Page 28 of Carson

“Um, no one. Cole said you guys asked him to come check on Tuffy and I came up here to see what was taking him so long, but now I know. Where is he?”

She turns away from me to give my dad the look. If the woman thinks there’s something different about me, she’d be right. Luna has shifted something in me.

“He’s over at the warehouse. He said he was meeting Carver there,” my father says.

I glance at my watch for something to look at besides the confused faces in front of me. “Carver must have changed his plans. We weren’t expecting him until tomorrow morning, but that’s cool.”

“You didn’t know?” my dad asks, and my mother steps away from me, going to his side.

“No, but he knows I was busy …” my words drift away because I realize I’m oversharing. “Anyway, I’ll get out of your hair.”

I open the door and slide out of it as quickly as I can, hoping they don’t follow.

Chapter Eleven

Luna

I’m not sure if Carson is aware, but a rather large man has been stalking us in the shadows the entire walk back.

I don’t know why, but it doesn’t scare me.

When we get back to the cabin, he finally speaks. “So, turns out my parents were home.”

“Oh no. I hope we didn’t wake them.”

“No. They were just getting ready to have their nightly snack.”

He doesn’t say anything else about it.

“Are they? I mean, are they okay with me staying out here? Because I can leave.”

“No,” he says, stopping us abruptly and shifting to face me. He holds my hand up to his mouth. “You are welcome here.”

“You didn’t tell them?”

He slides his hand along the side of my neck. “Not yet, but I will. Tomorrow.”

My stomach falls. Why do I care whether or not he told his parents? It doesn’t matter. It’s probably for the best. I don’t need to get attached to anyone like I did Robin.

“Okay, well, I should get to bed,” I say, yawning into my hand. I take a step back and his hand falls away.

“Luna.” He follows me over to the fire. “I would have told them, but it was late and I didn’t know if you were up to meeting anyone.”

He’s right. I did tell him my social battery was running low. Between him and Cole this has been more interaction than … well, than I’ve ever had.

“Thank you. I am feeling drained.”

He begins to douse the fire with water. The steam rises up between us.

“We’ll go up there tomorrow,” he says confidently, and I don’t doubt he has every intention of introducing me to his parents.

I putter around, cleaning up our mess as he continues to make sure the fire is out.

When there’s nothing left for either of us to do, we stand awkwardly. “We’ll leave the door unlocked,” he says, pointing up to his house.

“Yeah, okay, thank you.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He pauses in front of me. “Good night, Luna.”