And karma, my lovely bitch, decided to kick me in the dick again. Because for the second time in a month, I found myself listening to my ex-girlfriend and my ex-best friend fuck each other behind her house.
Okay, fine—yes, that was on me. I stalked him. After his game, I tailed him like some unhinged creep straight to this bougie-ass mansion where she lived. I sat in my car like an idiot while he chatted with Nova—fucking Nova—and then watched him and Luna walk toward the guesthouse together, laughing like they didn’t have the world’s most fucked-up history.
As I got close, I heard them moaning. I pressed my palm to the cold siding of the house and stood there, letting it hit me like some kind of karmic penance. I stayed out there a while—long enough for the sounds to fade, long enough for the house to quiet.
Long enough for them to go to bed.
It didn’t help.
I needed that money. Rehab had gutted me. Every dime I had left went toward Arthur’s treatments, the specialists, the trial meds, the damn facility. I was broke, in every sense of the word, and I needed to pay off my rehab bills soon. This would change that. It had to.
I needed her signature and for her to agree to come down and close the estate out. That’s what I’d been telling myself for the past month, that I didn’t needthem. I didn’t needher. One last favor, and we could all move on.
So why the fuck did it feel like walking up to that door was the hardest thing I’d ever done?
“Fuck this,” I muttered. “A simple fucking signature and a few hours of her time to come down and close the estate out. She fuckingowesme after I had to see her and Dirks fuck.”
I marched up the walk, my boots crunching over the frosted stone, the cold biting at my jaw. My heart thudded a little harder the closer I got, but I shoved it down.
I lifted my hand and knocked . . . hard.
24
luna
The knock rattled through the house, and I jolted upright.
Dirks stirred beside me, half asleep as he whispered, “Lune? Someone’s at the door.”
I blinked through the haze of sleep, trying to orient myself. Another knock.
Shit.
“It might be Nova,” I mumbled.
Dirks was already getting out of bed, tugging on a pair of shorts and reaching for a hoodie. I sat up slowly, clutching the blanket to my chest.
He looked at me. “You sure it’s her?”
“I don’t know,” I said earnestly, because Nova knew Dirks was here, so why would she knock? It must be an emergency.
I quickly got up, threw on one of the silk robes I had laid over the bed, and walked down the stairs with Dirks. We reached the bottom of the stairs just as another knock echoed, firmer this time.
“Jesus,” I muttered, brushing hair from my face.
I reached for the handle, paused for just a second, and looked back at Dirks.
He gave a single nod before I opened the door.
Time stopped, my breath caught in my throat, and my hands gripped the knob when I realized who was standing on the other side of the door.
Black hair—longer than I remembered—fell over his forehead. Tattoos curled down the side of his neck, disappearing into the collar of a faded bomber jacket. There was color in his cheeks, not from the cold, but from being healthy. His hands were shoved deep in his pockets, but when his eyes lifted to mine, and that familiar crooked smirk ghosted over his lips?—
“Hey, Luna girl.”
My knees buckled before I could stop them.
I collapsed, stunned by the weight of a hundred secrets and one unforgettable voice cracking me open right there on the floor.
