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He stared at her, obviously waiting for her to follow it up with a joke. When nothing came, her family traded surprised looks.

Hector slid over, tucking Luna into his muddy side. “We’re spending our honeymoon at a luxury resort. All-hours room service, Netflix, and massages. She’ll be back to normal after that.”

Everyone laughed. Luna joined in, tryingto ignore the irritation niggling in her gut. Room service, Netflix, and massages? Was that all they thought she was?

Mom sighed, sinking back against the edge of the pool. “You must be so relieved to be back. I can’t imagine being stuck in a townthatsmall for so long, nowhere to go, nothing to do.”

“Almost nothing,” Clancy muttered.

Hector snickered. There was an uncertain edge to it, but it was barely noticeable as he leaned up to take a drink off the waitress who had come in with a tray.

“Oh, that’s awful,” Mom said as she took a glass. “She didn’t spend all that time having marathon sex with a werewolf; she’s about to get MARRIED.”

“Thanks,” Luna said quietly to the waitress.

The waitress blinked. It took her a second to smile, and Luna wondered how many people were thanking her when she brought them their drinks.

Luna sipped her drink. It was cool and bubbly and had a strawberry floating at the bottom. It was the best thing she’d tasted in months. And yet she found herself longing for a mug of hot chocolate in the Musgrove common room while everybody crowded around to watch the TV.

“Exactly,” Clancy said, saluting Luna with his newly acquired glass. “Going into married life with a bang.”

Luna dug an elbow into his side. “Ew, shutup.”

“Hear, hear,” Dad agreed. “They didn’t try to get you on the hook for any money, did they? It’s such a mess trying to deal with those damn magical registries?—”

“They didn’t ask me for anything,” Luna said hastily. “And I’m not on any magical registry anymore, I told you. We broke the bond.”

“And good riddance!” Dad raised his glass. The others followed suit. Dad looked at her expectantly. “Honey?”

“What? Oh, right.” Luna raised her glass. “Uh, good riddance.”

Dad sat back, mud sludging over the side of the pool. “Then, let’s relax. God knows I need it after this week.”

Luna clenched her teeth in a smile. “Yeah? What’d you do this week, Dad?”

“He wassobusy,” Mom sighed. “He went to work four times this week.”

“Four times,” Luna deadpanned. “Wow.”

Hector tapped her collarbone. When she looked over, he was giving her that uncertain grin he’d been giving her a lot in the last several days. Like he was still hoping she was joking.

The room lapsed into silence, only broken by the soft bubbling of the mud and the occasional sip. Luna looked around at her family, all of them lying with their heads back on the cool tiles.

Luna sat up, twisting toward her phone. It was further than she expected, out of range of the mud. The woman was mopping around it.

“Whoa,” Hector said. “Where’s that hand going? It’d better be signaling someone down for more drinks.”

“I’m just answering some more emails,” Luna replied. “They’re reallypiling up.”

Dad laughed. “What emails doyouhave to answer?You’renot organizing the wedding.”

Luna ignored him, grabbing her phone. Before she could even swipe into it, Hector grabbed it off her and tossed it in the air.

Luna made a noise like a broken ice dispenser as she watched it sink into the mud at the other corner of the pool. “HEC! Oh my god!”

“You need to chill out,” he told her, his arm coming up to her shoulder.

She shrugged him off. “That’s my phone!”