She’d said it as a joke, but Henry’s expression changed, and her jaw dropped.
“Youdo! Oh my God. You’re a man of mystery, Henry Grant.” She prodded his arm, shivering a little at the contact. “Well, go on then. Nothing you could say now would shock me.”
Henry seemed to struggle internally for a moment, before he shrugged in resignation.
“Would you believe me if I said that someone had cursed me to be followed around by animals wherever I go?”
“At this point? Yeah, probably.” Luna frowned. “Although I haven’t seen any evidence of that. I mean, Fillmore loves you, and he normally hates everyone… but that’s just one dog, and he’s a weirdo.” She glanced down at Fillmore, who glared back. “Sorry, buddy, but it’s true.”
Fillmore turned his back on her with awhuffand lifted a paw up to Henry, who obligingly scooped him up.
“It’s weird,” Henry said musingly as he rubbed Fillmore’s little round belly. “It doesn’t seem to happen when I’m around you. That bear came right up to your bedroom window while you were gone, but I haven’t had any other close encounters since.”
“Huh.” Luna rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Being followed around by animals didn’t seem like too much of an issue on the surface beyond constantly being distracted by the cuteness… but she supposed it would get annoying pretty quick. Or downright scary!
“So the bear wasn’t just a regular bear going for a walk in the woods then?” she asked.
“Normally I’d say so,” Henry replied. “But after the last few weeks, I’m pretty sure it was there because of this curse, or whatever it is. I think it might have been what made Fillmore go crazy and jump all over me. But he hasn’t done that again – and the only difference is that every time I’ve seen him since then is when I’ve been with you.”
“Maybe we could test this theory,” she suggested. “We can go for a walk around town, and see if the animals come up to you if I move away from you? It won’t actually solve anything, but it would be good to know if my presence did at least help. And if it does,” she said, with a wicked smile, “well, I guess I’ll just have to stickrealclose to you until we can sort it out.”
Henry nodded, though he looked a little flustered, a blush rising on his cheeks. “Sounds good to me. I can’t believe how well you’re taking this, though.”
“Really, this is the least shocking thing you’ve told me,” Luna shrugged. “But I can see how it’d be… well, less than convenient, let’s say.”
“Yeah,” Henry said, grimacing. “Getting work when you’re a hellhound is hard enough. Having animals cozying up to you on the job doesn’t exactly make things any easier. And as much as I’d love to have your company, I’m not sure it’d be great for your career – or life – to have to be glued to my side forever.”
Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, actually,Luna wanted to say, but she didn’t want to seem like she was making light of Henry’s problem.
Instead, she grinned. “No need to be so gloomy! We’ll work it out, I’m sure. We’re a team, now. And also we have cake, so things can’t bethatbad. Speaking of…” She gestured at the range of perfect cakes laid out before them. “You haven’t had anything yet. I’m not going to be the reason you get denied again. Which one do you want to try first?”
Apparently the prospect of cake was enough to distract Henry, because his face brightened as he looked the sumptuous spread over.
“It’s a hard choice… but I think I’ll take this one. It’s the one I most wanted to try.”
He was looking at the perfectly miniature angel cake, and Luna had to agree that it was an excellent choice. Decorated with a little puff of whipped cream and a drizzle of some sort of delicious-looking jelly, it looked mouth-wateringly good.
Carefully she shifted the cake onto Henry’s plate, and he picked up the tiny fork in his oversized hand, before delicately cutting off a small piece of cake. It looked incredible – super light and fluffy – and Luna watched as Henry raised it to his mouth, closing his eyes in happiness as he chewed.
“Oh,wow,” he murmured, eyes still closed. “That isgood.”
Luna smiled as she watched him eat. Really, was there anything better than seeing someone you cared for enjoying themselves? As much as she was dying to try the cake, she was even happier to watch Henry enjoying it instead.
But it wasn’t long before he opened his eyes and picked up his fork again. “Youhaveto try this,” he said, as he scooped up a new forkful of the delicate, creamy cake. “Seriously. It’s unbelievable.”
Well, Luna decided, Henry definitely didn’t have to tell her twice – she opened her mouth, allowing him to guide the fork with its little hunk of cake straight to her lips.
“Oh my God,” she mumbled as she chewed. “Thatisgood. What do you think they –ARGH!”
She didn’t get to finish asking her question. Just as she was about to ask what Henry thought they put in the cake to make it so good, she heard a suddencrack!and, before she knew it, she was lying on her back on the floor, blinking up at the ceiling, totally at a loss as to what had just happened.
Fillmore, who had been sitting to one side of the table, was looming over her with concern, his tongue lolling, bulging eyes wide.
“Luna!” Henry was by her side in a second, one of his huge hands enveloping hers, while the other cradled the back of her neck, gently lifting her back up into a seated position. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I – I’m fine,” Luna said, shaking her head. And really, she was – nothing hurt, and there was nothing broken. She was just a little stunned, but she hadn’t hit her head or anything like that. “I just, uh, I don’t know what –”
Now that she was kneeling on the floor next to her chair, she could see what the problem was. Luna frowned, unease rippling through her. It hadn’t been some kind of weird clumsiness on her part that she’d suddenly fallen to the floor – from here, shecould see that the two back legs of her chair had, somehow, snapped in two, the wood splintering before giving way beneath her weight.
