Shoot the Moon by Kate Watson

Author:Kate Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / General / Coming of Age / Boys & Men
Publisher: North Star Editions
Published: 2018-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

After Alex touched up her lipstick and wiped some from Tate’s mouth, they returned to the party. The casino tables were up, and a big band was playing on a stage in one corner of the room. Tate stopped, but Alex gestured across a row of roulette tables.

“Over there—it’s Nora and your parents. You should go say hi,” she said, veering in the other direction.

He grabbed her arm, a sign of panic that he couldn’t keep down. “Where are you going?”

He may as well have asked her the winning hand in blackjack. “I’m going back to my family, obviously. What did you think? That I was going to stay here with you all night?”

“Come on,” he said. “Just for another few minutes. I need to work my way up to my father’s level of disappointment.” He smiled so she’d think he wasn’t serious.

But Alex’s tone turned waspish. “And here I thought you’d want to see your little girlfriend.”

“My what?” Tate looked around, trying to understand what Alex was talking about, when he saw her.

Finley. She was standing to the side, watching the room while Tate’s dad and Nora were in a heated discussion about something. The girl looked beautiful, too clean and pure for her surroundings. Sure, this was a charity event, but the scent of desperation clung to the place like cheap cologne. People were laughing too loudly, staring too intently, cursing too seriously for this to be all fun and games. This was as real as any high stakes game to these people. They weren’t here to donate; they were here to fill the same void as any junkie, yet their despair didn’t carry a label like “addict” on it, so they could stand there, sanctimonious and superior, and judge everyone else who wasn’t them. They were pathetic.

All of them except Finley.

He beamed. He could have stopped himself, but he didn’t. It would piss off Alex more.

“I’ll talk to you later,” he said, not glancing back.

Her mumbled curse words joined the background noise as Tate made a beeline for Fin. When she saw him, her eyes sparkled.

“Hey there, hep cat,” she said.

“Whoa, look who read up on her twenties slang,” he said. He was debating going in for a hug when he heard the clearing of a self-righteous throat meant to stop him in his tracks. It had the opposite effect.

Tate wrapped his arms a bit too tenderly around Finley, regretting how good it felt even as he gave his brother a wolfish grin. “Great to see you, Ollie,” he said. Then, more quietly: “You too, Fin.”

She squeezed him tight, then pulled back. Oliver stepped beside her. And grabbed her hand.

Finley’s reaction was mixed—her slow blink showed annoyance clear as day—but the way she shifted ever so slightly toward Oliver told Tate everything he needed to know.

He grabbed a fruit kebob from a tray. “So how long have you guys been back together?” he asked before sliding the kebob into his mouth.

Fin’s eyebrows pulled together. “Nothing is official—”

“A couple of weeks,” Oliver said at the same time.

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