Luna nodded. “I’m glad you like it.”
“It’s so good. Did you know I loved this?” he asked.
“No, I had no clue.” She wouldn’t look at him. “Can I, er, ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Did you send Holly here?” Luna asked.
“Holly? No, why would I send her?”
“To, you know, warn me.”
Matthew frowned and looked at her. Her eyes were so beautiful, a dark brown. Darker than his. Her hair was a lighter color. She had dyed it blonde about a year ago, and since then, she had started to grow it out, but the length was only to her shoulders. When they’d been together, she had long hair. The kind of length that he could wrap around his fist and hold on to, or stroke. He loved her hair.
Luna frowned at him, and he realized she was waiting for an answer. “Warn you? About what?”
“About hurting you.”
“What?” Okay, this was news to him. He didn’t need anyone taking care of him or attempting to watch his back. It wasn’t necessary. Not for him. Luna had never set out to hurthim. He’d been the one to hurt her.
“Yeah. Holly is worried about me hurting you.”
“I have no idea. Look, I’m sorry.”
She held her hand up. “Don’t worry about it.”
“No. She was out of line. She doesn’t know the full story.”
“I figured. It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. You don’t have to— Whatever you want to do while you’re here, that is up to you.”
She smiled. “I promise. I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Why are you here?” he asked. “Not that I have a problem with it.”
Luna blew out a breath and stabbed her fork into several pieces of potatoes. “Honestly, I have no idea.”
“What about your teaching job?”
“I quit. It wasn’t working out, anyway. Again at the law firm. I tried to make it work, but the law sucks, like real bad.”
Matthew laughed. He couldn’t help it. “And, er, the guy you were seeing?”
Luna nibbled on her lip. “We’re finished. I mean, it wasn’t like it was going anywhere. We weren’t, it wasn’t, I don’t know. Me and boyfriends are complicated.”
“So, there has been more than one?” Matthew asked.
“Not really. Unless you count making out and that being as far as you go. Everything else just felt wrong.”
Matthew paused with a piece of beef in his mouth. He quickly remembered to seal his lips around it and chew.
“Forget what I just said,” Luna said.
“Have you had a proper, full-relationship boyfriend since … us?”
“Matthew, there never was anus.” She shoved more potatoes in her mouth, but she wouldn’t quite meet his eyes.