Page 68 of Can't Fight the Moonlight

"Yes, he did."

"I looked up your website earlier," she said, surprising him with her words. "It's very cool. I liked the original logo that you displayed in the origin story of your company."

"Robbie the Robot," he said with a laugh. "I actually drew that figure when I was eleven years old."

"And from that robot in your imagination, you built a huge global company. But I'm curious. It also said in the story that you named the company after someone who inspired the dream. You didn't say who."

"It's not important to the outside world who my inspiration was."

"Then why did you mention it at all?"

"Because he was important to me, but his identity is private."

"He doesn't want you to say who he is?"

He hesitated, knowing that the simple answer was yes. But with Lizzie's compelling gaze upon him, he felt it difficult to lie or even to dodge. "It's not that. He doesn't know anything about the company."

"How is that possible? From what I saw, you're pretty well known in the industry."

"He died long before I built the business."

Her smile dimmed. "Oh, I'm sorry, Justin. I didn't know. I was being pushy again. You should have just told me to shut up."

"You weren't being pushy, just curious."

"Well, I'm still sorry, and whoever he is, I think he'd be proud of what you built based on his inspiration."

"I'd like to think so." He wanted to tell her more. He felt like the words were on the tip of his tongue, but by force of habit, he held back. Opening up that locked door would only bring pain, and he wasn't looking for that tonight or any night. So, he changed the subject. "Who were you at the festival with? I thought I saw Chelsea and Hannah."

"Keira was there, too. It was just the girls tonight. It was fun to catch up."

"Catch up? It seems like you see each other all the time."

"This week, maybe, but we are all pretty busy these days." She lifted her gaze to the sky. "It's another starry night. But tomorrow, we'll have the eclipse, and the sky will go dark."

"I don't understand why that is so exciting to everyone."

"It's out of the ordinary, a special time. A lunar eclipse can only happen when the moon is directly opposite the sun. The earth's shadow blocks the sun's light, which otherwise reflects off the moon. And it has to happen during a full moon."

"I suppose that's kind of interesting."

"And there's also a legend, you know."

He grinned. "I'm not surprised. Want to tell me what it is?"

"There are several different stories, but there's one I particularly like. I have to warn you, it's romantic."

"Lay it on me," he said with a laugh.

"Once upon a time," she began with a sparkle in her gaze, "there was a love story between the sun and the moon, and they traveled the world together. And then the moon betrayed the sun and slept with the morning star. They were punished by the universe. From then on, the moon and the sun could never meet. The moon had to travel by night, the sun by day. But during an eclipse, for that brief time when the world goes dark, they can kiss, until they are forced to part ways. The eclipse is supposed to be a time for second chances. Which is why Noah is so excited that this particular week is also the week of an eclipse, which is when he met Alice."

"That's quite a tale, but not all that romantic since the moon cheated on the sun. Maybe they don't deserve a second chance."

"That is true, but you're kind of missing the romance of it all."

He grinned. "That's me. I do tend to miss the romance." He paused. "And I don't really believe in waiting for rare events like eclipses to kiss a woman I want to kiss."

His words brought more light to her eyes.

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