My boss’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he nodded. His chest went up and back down. He sniffled and followed it up with another choke that made my heart hurt.

I didn’t know what happened with his wife. I didn’t know what happened with Rip. I didn’t know what happened to them.

But I cared about Mr. Cooper, and even though I told myself that I wasn’t going to care about Rip the same way I had, a part of me still did and would.

I wanted the best for both of them.

I was just the wrong person to say anything about family relationships, and that was the truth.

He sniffed, and his sniff hit me right smack in the chest. “You know how to make an old man feel a little less like the scum of the earth, little moon.”

“You could never be the scum of the earth. And I know how to tell you the truth most of the time, and in this case, I didn’t have to lie. I saw Rip’s face.” Then I lowered my voice and added, “And if it makes you feel any better, he doesn’t like me much either.”

That had him wiping his face with his forearm. “I highly doubt that, honey.”

I smirked to myself, but he must have seen it because he kept talking.

“He doesn’t, Luna. I don’t know Rip—” He sucked in a breath. “—my son as well as I should, but I know you’re the last person he would dislike.”

Well. “We can agree to disagree, huh?” I asked and stood up. “I’m getting a glass of water. Do you want anything from the kitchen?”

His expression was wobbly as he dropped his other arm and showed me his pink, puffy face that was pulled into a partial smile. “How about a bag of chips?”

“How about some fruit?”

Mr. Cooper groaned as I made my way around the couch and headed toward the kitchen, directly beside the living room.

And it was right then, as I turned, that I almost bit my tongue.

Because standing in the hallway that led from the front door to the living room and kitchen was a person.

Just. Standing there. Quietly. Not moving.

And that someone was Rip who took up most of the width of that hallway.

Rip who was standing there watching me with heavy eyes and a jaw that was tighter than ever.

“Lu, what—” Mr. Cooper started to say before he cut himself off, head turned toward the doorway. “Rip.”

Ripley’s eyes slid to his… dad… for a moment. His voice was gruff, and his question was the last thing I would have expected. “You all right?”

Mr. Cooper didn’t hesitate nodding. “Yeah.”

Yeah? That was it? I mean, I guess I shouldn’t expect him to tell him that no, he wasn’t okay because he’d just been talking about how his own son hated him.

“Any news from the doctor?” Rip asked.

I bit the inside of my cheek and headed into the kitchen. I listened to Rip’s low voice and Mr. Cooper’s slightly louder one as I pulled a glass out of the cabinet and filled it with water from the fridge.

“I don’t want you to die,” Rip said, so quietly I could barely hear him.

The answering pause said everything, I thought, and it made me flinch.

“Shit’s not ever gonna be the same, but I don’t hate you either, old man,” he kept going, gruffly. “Can’t stand you but I don’t hate you. Got it?”

There was a sniff and a “got it” right back.

Well. Okay. All right.

It was just as I pulled a bag of grapes from the fridge that the two men’s voices cut off.

By the time I finished rinsing and setting the grapes into a coffee cup, they still hadn’t continued speaking, but I figured that was okay. Peeking over the counter that led into the living room, I found Mr. Cooper in the same spot, and Rip was nowhere to be found.

“Here are your grapes.” I handed the cup of fruit over to Mr. Cooper.

He wrinkled his nose as he took it. “Thank you?”

I couldn’t help but grin at him. “Do you have medication or anything you need to take, Mr. C?”

“No, ma’am,” he responded dryly.

Just as I opened my mouth, another voice cut across the air. “Talk to me outside for a minute, baby girl.”

I froze there and only moved my eyes over to the man who had reappeared in the same place I had last seen him. I kept my face nice and even. “I’m supposed to stay with Mr. Cooper until Lydia gets back.” That was the truth, and it was believable, wasn’t it?

“I can be alone for a minute,” Mr. Cooper threw in the second I finished my argument.

I closed my mouth.

By the time I had moved my gaze back over to Rip, he had his hand out.

Toward me.

And he’d taken steps closer so that he was within reaching distance.

So that I could take his hand.

He was just trying to make up for being so ugly to me weeks ago. Maybe he’d gotten tired of having to get his own coffee. Maybe he’d overheard what I had told Mr. Cooper. Hadn’t I already learned that he was capable of feeling guilt?

“Come with me,” he said in that slow, soft voice, fingers still reaching for me.

Hurt tightened my chest, but I stood up anyway. And I took his hand. Maybe I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t just learned that Rip had issues with Mr. Cooper over his beloved mom who had died, over how he had remarried so soon after her death, but I would never know.

But what I did know from experience was what it was like to take a leap and have no one there to catch you. Or at least break your fall. And that was why I took it.

Because who knew when the last time he had reached out to anyone had been?

Gently, he tugged at my hand and led me toward the front door, closing the door behind us the second we were outside. I watched as he took a step forward, his free hand going up to the top of his head and smoothing down the back of it. He still hadn’t let go of my hand.

Crickets chirped in the evening grass on Mr. Cooper’s front lawn. I didn’t need to look around to know we were surrounded by shrubs and flower bushes. I also didn’t need to glance up to know Lucas Ripley was looking down at me when I tried to pull my hand out of his, and his grip tightened instead of loosening.

So I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t hesitate, his voice strong and sure, as this man said, “Don’t be fucking mad at me anymore.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and forced myself to look up into that face I had memorized. Dark brown hair shot through with strands of silver, deep-set eyes, broad, flat cheekbones, and that jaw that would have been a work of art if anyone were smart enough to recreate it, faced me. His eyes focused down on me, intent and unflinching.

Leave me alone, he had said.

“I didn’t mean all that shit I said, and you know it,” he told me, tugging at the hand he hadn’t let go of.

I took a deep breath and kept my voice even. “Mr. Ripley—”

He didn’t let me get further than that before he snapped, “Cut it out.”

“Cut what out?”

That throat of his bobbed as he dipped his chin in close. “You know what, Luna.”

I looked at him, keeping my face blank.

“That Mister Ripley bullshit,” he finally growled out.

“But that’s your name.”

He made a noise in his throat.

“You’re my boss,” I reminded him.

The fingers around mine jerked. “I’m more than your boss.”

That had me trying to pull my hand out of his. “No, Rip. That’s what you are, and I just happened to forget that.”

He cursed. Rip cursed under his breath, his fingers tightening. “No, baby girl, there was nothing for you to forget.”

Leave me alone.

I clung on to those words with both my hands and held on tight. He was my boss. Today, tomorrow, the day after that. He didn’t want what I had to offer, and I wasn’t going to be naïve enough to believe people changed.

Rip had lost his mind for a little while before deciding what it was that he wanted.

And that wasn’t me or my friendship or my problems.

He felt guilty and that was it.

I tipped my chin up, reminding myself I had been through worse and been through things more hurtful than words said out of anger. And I told him what he deep down wanted to make sure. “I’ve already told you I’m not going to quit, if that’s what you’re worried about.” I swallowed and fisted my free hand, keeping my voice calm. “I get offers every few months from other businesses, but I don’t think twice about them. I love working at CCC, even if you don’t like me—”