But why he’d waited until now, I would never know.

Or maybe I would.

Did I want to though?

That was a stupid question. Of course I did. I wanted to know everything.

I wanted it to be true.

I wanted it to be true, but I also knew what it was like to hope and dream for things and not have them happen.

I was being a chicken. I was being a giant chicken, wasn’t I? I gave Thea hell for not telling me the truth, because it seemed so easy for me, and here I was, doing the same thing as her.

With my phone on my lap, I sent Lenny a text.

Me: Do you think I’m being a coward with this Rip thing? Tell me the truth.

Not even a minute went by before I got a response.

Lenny: Yes

Lenny: I didn’t make a chickenshit my best friend.

I ignored the guilt and nerves floating around in my stomach as I sat there, reading Lenny’s message over and over again.

There was no reason for my stomach to hurt.

Luna, Luna, Luna, my conscience seemed to whisper in disappointment. You’re lying to yourself now.

I was. I really was. I was being a coward. A chickenshit. A freaking scaredy cat.

And I was sitting in my car, about to go on a date I wanted no part of.

But…

I couldn’t find it in me to just be a no-show. Getting stood up wasn’t nice, and neither was telling some innocent person sorry, bud, I’m in love with someone else. But I could live with the latter a lot easier than the first. That was for sure. It was the least I could do. If I could have cancelled without calling Kyra, I would have, but I hadn’t had it in me to do it. The text messages we had sent each other to set up the date had been awkward and painful enough.

In and out. I’d get this over with as quickly as possible. Then I could go home and figure out exactly what I would tell Rip. I love you and please don’t hurt me didn’t sound good enough.

It was with that decision in mind that I got out of my car and slammed it shut behind me. I flashed my license at the bouncer as a formality, because we both knew he’d seen it before. Then I headed into the bar where I had met the other guys I had gone on dates with, dates that hadn’t gone anywhere.

For a reason.

Who was I kidding? Of course it had been for a reason. Because none of them were built like wrestlers, with a dry sense of humor and a bland look better than any scowl.

Inside, I looked around the half-filled room for a guy with long black hair…

I didn’t need to glance at my phone to know I was a few minutes early. Maybe he was running late? If he was, how long was an acceptable amount of time to wait before I left? Three minutes? Five?

Spotting a table closer to the back, I beelined for it, still looking around at the crowd to make sure the man that Kyra had sent me a picture of back then wasn’t sitting in some dark corner where I couldn’t find him. He was thirty-two and worked on an oil rig. That’s why we’d had to wait a month to meet. I glanced at my phone again as I took a seat.

Sitting back in the chair, I kept looking around the room, hoping he’d magically appear so I could tell him to his face thank you but no thank you.

The door opened just as that thought had entered my brain. Coming in, already looking around, was a man too blonde to be the one I was meeting up with. He was tall, lean, and… not Rip.

He was not Rip.

He was too young. Too slim.

But mostly, he wasn’t the man who ran his hands through my hair when I was upset and listened.

The guy was everything that would have been exactly my type four years ago.

Before a six-foot-four man with a chest twice the size of this guy’s, with forearms that rippled with muscle, a thick neck, and a lower body that should have inspired sculpture makers into recreating it, strolled into my life.

Screw it. I was going to hide in the bathroom.

The thought had barely occurred to me when a man sitting at the bar turned in his stool and stood up.

I realized I knew that body. That head shape. I knew that height.

And as the familiar body turned and started heading in the direction of where I was sitting, I stayed there. The lights hid a lot of the nicest bits of him, but I knew who it was. I would always know who he was.

And he had a pissed-off look on his face.

What the hell was he doing here? How did he know…

He didn’t say a word as he pulled out the seat opposite of the one I was in and slid into it. In the dark, I couldn’t see those amazing teal-colored eyes, but I could tell where they were focused. I could see the slant of his eyebrows.

Yep. He was definitely pissed.

And honestly, I had definitely never been less pissed.

Never.

He was here. Here.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, feeling the tension in my stomach unraveling slowly.

He planted his elbows on the table between us and crossed his arms as he answered, “You know what I’m here for.”

I held my breath, and then I lied… hope and love blooming inside of me so quickly I couldn’t help but want to mess with this man. “No, I don’t.”

His voice was a low, low growl of, “Yeah, you do.”

“You’re making sure I don’t get kidnapped again?” I deadpanned as seriously as possible. Why did this feel like the easiest thing in the world now? Messing with him? Giving him crap? “Or are you stalking me now?

He blinked. Then he took a deep breath… and his cheek went up a millimeter in the blink of an eye. “Not funny, Luna.”

I couldn’t help the smile that instantly came over my face as I spoke again, not letting this go, not planning on ever letting this go. “I don’t need a babysitter, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

That cheek went up another millimeter. “You’re right there, baby girl. You don’t need a babysitter. ’Specially not when the dumbass you’re meeting up with didn’t look old enough for you.”

I processed his words… but then processed them right back out and focused only on the important part. “When did you see him?”

He smiled at me. “Before you showed up.”

I didn’t need to glance around the bar to make sure the man still wasn’t hanging around. I knew he wasn’t. How he even knew who to look for was beyond me, but it didn’t matter. Not even a little bit. I also had a feeling I knew exactly what had happened, but I needed to make sure. I tipped my head closer to him. “Where did he go?”

He shrugged a rounded shoulder. “Somewhere not here.”

Uh.

“I told him to get the fuck out,” he kept going unapologetically. “Told him you weren’t going to be meeting him tonight or any other night, and he might as well go hit up someone else’s girl because he wasn’t getting mine.”

My heart shouldn’t have started racing at him referring to me as his. It shouldn’t. I knew that. I definitely shouldn’t have gotten goose bumps all over my arms and back.

But that was exactly what happened.

I let the thrill go through me before I decided that messing with him was too much fun. Messing with him would always be too much fun. “Rip, you had no right to do that—”

“I had every right to.”

He could say those words to me every day for the rest of my life and they wouldn’t get old.

He proved it when he leaned forward and slid me the most heated look I might ever see in my life. “Yeah, I did, Luna. You wanna go out to eat? I’ll take you. You wanna go out and get a Sprite? Tell me. You want to watch a fucking movie? I’ll take you to the goddamn movies. If you want to go to beat the shit out of your cousin again, I’ll fucking take you. You want to meet someone to be your best friend and your fucking partner? I’m right fucking here, baby girl.”

Oh hell.

Oh freaking hell.

“How many times I gotta tell you I just like being around you?” he asked, his voice lowering as his gaze roamed over what was my stupefied face. Because what other face could I have when the man I’d liked for years was running off my dates and sitting here telling me he’d take me on any dates I wanted to go on?

None. There was no other face.

“I can do this same thing a hundred times, Luna, this running off your dates thing, but it’s never gonna happen. I’ll tell you right now, I’m not going to have a problem telling them off. I’ve got into a lot of fucking fights in my life, and I’m starting to think it was all to get me ready for you,” he threatened.