Page 30 of Loving Luna

Luna didn’t say anything, and I pulled away from her with a frown. She was acting strangely lately, not like her usually sassyself. I was trying not to let it bother me, but it was. “You are happy, aren’t you?”

Her answering smile seemed forced and didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Of course I am, Sir. I’m just… nervous.”

Her answer didn’t sit right with me, but I let it go and went back to cooking. The drive from Porter’s Corner to the Ranch was a short one and my parents would be here shortly. I wanted dinner to be nearly ready when they got here.

Luna continued skittering around, wiping counters and invisible specks of dust. She’d already set the table, and lamented the fact that I didn’t have a tablecloth, a proper vase, or even matching silverware, none of which had been an issue any of the other times we’d had dinner with my parents. Her nervous energy was making me nervous.

I watched out of the corner of my eye as she wiped down the front of the fridge for the thousandth time. “Hey, why don’t you give me a hand?”

“With what?”

It was a good question. The truth was I had everything pretty much under control and there wasn’t much left to do. I glanced around, taking in the set table, the made salad, the pot of potatoes just ready to be mashed, the roast in the crock pot and the dinner rolls that just needed to be heated. “Dessert!” I exclaimed a little too loudly because it had just come to me. “I think I have a box of brownie mix in the pantry. Could you preheat the oven, and whip up a pan of brownies?”

I was basically giving her something to do just to make her stop being a stress mess. The look she gave me told me she knew exactly what I was doing and I bit back a smile, bracing myself for a sassy retort.

None came. Luna just stared at me, cocked her head to the side, and after a minute, nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

Her easy compliance should have been a relief, since I didn’t have time to correct her before my parents arrived, but somehow it wasn’t. Somehow, it just amplified the worries I was already having.

Still I smiled and acted like compliance was what I wanted. “Good girl.”

Luna had just finished putting the pan of brownies in the oven when my doorbell rang.

“Eeep!” Luna squeaked as I took off my apron and hung it on a hook in the corner of the kitchen. She ran her fingers through her pink hair and smoothed her dress. “Do I look okay? Oh god, is my dress too short?”

Luna was not one to care too much what people thought of her. She was who she was, unapologetically. It was one of the things I loved about her. But I also loved that if anything could make her feel less confident in who she was, it was the prospect of dinner with my parents now that we were dating, even though I knew she had nothing to worry about.

I gave her one more kiss to settle her nerves and held on to her hand as I walked to the door, leading her to follow. “You look perfect,” I whispered.

Then I twisted the knob and swung the door open, my smile wide and genuine as I greeted my parents.

“Perfect timing! Come on in!”

My dad, oblivious as usual, greeted the both of us and breezed past, making a beeline for the bar tray and helping himself to a glass of the whiskey I kept on hand for our biweekly dinners.

My mom stopped halfway through the door, looking from our intertwined hands up to our faces, her mouth slightly open. “Harold!” She called out for my dad, then before he could answer, looked back to me.

“What is this? Are you…” She smiled. “Are the two of you… together? Like… an item?”

“We are,” I confirmed with a nod at the same time my dad sidled up beside us, a glass of whiskey in his hand.

“Did you call for me, Hettie? What’s going on? Why are we standing here with the door wide open? It's December in Montana, people.”

My mom stepped in and I closed the door behind her. “Harold!” she exclaimed as my dad stepped up beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist. “I swear you have such a one-track mind sometimes you don’t even see the things right in front of you.”

“Well, that’s why I have you, dear,” my dad said jovially, leaning to press a kiss against my mother’s cheek. “What did I miss this time?”

“This!” My mother exclaimed excitedly, pointing at our hands. “Luna and Drake have finally pulled their heads out of their behinds and gotten together! They are a couple!”

“What?” My dad sounded joyfully shocked as he pulled first Luna, then me into a bear hug. He clapped me on the back. “Congratulations, son! We always knew you two were meant for each other!”

“You did?” Luna looked genuinely surprised. I tried not to take offense to how completely baffled she seemed by my dad’s proclamation.

“Of course we did. You two are perfect for each other. You seem so seamless together. And Drake’s been in love with you since he met you.”

Luna glanced at me, her eyes glinting, but not quite dancing, and I swallowed hard. Parents could be so embarrassing. That didn’t always change as you got older, especially if you were as close to your parents as I was to mine.

“Okay, okay, you guys. Yes, Luna and I are together. It’s pretty new still, obviously, but we are both happy about it and can’t wait to tell you all about it and answer any questions you might have.” I spoke with a lot more confidence than I was feeling.

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