Page 49 of The Edge of Always

‘That’s sad.’ The moonlight was making Luna truthful. More truthful than she should be.

‘Luna, look,’ he started and she wondered for the briefest flicker of a second whether he felt it too. That growing bundle of feelings, like the rise of dawn ready to break. Emmett reached for her hand, taking the edge of her fingers in his. ‘You know you’re my best friend, right?’

‘Right.’ She dragged the word out. She wanted more, she knew she did. But she always wanted to be his best friend.

‘And I couldn’t ever lose you.’

This was it. Surely this was it. The sea, the sand, the freaking mood. This. Was. It.

‘Yes.’

‘Emmett, Luna. LUNA!’

Mae.

Luna thought, not even apologetically, that she could kill her sister right now. She was running down the beach towards them, panting. ‘Mum called the police because we weren’t home! She’s gone batshit. Properly batshit! Earl is talking to them now.’

‘Fuck.’ Luna looked back at the fire and beyond, the flashing lights of the police car parked right on the edge of the cliff by the caravan park. She couldn’t help it – she started to laugh.

‘Why are you laughing, you lunatic? She’s going to ground us for a year.’

They were so close. So close.

‘I’d better go,’ Luna told Emmett, moving to take his jumper off.

‘Keep it,’ he told her.

‘See you next summer, Emmett dude. If any of us survive that long.’ Mae hugged him hard.

‘Yeah, see you next year. I’ll write,’ Luna promised. She hugged him too, trying to squeeze every last drop of this evening out of him.

They started to run up the beach.

‘See you next year!’ he called after them. ‘I’ll be waiting.’

‘I’ll wait too!’ It was a pointless thing to say. After all, Luna was never not waiting for Emmett. She might always be the one who leaves, but when she looked back to see him smiling, his black eye half swollen shut, she knew that she would wait for him always.