Crap.
Really?
Everyone should have gotten a slice or two of cake. It should have been a pretty decent day. None of the guys in the shop had even come to my room to complain about anything either.
And Jason had barely annoyed me. Considering I was dreading going to an empty house, it had still been an okay day. We had made it through lunch without an issue. The rest of the day should have been free of issues too.
I made my way down the hall toward the main part of the building and found all of my coworkers there, busy, but two of them had stopped and were looking up, like they could see through the ceiling and into the office over our heads.
I stopped there with my bag over my shoulder and looked in the same direction.
“You gonna go do something about it?” Miguel, one of the ones looking up, asked.
I glanced at him. “Why me?”
He scoffed. “I’m not their favorite.”
I blinked again, ignoring the way Owen, the other guy who had been looking up, snickered.
“I don’t have your magic touch,” Miguel added.
“I don’t have a magic touch.”
He looked at Owen, and they both nodded and agreed at the same time, “Yeah, you do.”
“I need to go. I have a doctor’s appointment in—” I glanced at my watch. “—thirty minutes.”
The yelling got louder for a brief moment, making us all focus up at the open staircase and the landing that fed off from it.
“Do something, Luna,” Owen said. “It’s Rogelio’s last day. I don’t want today to be my last day. Miguel doesn’t want it to be his last day. Nobody else but Rogelio wants it to be their last day, either. You know how they get.”
I wanted to argue, I really did, but I knew when to pick my fights, and in this case, this wasn’t one I had any chance of winning. I already knew none of them were going to go upstairs and say anything.
“Chicken shits,” I groaned and couldn’t help but smile when they laughed.
I shouldered off my bag and dropped it on the floor by my feet. “You guys owe me,” I mumbled under my breath as I ignored my coworkers and headed up the stairs, shaking my head.
“I’ll buy you a Sprite tonight!” Owen shouted up.
“What’s going on tonight?” I stopped and called down to him.
“We’re getting together at Mickey’s. I told Jason to tell you hours ago,” my coworker claimed.
That freaking fart face. Man, he sucked.
Shoving that aside, it kind of answered my predicament for being home tonight, so I gave him a thumbs-up. “I’ll see you there then,” I told him before continuing up the staircase, listening.
The voices stopped for a second, yet still managing to be a loud, muffled buzz of anger, but right as I got to the top of the stairs, it started up again, less of an unidentified mumble and more individual words laced together.
“—so goddamn disrespectful!”
“I’m fucking disrespectful? Are you fucking with me?”
“No, I’m not fucking with you, Ripley! You hurt Lydia’s feelings! We went because she told me I should go.”
Ooh. I winced at that. I thought it had been long enough that they wouldn’t bring up Rip walking out on them during his birthday celebration. I was wrong. I took one step forward and then another. Still listening.
“I don’t give a fuck why you went or why you took her with you!”
“Because she’s my wife, and she has been for almost twenty-three years!” my favorite boss shouted back.
I took another three steps, passing the break room and approaching the office door when the words got real.
“Yeah, the wife you married a year after your last one died. You want to talk about fucking disrespectful.”
Mr. Cooper had been married before?
I blinked at the door, feeling… I don’t know. Shocked? Taken aback?
I had worked for Mr. Cooper for nearly ten years and had never heard anything about another wife.
There were plenty of reasons why people wouldn’t share information like that, I told myself as I raised my hand. If his wife had died and he didn’t want to talk about it… it wasn’t my business to get why, much less to judge.
There were more than enough things in my life I would rather not talk about with anyone.
But the knowledge that he’d had another wife before the one I knew…. That we had known each other for so long and I had told him things I didn’t tell most others, when he hadn’t ever said anything to me about this….
This isn’t about you, I reminded myself. It wasn’t. Not even close.
Then I knocked.
The voices went quiet.
The “Luna?” from Mr. Cooper was low and beyond strained.
Of course he knew it was me. No one else was dumb enough to come bother them while they were yelling. Or I could think of it like I was the only one brave enough to.
Those scaredy cats were downstairs hoping for a miracle.
What they were getting was me.
“I’m leaving for the day. I have my doctor’s appointment, and I left Jason in my room. Do either one of you need anything before I go?” I called out, rolling my eyes at my own words. I wasn’t even trying to be subtle about breaking their argument up. Did they need anything? When had I ever asked them that when I was about to walk out? Never, that was when.
There was a pause that I was pretty sure consisted of them either sitting or standing on opposite sides of Mr. Cooper’s desk, glaring at the door or at each other.
Then Mr. Cooper called out, “No, I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”
I made a face at the door, because we both knew that was BS.
Then there was a rumble of a “Go to the doctor, Luna” that I barely understood.
“Okay,” I called out again, wincing at just how fake happy I sounded. “Have a good night!”
I took three steps away and stopped. Then I listened and waited.
But there wasn’t a single sound from inside the office.
Until the doorknob turned suddenly and the next thing I knew the door itself was being opened.
Crap.
There wasn’t a point in hiding or running. It was just going to make it that much more obvious and worse. So, I walked like normal toward the stairs to go down, only glancing over my shoulder when I actually made it to the landing. That was when I saw that it was Rip who had followed me out.
His expression was that usual one that seemed like bottled-up thunder under skin and bone.
Screw it. I waved at him.
“See you tomorrow, boss,” I called out to him, knowing I wouldn’t get a response. He was a grumpy little goose.
My phone vibrated from my pocket, and when I picked it up, my sister’s name flashed across the screen.
It was a picture message of what she’d told me earlier was Jamaica Beach in Galveston.
Then another message came through.
Lily: WISH YOU WERE HERE
My poor little heart honestly ached, but I still texted her back.
Me: Me too. Love you and be safe.
I typed another message and then let my fingers linger over the screen, deciding whether to send it or not.
I sent it.
Me: Don’t forget about me.
Her reply was instant.
Lily: I could never forget about my FAVORITE SISTER.
Her favorite sister.
Well. Okay. She had never called me that before, but I liked it. I liked it a lot.
Just as quickly as I decided that, the idea of going home to an empty house seemed like hell. With my phone still out, I shot out a quick text to Lenny.
Me: I’ve got a gyno appointment in thirty. You free later? My coworkers are getting together after work, and the girl is gone, and I don’t want to go home too early.
Chapter 12
“Look, look!”
I was already looking at Lenny, who was behind the wheel of her car, gesturing
to me with one hand as we left the Greek place we had gone to have dinner at. “No,” I cut her off. “I did look, and he’s out of my league.”
She groaned.
I looked down at the picture of a half-naked man on my phone and shook my head. “He is, Len. I can see it. He probably has girls hitting on him all the time. Just look at him.”
She didn’t bother arguing that the man she had apparently set me up on a date with—a retired MMA fighter—had plenty of girls hitting on him. She’d be a freaking liar if she did, and Lenny was a whole lot of things, but not a liar. That was me. The route she did decide to go down was, “Give me a break. You’re out of his league.”
I would have laughed, but she kept going like she knew exactly what I was going to say and wasn’t about to let me.
“You’re the fucking best, Luna.”
I smiled at her and lifted a shoulder. “I’ve got my moments,” I tried to joke.
“What have you got to lose? He’s hot, but you’ve got that Cinderella thing going,” she tried to say.
I rolled my eyes because I hated when she used the Cinderella example on me. I was usually dirty, cleaning up after others, working too much, and taking someone’s shit. The Life of Luna.
“If he gets hit on during our date and leaves me there for another girl, I’m blaming you,” I told her.
She snickered. “If he sucks, blame Grandpa Gus. He’s the one who picked him out.”
Oh, Grandpa Gus.
“He’s really proud of himself, by the way. I swear he had a list and was checking names off of it over the last few days. I saw he had a comment next to one guy’s name that said ‘too hairy.’”
It was my turn to snicker. “I love that man.”
Lenny shook her head. “Me too, but I swear the only person who loves him more than I do is himself.”
She so had a point. While Mr. Cooper was calm, easygoing, and had every personal trait that was fatherly and comforting, Lenny’s Grandpa Gus was… something else.
“Hey, we’re going to Mickey’s, right?” she asked, referring to where I had told her my coworkers were getting together after hours to celebrate Rogelio abandoning us.
“Yup.”
After my gynecologist appointment ended, I had headed over to her gym. Grandpa Gus had waved us off, telling me to take her away. We had left and gone shopping at the nearest strip mall, and then gone to eat afterward. Now, I was dragging her along with me to Mickey’s. Except we’d ditched my car at my house because she was the worst back seat driver, and I didn’t feel like getting griped at for driving too slow. Should she be driving with one arm in a sling? Probably not, but I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her that.
“Is Rip going to be there?” she asked.
“Doubt it.”
Her muttered “shit” made me laugh. She’d been trying for the last three years to make seeing him in person finally happen. I couldn’t exactly get her to come over while I was working.
“I just want to see him. Just once,” she said.
“I’ve shown you pictures.” Pictures I had maneuvered to get him into the background.
It was her turn to make a noise. “It’s not the same.”
“It’s the same,” I tried to argue.
“Maybe it’ll be my lucky day and he shows up.”
“Don’t hold your breath or you’ll end up passing out.”
We both cracked up just as her phone started ringing from where she had set it in the cupholder between our seats. Connected to her car’s Bluetooth, GRANDPA GUS came up on the screen of her dashboard. She didn’t hesitate to hit answer.
“Grandpa.”
“Can you head back to Maio House?”
Concern flashed across my friend’s face. “What happened?”
There was some rustling, then just barely the sound of Grandpa Gus whispering, something like I will pop you if you ever use that tone of voice on me again filled the car, but he wasn’t talking to us.
I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing, and it was obvious that Lenny was too because she shot me a funny face.
“There was an accident,” he came back on the line after a moment, his tone mysterious.
“What kind of an accident?”
There was a sigh and another whisper that sounded like I don’t want to hear it before he came back on the line to respond with, “Someone needs a couple stitches and doesn’t want to go to the hospital, and Peter says he’s not doing it.”
That must have been enough of an explanation for Lenny because she groaned, obviously knowing who someone was and why her grandpa’s best friend didn’t want to give someone stitches. I’d heard enough from her over the years to know he set noses regularly, glued things back together, and could fix just about every kind of dislocation without a visit to a hospital.
“All right. I’ll be there in twenty,” she agreed with a grimace.
“Okay.” He didn’t even say “bye” before he hung up.
Lenny sighed, but I beat her to it.
“You know I’d go anywhere with you, but you know I’ll faint if I see blood.” That was a true story. I was really squeamish. “Can you drop me off at Mickey’s since we’re closer? If you get a chance to come back, then come. If not, I’ll catch a ride home with someone.” Or take an Uber. I wasn’t planning on drinking.
Her fingers were already up at her nose, pinching the tip of it. For one brief moment, I wondered who that someone was. “You’re sure?”
“Of course I’m sure, bish. Keep my stuff, and I’ll get it from you this weekend.”
She was still pinching her face. “I have to work at the gym tomorrow but text me after your date. We can do something Sunday,” she said, just as she got us a block away from Mickey’s.
I sighed at the reminder I had a date the next day. I already didn’t want to go. That wasn’t a good sign.
Lenny pulled her car up to the curb right outside the bar and gave me an almost half-ass wink that told me how aggravated she was that she was going to give someone stitches… or take them to the hospital. I didn’t really want to ask. “Let me know when you get home, okay?” she asked. “I can come get you if you’re still here when I’m done.”
I smiled and nodded at her. “Drive safe.”
Lenny blew me a kiss. “If Rip shows up, call me.”
I shook my head as I got out of her car and slammed the door shut behind me, clutching my purse to my chest.
She honked the horn the second I was on the curb, and we waved at each other before she busted an illegal U-turn that made me shake my head as she sped away.
It only took me a second to find my license and flash it at the bouncer who didn’t even look at it. He’d seen me enough times to know I was over the age. It was already eight o’clock by the time I walked in and found six people I knew: three coworkers and three wives and girlfriends.
I waved at them before making my way over and giving them all hugs, and it was just as I was turning around to see who else was there that I spotted the small table directly beside the one where I was standing at.
Sitting there, all alone, was Rip.
He’d come?
The surprise must have been evident on my face because Owen shrugged at me and said a little too loudly, “I didn’t think he liked Ro that much.”
Honestly, neither had I.
But he was there.
It made me sad that he was sitting by himself, when it only took me a moment longer to spot four more people I recognized. The thing was, none of the chairs at the table he was at were pulled out. He really was sitting alone.
He’d come and no one wanted to sit with him.
I was sure the argument he’d had with Mr. Cooper earlier hadn’t helped but….
I knew what I was going to do before my feet moved. I shrugged back at Owen and tipped my head to the side to tell him where I would be. He gave me the same look I gave Lily when she ate steamed carrots in front of me. Like really?
A
nd, yeah, really.
I was going to need to text Lenny and let her know she’d jinxed herself.
Trying not to come off too aggressive, I headed toward the bar first to get a Sprite. Then I turned around and headed back the way I had come. Rip hadn’t moved. He was still sitting there, not on his phone, not doing anything else, but sitting there. Present. I thought it was a lot sweeter than I had any right to think.
“Fancy seeing you here,” I told Rip as I crossed around the front of his table and stopped there.
My boss, who I wasn’t positive had seen me up until that point, blinked at me. “Luna.”
So much enthusiasm.
Just as I was about to ask if I could sit with him, I decided not to even bother. I pulled out the chair and took the seat anyway. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
That stubble-covered cheek kind of twitched. “Didn’t know you were either.”
I lifted a shoulder as I took a sip out of my Sprite. “My sister left, and I don’t want to be home alone.”
He lifted his own glass up to his mouth, some amber-looking liquid, and took a sip. I didn’t expect him to say, “Thought college didn’t start till August.”
I didn’t mean to give him a sad smile, but it happened, and I tried to cover it up by keeping my voice light. “It doesn’t. The plan had been that we were going to move her to Lubbock at the beginning of August so she could get settled in and find a job before everyone goes back to school, but… her friend’s family has a restaurant in Galveston and they invited her to work there for the summer.”
“Galveston?” he asked in that amazing voice, still surprising me by keeping our conversation going.
“Yeah. Staying at a beach house and everything. Totally slumming it and having a miserable time, you know?” I gave him a real smile that time.
Rip just raised his brows.
“I promised her I would go visit, and she promised she would come up too... What’s that face for?” I surprised myself by laughing. “I don’t believe it either. I’ll get lucky if she comes once. I’m not that delusional.”
Luna and the Lie Page 19