Page 25 of The Almost Bride

The early morning bustle of tourists getting ready to go and walk the trail was finally over, and the hotel was quiet. Mia stood behind the reception desk, hands curled around a cup of coffee, steam rising up toward the ceiling. Everything seemed so still and silent, and she found that she was staring into nothing, mind tangled in thoughts.

Mikey’s voice still echoed in her head. We can go back to the way things were before, he’s said. A steadily predictable life. A life where she knew what was going to happen every morning when she woke up. Safe. Familiar. And a sharp contrast to the whirlwind of emotions that Luna brought to her life.

The front door opened, and as though summoned by Mia’s thoughts, Luna stood there in the morning sun, an impish grin spreading across her face.

“We’re skipping work,”

Luna announced.

“You are?”

said Rachel, who’d heard the sound of voices and come in.

Mia glanced at her and Rachel hesitated, then gave her the smallest of nods. “I am?” she said.

“Yep,”

said Luna confidently. “Get your things, you’ve got five minutes.”

Mia folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Luna, I—”

“No,”

Luna cut her off. “No thinking, no debating. Just fun. Come on, Mia, live a little.”

Her eyes twinkled.

Mia bit her lip, logic screaming at her to protest, but something about Luna’s wild energy and confidence made resistance impossible. A slow smile tugged at her lips. “Fine. Five minutes.”

Five minutes later, she was almost tripping down the stairs and out into the bright sunlight, to see Luna sitting astride the tandem again.

“Okay, two questions,” she said.

Luna screwed her face up as though deep in thought. “Alright, as long as they’re not about where we’re going.”

Mia ignored that. “First, is a tandem the only form of transportation available in Little Chipping?”

Luna shrugged. “Unless you fancy walking.”

“Okay. Second, doesn’t Sam need his tandem? And if he does, who does he ride it with?”

Luna grinned. “That’s nobody’s business but Sam’s. Now hop on, it’s time we blew this joint.”

“Every time I do this, I think what a terrible idea it is,”

Mia said, getting onto the bike.

“Oh, it is,”

Luna said airily. “That’s what makes it fun.”

They pushed away from the wall and immediately started to wobble. “I swear, if we die…”

Mia began.

“We won’t,”

Luna said as they hit a bump and almost fell. “Probably.”

“Are you sure about this?”

Mia yelped, trying to re-seat herself properly.

“I’m sure that this is going to be hilarious,”

laughed Luna.

And gradually, they found their rhythm, the wind rushing against Mia’s skin as they sailed down the road, the town passing by in a blur of color. She tightened her hands around the handlebars and, for the first time in a long while, she let herself go and enjoy the journey.

And it felt incredible.

“HERE WE GO,”

Luna said, hopping off the bike so that it swayed dangerously until Mia could steady it.

“Here we go, what?” Mia said.

They’d stopped in a wooded clearing, towering trees stretching out into the sky, oaks spreading out under the sun. It looked like something out of a fairy tale. There could be a witch’s cottage around the next bend.

“Time for your first challenge,”

Luna smirked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Mia followed her gaze toward the largest tree in the clearing and suddenly knew what Luna was referring to. Her heart almost stopped. She crossed her arms. “Absolutely not.”

“Come on,”

said Luna, rolling her eyes. “When was the last time you climbed a tree?”

Mia hesitated. The truth? She couldn’t even remember. Probably when she was a child. Back then, she’d been fearless. Suddenly, she wondered just how and when that fearlessness had been replaced with such caution.

Luna took a run up, jumped, and her sneakers scraped against the bark as she grabbed at a branch. “Afraid you can’t keep up?”

she teased.

Mia looked at her, her tanned legs, the way her body moved as she climbed, and felt a deep longing in her stomach. For Luna. For herself. For the fearless child she used to be. “Fine,”

she said, exhaling sharply. “But you’re coming in the ambulance with me.”

Luna laughed again as she disappeared up the trunk.

The first few branches were awkward, and she scraped her hands and her knees. But as she climbed higher, something changed. Her muscles began to burn, her breath came faster, her confidence grew. And when she finally perched herself on a sturdy branch to get her breath back, she was smiling, feeling victorious.

“You did it,”

Luna called down to her from the branch above.

Mia glanced around at the treetops, a grin spreading across her face. “I did,”

she said. “I did, didn’t I?”

THEY RODE FURTHER out into the woods, the ground bumpy beneath the bike until they had to abandon it and go on foot.

“Where are we going?”

Mia said, starting to get tired.

“Just wait,”

said Luna.

It was hot and Mia was getting sweaty now, her feet tired and hands still scraped from the bark of the tree. It was only when they were close that she recognized the sound of rushing water.

“Ta-da,”

Luna said, as they came out into a clearing to see a waterfall rushing down to meet a stream. Light sparkled off the water, and the air tasted fresh and cool.

“Wow,”

said Mia, looking at the fresh, clear water.

“Worth the walk?”

asked Luna, unbuttoning her shirt. “Race you in.”

She threw off her shirt and pulled down her shorts, leaving just black underwear against tanned skin. The sight took Mia’s breath away.

“You’re impossible,”

Mia said, mouth drying up as she saw Luna’s body.

“And you love it,”

Luna shot back, before plunging into the water.

Mia waited only a second before stripping off her sundress and following, the water cold but invigorating. They swam through the clear pool, dodging each other’s playful splashes, their laughing mixing with the roar of the falls.

Until Luna drifted close in, their bodies practically touching. The air between them changed, thick with something unspoken but perfectly understood.

Mia’s heart pounded. She wanted to freeze this moment, to live in it forever. She reached out a hand and tugged Luna toward her. Luna’s skin was warm and slick against her own. The water was cool, but Mia was burning with something else. Wrapping her arms around Luna’s neck, she leaned in to kiss her hungrily, until they both began to sink.

“Out,”

Luna demanded, breaking free and swimming for the shore.

Obediently, Mia followed her.

Sun stroked her skin with heat and she watched a trail of water skate down Luna’s back until Luna turned to her and lifted an eyebrow. “Were we in the middle of something back there?”

she asked.

Mia’s hands were shaking now, suddenly she was nervous again. In the water, she hadn’t been. But Luna was reaching for her, pulling her in closer, wrapping arms around her so that their skin slid together.

And Mia went most willingly, smelling the scent of Luna and the water, feeling the softness of skin, trying to drink every moment in and remember it.

Then Luna’s lips were on hers, and fingers were sliding into wet underwear, trying and failing to pull it off until they were both laughing. Then there was no laughing. There was sighing and breathing and groaning and straining and release.

And when Mia slid up from between Luna’s legs to see that Luna was half-asleep in the sunshine, she watched her. Watched her and wondered if this could really be her life. If this could really be real.

“Are you staring at me?”

Luna said, opening one eye lazily.

“No,” Mia said.

“Liar.”

Luna stirred, pulling Mia closer to her. “You can stare all you want.”

“Can I?”

laughed Mia.

“Mmm,”

Luna said sleepily. “Stare all you want. I’m yours.”

And Mia lay there on Luna’s chest as Luna drowsed in the heat of the afternoon, wondering if Luna had really meant that. Wondering if she believed that or just wanted to believe that. And eventually deciding that this moment was far too good to ruin. Deciding that maybe Luna was right. Maybe living for now was better than planning. Especially when now was so delicious.

MIA PULLED HER sundress back over her damp underwear.

“Chicken,”

Luna called to her. Luna, who was striding through the woods naked, breasts bouncing as she walked, sneakers the only thing between her and the cooling afternoon air.

“Someone might see you,”

hissed Mia.

“I hope they enjoy it then,”

grinned Luna. “And everything’s wet, it needs to dry off.”

Mia sighed and wished she had Luna’s courage. Her wet underwear was starting to stick to her sundress, and it wasn’t particularly comfortable.

Luna didn’t pull her clothes back on until they reached the tandem again. And even then, she hung her damp knickers off the handlebars to dry as they rode.

“You’re impossible,”

Mia said, seeing her do it.

“I’m happy to put yours right there next to mine,”

Luna said.

For a long second, Mia looked at her. Impossible Luna. Luna who achieved the impossible. Luna who made her feel like she was human, loved, normal, alive. Then, in one movement, she stripped her underwear off and handed it to her, like it meant nothing.

“Huh,”

Luna said.

“Huh nothing,”

said Mia, starting to move the bike away from the tree. “We’d better get back, I’m starving.”

“Starving are you?”

Luna asked.

Mia let go of the bike, since Luna didn’t seem to be helping much. As she did so, Luna’s arms snaked out, gripping her hips from behind, and Mia felt a rush of heat.

“I’m not sure I can stand the thought of you behind me, riding that bike without any knickers,”

Luna said roughly in her ear.

Mia’s giggle got caught in her throat as Luna’s hands slid down between her legs. Impossible Luna. She could get used to this, she thought. And suddenly, nothing about her old life seemed appealing at all. Not compared to this. Not compared to Luna.