My hands started to shake. Mine. And just as I was about to shove the empty one under my thighs, I stopped. Then I made a decision.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I told him honestly, because I didn’t, and I wasn’t going to hide it. “But I don’t ever want to hear your voice again. Don’t call Lily or Kyra either. If you do, I’ll call your parole officer. Don’t think I won’t.”
And I hung up.
Then and only then, did I shove my freaking shaking hands under my thighs as I let out a deep breath.
What in God’s name was Thea into? What the hell was she doing? Why the hell was she talking to him of all freaking people?
Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse…
I found this out? This?
“You all right?” Rip didn’t wait to ask.
I wanted to say I was fine. I really did. But that wasn’t what I responded with. “Yes. No. I think… I think you’re right about my sister doing something fishy. That was my dad who just called.”
My dad. What a joke.
“I haven’t talked to him in years, and he just said…”
Why the hell was I telling Rip all this?
Slipping one of my hands out from under my thigh, I lifted it up to my head and rubbed the palm of it across my forehead pretty freaking roughly, like that would erase the conversation that had just happened.
Rip’s voice was low and gravelly, and so, so serious as he asked, “What he say?”
Keeping my gaze forward, I could barely tell him. “He said my sister doesn’t have any business doing something, but he didn’t say what, and…” Bitterness, honest to God bitterness, swelled up in my throat for the first time I could remember. I wasn’t bitter. I wasn’t. But I felt it then. Understood it then. I got why people could hold on to resentment for the rest of their lives. “He said she’s been ignoring his calls, like that was new.”
How could she? After everything he had said and done to me? She’d been the oldest. The one who witnessed more than the rest of my sisters just how our relationship had been.
And she was talking to him?
“I’m sorry.” I picked my phone back up and instantly hit the speed dial number I needed, my heart in my freaking throat. “I need to call her.”
He didn’t reply as I hit the icon to start the call. But I sat there, listening to it ring, then ring some more, then ring a little more. Until her voice mail picked up.
Then I called her again, and again she didn’t answer. Screw it. I’d leave a message.
“Thea, it’s Luna. I just got a call from… back home. Are you okay?” She had been talking to our dad behind my back. God, I was pissed. But more… more than anything… it felt like a stab. It hurt me so much I could barely talk and barely keep it together. I could barely think. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll help you any way I can. Just talk to me, all right? Call me back please. I’m not going in to work today. Call me any time.” I breathed in through my nose and back out of it. “Be safe, okay?”
Only then did I hang up, feeling weirdly… numb.
What was she doing?
Pulling my hand out from under my thigh, I fisted both of them on my lap and stared down at them, trying to put my thoughts back in order. She wasn’t dying. Nothing terrible had actually happened to her. There was no reason for me to freak the hell out and go back up to Dallas to see her—not that she’d even open the door to her apartment for me.
I took another deep breath that honestly sounded like a backed-up muffler on the way out.
Calm down. I needed to calm down.
It was only the rocking of the truck that had me noticing we had stopped. Right in front of my house.
“Luna,” Rip drew out my name slowly and carefully. “You good?”
I bit my bottom lip and heard the lie that wanted to come out of my throat. I replaced it with the truth. “I will be.”
Familiar, long, and tattooed fingers crept over the top of my hand and stayed there, brushing the LOVEYOU bracelet I’d put on that morning. Lucas Ripley’s voice swept over me as he said, “I don’t know what’s going on with your sister, but you tell me if there’s something I can do. You’re not alone, you hear me?”
I pressed my lips together and nodded.
But he wasn’t done. “You’re not, Luna, and I gotta tell you, you don’t need to be letting anybody run all over you or try to get away with shit—”
“I don’t do that,” I cut in.
It was only because of the soft face he gave me, all those normally harsh features without tension for once, that I didn’t let his words, or what he was implying bother me. “All I’m saying is, you don’t have to take shit, and you need to quit believing you do. Think about that, all right? Have fun with your sister but think about what I said.”
Chapter 18
“Happy to see you back, little moon,” Mr. Cooper said as he headed into the break room with his cup of coffee in hand.
I leaned back in my chair and grinned. “Me too, Mr. C. It feels like I’ve been gone a week.” But it was really only two full days. I could have stayed home an extra day and no one would have said anything, but I wasn’t about to milk anyone’s kindness.
That and I had only been home alone last night for a few hours and hadn’t known what to do with myself. I had learned real quick while I had gone to visit Lily that if I had five spare seconds, I would end up thinking about Thea and my dad. And if I wasn’t thinking about them, I thought about Rip and his secret friends and his mom. Once and only once did I let myself think about the last words he’d said to me before he had dropped me off at home, about not taking people’s crap.
I didn’t want to think about either of them, especially not since my own sister couldn’t find it in her to call me back but had zero issue texting Lily. It was only because she was texting her back, and because I had called Kyra to see if she’d heard from her, that I knew she was at least alive and decent. If things were bad, she wouldn’t be working and going to school, according to what Kyra had told me. I’d had to lie and tell her we had gotten into an argument and she was mad at me.
It had happened before.
The older man set his hand on top of my head as he walked behind me, pulling me back into safe, nice thoughts that weren’t centered around my sister emotionally betraying me or my dad being a prick. “You back to normal?”
“Mostly,” I answered, finally able to turn my neck—at least more than before. The massage I’d had done on Wednesday while I waited for Lily to get out of work had helped. “How are you doing? How’s your lady?”
He set a sandwich beside me. “Everything is good. She’s great. She misses you and told me to have you call her. Other than that, no complaints from me.”
“Your blood pressure?”
That had him sliding me a look.
I grinned and whispered, “The new guy?”
“Good,” he confirmed. “He works hard, very respectful and professional. I’m happy.”
“Good.”
“What’d you do on your days off?”
I had decided I wasn’t going to tell anyone about the Thea thing, including Mr. Cooper. “I went to see Lily and stayed with her for the night. I spent last night watching TV and doing laundry.”
“Gone on any more of these dates?”
Hell. If it hadn’t been for my little sister sending me a message that morning, I would have forgotten all about it, even after she had brought it up a dozen times while we had been together. “Tonight actually. I’m going out with Lily’s old teacher.”
“A teacher?”
Did he sound skeptical or was I imagining it?
I nodded anyway.
“I could see you with a teacher,” he said, thoughtfully. So he wasn’t skeptical about it. All right.
“I can’t. She said he’s nice. We’re meeting at Mickey’s, so hopefully it goes well,” I replied, glancing to the side to see Rip halfway into the break room. I ha
dn’t even heard him come in, he was so sneaky.
He shot me a stone-faced look I wasn’t sure what to think of.
When I had walked in that morning, he’d already been working. And when I brought him down his coffee not too long afterward, we’d had the same exchange we always did, except he’d asked if I felt any better. I had told him, yes, and that had been the end of that.
He hadn’t asked about my sister after offering to help me out with her situation if I needed.
Not that I would.
Well, unless it was absolutely necessary.
“Feeling better, Luna?” another voice asked, drawing my gaze back toward the door as Rip walked right behind me.
It was the new guy, Ashton, at the door, holding what looked like a bag from the burger truck that was a block away from the shop.
“Yeah,” I said, shooting him a smile. “I can finally turn my head a little. See?”
The blond man smiled as he dropped his bag into the seat in front of mine. “Nice.”
“Thanks,” I told him.
Out of my line of vision, Rip stuck something into the microwave.
“Everyone was complaining about you not being here,” Ashton kept going as he pulled his seat out.
“Aww, they don’t have anyone else to pick on is all,” I joked.
Two bites of food later, the scrape of the chair on my other side being pulled out had me preparing for Rip to drop into it, and he did. He had a reusable glass container with what looked like… chicken, brown rice, and veggies. Then I looked down at mine and found the same sticky, tan noodles, and wilted brown vegetables that still didn’t taste any better than they had the first day.
He must have peeked at my food too because our eyes met, and I had to shoot him a grin.
The cheek closest to me went up—it was the one with the dimple too—and I couldn’t help but feel a little triumph at our inner joke.
I nudged my container an inch closer to him and asked, totally serious, “You want some, boss?”
That cheek went up a little higher as he replied very clearly, using all the depth of that deep voice, “I’m good.”
“You’re sure?”
His eyes swung back to my food, and he seemed to think about it for a moment before he took the fork in my hand, dug it into the container, and like he’d done it a dozen times before, scooped the food it into his mouth in the time it took me to process what he’d done. His jaw worked… Those teal eyes went wide…
And he gagged.
Ripley freaking gagged before his throat bobbed forcefully and he swallowed it.
I opened my mouth wide as I watched him shake his head afterward like he was trying to erase the memory from his brain.
“Rip,” I managed to get out while still having my mouth open.
“What the fuck was that?” he asked, reaching for his bottle of water and gulping down half of it before shooting me what I was pretty sure he meant to be a horrified expression but was just adorable instead.
“Lo mein,” I told him, starting to laugh.
He looked at me. Then he grabbed my Rubbermaid, shoved his chair back and dumped everything in it into the trash.
“Rip!” I hissed, laughing. “What are you doing? That’s perfectly good food!”
Already pushing his chair back in closer to the table, he shot me a look as he set the now empty container down and picked up his own. “There’s nothing perfectly good about any of that, Luna,” he grumbled, shaking his head as he scraped half of his meal into my bowl. He scooted it back toward me with a lift of his chin. “Eat that.”
I blinked, ignoring the prickly feeling that popped up on my arms as I took in what he’d done. “I don’t want to eat your food.”
“Luna.”
“What if you get hungry later because you only ate half?”
That handsome face changed, just a little, but then he rolled his eyes and said in that bossy voice, “Eat it.”
It hadn’t hit me until right then that neither Mr. C nor Ashton were saying a word or had been since Rip sat down next to me and we had started talking. I wondered what Mr. Cooper would think.
But Rip talking again made me focus on him. “You’re really going to argue with me over eating?” he had the nerve to ask.
I pressed my lips together and muttered, “No.” Then I stopped doing that, curled my finger over the top of the bowl, and dragged it over. “Thank you for sharing. You didn’t have to.”
His warm reply was a grunt.
If it hadn’t been for my phone beeping from its spot on my table, I would have kept going, but I glanced down to see I’d gotten a message from Lily.
After the call from my dad, anytime the phone went off, it made me paranoid.
I unlocked the screen and tapped her message open.
Lily: Are you ready for tonight?
Okay, at least it wasn’t anything else. Just that date. Tonight.
Did my neck start hurting again all of a sudden or was I imagining it?
I texted her back.
Me: Yes…
Me: My neck hurts though.
That was more of an exaggeration than it needed to be, but….
Lily: Don’t turn your head then, silly.
Peeking at Rip, I could see he’d pulled a magazine out of somewhere—his pocket?—and unrolled it beside him. But it looked like he was dragging his tongue over his teeth, making a face as he did it. My food had that effect on people.
I thought about what to write her back, before finally glancing down at the new food in my container. It was exactly like what I had thought: stir-fried rice with veggies and a chicken thigh. I scooped up some rice with my fork and shoved it into my mouth, blinking as I chewed and swallowed.
I slid my gaze over to Rip and took another bite.
It was freaking delicious. I wondered if he’d made it or—or what? Unless he had a cook who went over to his place—or a woman who made his food—he’d made it.
Maybe it was a woman who made it for him. I had no idea if he had a girlfriend. Or maybe not even a girlfriend but just a… friend. Maybe with benefits. No one had ever mentioned him having a woman in his life, and it wasn’t like he brought anyone over to the shop other than the guy he’d met in the lot.
“Did you make this?” I asked him.
He didn’t even glance at me. “Uh-huh.”
Okay then. I texted Lily a response while I scooped more food into my mouth.
Me: I really don’t want to go, Lily.
Lily: Come on. Do it. Who knows, maybe you’ll hit it off. I promise he’s really cute.
I knew he was cute. She had shown me a picture of him at least three times. That wasn’t the point though.
Lily: But I’ll see if he can go another day if you want.
I didn’t feel like going in the first place, but… I was supposed to be trying. So…
I glanced at Rip again, watching as he flipped through the magazine while digging his fork into his food without looking at it. He’d shared his food with me. Food he’d made.
The heart wants what it wants, but the brain knows what it can get.
And it was with that thought that I wrote her back.
Me: Yeah, if you can.
Lily: Okay, I will.
I only slightly felt like a jerk after that, but at least I wasn’t outright cancelling. I was still trying. Just… not today.
For some reason, I glanced to my other side to see what Mr. Cooper was doing since he’d been so quiet, and I had to pause, looking at him when I saw the smile he had on his face while he ate his sandwich.
“Is it that good?” I couldn’t help but ask him.
His blue eyes came to me, that smile still on his face, and Mr. Cooper chuckled lightly. “Yeah, it’s that good, Luna.” His smile grew even wider right before he moved a hand to pat the top of my head. “Best sandwich I’ve ever had.”
* * *
Hours later, when it was five o’clock and I was pretty much done with my work
for the day, which consisted of me barely talking to Jason, who had been eerily decent, I checked my phone again and found more messages from Lily spread out over the afternoon.
Lily: I emailed him but haven’t heard back.
Lily: Still nothing
Lily: No response, mama Luna. I gotta get to work, but I’ll see if he writes me back. Sorry. <3
He hadn’t responded?
What if he’d gone to the bar we had agreed to meet at and was going to wait?
I sent my sister a text and told her it was fine then grabbed my things to head out. Rip was busy talking to a couple of the shop guys, so I couldn’t even wave goodbye to him. I did call out bye to Miguel, who was still watching me like I was going to hurl vomit at him from across the room.
By the time I got home and Lily still hadn’t messaged me to confirm that my date was off, I felt bad. I really didn’t want to go, but I wasn’t about to leave him hanging either. I forced myself to get dressed and head to the bar.
Worst-case scenario, I’d text Lenny and tell her to call me in an hour if things went bad.
Best-case scenario, he’d stand me up.
* * *
I’d been at the bar for only a few minutes when I accepted the fact that the teacher had either gotten my sister’s message and been too much of a butthole to write her back or he had died. It had to be one or the other. At least that’s what I was going to tell myself.
But on the very small chance that he hadn’t gotten her email and was only running late…
I was waiting. It was the nice thing to do.
About five minutes into sitting there, checking my phone about every minute to see if Lily had messaged me, I was kicking myself in the ass for not just staying home in the first place and running the risk that the teacher would be the one sitting around instead. But I had ordered a glass of Sprite and took in each person who walked into the bar, hoping one of them looked like the picture my sister had shown me of the guy.
Luna and the Lie Page 30
