Page 39 of Running For It

“If you want me to keep this quiet, I will,” Luna said. “You don’t have to explain yourself, I know you have a good reason for it. But I’ll help you find a way out. Also”—she ducked her head—“I’m sorry in advance.” Her last words were quiet.

I couldn’t handle any more surprises today. “What did you do?”

“I called Lyn.”

“And?”

“I told her we should throw you a huge surprise party, to celebrate your wedding, and surprise you as a thanks foryoursurprise.”

It was no mistake she’d saidsurprisethree times. I hated surprise parties.

Luna shrugged. “I wasreallymad.” She must have been.

“It’s okay. I promise to act surprised. It’s no big deal.” But it was one more thing to deal with. I sighed. “I don’t know what to do. I made these promises, I had a good reason, but… this sucks.”

“You could get stuck with a worse guy than Hunter.” Luna offered a weak smile.

It was true. “But I don’t want to bestuckwith anyone.”

“Do you want to ask the cards?” Luna was already looking at the shelf where she kept her favorite tarot decks on display.

I didn’t believe in the mysticism, though there was no reason to stop Luna from doing so. I was willing to admit that more than one of her readings had opened my mind to new possibilities and given me direction I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. “Sure. Can we do one of the pretty decks?”

Luna grabbed a manga tarot, and led me to the kitchen table. She handed me the cards. “You know how it works. Focus on your question, shuffle, three times, and then cut the deck and hand it back.”

My question may be too vague, but it was the best I had.How do I get out of this?

I handed Luna back the deck. “Hunter and Ramsey are together.”

“Not anymore apparently.” Luna’s retort was dry but amused. She looked at me with a frown. “Sorry. Inappropriate.”

“Everything about this is. They’re not out—obviously—and they’re keeping it a secret because of Hunter’s family, so I agreed to help them keep the secret, because all I could think about…”

Luna frowned. “Was Eva, I know. And you really don’t have to explain.”

“I owe you at least that much.”

Luna gave me a soft smile, then laid out the cards—one, then three, then one.

I frowned at how many were upside down. That didn’t seem like a good thing. And one was The Fool. That had to be bad. “You usually only give me 3 cards.”

“This is for clarity. I have a feeling you need some of that.”

I really did. “Okay, tell me it’s not as bad as it looks.”

“It’s never as bad as you think it is,” Luna said. “And neither is this. The situation or the cards.” She pointed to the first one. I knew enough about the images and numbers to know it was the Three of Wands. “The question we’re asking this card is, what aren’t you seeing clearly? Yes, you’ve made some choices, you’ve set things in motion, but that doesn’t mean your story is done. You still have time to decide—which you excel at—and write the ending. You still have time to make it good, instead of bad.”

“That sounds hopeful.” One thing I could always count on Luna for was seeing the silver lining. “But what about him?” I pointed to the upside-down Fool.”

“That’s you.”

I scowled. “Thanks.”

Luna gave a light laugh. “It’s still not bad. You’re the hero of this story, and your intuition will guide you. But you’ve got a lot of doubt, which is fair. You’ve let fear take the reins in the past, but you can still follow your heart toward an answer.”

That was almost sappy. And left me with a strange blend of hope and confusion. “Give me more.” The next card was the Seven of Cups, inverted.

“Yes, ma’am. You’re looking for a solution to let you be at peace with the current situation—”

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