Sitting in my account.
My throat went dry. “No.” I shoved the paper back at her like it had burned me. “No, absolutely not. I can’t?—”
“Jer—”
“No.” I dragged my hand down my face, shaking my head. “I can’t accept this. Not from you. Not from anyone. That’s not—” I looked down at the paper again. “That’s not mine.”
“Yes, it is.” Dirks piped up, his voice maddeningly calm. He pushed off the counter and slid in next to me, his shoulder bumping mine. “It’s yours, Jeremy. It’s for you. You can and you fucking will.”
“Dirks—”
“No, listen to me.” He snatched the paper from my hand before I could shove it back again and walked toward the living room. “You’ve been drowning for years. Debts, guilt, all of it. Let someone throw you a goddamn rope for once.”
I stared after him, speechless. Luna moved closer, her pink shirt brushing against me as she reached up, cupping my jaw with trembling hands. She traced the corner of my mouth, coaxing me to look at her.
“Jeremy. I love you. Let me do this... because I love you.”
The words hit me harder than the money ever could.
I froze, my lips parting. “No one’s ever... ” My throat closed, the words caught like glass. I swallowed hard, but it didn’t clear. “No one’s ever told me that before.”
Her eyes welled with moisture, and she dug her fingers into my jaw like she could hold me together.
Dirks leaned forward on the couch, his grin soft like the sun after a storm. “Then it’s about fucking time you believed it.”
My knees gave way, and before I knew it, Luna had pulled me down onto the couch beside her.
I dragged in a shaky breath, staring down at the paper again like it might sprout fangs. Half a million. Half a million I hadn’tearned, hadn’t bled for, hadn’t clawed through nights of panic and double shifts to scrape together.
“Where the hell did this money come from? Did you rob a jewelry store?”
Luna laughed. She was perched on my lap, her blonde hair falling in my face as she pressed her forehead against mine. “No, dummy. We pooled our savings together. We... we wanted to make it happen for you.”
I blinked at her, my pulse hammering so hard it hurt. “Your... savings. You gave meyour?—”
“Not gave.” Dirks cut in from across the couch, his blue eyes steady on mine. “Invested. In you. In us. In the life you deserve to fucking have. You’ve carried too much for too long. Let us carry something, Jer.”
Luna nodded quickly, sliding her hands to frame my face again, forcing me to meet her tear-bright eyes. “This isn’t pity, Jeremy. It’s love. It’s family. It’s us saying you don’t have to fight every single battle alone anymore.”
I swallowed hard, my chest aching like something inside me was splitting wide open.
“You’re both wild,” I whispered, but my hands trembled as they closed around hers. “And I don’t know what the fuck I ever did to deserve either of you.”
“I love you, Jeremy. You will always be my family. Always. No matter what. No matter where. It’s you.”
Something inside me snapped, or maybe it finally uncoiled after years of being wound so damn tight. My hand shot up to the back of her neck, pulling her down hard against my mouth. The kiss was raw, needy, almost violent with the ache in my chest. She gasped against me, but didn’t pull back. She kissed me like she’d been waiting her whole damn life for this moment.
I greedily roamed my hands down her sides, over that bright pink shirt, to the soft strip of bare skin between her shorts and her top.
“I don’t deserve you,” I rasped against her lips, my forehead pressed to hers.
“You do. You deserve every piece of me. Always have.”
I crushed my mouth to hers again, shifting her back onto the couch cushions. Her laugh spilled against my lips as I hovered over her, then broke into a needy moan when I slid my hands under her shirt and pushed it up over her ribs.
Dirks had gotten up and walked behind the couch, trying to give us space.
I reached up, grabbed his stupid scruffy face in my hand, and yanked him down. “You too, you big fucking asshole.”
