Staring out the window she said, “Do you hear yourself? You said your first priority is the land because of me. It's still true. It doesn't make you a boy it makes you honest.”
“Are you just trying to win this discussion, because I'm not sure what your point is. Fine, you're my priority. While I'm bickering with my neighbors and my former girlfriend over the contract for my land, I'll remember: it's not for the land, it's for Luna. Does that sound better?”
“My point is that Waterfolk think of the people around them as their priority and say so. Neighbors, former girlfriends, relatives, they all matter. Because lives are interconnected. You might have a distant cousin who travels with a different family, but if they're nearby, they become part of your priority. It's all about the relationships. You're saying the opposite. I find it interesting.”
“Dryden's father can smell my weakness, use it to his advantage. It's not interesting, it makes me a failure.” Beckett rubbed through his hair, elbow on the door.
“So from now on you'll be putting the land first and me second? How about the baby, Chickadee and Dilly? What about Dryden, you loved her once, is she on your list?”
“I don't get what you want me to say.”
Luna nodded. “Yeah, I know. Can I read the contract?”
Chapter 42
All the way up the mountain, through the stop and go traffic, the cars parked on the side of the road, families milling around, cars broken down, people on foot — Luna read. It was a lot of legal language, some of it seemed senseless, like, why the provisions for the reading of the minutes at the community meetings, why was that in there? Literally, who cared? She tried to make sense of —
Beckett's phone rang.
He answered, holding it to his ear as he drove the car along a ten mile per hour creep up the road, bumper to bumper. “Miss me already, Dan? We just left.”
Then he said, “Oh. Oh man. Oh god. When?”
Luna could hear Dan's voice, tiny coming through the phone, he sounded upset, she couldn't make out the words—
“Beckett?”
He glanced at her and continued listening to Dan. “Uh huh,” and “I can't believe it...”
He turned to Luna and whispered, “Jeffrey.”
Then he listened to more, for longer. “Yeah, man, it sucks.”
Again, “I know,” and then, “will you hug everyone for me? I wish I could come back, but — I'll call later, and man, tell Sarah and Rebecca I'm so sorry.”
He hung up the phone and dropped it down to the seat beside him.
“Jeffrey?” Luna's eyes were wide, scared.
“He died on the front lines. God, that war.”
Luna grasped his hand and held it, tears welled up in her eyes.
“I just — no one gets out alive.”
Luna kissed his fingers, much like that day when his hands were hooked through the chain-link fence. The only contact across the divide. “I'm so sorry Beckett. So, so sorry.”
“I didn't know him for that long, you know? He had been friends with Sarah and Rebecca for a really long time. Oh man, what is Dr Mags going to do? They were really close. This sucks.”
Luna nodded, clasping his hand, listening, quietly crying.
“Jeez, Jeffrey?” Beckett pulled the truck to a stop behind a stream of cars, blaring their horns, heading away from the coast, stuck at another standstill. “I have this meeting. I have to put this out of my mind and deal with the meeting.”
Chapter 43
Luna was lying on the bed in her room.
Beckett had been called to the meeting. Regretfully he went though he was upset about Jeffrey and in no mood.
She lay there listening to the voices of Dryden's party as they entered the house, greeting each other, shaking hands. Dryden's dad sounded like a pompous ass.
Dryden sounded upbeat and flirty.
Luna picked at the bed cover. She was in here against all her best judgement. Why?
Beckett loved her.
He wanted to marry her.
He told her that she owned half of everything he owned.
Plus they were having a baby. She dropped lower on the pillows and stared up at the ceiling. Her head felt dizzy, she was tired. And frankly scared.
This was all too much to sit quietly and alone while her future was discussed. She had things to add. She had read the contract.
She had opinions.
And Dryden was in her dining room negotiating her way into Beckett's life while Luna was sitting alone in a bedroom. Seething.
Was she trying to lose Beckett?
Because this was how that worked.
If a bonk can start a relationship what was Luna doing sitting back and letting Dryden bonk up to Beckett?
Sky would be outraged if she saw Luna sitting here.
Luna swept her feet off the bed as if she would — what?
The land was Beckett's number one priority. He truly believed that.
But it wasn't hers.
Her number one priority — Beckett. From the moment he had bellyflopped off the boat.
But he had said he needed her to stay here while he handled it. She sank back on the pillows again, staring up at the ceiling once more.
He was losing himself in this.
She remembered being cuddled up under his strong arms that night on the Outpost and even though she lied about her name, and about her family, even though, he had told her that she could move to his mountain. She had asked, “My whole family?” And he had said, “Yes, we'll figure that out.” And he had meant it. Because Beckett had a heart as big as the ocean. She loved that about him.
He made her feel safe.
Secure. Because his love was big enough to protect her always, to rescue her, to doing anything she needed him to do.
Yet now, here, his number one priority was the land.
She lay staring at the ceiling thinking back and forth about whats and hows and priorities and necessities.
She thought about how Beckett was her whole wide world.
Everything.
And she was his everything, but he seemed somehow lost.
And when Beckett was lost he needed someone to find him.
And Luna was a navigator.
That echoed in her mind.
She was a navigator.
She had opinions—
From the other room she heard Dryden voice, singsong and flirtatious. “Beckie Dearest, you know this is what you need to do.”
Right then the baby kicked.
Luna sat up. She crossed the room to the mirror and glanced at herself. She swept her hair back and twisted to see herself from all directions. She had on a yoga top and pants, with a light sweeping coverup that was airy and gauzy and floated. She tied it round the middle to close it, because sometimes her belly button was endearing, but not today, because this was not—
She hadn't thought this through, but never mind.
Going.
She walked out the bedroom headed to the dining room to join the meeting.
Chapter 44
Beckett was asking about Section 4 Article 8 — the one that specifically called for a sharing of land. He was walking a thin line, trying to gulp down his upset over Jeffrey's death, trying to not offend or outrage his opponent, while also trying to win the argument.
He was one raw nerve, about close to breaking something. Possibly the wall.
He had no intention of marrying Dryden, she was the past, she had broken his heart.
Yet now she was vying for his money and land, in possession of a legal document that Roscoe called “valid.” Even though Beckett's uncle hadn't actually owned the land. Even though Uncle Jimmy had been a violent lunatic. Even though he was probably drunk when he signed it. Even though.
Simpering Dryden was sitting across the table smiling sweetly while she did this.
Beckett dropped his head into his hands as he listened to Roscoe read about how a large portion of Beckett's land would be broken into pieces a
nd partitioned off as payment on government levy payments for the people who would be working the security detail. Beckett shook his head and groaned.
He pressed his mouth into his thumbs and wished Luna could be there, to hold his hand, to smile. He could feel the baby. That usually worked to clear his mind of these stressful things.
Roscoe said, “So this provision looks pretty clear, it's the amount of land that we need to discuss.”
Beckett said, “No I want to go through this line by line by line.”
And that's when Dryden said, in that flirtatious and patronizing tone, what she said, causing Luna to leave her room and stalk across the living room to join them.
Chapter 45
Beckett's eyes were locked on Dryden, trying to come up with something to say besides, “Are you shitting me with this?” When the footsteps sounded behind him. From the looks on the faces of Dryden and her father and their lawyer, someone new and totally unexpected had entered the room.
Luna.
Beckett swung in his seat. She stood in the side door of the dining room, rounded belly entering first.
Before Dryden could close her shock-opened mouth, or her father could say, “Who in the world?” Luna said, “Excuse my intrusion, everyone. Roscoe, I was hoping to sit in on the meeting and ask a few questions.”
Roscoe raised his eyebrows with a bemused look. “Certainly Luna, have you read the contract?”
“Yes, this morning.”
Beckett didn't know what to do or say so he jumped up and lifted an empty chair that had been beside Dryden and slid it to his side of the table and offered it to Luna.
“Thank you,” she said simply, without looking at him. She sat gracefully in the seat.
Dryden's mouth continued to open and close. Her father asked, “And who exactly is this?”
Before Beckett could answer, Luna said, “I'm Luna Saturniidae, Beckett's partner.” She leveled her gaze at Dryden. “I believe we met at Dilly's poetry slam.” Her hand went to her stomach.
Dryden eyes gloomed over. “I don't remember, but — by partner you mean?”
“Yes, partner.”
“You'll need to be more clear, this is a business arrangement?”
“No, much more than that.”
Dryden glared. She turned to Beckett. “Can you please explain this Beckett?”
Luna glanced at Beckett expectantly.
He began hesitatingly, “Um, this is Luna, she—”
“We,” Luna gestured between herself and Beckett, “bonked.”
Dryden shook her head slowly. “You bonked?”
Luna didn't feel like smiling, she felt frankly sick to her stomach, to walk in here uninvited and pretend to have it all under control. None of it made her happy, but she hid it, and grinned widely. “Oh boy did we, twice yesterday.”
Luna cut her eyes at Chickadee who looked about to fall out of her chair. Dilly had her lips pressed between her teeth. Roscoe had the corner of his mouth curled up. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the show, except Beckett.
His eyes were wildly taking in all the faces. “Um, I think we've lost sight of the meeting's purpose. We should get back to the provisional clause on page...”
Dryden continued to glare at Luna. “And you're pregnant.”
Luna nodded and watched Dryden work through the facts.
“With Beckie's baby?”
Luna nodded again.
“Why didn't you tell me Beckie?”
“I did.” He dropped his pencil to the table and put his hands out palms up. “I told you that I loved Luna, and you were making a mistake thinking we were going to be together.”
“But I didn't believe you. Those were just words you said, I didn't think you really meant them.”
Beckett's brows drew down, and he scowled. “Why wouldn't you?”
He looked at Luna and shook his head.
Luna looked down at the table in front of her — perhaps she had miscalculated. She had thought this through. She had also walked in here without thinking. Both were true. “I know my presence is difficult. I just have a few questions. I'll ask them quickly.”
“Absolutely Luna, ask away.” Roscoe passed Luna a copy of the contract.
“In the last section there's a list.” Luna flipped through pages to the end. “Here, a list of names. These are the young men and women who would be running Buckhorn Mountain's security detail. This first name shares your last name Dryden?”
Dryden looked uncomfortable to be expected to answer civilly. “He's my younger brother.”
“It says here he's sixteen years old and will head to the front, at Burnside, in two months.”
Dryden nodded.
Luna turned to Beckett. “That's how old you were, when you joined, right?”
“Yes, but I went to the coast. I had sandbag duty.”
Luna returned to speaking to Dryden's side of the table. “So, if I'm not mistaken, the main purpose of this deal, is that there will be, from Beckett's land, acres to exchange for your brother's service?”
Dryden nodded again.
Her father said, “We'd prefer he work here at home, securing this community, than fighting in the East.”
Luna watched him speak, but was drawing circles around the word: sixteen. Around and around and around. She nodded and glanced at the list again. “This next name, Fred Smithson, it says he's eighteen years old?”
Roscoe answered, “His older brother died in the East. Fred is headed in his stead to pay off their family's duty.”
Luna turned to Beckett. “Do you know him?”
“I went to school with his brother.” Beckett shook his head slowly. “I hadn't heard he had died.”
“What about this young woman, Cindy Thomas?”
Chickadee said, “That's the dear niece of my friend from school, remember Todd, Roscoe?”
“I do Chickadee. She's all that's left of the family.”
“That's just sad is what that is. It's unconscionable that the war is taking all these young people and killing them.”
“Chickie, careful around the kids,” said Dilly.
“Well, it's true, isn't it? There's barely any young left, and they have to fight the wars too? They should send the old coots to fight, like drunken Uncle Jimmy. Or you Roscoe.”
Roscoe said, “Now if I went to war who would fight all your battles, Chickadee?”
“True, I'd have to volunteer in your stead, because I couldn't live without you. And who wants me in the war, I'm not at all up to fighting speed.”
Luna glanced up to see Dryden with a tear rolling down her cheek.
Beckett leaned in and whispered to Luna. “You have a point?”
Luna didn't look at him. She said quietly, “Not yet,” and then asked the table, “what about these names, James and Josh Irwin and Twill Jones, they're listed as twelve and thirteen years old.”
Roscoe said, “The Irwins live at the bottom of the mountain, without any land and twin boys that will need to fight once they're of age. Twill Jones is an orphan.”
Luna flipped the page. “If you don't mind I'd like to continue to read the names.” She continued through the list one by one, asking for a story for every name. Asking Beckett if he knew the kid or the family and then moving to the next one. “Dune Mayweather?”
“He's twenty-three and volunteered to keep his brother from going.”
“That's nice of him considering, huh?”
“Very nice.”
Until she finally came to the bottom of the list. She silently counted the names, checking each with the pen. “That's thirty-three. Is that every young person that lives here on the mountain and in the community?”
Mr Peterson, Dryden's lawyer, said, “There are about forty-six young people in total. These are the ones for whom the service requirements would create a terrible strain on the family or would be impossible.”
Luna said, “I need something else clarified, and it's hard to speak of, my apologies Dryden. We're assumi
ng that to fight in the East is a death sentence? I mean, Beckett lost a friend yesterday, in the war.”
Mr Peterson said, “The survival rate is very grim.”
Dryden sniffled.
Luna looked down, her pen was still circling numbers on the page, nervously. “I would assume it would get worse too. The death rate I mean.” She looked at Dryden's father. “These people would be willing to work as part of the community's security detail?”
“They're willing.”
Luna flipped the pages of the contract back to the beginning. “So basically this contract combines your smaller tract of land with Beckett's larger tract of land and cedes it to the government in exchange for the lives of all these young people, then they will in turn protect the mountain.”
Beckett groaned. “Baby, I see what you're getting at, but you have to understand—”
“That's why I'm asking, so I can understand.”
Beckett leaned toward her speaking low. “You have to trust me, you don't understand this.”
“I'm asking for the facts, so I can make my decision—
Beckett shoved his chair back and stood up. “Aargh.” He ran his hands through his hair. He dropped his arms. “You need the facts, Luna? Okay, here they are. My Uncle Jimmy beat me. Sometimes daily.” He turned to Roscoe. “You saw it, right? I'm not making this up.”
“I did see it. You were covered in bruises. I called Chickadee and told her to come home.”
“—And you got me a restraining order. You knew what he was capable of.” He turned on Dryden and her father. “I was eight at the time. Eight. But also, because he was my legal guardian, we couldn't get him to leave. I slept outside, or in the barn.” He spoke directly to Dryden. “I told you this, didn't I tell you this?”
She nodded.
“So why am I even in this discussion? This is my land. He had no right to trade for it with—” Beckett flipped to a page in the contract and jabbed his finger on a line of text. “What's it called, yes — sundries.” He leveled his gaze at Dryden's father. “Tell me what the sundries were.”
Deep (Luna's Story Book 3) Page 11