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Mia couldn’t stop smiling as she took away the breakfast dishes and piled them into the kitchen. Guests asked questions and gave her problems, all of which she handled with grace and charm. And still her cheeks ached from all the smiling. Which wasn’t the way this was all supposed to be at all.

Her heart was light, it was beating a fairy rhythm in her chest, and all she could think about was Luna. The way she’d laughed when Mia had almost tripped in the woods, the gentle touch on her arm when Luna’s hands steadied her, the way her eyes had softened when they talked about the things that were actually important.

All of which was terrifying and confusing. But she couldn’t deny that the feelings were there. The kind of feelings she was starting to suspect she should have felt whenever Mikey was around.

She was supposed to be pretending, though, wasn’t she?

She was pretending.

Yet every moment she spent with Luna, with annoying, exasperating Luna, felt real in a way that nothing else ever had. It was like the ground beneath her feet was shifting in a way that she couldn’t ignore. Like there was an imminent landslide on its way.

One more thing that she had to not think about. One more thing to stash away and pretend didn’t exist.

“Morning,”

Rachel said, coming into the kitchen.

“Busy, busy,” Mia said.

“That’ll be for the weekend,”

said Rachel, pouring herself some coffee. “The summer festival starts on Saturday, and the tourists always flock in for it. Even though it’s nothing any more special than a few decorations and a bit of music every day. Still, we’ve been booked out for months.”

“Mmm,”

said Mia, wondering what Luna was doing right now. Starting work probably. Twining flowers into bouquets with those long, strong fingers.

Fingers.

Jesus, what was wrong with her?

“You’ve got that look.”

Rachel’s voice startled her out of her thoughts. The hotel owner was leaning against the kitchen counter with her arms crossed and an amused expression on her face.

“What look?”

asked Mia, feigning ignorance as she fumbled to turn the dishwasher on.

“The look of someone who’s thinking about someone who she might have certain feelings for,”

Rachel said, stepping closer. “So? How’s it going with your whirlwind romance?”

“I thought you didn’t believe in it,”

said Mia, crossing her own arms.

Rachel rolled her eyes. “I didn’t mean that about you. It’s Luna I’ve got my doubts about. For this very reason, in fact.”

“What reason’s that?”

“That you’re vulnerable, and easily taken advantage of,”

Rachel said. “Given current circumstances and all. I don’t want to see you hurt. But from the way you keep grinning, I’m thinking that hurt is the last thing on your mind. So, out with it, how’s it going?”

Mia hesitated, then sighed. “It’s… complicated.”

Rachel raised an eyebrow. “Complicated is code for interesting,”

she said, motioning for Mia to sit down at the kitchen table. She poured another cup of coffee and handed it to Mia before sitting down opposite her. “Tell your Auntie Rachel all about it.”

Mia took a drink of strong coffee and tried to gather her thoughts. Then she shrugged. There was no harm in talking to someone about it, she guessed. Not when that someone was so far outside her normal life. “I’m not sure what to say. Luna’s… different from anyone I’ve ever known. She’s bold and spontaneous, and she makes me laugh. More than I’ve laughed in a long, long time. But she’s also… unpredictable.”

Rachel sucked air over her teeth and nodded. “She is that. Not the most reliable of people. Which is why I’d be careful around her. But she sounds like she’s shaken you up a bit.”

Mia chuckled. “That’s putting it mildly.”

She put her cup down and wrapped her hands around it for comfort. “I’ve spent my whole life following the rules, doing what’s expected of me. And then I meet Luna, and she’s like this force of nature, pulling me in a direction I never imagined.”

Rachel’s eyes twinkled. “And is that… direction a problem?”

“No!”

Mia sighed. “No, it’s not a problem. I don’t have a problem with liking another woman. I really don’t. It’s not something I’ve given serious consideration to before, but then I suppose you have feelings for a person, not for a gender.”

She struggled to put words on it.

“Feelings are feelings, whether for man, woman, or dog,”

said Rachel.

“Right,”

Mia said. “It’s just… I don’t know if this is all real, or if I’m caught up in the act, so far outside my own life that this is all just a dream.”

Rachel studied her for a moment. “What do you want it to be?”

The question hit Mia like a clap of thunder. What did she want? She’d spent so long trying to fit into a life that just didn’t feel right in the end. Maybe part of all this was trying to figure out what she truly wanted deep in her heart.

And maybe, just maybe, Luna was a part of that.

***

Luna leaned against the counter of the flower shop, staring at the arrangement of roses that she was supposed to be assembling. Her hands moved automatically, but her mind was twirling with thoughts.

Specifically, thoughts about Mia.

She was very clear on what the intentions here had been. The plan was simple. Fake dating for mutual benefit. When the idea had come to her, it had seemed like a stroke of genius. She’d never meant for anything else to happen.

She wasn’t an idiot, though. She’d been around the block. There had been other women, other feelings. She’d been down this road before. Well, not this particular road. Mostly, she had feelings, acted on them, and then the feelings went away.

But somewhere along the way here, things had shifted.

Last night, under the trees and the cool, calm wind, with a brook bubbling along merrily, she had come close, too close, to kissing Mia the Runaway Bride.

There were all kinds of reasons she shouldn’t be doing things like that. Not least that Mia was vulnerable and probably in no position to be making big life decisions like, oh, switching teams and liking girls.

But that almost-kiss had left Luna breathless. And now she couldn’t stop thinking about Mia’s smile, her laugh, the way she blushed so ferociously when Luna teased her.

“Earth to Luna.”

Jan’s voice cut through her thoughts. When she turned, Jan was standing behind her, arms folded and an eyebrow raised. “You’ve been staring at those roses for ten minutes. Have they started to grow heads or something?”

Luna sighed, putting down the flower she was holding. “Just… thinking.”

A knowing smile spread across Jan’s face. “Let me see. Thinking about a certain hotel employee, by any chance?”

Luna groaned. “Is it that obvious?”

“Painfully,”

Jan said, chuckling. She came to lean on the counter next to Luna. “So, spill. What are you all tangled up about?”

Luna hesitated. There was only so much that she could say, she couldn’t ruin anything. Not that she didn’t trust Jan, but her grandmother seemed to have ears all over town. “It’s just… Well, this was all supposed to be fun and easy. And now… I don’t know.”

“Let me guess. You’re starting to feel something real. Something scary and terrifying. Something that you’re worried might be a wee bit too serious?”

Jan asked. She’d turned and was quickly assembling the flower display while talking.

“I don’t do commitment. You know that,”

Luna said.

“Why not?”

asked Jan, fingers still busy.

“Because…”

Luna frowned, trying to think of a reason, trying to remember why she didn’t commit, why people just didn’t hold her interest for long enough. “Because I just don’t,”

she finished weakly.

Jan finished the display and turned back. “Maybe it’s time you did,”

she said with a shrug.

“But… I…”

There was really no comeback to that. Even if Jan was right, and Luna wasn’t saying that she was, there was still the question of Mia and her feelings and whether or not she might by some stroke of luck be bi rather than straight.

“Luna,”

Jan said gently. “You’ve spent so much of your life running from things. Maybe this is your chance to stop running.”

Luna looked down at her hands and said nothing.

“Love? Just talk to me. Just us, here, right now, let’s be serious for one minute, then we can go back to kidding and joking and being silly,”

Jan said very softly. “Just let the feelings out for a second. You’ll feel better.”

“I don’t know if I can stop running,”

Luna said through numb lips. She looked up. “What if I screw this up? What if she gets hurt?”

“What if you don’t?”

Jan countered, taking her hand and patting it. “What if this is your big chance to prove to yourself that you’re capable of more than you think?”

Luna sighed. “I suppose there’s only one way to find out.”

“Well, you could talk to the woman,”

said Jan. “Rather than expecting some fairy godmother to wave her wand around and make all your dreams come true.”

Luna snorted. “And would you be the fairy godmother in this situation?”

“I’ve always fancied myself with wings,”

Jan said with a grin.

Luna blew out a breath. “Feelings are hard.”

“Makes ‘em worth having,”

Jan said. “And, for what it’s worth, I think Mia’s worth the effort.”

Luna’s lips curved into a smile at the very thought of Mia. “Yeah, I think she is, too.”

Not that anything was decided. Not that she could bring herself to act on all this. Probably. But somehow, talking about things had helped, just a little.