Page 131 of Carson

“But … but you were just here, and then you went home. Why are you back?”

Cole steps behind me and nudges me aside. “She doesn’t listen very well sometimes. I’ll help you grab your things.”

“Yay!” Khloe says, pushing against my backside to run around me. “Mila!”

“The girls have become best friends over the past year,” Chance explains, chuckling.

I guess I’ve been so wrapped up in my own shit that I hadn’t really taken a look at their dynamics with the club. Carson’s family has become my brother’s. Neither of us had this growing up.

Dan and Lily also come to the door.

“Rage, how was the drive up?”

Mila and Khloe giggle as Cole and now Carson chase them around the front yard under the stars.

“Uneventful.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Dan says.

Mila spots him and Lily in the doorway and squeals, changing her direction and running into the house. “Papa!” She holds her arms high and he scoops her up.

Lily rubs her back as Dan holds her. “Cole just made some popcorn and we’re getting ready to watch a movie. You guys made it just in time.”

Again, I’m struck by how much she looks like me. I take a step back, and then another.

I don’t see my dad at all. Her smile is kinder than his. Her dark eyes are not cold. Could it be this is what Chance sees when he looks at me?

Everyone continues hugging and teasing each other as I slowly melt into the woodwork. It’s as if I’m watching through a screen.

Is this what it looks like to get everything you’ve wanted?

Rage, my little sister, Carson, Cole, Khloe, Dan, and Lily. And if that’s not enough, there’s more. An entire group of people that will come running if asked.

Carson notices I’ve backed away from the group. He walks me to the kitchen and backs me against the wall. “Take a deep breath,” he says calmly.

“I didn’t know. I didn’t know.” I feel so incredibly stupid. How much time have I wasted? Chance has shown up for me not once, but twice in a very short span of time.

“What didn’t you know?”

“That Chance didn’t see him in me.”

“Luna, is that why you’ve been avoiding me?” my brother asks.

I turn my head, finding him and Dan standing a few feet away from us.

He rushes toward me and Carson backs away.

Chance takes my face in his hands. “Luna, I’ve never seen him in you. Never.”

“But I thought because I looked like him, and then I saw …” I stop because I’m crying so hard. Chance was the only thing that got me through some of the visits I had with my father. He protected me as much as he could. He was a child himself.

“You saw Mila,” he says, finally understanding.

“I’m so glad you’re both here.” I wrap my arms around his waist and hug him tight.

Chapter Forty-Three

Carson