Trinity (Moonstone Book 1) by Andi Bremner

beautiful day and I’d missed my morning run.
    Fuck , I thought grinning to myself, what did I sound like noticing the weather? Snow White?
    Even still I didn’t stop smiling all the way to The Bean. Trinity. I would get to see Trinity again. Sure she would be working but I would still get to see her pretty face. And then tonight, in a mere twelve hours, I could see her properly. I’d take her out for dinner, and then maybe invite her back to mine…
    My grin reached my ears by the time I pushed open the door.
    Then I stopped, the blood immediately rushing to my feet.
    What the fuck?
    Trinity was behind the counter, pouring someone a coffee. She was dressed in the normal Bean attire of a black logo t-shirt and jeans. She was concentrating on what she was doing, her face puckered, and she hadn’t tucked her hair behind her ears but instead let it fall freely, covering some of her face.
    And I could see why.
    A dark, purple welt traced up her pale skin into her forehead. And there was a bandage on her forehead.
    Fuck. Fuck. Fuck .
    I was so enraged by what I saw that I just stood there, the bloody pulsing hot through my body. I pinched the bridge of my nose to get a grip because I felt as if I could kill someone right now, the only thing being, I didn’t know who to kill. Who was doing this to her? And I was pretty sure that someone was doing this because she couldn’t possibly have hurt herself twice in just a few days.
    Just at that moment she looked up and saw me. She somehow managed a small smile and I could have kissed her for it. It was a smile for me, to make me know that she was okay. Only she wasn’t. She wasn’t okay and I wanted to fix it.
    Snapping a lid on a coffee she’d just made she pushed it across to the customer and then wiped her hands on a towel. Turning she spoke to the other guy behind the counter with her who looked my way, nodded, and then kept working. Trinity let herself out and came over to me.
    I hadn’t moved a muscle, although I had stopped pinching the bridge of my nose. Now my hands were curled into tight fists by my side.
    “Hey,” she said, smiling and keeping her voice light. “How are you?”
    “How am I?” I growled out. “How are you? What the fuck happened to your head?” Every time I swore she seemed to bounce a little but I was too wound up to even find that remotely adorable.
    “Oh,” she waved her hand dismissively, “just a minor accident that’s all. I’m a bit clumsy.”
    “Trinity—”
    “I’m actually glad you came in here this morning,” she began, swallowing hard and dropping her eyes, “I was going to call you later anyhow.”
    “You were?”
    “Yes,” she paused and licked her lips. I watched, wanting to do the same even though I knew it wasn’t the right moment to be thinking about kissing her. “You see, well, I had a really nice time last night.”
    I didn’t say anything. She was jostling between her feet and avoiding direct eye contact. I had a feeling I knew where she was going with this and I didn’t want to make it easy for her. I didn’t want her to say it and I wasn’t going to make it easy.
    “Well, it’s just that I forgot we have rehearsal tonight.”
    “You told me about rehearsal,” I reminded her, “and we’d go out after.”
    “It’s a long rehearsal. We have to learn a whole pile of new songs for the gig we have in a few weeks—they want Mariah and Celine and stuff and well, I don’t really know that music and I really need to learn the lyrics.”
    I shook my head. No . Don’t do this . I pleaded with her with my eyes, but she wasn’t looking. There was something way more interesting than me on the floor apparently.
    “So I’m sorry but I won’t be able to see you tonight,” she concluded, still not looking at me.
    “Okay,” I said my eyes searching her face. Why was she doing this? Was it because of the bandage on her head? Was it because I had said something about it? Was it because of whoever had done