The other man’s instant grin matched Mr. Cooper’s. “We were just about to come visit,” my longtime boss told me.
We were about five feet away from each other when I finally managed to get a good look at the other guy. Not much taller than me, with dark blond hair, in shape and with a face that was so boy-next-door good-looking, it kind of surprised me. I had to glance back at Mr. Cooper to see if he was going to give me a sign who this was. He didn’t do it fast enough though. “I’m taking my lunch break now, but Jason is in the booth if you want to drop by,” I explained, stopping a few feet away from them.
“I was going to take Ashton by to show him around the shop, but really, I was going to see if you wanted to go to lunch with us afterward,” Mr. Cooper explained. “Luna, this is Ashton, our new Rogelio. Ashton, this is Luna, our head painter who does a little of everything around here.”
I held my hand out first toward him, smiling at him and Mr. Cooper as he took mine and gave it a firm shake, his own mouth pulled up into a lopsided grin that was pretty cute.
“Nice to meet you,” the new man claimed just as he let go.
“Nice to meet you too,” I told him before trying to point over my shoulder and failing miserably when that hurt too. I groaned and didn’t do that good of a job hiding it. “I work back there if you need anything.”
“Hurting that bad?” Mr. Cooper asked, concern lacing his face and words.
I gave him a grimace-like smile. “Little bit,” I lied. “I was going to eat something, take a couple more painkillers, and see if it helps any.” I almost brought up asking if I could leave early, but I didn’t want to set a bad example in front of the new guy, making him think he could just ask to leave early over a little boo-boo. I’d just do it in secret later.
“Come have lunch with us,” my boss suggested, still frowning at me, his eyes looking me over just like Miguel’s had done. “Let’s see how you feel after. What do you say?”
Did I want to eat my food? Not really. Would I? Of course I would. But I was still going to take up Mr. C on his offer. I would never say no to spending more time with him.
If the new employee was going to be there too, well, I wasn’t going to complain. I liked getting along with everyone I worked with—Jason being the exception.
“Sure,” I agreed, letting myself glance at the guy named Ashton for a split second again. “Give me a second to grab my purse.”
“You don’t need that thing,” my boss claimed.
Under normal circumstances, I would have grabbed it anyway, but I really didn’t feel like walking all the way down the hall to get it from my desk. And I felt zero guilt for letting Mr. Cooper pay for my food.
“In that case, I’m ready.”
Mr. Cooper put a hand on my shoulder and gestured in the direction of the exit for the shop. I led the way, smile-grimacing at the coworkers we passed by. We were halfway across the floor when I sensed Mr. Cooper stop, and definitely heard him say, “We’re going to lunch with Ashton. Would you like to come with us?”
I knew he was talking to Rip, the man who had bought me not just a twist donut that morning but a kolache too. I hadn’t even been hungry, but I’d eaten both things on the ride to work since he had driven with one hand, holding his own kolache in the other.
The same man who had helped me carry my things inside the shop and then turned around and walked right back out of my room, only throwing out over his shoulder, “Take it easy today.” If I had been harboring any more resentment toward him from two days before, those feelings would have disappeared after all that.
But at Mr. Cooper’s question, I braced for Rip to give him a rough response. At least yesterday, they hadn’t said a single word to each other. The tension in Mr. Cooper’s car after he’d picked us up had been uncomfortable, and that was saying something considering the arguments between them that I had broken up.
Instead, what Rip gave him was a “Let me wash up first.”
He was coming? With us? If I could have moved my neck, I would have, just to see if hell had frozen over.
Did he know Mr. Cooper was actually going or…?
The way Mr. Cooper said “Okay” meant I wasn’t the only one shocked he’d agreed. I mean, as far as I could remember, the older man took all of his new employees out to eat when he hired them. In my case, he’d done that and saved me from living in a crappy motel room, and then gotten stuck with me for years living under his roof.
I remembered when he hired Jason, I didn’t go—because I had been too busy—and neither had Rip, for whatever reason he could have had.
So....
Mr. Cooper’s muttered “huh” made me smile. “Let’s wait for Ripley then,” he stated, sounding different but not in a bad way. More… totally surprised. In a good way.
Not bothering to turn in a circle to face them, I just stood there until the Ashton guy spoke up and asked, “How long have you worked here, Luna?”
Then I did have to turn all the way around to face my boss and newest coworker. “Nine years.” Did I sound proud of myself or what?
“Luna here has been with us the longest now, isn’t that right?” Mr. Cooper asked.
I remembered not to move my head and said, “Yep” instead.
“If you need anything, this here’s your girl. She knows everything, and if she doesn’t, she figures it out,” the older man kept going, sounding like a proud dad. Man, I loved him.
“Ready to go?” came Rip’s deep voice from behind the other two men.
Mr. Cooper startled but nodded. “I was planning on driving, but if you want to…”
I could see Rip’s face as he replied, “You can drive.”
What was going on with him being so agreeable and nice? I took in how calm Rip’s face was but made sure not to let mine reflect the surprise there. I would have figured they would have argued even over that, but…
They didn’t even argue over going to eat burgers.
I led the way toward the exit and only held the door open long enough for Rip to reach out and take the weight from me.
“Are you okay?” came the question from behind me, specifically from Ashton’s mouth.
I didn’t bother turning around to say, “I just strained my neck.”
“We were in an accident yesterday,” Rip explained in that low, low voice of his.
“They’re both fine,” Mr. Cooper told the new guy just as I stopped right in front of his car. “Other than Luna’s poor neck.”
Poor everything, but I didn’t need to be specific.
He unlocked the door and moved the seat forward, so I climbed in and sat behind the passenger seat. What I wasn’t expecting was that, instead of the new guy climbing into the back, it was Rip who managed to wedge himself in beside me. In the process, he pretty much took up three-fourths of the seat, forcing me to squish into the corner as the entire left side of my body ended up pressed against his.
Even the tip of his elbow rested high up on my thigh.
Those blue-green eyes met mine as Mr. Cooper and the other guy got in too. Rip eyed me. “You good?”
Hadn’t I asked him those same words at least three times the day before while he’d been having his moment after the wreck?
“I’m okay,” I assured him. “You?”
He threw up a look like “no shit.”
I glanced at the cut above his eyebrow.
I couldn’t stop myself. I poked at a spot just above it, ignoring the flash of pain at my shoulder. The cut was already totally scabbed over.
“I’m really glad that’s all that happened,” I whispered as I dropped my hand with a barely contained groan. “Did you call your insurance?”
His eyes moved over my face for a moment. “They gotta come take a look at the truck, but it’s totaled. Not sure I’m willing to fix it.”
That made me sad, his truck was beautiful. Had been beautiful. “For sure?”
His cheek did the twitch thing. “For sure.”
I scrunc
hed up my nose. “I’m sorry.”
His nostrils flared. “Just a truck. No big deal.”
It was only the car doors slamming closed that told me we were heading out.
The head in the driver’s seat turned to look around the seat, and Mr. Cooper asked, “You going to the doctor?”
“I don’t know,” I answered, glancing down at the length of thigh lined up with mine. It was easy to remember just how hard and muscular it had been under me. And I needed to forget that had happened. Just like I needed to shove aside what Rip had told me about his mom. “I might end up going, but nothing’s really messed up. I’m pretty sure it’s just whiplash.”
It wasn’t at all my imagination that Rip leaned into me or that his fingers grazed the top of my hand as he asked, “You want to go to the doctor?”
There was something about his voice that had me wanting to close an eye. “I’m thinking about it. I’m sure that jerk’s insurance will reimburse me for it.”
“It will,” Mr. Cooper claimed from his seat up front.
The fingertips went back to the top of my hand. He didn’t even try to lower his voice. “I’ll take you when we get back.”
I didn’t tense up my forearm as his fingers lingered over my knuckles, and unlike him, I did tell him quietly, “I’m okay.” Especially with him touching my hand.
He wasn’t quiet back. “I’ll take you when we get back.”
I blinked and tried again, quietly, “You don’t have to take me.”
It was his turn to blink. “Luna.”
I blinked right back. “Ripley.”
“I’m taking you to the doctor,” he told me just as loudly as he had said every other word before.
He really must feel terrible.
I had no business being so touched by his concern. He was my boss. If I wasn’t well, I could potentially do my job horribly.
“You’re being very sweet,” I managed to say without cracking a smile, just to be a pain. “But—”
He didn’t let me finish my statement, and I’d swear he leaned into me even more. “I’m not being sweet.”
His mom had died in a car wreck, I thought, before pushing that aside again for later like I had promised myself.
I could act normal. So, I closed an eye and brought my index finger and thumb pretty close together. “Little bit.”
His jaw did that twitch thing again. “I’m not, but you’re going to the doctor, and I’m driving you there,” he tried to claim. Tried to tell me.
But I just stared back at him. “You don’t have to.”
His elbow landed on the top of my thigh, and I wasn’t sure if he was doing it to intimidate me—which I doubted—or if he was finally feeling how tight the space was. “I’m taking you to the goddamn doctor.”
I opened my mouth to keep arguing with him, but that was when my phone rang. Pulling it out of my pocket, I looked at the screen and couldn’t help but frown when Thea’s name popped up. I happened to look up at the rearview mirror and found Mr. Cooper’s blue eyes on mine through the reflection. He had a funny look on his face. I smiled at him before poking at the screen.
“Hello?” I answered, trying to whisper since Rip had already put enough of my business out there in front of someone I had barely met and another man who might not understand why or how Rip and I were talking to each other so… almost friendly.
“Luna,” my sister said my name all funny.
“Hi, Thee.” I bit the inside of my cheek when she didn’t immediately say anything else. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she rushed out. “Are you?”
“Yeah. I told you in my message, remember? I’m okay,” I promised, not liking the way she sounded. I could appreciate her being worried about me but….
She kicked you out of her apartment.
So there was that.
“Yeah? Nothing else happened?” she asked, sounding too… different.
I took in the back of the seat in front of me, trying to ignore the unease her tone made me feel. “No, it was only the accident. Just a little whiplash,” I promised her, telling myself not to think this over too much. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, Luna. Yeah,” my sister replied a little too quickly.
She didn’t sound like it. I lowered my head. “Did you get your rental insurance sorted?” I made myself ask.
Thea made a weird noise I hadn’t heard before, which put me even more on edge. “Um, yes. They’re covering my things.”
“Good.”
“I’m glad you’re fine,” she muttered, sounding distracted then. “Well, that’s all I was calling for. I just… wanted to make sure you were okay.”
In the three years since she had moved out on her own, she had never, not once called to make sure I was okay. I wasn’t much better at calling, but I did text her at least once a week.
“I’m okay.” I lifted my head and stared at the back of the seat, something about this feeling wrong and weird. “Thee, is everything all right with you?”
“I’m fine, don’t worry about me. But I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later,” she answered quickly.
“Okay.” I paused. Then added, surprising myself, “Love you, Thea.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Then she hung up and left me holding the phone against my face, frowning over our conversation.
What the hell had that been about? Thea and I had always had the rockiest relationship. We had never been as close as Lily and me, or in her case, as close as she was to Kyra. But… I still loved her. I always would, regardless of the things she had said or done.
The car hit a speed bump right then that sent Rip’s elbow straight into my thigh.
“Your sister?” he asked quietly, forcing me to swing my eyes to him.
“Yeah,” I told him, leaving out the part where I thought something was off because… well, why wouldn’t I? I didn’t need to ask his opinion to know that he probably didn’t have good thoughts about her in the first place. Honestly, if our roles had been reversed, I wouldn’t have thought well of his family member if they had done to him what she had done to me.
But I wasn’t going to worry about that.
Instead, I looked over and slanted him a look. “And back to our conversation, I’m not letting you take me to the doctor, boss, but thank you again for offering.”
Chapter 17
All my hopes and dreams failed me the next morning.
I had told myself I was going to be better. Way better by the time I woke up the following day. Maybe I would have still been in a little bit of pain, but nothing I couldn’t have handled.
At least that’s what I had genuinely believed.
In reality, everything hurt even more. All it took was about five seconds after my alarm went off to realize just how much more. “Shit,” I muttered to myself as I laid there, wanting to reach up to massage myself and then stopping because lifting my arm would more than likely only make me choke up.
And I didn’t really feel like finding out for sure.
I was never going to tell anybody how loud I moaned as I rolled onto my side and then forced myself to sit up. Then I peeked out the window to make sure there wasn’t a black truck parked in my driveway. There wasn’t.
After he’d dropped me off at home yesterday evening, I had told Rip that he really didn’t need to pick me up. He had settled for giving me a look, then lifted a shoulder and said, “’Kay.” I still didn’t totally believe him that he wouldn’t come by, but at least his truck wasn’t there.
It took a long time for me to shower and stiffly pull on clothes; there was still no truck when I peeked out, and then it took even longer for me to make breakfast and fill a Rubbermaid with another serving of lo mein that somehow managed to look even mushier. I hadn’t thought that was possible.
It was thirty minutes later than I usually left when I opened my front door, juggling my things, and found a black Ford F-250 there.
Sure enough, through the windshield, I
spotted a familiar dark brown head of hair attached to a massive body behind the driver seat.
In the minute it took me to lock my door and head down the steps, my boss was out of the truck and already holding the passenger side door open, all the while giving me a look that said “shut up, Luna.”
“Morning, boss man,” I called out as I walked in his direction, feeling pretty resigned.
He had his sunglasses on again, and his voice was just as low and hoarse as always. “Morning, Luna.”
I stopped right in front of him, noticing that he didn’t have on a compression shirt. Instead, in the middle of June, he had on a thin long-sleeved white T-shirt that ended right at the notch of his throat, showing off a whole lot of thick neck.
I met his gaze and raised my eyebrows. “Whatcha doing here?”
“Picking you up,” he answered, even as his hand took the bag from me.
Could I have held on to it? Sure. But I wasn’t going to.
But still…
“You don’t need any of this though,” Rip told me.
Now that had me hesitating and narrowing my eyes. “Why?”
He gestured me to get into the truck. “You’re not going to work. We’re going to the doctor.”
I stared at that handsome face, taking in the fact that he wasn’t trying to avert his eyes or be sneaky or anything like that. He was being serious. “But I don’t need to go to the doctor,” I told him carefully.
“You’re not going to work. Worthless can handle whatever needs to be done.” He motioned inside the truck again. “Let’s go.”
Worthless? Is that what he was referring to Jason as? Because if it was, I could be all about that. Instead of picking at his nickname though, I didn’t move, and he noticed.
And when he noticed, he frowned. “Why you being stubborn? You’re hurting. You were in a wreck—”
“So were you.”
That frown didn’t go anywhere. “I’m not in pain,” he claimed before gesturing toward the inside of the truck once more. “Go to the damn doctor and have them check you out. You could have some other issue later on, and the car insurance won’t cover it if you don’t have a record that you weren’t feeling good from the start,” he explained.
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