I’m gonna fucking kill you, Luna! You ever come back, and I will literally fucking kill you, you little piece of shit! I can’t fucking believe you!

It was enough to make me swallow. Enough to feel guilt for all of a split second before I squashed it with the heel of my work boots. I had no reason to feel bad.

Rip waited, thinking who knows what before he gave me a brisk nod, like it was a business transaction we had finally come to an agreement to after a lot of haggling.

Which I guess it was.

I had done something for him, and now he was doing something right back for me. It was what he had offered. It had been his idea.

But then he asked me something surprising. “You sure? That’s what you want your favor to be?”

I nodded gravely. “I didn’t want to ask you for anything, but, yeah, that’s what I want.” I gave him a smile that made my teeth hurt from how hard they were pressing down on each other at the memory I had just pushed right back out of my brain. “Please.”

I was doing this for Grandma Genie. I was doing this for Thea and Kyra and Lily. I was going through with it because doing the right thing was hardly ever the easiest thing to do.

This handsome, hard-faced man, who I barely knew anything about after three years, kept watching me carefully. He sipped on his drink for a moment and then two. He slid me another narrow-eyed gaze as he did it, but it wasn’t a mean one, or even an annoyed one.

“Okay,” was Rip’s reply.

Oh.

“Okay,” I breathed out, relief like I couldn’t put into words sliding right over my entire body. Just. Like. That.

Okay.

“Great,” I told him, jumping on it before he could change his mind. “Thank you.”

Those colorful eyes strayed to one of my ears and lingered there for a moment as he leaned back in his seat. “When?”

“Thursday,” I answered, tempted to reach up and touch my earring, but I didn’t. “I’m going to need the day off. We’re going to need the day off.”

He nodded again, looking so at ease it was like I hadn’t asked him for anything.

“It’s in San Antonio.”

That had him grimacing, and I wondered why. But when he didn’t complain or change his mind, I kept my mouth shut. If he didn’t want to do it now for whatever reason, I wasn’t going to rub it in and make him change his mind. There was always plan B and plan C.

“One day?” he asked, his voice sounding off after that initial grimace.

“Yes.” There was no way in hell I wanted to stay in San Antonio longer than I needed to. Even one night would be way too much. One day felt like too much.

I didn’t admit any of that though.

He only tipped his chin down, moved his gaze to the empty spot at the table, and then glanced back at my face. I almost missed the way his nostrils flared again. “Thursday then.”

This Thursday. It hadn’t hit me just how soon that was until right then.

“Yeah,” I agreed, hoping he couldn’t hear how much I was dreading it already.

Before I could say another word, or he could, a hand landed on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

I didn’t need to look over to know it was one of my coworkers.

I was a little surprised when I heard, “Happy birthday,” in Mr. Cooper’s deep voice.

With the exception of maybe two or three times, Mr. C had never come out with us before. The only times he had were for Owen’s bachelor party, which wasn’t a party at all because he hadn’t wanted to piss off his lady, and to celebrate when another coworker had quit after finishing college and getting a job as an engineer.

Besides that… never.

And then another voice came.

“Happy birthday, Ripley,” came the feminine voice that I knew belonged to Mr. Cooper’s wife.

If I wouldn’t have moved my gaze back over to Rip, I would have missed the way that, with each word that came out of Mrs. Cooper’s mouth—Lydia was her name—the harder Rip’s face became. It had gone from pleasantly blank while we had been making arrangements to an instantly guarded expression when Mr. Cooper had spoken… and then with Mrs. Cooper’s words, his jaw became more defined. The tendons at his neck became more pronounced. Then he slowly sat up in the chair he had just begun relaxing into.

Ripley had never been a comfortable, easygoing person.

But he had never looked the way he did right then either. At least never in front of me, and I had seen him pissed off and angry with the other shop guys before.

Not even when I had made him mad about screwing up the color on that Thunderbird had he made a face so cold.

But this… this wasn’t anger. It wasn’t fury or disappointment. At least not exactly. I was familiar with those expressions.

It looked like a million different emotions wrapped inside a body ready to burst at the seams.

He had never looked at Mr. Cooper like that before, even when he didn’t know I was watching.

There was no way Mrs. Cooper had ever done anything to him. She was one of the nicest women I had ever met. She was loving and caring and warm. She had given me countless hugs and made me a birthday cake every year we had known each other.

Mr. Cooper had called her a saint before, and I believed it. I had lived with her for years. I’d spent almost every holiday together with her since I’d started working for CCC.

If he was wonderful, she was just as wonderful, and I loved them both.

So when I heard the deep breath that Rip let out, I didn’t know what to think. He sounded… he sounded like he’d seen a storm and decided to put down shutters all over himself. From us.

I watched as his eyes went from Mr. Cooper to Mrs. Cooper and then back to the older man, his Adam’s apple bulging more than I had ever seen. Then he said, “Thank you” like someone was torturing him to get the words out.

I didn’t need to glance at the Coopers to feel the tension on their end.

It became even stronger as Ripley grabbed his drink from the table, put it up to his mouth, and tossed it back, not even wincing as he did.

In one swift move, he shoved his stool back and muttered, “Thanks for the birthday cake, Luna. I’ll see you at work,” talking to me and Mr. Cooper, obviously.

But he didn’t look at either one of us.

He didn’t look at Mrs. Cooper either.

One exhale later, he was gone.

Well.

That was freaking weird.

Chapter 6

I couldn’t say I wasn’t relieved when I got to work the next day and only found Rip’s truck in the lot. Without Mr. Cooper’s car, I knew I wasn’t going to head inside and overhear them arguing after what happened the night before. Awkward. I wasn’t sure what was going on with him and Mr. Cooper lately, but things had seemed more tense than normal, and they hadn’t been that great to start with.

On the way over to CCC, I had considered trying to avoid Rip so that I wouldn’t give him a chance to tell me he’d changed his mind about going to San Antonio. Then I decided I wasn’t going to be that much of a chicken. Because if I was nervous, then he’d begin wondering why that was the case.

I made my way inside, dropped off my things like normal, then headed upstairs to start making coffee. I hadn’t spotted my boss slash future bodyguard on the way in, but I didn’t think anything of it. I couldn’t hear him in his office either, but there were a half-dozen places he could have been. I made both of our coffees then made my way down, finding him bent over the opened hood of the GMC truck he’d been working on. From what I could see, he wasn’t wearing a white shirt under the navy blue coveralls he had on. I was pretty sure it was… a gray one. Gray wasn’t a great color for his mood, but it wasn’t white.

So.

Act normal.

Don’t give him a reason to think twice about it.

“Morning, boss,” I called out, hopefully sounding normal.

He didn’t peek out while under the hood, but I did hear his low, nearly grumbled, “Morning.”

At least he’d replied. I’d take it.

“Leaving your coffee on the blue bench,” I told him as I was setting it down on one of the many tool chests along the wall.

There was a pause and then a “Thanks, Luna,” that didn’t sound as grumbled as his “morning” had come out. Maybe because it was the first time in forever that he hadn’t needed to ask if I had decided on a favor I wanted from him.