Sun & Moon - a contemporary romance (The Minstrel Series #1) by Lee Strauss, Elle Strauss Page A

Katja sensed there was something deeper implied by the question. Micah didn’t answer. Instead he said, “I’ll get us some drinks.”
    Katja knew he meant juice or water or tea, but she could use something much stronger right about now.
    Frau Sturm came out in time to accept Micah’s offer of a tall glass of sparkling water. She took it, then motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen.
    Even though his mother made an attempt to lower her voice, Katja could easily hear her, and she understood her English perfectly. “What’s going on here, Micah? The truth now.”
    “I don’t know what you mean?”
    “That girl. She looks like…”
    “Mother!”
    “Are you living together?”
    “No, it’s not like that.”
    “I found feminine items under the sink.”
    Oh, good Lord, Katja thought. She’d left a box of tampons there.
    “You were snooping?” Micah’s voice was hard and low. Katja could picture the look on his face. Narrowed eyes, deep lines pulling his lips into a frown.
    “Don’t deflect. This girl isn’t right for you.”
    Katja stood sharply and grabbed her coat and purse. She couldn’t avoid seeing Micah and his mother as she approached the door.
    “I’m sorry, Micah. I forgot I have this thing.” She couldn’t think of anything nice to say to his mother, so she said nothing. She did make a point of slamming the door when she left.

 
     
     
     
     

     
    Not surprisingly, Katja found herself sitting on a bar stool at the Blue Note, her home away from home.
    “Hello, ma Cherie ,” Maurice said when he saw her. “Oh, why the sad face?”
    “It’s my birthday,” Katja said. “I need a drink.”
    “All the best! We must celebrate!” Maurice removed her favorite wine from the shelf and poured her a glass. It warmed her heart that he remembered the kind of wine she liked.
    “So.” He leaned thick elbows on the counter. “How old are we today?”
    She took a long drink and then sighed. “ We are twenty-one years old.”
    “Oh, yes. The twenties. Such an exciting time of one’s life.”
    Katja didn’t share his enthusiasm. “Can I ask you something, Maurice?”
    “Sure.”
    “Why don’t you live in France?”
    He grinned coyly. “How can I live there, when my true love is here?”
    His answer surprised her. “You’re married?”
    His smile faltered. “My dear wife passed away five years ago. I joke that my bar is my true love now, but my heart knows better. I’m here in Dresden because it was the hometown of my beautiful wife, and it’s my home now. We were married for twenty-five years.” He winked. “Otherwise, the Blue Note would be in France.”
    Suddenly Renata’s face flashed across Katja’s mind. “Do you think you’ll ever remarry?”
    He washed a glass in a sink of soapy water. “I doubt it. I don’t think love like that comes along twice in a lifetime.” He smiled and put the glass he was drying on the shelf. “She was the sun to my moon.”
    Did he really say that? “The sun to your moon?”
    “Yes, like your song.”
    A shrill ring came from Katja’s purse on the counter.
    “Your purse is ringing,” Maurice said. He left her to serve other customers. Katja removed her new phone and stared at it. She didn’t want to talk to Micah right now. She pushed ignore, switched it to vibrate and shoved it in her back pocket.
    The front door of the pub opened continuously, and the place was soon full. Music pumped from the speakers in the corners and Katja started to relax in the party atmosphere. Sebastian and Karl-Heinz were there, and she sat in a chair across from them.
    “Hey,” she said. “It’s my birthday.”
    “All the best!” Sebastian said. “Your next drink is on me.”
    Katja readily accepted it. She wanted to drink. She wanted to forget. “Thanks!” She looked around for Sebastian’s girlfriend. “Where’s Yvonne?”
    Sebastian shrugged and ran a hand through his spiky hair. “She has some family thing.”
    Karl-Heinz leaned