by Deanna Chase
“Thanks for your help,” Chad said.
His hand shook as he stared at the money clutched in his grip. He seemed to steal himself as he thrust it back toward Chad. “That’s too much. I can’t take this.”
“You can,” Chad said evenly. “I offered twenty dollars an hour. That was the agreement, and I’m a man of my word.”
Luna watched him with tears stinging the backs of her eyes. She knew he was a good person, but here he was, proving it all over again.
“Keep the money, Levi,” Chad said softly.
Levi gave him a tiny nod and shoved the bills into his front pocket. “Thank you,” he said, his voice breaking slightly. He turned his head away, and that flush came roaring back.
“Levi?” Luna asked, slipping her arm through his thin one.
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you something?” She knew she was on shaky ground, but she had to try.
“I guess so.”
She walked him outside and sat on the top step of the stairs, indicating for him to join her.
He did but said nothing, just staring at the truck they’d just loaded with a wistful look on his face.
“Do you have somewhere safe to go after you leave here? A family that takes care of you?” Luna asked, praying for his sake that the answer was yes. But when he hesitated, she knew the answer. “Are you in foster care?”
He hung his head but stayed silent.
“I was in foster care for many years,” she said, keeping her voice low and neutral. “It wasn’t always a safe place to be.”
His head snapped up, and he stared at her with those wide brown eyes. “What did you do when it wasn’t safe?”
Luna glanced over at Chad but quickly looked away. He’d let her crash on his couch a few times, but mostly she’d taken refuge with schoolmates. “I had a couple of friends who didn’t mind me crashing every once in a while. When that failed, I just tried to disappear in the city for a while and then would sneak back in the house when I knew everyone was asleep.”
Levi stood, still holding the fast food bag she’d insisted he take with him. “That sucks. But my situation isn’t like yours.”
“I’m sure it isn’t. But if you need help, Chad and I are willing to do whatever we can to better your situation.”
His eyes flashed with distrust. “You two aren’t some sort of sicko kidnappers, preying on the weak, are you? Because otherwise, I don’t see why you’re trying to be so nice to some grungy kid you just met.”
“Levi—” Luna started.
But before she could voice her protest, he spun on his heel and started to jog along the balcony toward another set of stairs.
“Damn,” Luna muttered, pushing her hair back. “That did not go as I planned.”
“At least he took the food bag with him,” Chad said.
“That’s only enough food for tonight,” Luna said, feeling her ire rise. “What about tomorrow? Or the next day? Or when he’s sick or getting himself assaulted for just existing. How is what we did today going to help him then?”
Chad gave her a slow smile. “That’s where the business card and note comes in.”
“What business card and note?” Luna asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
“The ones I put in the takeout bag. They are on top of the sandwiches. Once he digs in, he’ll find them.”
Luna watched as Levi reached the bottom of the stairs and disappeared around the side of the building. “What did the note say?”
Chad stepped up beside her. “I said that I was worried that he might not have a safe place to stay or enough for basic necessities and that if he needed anything, anything at all, that he should call you or me for help. My card has my personal cell number, and I hand wrote the spa’s number.”
Luna turned to look at him, her insides a jumble of emotions. Chad had always found nonthreatening ways to let her know he was someone she could count on when she needed someone. There was the time when her foster mother’s boyfriend of the week had been getting a little handsy, and instead of confronting the asshat, knowing it would only make her living situation worse, Chad had offered her a job cleaning his house. Said he needed it done by the next morning. His offer was perfect. It had given her control over whether she wanted his help or not by accepting or declining to clean his house. She’d jumped on it. Anything was better than being mauled by the pervert boyfriend.
When she’d gotten to his residence, she didn’t see a speck of dust in sight, but he’d still paid her to clean his small house, insisting it had been a few weeks since anyone had vacuumed. By the time she was done, he’d handed her enough money to foot her lunch bill for the next week and given her a weekly gig to keep the place in order. Two weeks later, she found out he had a regular housekeeper who showed up every Monday whether the house needed it or not. She never did tell him she knew his secret and ended up working for him until she’d been hauled off to juvy.
As the memories washed through her, Luna’s eyes misted. And before she could stop herself, she flung her arms around him, buried her face into his shoulder, and said, “Thank you.”
His arms came up and tentatively wrapped around her, pulling her in closer in a completely satisfying hug. “For what?” he whispered.
Luna tightened her grip on him and said, “For being you.”
Chapter Six
Chad pulled up in front of the sweet cream-colored cottage with red shutters and killed the engine. “Nice place. Looks like it’s walking distance to Main Street.”
Luna nodded. “It’s just about perfect for me.” She let out a quiet chuckle. “Actually, it’s a lot more than I’m used to. I’m not sure why I need two bedrooms, but I’m looking forward to figuring it out. The largest place I’ve ever lived in on my own was that apartment we just left in Eureka.”
“You deserve this, Luna,” Chad said, reaching over and squeezing her hand. “I’m glad you made your way to Keating Hollow.”
Her lips curved up into a ghost of a smile. “Me, too.”
Chad was reluctant to let go of her hand and just sat there, enjoying her for a moment.
Eventually she raised her gaze to his and said, “We should probably unload the truck.”
“Right.” His voice was thick with emotion, and he had to shake himself. What the hell was going on with him? Snap out of it, dude, he told himself. Don’t go there. There’s too much history, and some of it she doesn’t even know about.
Chad pulled his hand away and hopped out of the truck.
Luna climbed down and trotted up the pretty flower-lined walkway to unlock the door.
Chad chuckled to himself. No one in Keating Hollow locked their doors. No one but Luna Scott anyway. He knew why. She’d never lived in a place that was safe enough to trust the neighbors. And he was certain trust was never going to come easily for her.
They got to work, unloading the truck. When it came time to unload the bed, Luna leaned against the truck bed and sucked in a long breath. “It would’ve been really nice to have Levi here.”
Chad nodded, flexing his aching hand. He was mentally fatigued from using his air magic and had fallen back on manual labor for most of the unloading. While the rest of his body was keeping up all right, his hand had curled into a slight claw, and he knew it’d be a few days before the pain eased.
“Are you okay?” Luna asked, eyeing his hand.
“I will be. Just needed a minute before we tackle this bed.” He flexed again, trying to stretch the muscles and tendons, but a sharp pain ran up his arm and he winced.
Luna inched closer to him and gently took his hand in hers. “Do you mind if I try something?”
He stared into her green eyes, enjoying her gentle caress.
“Chad?”
“Yeah?”
She laughed. “Where’d you go?”
“Your touch. It just feels good on my achy joints.”
“I can do better than that,” she said, running all four of her fingers over the back of his. �
�Do you mind if I try something?”
“Not at all.” He closed his eyes and then let out a contented sigh as magical tingles sparked off her fingertips and danced over his skin. A small moan of appreciation escaped his lips before he could rein himself in. “Damn. That’s really nice.”
“Just wait until I actually start trying,” she said, her voice full of amusement.
“If this is you being half-assed in the magic department, your skills must be a damned miracle.”
Her eyes sparkled at the praise, and he vowed to do everything he could to put that look on her face again. “Relax for me,” she said, and her magic began pulsing with more intensity.
“I’m not sure that’s possible.” But he closed his eyes anyway, trying not to think about how her touch was making him want to grab her and fuse his lips to hers. He was lit up inside just from her running her fingertips over his hand.
“Take a deep breath,” she soothed. “Picture yourself at the piano, playing that one song I always loved. The one that I told you sounded like sunshine and happiness.”
The memory of her sitting at his piano in Berkeley as he tapped out the notes to a song his mother had written when he was a child warmed him inside. It was his favorite memory of her, one of the rare times when she’d seemed truly at peace.
“That’s it,” she said softly. “Perfect.” She moved from caressing to lightly massaging his hand, pressing her strong fingers into his palm. The tension seemed to just melt away under her touch. But she didn’t stop there. Once she’d worked over his palm, she moved on to each of his fingers, pressing and stretching and stimulating the muscles and tendons.
“You’re amazing at this,” Chad said, stifling another moan of pleasure.
“Thanks. You really should come in for regular massage therapy visits. I think I can do a lot to help with your movement and flexibility.”
“All right. Sure.” His stomach did a little flip at the thought of seeing her on a regular basis. Only instead of trying to tamp down his affection for her like he’d been doing for the past few days, he just smiled at her. “I’ll make an appointment later when I get home.”
Luna spent a few more minutes massaging and treating his hand, and by the time she was done, he barely felt any traces of the ache that he’d been living with for over three months.
He flexed his fingers with ease and stared at her in wonder. “How did you do that? Nothing I’ve done with the physical therapist has even come close to what you managed in just a few minutes.”
She gave him a shy smile. “My training helps, but it was mostly my earth magic. Restoring muscles, tendons, etcetera comes naturally to me. It’s no big deal.”
Chad stared at her intently. “It is a big deal, Luna. You must know what your gift can mean to people who have suffered a serious injury.”
“I do.” She glanced away. “It’s just that I don’t like to make a big deal out of it. I’m not a miracle worker, Chad. I just do what I can to help people.”
Her words hit him straight in the gut. She was sweet, gorgeous, and had the biggest heart of anyone he’d ever met. It wasn’t just impressive; it was a downright miracle. After the rough upbringing she’d had, it would be easy for her to be bitter. But she wasn’t. She was truly kind and loving. The way she’d jumped right into action grabbing plenty of food when she realized Levi was an at-risk youth and then the way she was upset when he bolted had touched him. She cared about people and it showed. “You’ve grown into one hell of a woman, you know that?”
Her intense green eyes met his. “Is that right? I was certain you still saw me as that scared teen who was always hanging around.”
“Well, I did.” His lips turned up into a teasing grin, and his eyes sparked with humor. “But then I saw all that lace in your bedroom.”
Luna groaned. “Don’t remind me.”
Laughing, he led the way to the back of the truck. “Come on, gorgeous. Let’s get your bed into that cute house of yours so you have somewhere better than that air mattress to sleep tonight.”
Once they hauled the bed up the stairs and got it put together, Luna stood in the middle of the master bedroom with her hands on her hips. “That’s everything, right?”
“Yep. The truck is empty,” Chad confirmed.
“Perfect.” Luna walked over to him and held her hand out, waiting to shake his. “Thanks for the help today. It’s much appreciated.”
Chad slipped his hand into hers, but instead of shaking it, he pulled her in for an all-encompassing hug. “Handshakes are for acquaintances, Luna. Not old friends.”
“Is that what we are?” she asked, her voice slightly muffled by his chest.
Pulling back, Chad glanced down at her lovely face. “Definitely.”
“Yeah, okay.” She pressed her face to his shoulder. And this time, she pulled him in, holding on so tight he almost had trouble breathing. Or was that because his heart was in his throat? This lovely creature was making all of his nerves dance. He had the simultaneous urges to both stay locked in the embrace forever, but to also pull back so that he could cup her face and kiss her senseless.
Damn. Kissing wasn’t “old friends.” And Chad knew if he dared cross that line after only one day of working together, she’d likely bolt. Or freeze him out. She hadn’t signed up to be hit on. He needed to cool the hell off before he did something he’d regret.
“I should go,” Chad said, forcing himself to step away from her. “I’m sure you want to get settled in and get some rest before work tomorrow.”
Luna glanced at her phone, checking the time. “That’s probably not a bad idea.”
“Okay then.” Chad started to move toward the bedroom door.
“Chad?” she called.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.” She gave him an appreciative smile, her eyes warm with gratitude. “I meant it when I said your help today was very much appreciated. Will you let me take you to dinner tomorrow night as a thank you?”
The words were out of his mouth before he even gave her invitation any thought. “Yes. Absolutely. Where and when?”
“Seven?” She bit her lower lip, drawing his gaze. “The Townsend brewpub?”
“Sure. Seven. The brewpub.” He grinned at her, and right before he left, he added, “It’s a date.”
Chapter Seven
It’s a date. The words rolled around in Luna’s head as she worked on Ms. Betty’s neck and shoulder area, gently massaging away a few knots. Ever since Chad had uttered the words just before leaving her house the day before, she’d been in a state of mild panic. Was that really what she’d done? Asked him out on a date?
No. It was just a thank-you dinner. Nothing else.
Then why was she stressing about what she was going to wear and wondering if she had time to get her nails done after work?
“Ahhhh,” Ms. Betty said, moaning her appreciation. “I wish I would’ve known you forty years ago. This is better than sex with my late husband Gordy.”
Luna blinked and looked down at her client. Chuckling she said, “That’s… maybe a little TMI, Betty.”
“I’m just speaking my truth,” the older woman said. “I’m telling you, your hands are heavenly. Imagine if you used them on my—”
“Oh no. No imagining anything, and for the goddess’s sake, do not voice that thought or I will end this session before I get to the other shoulder.”
“Buzzkill,” Betty said, and Luna could almost hear the eye roll in the woman’s voice.
“This is a professional environment, Ms. Betty.” Luna tried to keep her voice stern but couldn’t help the giggle of amusement that gave her away.
“Sure, like you’ve never peeked beneath the sheet when a hottie comes in for a rub down.” The woman’s body shook with her laughter. “Do you ever forget and let out a groan when you see a truly gorgeous ass?”
“There is no peeking. Please, I’m a pro.” Luna poured more oil into her palm, enjoying the faint orange-ginger scent she’d cho
sen that morning.
“Uh-huh. Are you telling me you wouldn’t sneak a glance at Chad’s round tush if he booked a session with you?”
“Nope. Never,” Luna insisted.
“What about after your date tonight?” she said, her voice high-pitched with excitement. “Do you have plans to peel him out of those tight jeans? I bet he has a stellar backside.”
Luna stared down at the gray-haired woman and blinked. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. After moving to Ms. Betty’s other shoulder, she asked, “How did you know we’re… um, going to dinner tonight?”
“Oh, Luna, honey. This is a small town. Everyone knows everything.”
Luna frowned. She hadn’t mentioned her date with Chad to anyone. Had she? But then it dawned on her she’d told Hanna when she’d gone in for her morning coffee, but only because the other woman had invited her to a girls’ night with the Townsend sisters. Luna had been disappointed she’d had to decline. She liked hanging with them. But she couldn’t, nor did she want to, cancel on Chad. The truth was she was looking forward to seeing him. She was disappointed that Hanna was spreading her business, but then again, someone at the shop could’ve overheard the conversation. Betty was right. There weren’t any secrets in the small town… except Luna’s past. Chad was the only one who knew her secrets. Did she trust him to keep them? She thought so.
Another appreciative moan came from Ms. Betty. “By the time you’re done, I’m gonna need someone to carry me back to the home.”
Luna smirked. Ms. Betty lived in a senior citizen community on the outskirts of town. But she always made it sound like she’d checked into an assisted living situation, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Ms. Betty was just as mobile and capable as the rest of the town’s citizens.
“Do you have anyone on staff that can help with that? Hunter maybe? I wouldn’t mind being wrapped in his muscular arms, let me tell you. Just pressing my face into his pecs would be enough to tide me over for weeks,” she said in a breathy tone.
“Don’t let Faith hear you talking about her man like that. She’s a little on the jealous side sometimes,” Luna said. “Wouldn’t want to get in a cat fight right after the massage, would you?”
