Page 94 of The Sun and the Moon
The two of them may be a perfect pair of liars, but what they feel for each other is real.
“I don’t know where she’s gone. I don’t know if she’s coming back,” Moira moans. “I really thought I could give her something she needed and maybe that would fix things between us.”
She may not come back. The reality slams into me. I need to go after her. I should. But I am afraid if I do before she’s ready, I’ll end up pushing her away even further. So I decide to focus on getting more information out of the parents.
“You gotta level with me, Moira.” I stand now, too, stepping nearer, wishing I had a height advantage. She’s at least shorter than her daughter, though that doesn’t make the woman less intimidating. That’s something they have in common. “That original soulmate prediction, the one you gave her here when she was a teenager…Did you know we met that day at Kismet?”
“I saw you two leaving,” she says. “I didn’t know you were you, since I only saw the back of your head. But that night at the restaurant I put two and two together.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” I balk, my temper flaring up. At this point, the idea that she let us scheme and plot with such abandon shouldn’t surprise me, but it can still piss me off.
“We’ve established I like a game,” she says with a fluid shrug. “And Cadence hadn’t played in years. It was refreshing to see her…trying. Even if she was trying to take me down.”
“We were trying to protect Dad,” I say. He smiles broadly, and it brightens his every feature. “Which was clearly not needed.” The smile ghosts.
Moira grins, catlike again. She really doesn’t stay down for long, does she?
“Questioning is a good instinct.” She repeats her statement from that first dinner that caused me to spiral over so many things that needed questioning in my life.
And asking questions—the right ones, anyway—leads to destiny.
Everything that is meant for you will find you.
I want Cadence to be my soulmate because of how she makes me feel. The idea that she might be has fueled my actions with her, even if I got the idea to take those actions because of a prediction—a scheme I wasn’t even in on. I shift my eyes to hers.
“I have to find her.”
She smiles as if she knew I was going to say that.
I bolt for the door, yanking my phone out of my pocket to call her.
“Will we see you at the wedding?” Dad asks. I whip around to see their nervous, expectant faces.
“I don’t know yet,” I say. “But not without her.” I lift my phone, using my face to open it. And then I remember one more thing. “Chicken!”
“We were going to ask you to bring him tonight,” Dad says, throwing a puppy-dog face at me. “He’s the ring bearer.”
“Jesus Christ, Dad, I didn’t even know it was a wedding, and now the dog is in it?” I exclaim.
“We hoped you and Cadence would be in it, too,” he tries. I hold up my hands in a stop motion. “Moira can just get a key to the room from Sven,” Dad edits.
“You can’t just do that—”
“Oh, I definitely can.”
“Un-be-lievable.” I emphasize the syllables, but I don’t wait around for her to dismiss my displeasure. “I’ll bring him to you.”
As I walk, I find her name,Ranger Girl, in my phone and tap the little icon. I don’t know if she’ll pick up, if my calling her will push her away, if it’s too much too soon. When the call goes to her voicemail, I hang up. This is not something I want to say in a voicemail. Hell, saying it over the phone is weird enough as it is.
I don’t know where to even begin looking for her, but I need to go back to our room for Chicken anyway, so I’ll check there. I run down the corridor and through the courtyard to our room, swiping my key in the door. Chicken starts to bark at the sound, but as soon as he sees it’s me, he’s up, shaking out his tail. My eyes land on a black rectangle nestled in the bed linens.
She wasn’t answering her phone because she doesn’t have it.
I grab the phone and the dog.
I breathe, a wish in my mind. I don’t know who I’m asking, but I hope they listen.
Please let us find each other.
