me Lizzie.”
Lizzie.Jake.Samara.
Ellery.
He joined them at the breakfast table, ordering French toast and fruit and coffee.He sat beside Ellery on the boat to Hermosa Key, his hand linked with hers as the sea splashed around them.To them, he was Ellery’s new, adoring boyfriend.It all felt normal…good.Like this was where he was meant to be.
The next three days passed that way too.In a blur of happy bustle and nights entangled with Ellery.No one demanded any explanations.No one protested or put up barriers.
He wanted it to go on forever.He had always been a bit of a lone wolf, content to be himself and make his own way, not sure he ever really wanted someone to share his story with.That was one of the biggest differences between him and Casper.His brother had always been open, guileless, flitting from relationship to relationship.Not Dante.It was safer, easier, to keep himself to himself.
Ellery was different.The only thing frightening him was that it might not last.
Now they were back in Key West, only a few hours to go before they had to fly back to Los Angeles.
She sat beside him at the tattoo parlor, paging through a magazine.“Since when do you readSouthern Home Living?”he asked.
She laughed and tossed her hair over one shoulder.“Since my parents moved to Florida and you’ve locked me in to the next three hours of sitting here.”
“You don’t have to stay.”
“Please.I don’t want to be anywhere else.”She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
“Okay, I’m going to start now.Take some deep breaths.”The tattoo artist, a voluptuous woman whose online portfolio had some of the most original and breathtaking designs Dante had ever seen, turned on the tattoo machine.The buzzing filled the shop, and he grimaced against the pain.
It swallowed the buzz of Ellery’s phone, but he could feel it vibrate through the chair.Maybe it was the tattoo gun piercing him with paint, but the vibration filled him with despair.Something was going to happen, something he was not going to like.
Maybe if he didn’t mention that her phone was ringing, she would ignore it.Whatever she was reading in her magazine clearly held her attention.
The tattoo artist paused and swiped away some of the excess blood and paint.
During the lull, Ellery’s phone buzzed again, twice this time, as if in reprimand.She rolled her eyes and slipped it from her pocket.Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped open.
“What is it?”Dante asked, though he didn’t really want to know.The dread held him fast.
“It won’t hurt so much if you relax,” the tattoo artist told him gently.
He mumbled an apology, but his gaze was fixed on the mute Ellery.
Shaking her head, she closed her eyes and handed him the phone.
With the hand not being tattooed, Dante held the phone and looked at the messages on the lock screen.Both were from Logan.
Good news.Got you an audition for America Sings
The hand holdingthe phone went numb as he watched Ellery dance in joy around the tattoo parlor.
CHAPTER17
“Black Moan Rising,” original version
There’sa black moan rising o’er the horizon
There’s a black moan groaning from my soul
