“I can’t hear this, please stop.”
“You have to hear it, and you have to promise me. If I’m not here, don’t be alone. Surround yourself with people. I want you to live with Sarah and Dan, he loves you so much. You live with them, with Rebecca, with your aunts, you build as many rooms as you can on this house, or one giant boat, and you live with all of everyone. Promise me.”
“I don’t want to think about it.”
“I know you don’t, but if you don’t promise me, I’ll call Roscoe and make him write it down in something called a will, and you’ll have to listen to Roscoe tell you to do it.”
“That would be worse.”
Luna nodded solemnly. “I also want you to go look for Sky and her family and make sure they’re okay. When you find them I want you to ask them what they need and whatever they want, you give it to them. You can find them because you can do anything.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes, promise me you won’t be alone.”
“Okay, Luna, I promise.”
“Good. Thank you.”
Beckett turned his face back toward the sky. “Shit man, that sucks.”
“Yeah.” She tucked her head up onto his chest and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She reached over and draped her hand over his bicep feeling the strength just under his skin. She traced her fingers down and along his tattoo of the trees. “Now I see, those trees, they’re from here.”
“Yes.”
“When you remember this place, those trees, when you look down at your tattoo, does it give you happy memories or sad?”
“Awful memories.”
“So why did you get the tattoo?”
“To remind myself I guess, I’m nostalgic about this place, even though it doesn’t deserve it. Nothing good ever really happened here except escape.”
“Escape is pretty good. Surviving is a good thing.”
“Surviving kind of sucks if you’re left behind.”
Luna trailed a hand down his chest to his stomach and ran a finger along and under the edge of his pants back and forth. She wiggled up and met his lips and they kissed. Deep and long until his pants stretched against his want of her. She whispered into his ear. “Want to play a game?”
“What’s it called?’
“Don’t rock the boat.” She traced her fingers down the front of his pants and pressed against him.
He caught his breath. “How do you play?”
“You both climb onto one paddleboard.”
“Done.”
She jumped up over him. “You should have on less clothes, no self respecting Waterfolk man would invite someone to play Don’t Rock the Boat without having his pants off already.”
Beckett stripped off his shirt. “Man, there are a lot of rules for you people.” He undid the button on his shorts and wiggled them off and down and kicked them over the side.
“Now lay back.” She slowly, teasingly, stripped off her clothes piece by piece and sat astride his lap. She leaned to his ear. “How bad do you want me?”
“So bad.”
“Good, because you need to really, really, really want me.” She hovered above him, a centimeter of distance between her body and his.
His hands rubbed up her thighs. “Done.”
“Now here’s the game — you can’t touch me.”
“Oh.” He pulled his hands away.
She sat down on him with a small gasp. Her breath quickened. “Now neither of us can move. We have to be completely still. No water can lap over the side of the board, or we lose.” She pressed her forehead to the edge of his cheek. “And we can’t touch or move or speak.”
She could hear his breath fast in her ear. The need to move against him was building, He felt electric, pulsing,
She trembled and her breaths pulled in, drawing him closer and pushing him down.
Barely audibly he said, “God.”
Her blood coursed. Keeping on top of her racing heart took physical effort. The top of her lip tasted of salt.
His arms drew up off the rock and hovered, still, just above the skin of her legs. She felt him tightening, every inch drawing closer, deeper, further in. Her body was magnetic, or his, she pulled down, weighting, liquid rolled down her skin, eddied in her flats, filling her voids. She breathed out, “How bad?”
He moaned, “God,” again.
“Don’t talk, we don’t want to lose.”
“Can’t—”
She moved her mouth a little closer to the steady thrum of his neck hovering, she could lick there if there weren’t rules. He tightened below her, pushing slightly.
She whispered, “Shhhhhhhh,” and then, “look at the sky.”
Her eyes focused on the curve of his jaw, the shadow and shelter of its curve. For a long trembling few minutes they paused, still, but their insides quivered and vibrated.
Beckett’s breath drew in. He whispered, “Fuck, don’t move, Luna, butterfly, on your shoulder, it’s right there. An inch from my face.”
“Really? The tickle?”
His body went completely still. Luna concentrated on the tickle on her left shoulder, until after a moment it was gone.
Beckett’s breath escaped him and then he grabbed her roughly by her hips and pulled her body up and down desperately, fast and slamming. Luna pushed hard against his chest, pulling on his skin, a moan erupting with the vibration that built and pushed from their bodies, with their breath and with a wave, and it was over.
“Fuck that was amazing.”
Luna licked up the side of his neck, allowing herself the taste she had been longing for. “I think we tipped the boat.”
“Nah, we won that game, that was — a fucking butterfly Luna, on your shoulder.”
“What color was it?”
“Dark blue and black, wow, that was, oh my god.”
She curled her head down on his chest, and his arms went up and around her. They huddled there for some long moments. “Don’t get dressed yet. Can we just be naked here on Bug Boulder?”
“Definitely.” She sat up on his lap and looked down at her stomach. His hands drew to it and rubbed and caressed it’s round firmness. The baby kicked his palm and rolled from one side of her belly to the other. She watched Beckett’s eyes. She loved how they would go wide whenever the baby kicked and then he would sigh and relax into the moment. She asked, “How do you feel about this place now?”
He looked up at her, sky above her face, above him, the weight of her on his hips, the baby nestled, growing in her stomach, his heart heavy, but the taste of her salt on his lips, and his breath skipping because of the butterfly wing that had pulsed beside her heartbeat at her throat. “It joined my list of happy places.”
Chapter 55
Luna walked every day, sometimes with Beckett some times without. If she was alone, she checked in occasionally by phone, because everyone was worried now all the time. There was a feeling of: Maybe This Is It, My Last Moment with Luna.
And she couldn’t blame them. She felt as if everything might be her last time. She got misty-eyed holding Beckett’s hand. They couldn’t have sex without sobbing. There wasn’t much fun to be had anymore. It was all just way too sad.
When she came wandering back from a walk on the fourth day, Roscoe pulled his car into the driveway with a wave even though he had been warned to stay away because of the flu.
Luna stopped mid-stride with her hands on her hips. “Roscoe, I know you missed us, but you’ve been commanded to stay away.”
“Pshaw.” Roscoe waved like it was nothing.
Luna cocked her head to the side. “Chickadee is going to be furious.”
The screen door banged open and Chickadee’s voice rang out. “Roscoe, you turn around. What if something happens to you? I can’t live without you. You’re the best goddamned lawyer in the world and you barely charge me a cent.”
Roscoe smiled. “Well, Chickadee—” Dilly appeared on the porch. “—and Dilly—” Next Beckett stepped ou
t. “—and Beckett, you’re all here, so I figure I can be here too.”
He reached in the back of his car and pulled out three shopping bags. “I brought groceries. Besides, I delivered all of Beckett’s contracts. I’ve seen everyone on this mountain, had many, many meetings with friends and strangers. I was giving them good news of course, but I had to act all gracious while they cried and carried on happily on the front of my shirt. Beckett and Luna you should have been there to receive most of it, but I took the duty on, and now I could use a few days to rest. I thought, where better than inside the quarantine house?”
Chickadee said, “You’re just an old softy here to check on Luna.”
“That may be true and I brought chocolate. Also, as you remember Chickadee, I lost my dear Winnie and our little one to the Deep Flu. I’m immune and I don’t want to stay away wondering.”
Chickadee sighed. “I know, I know, I sat with you through it dear Roscoe. All right then, you can come in, but we’re watching my shows, not your silly detective shows, my comedies. Got me?”
Roscoe smiled at Luna and laden with bags walked toward the house. As he stepped by Luna he asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Good Roscoe, I’m glad you’re here.”
Chapter 56
They all stayed up and watched movies late and Roscoe slept on the couch. Beckett and Luna stayed in their room the following morning, sleeping and reading and cuddling so as not to wake him up too early. Beckett got up first. “I have to go use the bathroom. I’ll tell you if the coast is clear.”
A few minutes later he called, “Luna, come out here. You need to see this!”
When Luna emerged there were flowers all over the living room, and Roscoe, Chickadee, and Dilly stood in the middle of them. “Ta-Dah!”
The room was beautiful. Roses, peonies, carnations, and daisies, in glass vases wrapped in brightly colored ribbons, with balloons gently bouncing and floating here and there covering every surface and the floor. Luna asked, “What is this? Did you do this Roscoe?”
Roscoe said, “Not me, these are from all the families on the mountain.”
Dilly mopped her eyes.
Chickadee said, “They’re thanking you, dear Luna, for keeping their children from the war, and hoping you. . .” Her voice trailed off unable to say the unsayable.
Tears welled up in Luna’s eyes. “Oh, that’s really wonderful. I haven’t met many people yet, they’re strangers, and that’s just so thoughtful.”
Beckett hugged her. “Quite a few of them plan to come in person to meet you too.”
Dilly said, “Look at the time, I was about to come drag you out of bed, because the seamstress, Millie, will be here in a few minutes.”
Luna asked, “What seamstress?”
“For your wedding dress,” said Dilly. “I told her that you were quarantined and she said, ‘That sweet girl will have a wedding dress. I don’t care about the germs.’ Said they can put the whole mountain on quarantine if they must. Besides, we all lived through it already.”
“Oh, that’s really—”
Chickadee held up her former wedding dress with another, “Ta-Dah!” Yards and yards of white fabric and lace and weighed down the bent hanger. Chickadee’s bicep bulged with holding it. She pretended to buckle under the weight. “I floated down the aisle, didn’t I, dear Dilly?”
Dilly smirked, “Like a beautiful gossamer cloud.”
Chickadee chuckled. “You wrote a poem like that about me once, if I remember correctly.”
Dilly gasped, “I did, I can’t believe you remember my old poems!”
Chickadee laughed, “I do, remember them all.” She tapped the side of her forehead. “I have a memory that holds every single line. I’m also too shy, as you know, to recite them, so you’ll just have to trust me that I do.”
Dilly kissed Chickadee on the cheek and then there was a knock on the door. “The seamstress!”
Chapter 57
It was hot and Luna stood for a long time. Chickadee’s heavy wedding dress was draped all around her body, and Millie chattered constantly about what a dear she was, how she had saved the whole mountain, and touched every life. “My niece Justine was going to lose her boyfriend to that war, but he got his contract from Beckett yesterday and well, the whole family will be here, I’d say, by tomorrow to hug you themselves.”
Luna was holding her arms out, her belly protruding, her shoulders shifted forward, her lower back aching. Millie poked pins through the sleeves transforming them into caps, ignoring Luna when she said, “Possibly I want a sleeveless dress, like a tank top.”
“With wide shoulders like this,” said Millie, “you’ll want to hide them with some capped sleeves.”
Luna sighed. The baby kicked. The heat sweltered. The day dragged. The flowers steamed.
While Millie was still there poking pins The neighbors from two properties over came banging onto the porch calling, “Hullo, Chickadee, Beckett!”
They were all introduced to Luna. Then each in turns held her hand, told her how much she meant to them, how much they adored her, and how grateful they were. Then right before they had left, another family, with eight people total, knocked and entered. The round of introductions began again. Roscoe brought glasses of tea for everyone and passing by Luna said, “Told you the gratitude was exhausting.”
But not for long, because three minutes later Luna’s knees buckled, and she sank to the floor in a faint.
Chapter 58
Luckily Luna missed the freak out scene that followed. Beckett carried her to the bedroom, sweat rolling down his face, unable to say anything because he was insanely close to punching someone in the face. Who, it didn’t matter. His fury was faceless.
Millie was in a high-pitched frantic-panic.
Dilly was buzzing around getting everyone to their feet to leave with her best wishes and thanks.
While Chickadee stood frozen in the middle of the room with Roscoe patting the back of her hand and telling her it was nothing but a thing. “Not a bit of a worry. Luna passed out. Pregnant women do that.”
Chickadee said, “If something happened to that girl, it’s my fault, you hear me Roscoe, my fault.”
“Now, now, it’s no one’s fault. It’s the nature of the virus that it does what it does.”
Beckett lowered Luna onto their bed and dropped to his knees beside it. He brushed her hair from her forehead. “Luna? You with us?”
Dilly bustled in with a wet rag and two drops of tincture for Luna’s tongue, a drop for Beckett’s tongue, and one for her own. “For panic.”
Beckett ignored her and kept whispering to Luna. “Luna? You here?”
Her eyes opened out of focus at first. “What happened?”
“You kind of disappeared for a minute, sank right into the pile of dress. Dilly and I had to dig you out.”
“It’s just hot.”
Beckett searched her face. “Is that all? You’re not excessively tired or weak?”
“Beckett, I’m way pregnant. Yes, I’m tired and weak.” She stroked fingers along his scruffy chin and he sat looking at her face.
She asked, “What are you thinking about?”
“I’m not really thinking, I’m still trying to get my adrenaline out of my ears. I thought my head would explode when you sank down, and I had to weave through all those people to get to you. I almost knocked over Old Lady Jespen, because she wouldn’t move fast enough.”
“She might be like eighty.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, I would have liked to see a bit more hustle.” He gave her a sad smile.
She gently pushed with a fingertip the spot where his dimple should be. And pushed harder until he smiled.
“Thank you. We’re all so damn glum.”
Beckett put his head on her chest and a hand on her stomach searching around for the baby’s lumpy-busy-ness. “Has the baby been kicking?”
“Yes, a lot. Right now. . .” She waited for a minute, then pulled his hand to her right
side. “There. Baby wants to say hi.”
“Hi Baby.” Beckett’s arms went tighter around Luna’s head and around her stomach. His shoulders shook as he cried, lying on Luna, feeling his baby kick, Luna’s fingers twisting through his hair, scared out of his mind that this was it, and soon not anymore.
Chapter 59
Finally day six came. It was marked with temperature readings and more worrying. The incubation period of this known virus, the Deep virus, was upon them. Beckett woke, checking inside his body for the sign of anything amiss, but he was probably immune. He had been alive fifteen years ago at the edge of his mother’s bed, begging her to live through, please. He remembered how, his seven-year-old brain had wanted his mom to stay alive for a very selfish reason, to protect him from his dad. Then when his mom died, he believed his selfishness had killed her. But he couldn’t dwell on that for long, because after his mom died he got his ass beat pretty regularly, supposing that his dad thought Beckett had killed his mom too, and that sucked. Until his dad died eight weeks later. And then, because Aunt Chickadee was away at college in the city, and wasn’t there to protect him, his uncle had taken over Beckett’s beatings.
Beckett had spent many a day wondering why he lived when his mom hadn’t made it. How did he have a magical immune system? It didn’t seem fair to be left alone to fend.
And Luna could leave him alone again.
But the day passed, uneventful. There were a lot of hours in a day, though. No hour was a safe hour because the next hour it might happen. Because the Deep Flu was known to hit like a freight train.
Beckett was bracing for the crash.
Also, he was pretty sure that if something happened to Luna, he would break apart. Because what would be the point — before meeting the baby? They went to bed on day six still wondering if something could happen in the night.
Deep (Luna's Story Book 3) Page 16