“Well, that certainly would’ve been more entertaining, for starters.”
Silence descended as they sipped their tea again. Another thing she’d always loved about Gen when they were younger was that she wasn’t uncomfortable with silence. When they were together, there was no pressure to rush and fill the conversational gaps with meaningless chatter. They could wait until one of them had something worth saying before they spoke. She was happy that dynamic had followed them into adulthood.
“There’s only one problem with your little theory, though,” Gen finally said.
Luna had to smile at her absolute sureness. “What’s that?”
“Why didn’t he leave?”
“He did.”
She shook her head. “Nah. He went out to the shed to work on the car. He didn’t drive off and go home, or even head out of town. He could have. Easily. But he didn’t. He went out to the shed. And more than that, he made a point of saying he was going out to the shed. So, yeah, girl. Whether he knows it consciously or not, he wants to talk to you.”
Luna thought about that for a moment, but before she could come to a definitive conclusion, Gen continued, “And guess what else?”
“I don’t see the point of wasting energy on formulating a guess when you’re obviously about to tell me.”
Gen barreled on without even pausing to acknowledge her smart ass comment. “You wanted to see him, too.”
“I don’t know how you came to that conclusion, Dr. Phil.”
Again, Gen sailed right on past the sick burn to continue making her point. “You knew that you weren’t just coming to my house. You were coming to Gavin’s. You knew that Gavin is Connor’s friend. You must’ve known there’d be a good chance you’d run into him here if you popped over unannounced. If you’d truly wanted to avoid him, you would’ve called before you came over. But you didn’t. You just dropped by.”
All Luna could do was nod. Her throat closed around whatever words she might’ve tried to form.
Damn.
Gen had her number. She hadn’t consciously thought that whole thing through. It wasn’t like she’d planned it like this. In fact, she’d just made a point of assuring herself that she hadn’t planned it. But the minute she heard her friend lay it all out, it rang every bell in her brain, leaving no doubt that it was true.
Gen stood and held out her hand. “Come on.”
Panic fluttered in Luna’s chest, threatening to erupt. “No, Gen, I–”
“Just stop.” Gen’s voice carried authority, and it was what Luna needed to bring her burgeoning spiral to a quick end. “Now stand up. We’re gonna go outside and you’re gonna have an adult conversation with Connor. One that’s long overdue.”
She has me there. I can’t argue with that because there is no argument. She’s right.
Ignoring the horde of butterflies threatening to bust out of her gut with their overactive wings, she stood up and followed Gen out her back door.
Shit. Sometimes being a grown-up was hard.