Page 76 of Luca & Luna

I nudged her softly, glancing around quickly to see if we were being observed before deeming it safe enough to rest my hand on her arm. “Tell me.”

“I’m scared that if I quit finance, Allie and I won’t stay friends.”

The statement took me aback. She and Allie had been thick as thieves from the moment I’d learned Allie existed. “But Allie loves you.”

“You don’t ever know the strength of a relationship until you take away what makes it convenient.”

“Sometimes you have to have a little faith in people.”

“I used to.” Her voice was so quiet I had to strain to hear, and her fingertips were white where she gripped her glass.

She froze as Nicky’s beta, Billie, dropped down next to us, followed shortly by Hana.

“Hi!” Billie beamed. “I can’t stop thinking about the studio. It’s gonna be so fucking cute. You work at a gym, don’t you?”

I nodded quickly. “Yep, for the last few years.”

“I know Jasper’s trying to steal you for the bakery, but if you end up liking gym stuff better, we can drag you on board for Hana’s new place.”

“I have to try out the bakery stuff first before I know that.” I didn’t want to be rude and ask them to leave so I could talk to Luna more, so I took a breath and switched gears. We could talk later.

“Totes fair.” Billie and Hana both settled in comfortably. “I’m so jazzed for all of it. We’ve been doing so much planning. Feeding into the universe that everything is going to work out, ya know?”

“Money greases those universe wheels,” Luna said with a laugh.

“It absolutely does and I’m going to use it to get my pack a fab place to work. And the people my pack loves, too,” Billie said, poking Luna’s ribs. “You’re all multi-talented, so that makes it easy.”

It was another three hours before I finally got Luna all to myself again, convincing her to stop at the bubble tea shop we’d been to so she wouldn’t go to bed twisted up with nerves.

“I had a plan for finance,” she said.

“What was the plan?”

“Become the department head, mostly. Get something with a good salary, continue helping out my sisters, come down to one job once I couldn’t do shows anymore.”

“Do you think you’d be happy doing that?”

She shrugged. “Finance is a means to an end, just like my club job.”

I scooped up her hand, tracing over the lines of her palm with my thumb. “You’re too vibrant for that. Would your job let you take a few months off? A year?”

“I don’t think they like me that much. I could get away with it for maternity or medical leave, but to see if a business works out so I could leave?”

“Okay, fair. You’re so smart, though. If it didn’t work out how you want, you could get another finance job and you could have a standing date to hang out with Allie like you do with me…less sexual, but same idea. Make time for each other, meet for lunch, and she’ll take your classes like she does now. Reaching for your happiness isn’t going to drive her away.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so. I’ll go back to school, you’ll start your own business, and we’ll work on changing our lives for the better.”

I could see the panic in her eyes, the war behind those baby blues, but she won whatever battle she was waging and her smile went soft as she pulled me in for an even softer kiss. “I’ll consider it. I promise.”

I curled my fingers into her hair. “Be as brave as I know you can be.”

The club was packed to capacity. Most of the people there were wealthy alphas in suits that probably cost half a year’s pay for me. I didn’t recognize anyone, though it was dark so it was hard to tell who might be there. It was my first time seeing Luna perform, the first time I had been at the club when she wasn’t in a crisis, and I was still reeling that she trusted me enough to invite me here specifically to watch her.

Thick black curtains hid most of the stage from view, and giant, shiny fake pearls decorated the ceiling, glowing softly in the darkness. I hadn’t seen this part of the club the last time I was here, so I wasn’t sure if that was part of their normal décor or something they’d pulled out for Luna’s headliner.

She had been messaging me on and off, heading here hours earlier to get ready. I wasn’t allowed backstage, at least not this time. If the couple times I’d seen her on aerial silks was anything to go by, tonight was going to be spectacular. I just had to wrap my brain around the fact that part of the performance involved stripping down.

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