I still hadn’t told anyone at work what had happened, and if Mr. Cooper thought it was strange that I hadn’t come into work yesterday, he hadn’t bothered calling to check. I figured right then, that Rip had told him something about me separately, but hadn’t said where he would be for some reason. I was going to tell him obviously, but the day was going rough enough. I didn’t want to cry about it again so soon.
“I was looking for you to see if you wanted to go to lunch,” I said quickly, aiming my gaze right at Rip. “I owe you for yesterday.”
I didn’t miss the confused look that Mr. Cooper sent Ripley, then me.
I also didn’t miss the way Rip’s body tightened at my question.
He was going to say no, I knew it, and I was going to be fine with it. The only reason why I’d even said anything was to break this up.
“So?” I asked, giving him another smile that was as big as he was going to get, trying to tell him with my eyes that it was fine for him to say no.
But he didn’t do that.
“All right.” He uncrossed his arms and let them drop to his sides. “But you’re not paying.”
I pressed my lips together and blinked. Okay, then. All right. “Then I wouldn’t be paying you back for helping me, would I, boss?” I asked him sweetly.
Mr. Cooper’s head swung from me to Rip and back again, and I felt bad for leaving him in the dark.
I’d tell him as soon as I had a chance.
“You don’t need to pay me back for shit.” He took a step forward. “I’ve got it. Let’s go.”
I kept that annoying sweet smile on my face, watching him get closer to me. “But really, you should let me pay.”
“Really, I shouldn’t,” he replied sarcastically, brushing his shoulder against mine as he passed by me.
Now he was joking? Okay. All right.
Breathing in through my nose, I swung my gaze over to Mr. Cooper, not sure if I was going to do the right thing or… not. But I knew that if anyone deserved my loyalty, it was Mr. Cooper. It was bad enough I hadn’t told him the other things.
“Would you like to go eat with us?” I asked him, purposely turning my back to his business partner so I wouldn’t see his face if he was making one.
But of course he was.
The question must have surprised Mr. Cooper because he stood there for a moment. I didn’t miss the way he slid his gaze to Rip for maybe a second before going back to me. He plastered on a smile that wasn’t totally fake as he said, “Thank you, Luna, but I already had lunch.”
Had he wanted to go though?
When we had gone to eat on Ashton’s first day, the two of them had gotten along all right. Part of me thought they had been on their best behaviors in front of the new guy. They hadn’t talked directly to each other once, or even made eye contact, but it had gone okay. I’d watched them like a hawk the whole time, expecting something to happen, but nothing had.
Nothing had in a while.
“Next time then?” I asked, giving him a smile that felt more honest than the rest of them before. I really needed to tell him the truth.
Mr. Cooper nodded, his expression pretty freaking curious but… okay. Bright, but okay.
I glanced back at Rip finally, keeping that expression on my face so that hopefully he wouldn’t think I was trying to pull a fast one on him even though I had been. “Ready?”
His eyes bounced on mine, something in them that I wasn’t familiar with, but he nodded eventually.
With a wave to Mr. Cooper, I headed out the door and down the stairs, Rip following behind me. We made it to the bottom before I realized I wasn’t ready to go, and I glanced over my shoulder to find him literally a foot away. “Give me one second to grab my purse, okay?”
Those blue-green eyes slid toward me. “You don’t need money.”
I opened my mouth, but he cut me off.
“You don’t need money. Let’s go,” he insisted.
I opened my mouth again, but he did the same thing, giving me that exasperated expression.
“You can pay me back some other way, all right?”
“I didn’t invite you so you could end up paying for someone else’s food.”
He stared at me.
“You’ve done enough. I don’t want to take advantage of you,” I told him for what felt like the hundredth time lately, knowing he would understand that.
Those eyes focused in on me, and I watched them go to my ears. I’d put on the first set I’d found in the ruin of my bedroom: fake gold teddy bears. “I’ll tell you if I feel like you’re taking advantage of me. But let’s go, I’m hungry. Those kolaches this morning went right through me.”
Oh, man. He wasn’t going to let this go. “Fine. But I’ll pay you back for my food at least.” I squinted an eye. “Somehow.”
He didn’t agree, but he did give me another side look before he shook his head. “Come on.”
I was going to lunch with Ripley.
I was going to tell myself that wasn’t excitement or crazy high anticipation going through me. Just two coworkers going out to eat in public. No big deal. It wasn’t even the first time we did it.
I led the way out the doors, noticing that no one even looked at Rip and me as we headed out. We had barely gone out the door when those long legs caught him up to me and we walked side by side toward his truck. He’d insisted on driving us to work that morning, even shoving my keys into his pocket so I wouldn’t get any ideas. I swear I didn’t know who this man was anymore. Neither one of us said anything as he beeped the locks and opened the passenger side door, and then went around to do the same on the driver side. He slid in while I buckled up. In no time, we were on the road.
To go out to eat together.
“What do you want to eat, boss?”
“Don’t call me that when we aren’t at work,” he said, his voice easy, not mean or anything like that. Just… him telling me not to call that.
For some reason.
I made a face. “Okay… what can I call you then when we aren’t at work?”
His grunt was his reply to that, but he didn’t look at me as he asked, “What do you think about barbecue?”
“I think I can eat a half pound of brisket,” I told him as I genuinely thought about what else I could call him instead that would be pesky but not too pesky.
His cheek twitched, and I’d take it as a smile. “You hear anything from your insurance?”
Ah. “Yeah, I talked to them earlier. They’re sending out an adjuster, and I have to send some paperwork to them, so I’m betting I’ll be fifty by the time I get a check.”
His fingers stretched out again on the steering wheel and his head ticked to the side.
“It’s fine. I’ll make it work. You fixed my door enough for me to be okay, and it isn’t like the people who came in are going to come back. They already took all the good stuff,” I tried to joke, but really, it sounded like anything but one.
Everything was fine. Things were just… stuff. They weren’t everything. I could live without them. I had survived with less before. But…
“Luna…”
“I’m okay. I know it’s stupid to be worried they’ll come back or the same thing will happen.”
“It ain’t stupid.”
It was and we both knew it.
“You don’t feel safe. Nothing stupid about that,” Rip tried to tell me in that voice I had no defense against. “Thought about getting an alarm?”
“I’ve thought about it,” I told him. “But the company that came by my house once was more than I could afford. They were asking for three hundred dollars down for the equipment. That’s the cost of the fancy tile I want for my kitchen backsplash.”
His fingers flexed on the steering wheel and he tapped them. “I know someone. Let me give him a call and see what he says.”
I couldn’t help but eye him. “You don’t have to do that, Rip.” Because he didn’t.
“I’ll get back to you after I talk to
him.”
Of course he was going to ignore me.
Well, I couldn’t do anything about it if he was going to insist. He’d have to understand if I couldn’t afford it. The cops had said there had been a couple of break-ins around the area.
So, it was supposed to be… normal. Getting your house broken into wasn’t unheard of. Even if I hadn’t heard a single thing from any of my neighbors over them hearing about break-ins.
“Thanks for offering,” I told him. “You—”
That handsome face turned toward me, and he rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “Quit thanking me for everything.”
I made sure he watched me roll my eyes right back at him. “Okay, but thank you anyway.”
He shook his head again, turning back to face outside the windshield. “You don’t need to thank me.”
“You don’t need to do all the things you’ve done for me either but—”
“Stop,” he grunted.
I would have crossed my eyes if he’d been looking at me. “I appreciate it, okay? You’re being really nice, and you don’t have to. I just want you to know I’m grateful, so suck it up.”
We happened to come up to a stop sign when he glanced at me with those blue-green eyes and said, not softly but not roughly either, just… different, “I want to, all right?”
As quickly as I opened my mouth, I closed it.
He wanted to?
Lucas Ripley wanted to be nice to me?
My first thought was: why?
My second one was: who was I to tell him no? No, sir, please be a jerk and don’t care about me. I wasn’t that dumb.
* * *
I had just finished folding the clothes I pulled out of the dryer, when there was a knock at my front door.
I glanced at my phone and took in that I hadn’t missed any calls or texts. No one I knew was coming over; otherwise they would have messaged. I grabbed my biggest kitchen knife, because luckily those had survived the jerks, and headed toward the front door.
But when I got to the peephole, I took a step back afterward.
Then I took another step forward to look into it again. The person was still the same one, and the face on the other side hadn’t magically morphed either.
I couldn’t even think as I flipped the lock and pulled the door open, finding a duffel bag sitting on my porch and a tall man with wide shoulders and a wide chest standing there.
He didn’t even give me a chance to say a word. “You gonna let me in?”
Well. “No,” I told him with a grin even as I moved to the side to let him inside.
He didn’t even try to sneak by either; his entire side brushed my front as he did.
“You eat dinner already?” he asked as I was closing and locking the door.
“Yeah, did you?”
I mean, he’d dropped me off two hours ago. We had both worked late, and he’d offered to take me home whenever I was ready. He was the one who had come by my room right before seven asking if I was done for the day, and I had been. Or at least I’d been pretty close to it.
“Nah,” the man replied, dropping the duffel at the bottom of the stairs.
My eyes focused in on the bag, putting together what he was doing at my house at nine o’clock at night with that.
He was going to spend the night.
“Want me to order you something? I ordered pho, but I ate it all, I’m sorry,” I apologized, still looking at that navy blue bag that had some miles on it.
“No,” he replied, bending over to unzip it and pull out the same kind of container he’d brought me lunch in. But then he pulled out three more just like it too, stacking them up carefully in his hand as he straightened. “I brought food. I’ll put the rest in your fridge, all right?”
“Okay,” I basically croaked.
Those eyes caught mine for a second before he disappeared down the hall that led into the kitchen.
Just like Lenny did when she came over. Or when Mr. Cooper or Lydia came over. Or when my sisters were here.
Like it was normal.
And he’d brought me food. Again.
Man, I could fall in love this man if I let myself. I really, really could. But only dummies fell in love with their bosses—bosses who didn’t do girlfriends or relationships.
There was no use dreaming about things I couldn’t have. There was no use thinking I could fall in love with him even though some tiny part of me quietly whispered that I already was. That was for sure. It was with that thought that I yelled down the hall, “Rip! I’m going to shower but make yourself at home!”
“’Kay,” he called out just as loudly, doing whatever it was he was doing in the kitchen. Eating?
I stopped where I was. “Want some company while you eat?” I yelled.
“I’m good,” he replied.
Okay.
I headed into my bedroom, grabbing the clothes I had organized while I waited for my dinner, and pulled out a navy short and tank top pajama set with pink hearts that Lily had bought me.
It didn’t take me long to shower and get dressed as I did my best to ignore how tired I was. I’d gone on maybe five hours of sleep over the last three days, and I was feeling it. Honestly, all I wanted to do was fall face-first onto my bed. I was too sleepy to even care about the tiny possibility someone might decide to come back.
And… Rip was here.
I even brushed my teeth then moisturized my face, giving the circles under my eyes a sigh. I really needed to get some sleep. And using one of those gel eye masks wouldn’t hurt either. At least the stress hadn’t made me start breaking out.
Sighing again, I opened the bathroom door and stopped.
I stopped right there in place and took in the man sitting on the edge of my bed.
The man sitting on my bed, pulling off his socks, giving me a nice view of pink soles.
The man who looked up the second I opened the door and flashed me a smile that was almost as tired as mine was.
“If you get hungry in the middle of the night, I left food in your fridge,” he told me quietly, folding his socks and dropping them on top of his work boots. “You need to hit the store though. There’s nothing in there.”
“I know, but thank you,” I told him, standing there. “I’ll make time to go this weekend.” I paused. “Did you cook everything yourself?”
His eyes never left mine as he answered, “Yeah.”
I wondered if his mom had taught him how or if he’d had to learn after she was gone.
“Did you want to shower?” I asked, choosing that to focus on.
He shook his head. “I did before I came over.”
Well.
“I can’t make it through another night on your couch again,” he let me know, still speaking in that calm, quiet voice that I didn’t know what to do with.
Oh.
I thought about that. “Lily’s bed is too small, it’s just a daybed, and my other sisters took theirs.”
Oh.
Oh.
I didn’t need to look at my bed to know that while it wasn’t a king-sized mattress, it was a queen. And the biggest in the house.
“You can sleep on my bed. There are some tears in the mattress, but I covered them with the sheets. It’ll still be better than last night,” I offered, giving him a smile. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”
…by myself.
Closer to the front and back doors.
That wasn’t going to happen.
“Or in Lily’s room,” I threw out.
Rip stood up, tall, so freaking tall, and I had to tip my chin back a little to keep making eye contact with him. He stretched those muscular arms over his head and yawned, “You look like you need a good rest too, baby girl.”
I did. I really did.
I also needed to ignore the use of that b-word again.
And I needed to quit being a chicken and sleep wherever.
“Nothing’s gonna happen, you know that, yeah?” he asked in his careful voice, making me
focus on him.
I nodded.
His breath was deep but true, and he was looking right at me as he asked, “Why don’t you sleep in here too?”
Too? On the same bed?
I mean…
I said “Okay” before I stopped myself, or even realized what in the world I’d just jumped into.
What the hell was I doing?
Before I could stop myself, Rip said, “Let’s get to bed then.”
Just like that.
Well. Hell.
I was so nervous I held my breath as I went to the wall and flipped off the lights, blindly making my way toward the lamp that had survived these assholes coming into my house. The lamp lit the room just enough, showing me that Rip was on the other side of the mattress—the side I didn’t sleep on—already pulling the white coverlet back like it was the most natural thing in the world.
I wished.
Or at least I would if I was asking for a side of heartache.
“Is this a good idea?” I couldn’t help but ask. Sleeping in the same bed with my boss just seemed, like it shouldn’t happen. At least to me. At least not when that boss was Rip.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked right back before slipping under the sheets I had put on earlier.
Huh.
If he thought there wasn’t anything that would make this a bad idea…
I could ignore that this was something new. That my heart beat just a little faster at the idea of sleeping beside him. There was no reason this wasn’t strictly platonic.
I pulled the covers back and climbed in too. Flicking off the lamp, I snuggled into the covers and felt the mattress beside me moving, saying that Rip was adjusting himself too.
I rolled over onto my side to face where he was and slipped my hands under my cheek.
“Luna?”
I closed my eyes without even trying to. “Hmm?”
“You good?”
“Uh-huh, you?”
“Yeah.”
I yawned. “Thanks for coming over. Give me a poke if I’m moving around too much, okay?”
My eyes popped open the second I heard him snicker.
I was so tired, but I still laughed.
I was pretty sure he said something else, but I had zero energy, I couldn’t even find it in me to overthink Rip being in the same bed as me or me telling him to give me a poke. I fell asleep instantly.
Luna and the Lie Page 37