It was my turn to nod, and I pressed my lips together before telling him carefully, “I’m sorry you brought me all the way over here for no reason.” I tried to give him a smile, but I wasn’t sure I managed it. “At least we’re even now, huh?”

Chapter 14

I knew something was really wrong on Monday when I showed up to work and found the lights in my room were already on.

There had only been one car in the parking lot when I’d showed up, and it had been one I knew well. The owner of it had never, in the years we had worked together, gone into my room that early in the morning for no reason. If I really thought about it, he had probably never gone into my room when I wasn’t in it, period. There was no reason he would start now.

Even after everything we had done together this past weekend after leaving Thea’s.

“Everything” being us going to the closest twenty-four-hour diner and eating burgers, fries, and a sundae each; then staying in a hotel close by. In different rooms. The ride back to Houston the next day hadn’t been awkward… but instead a nice, easygoing quiet with both of us humming along to the radio. It had been okay—more than okay, considering Friday had sliced me deeper than anything else had in a long time.

I hadn’t cried over Thea since then. Even if she hadn’t called me or bothered texting me to make sure I made it back to Houston safely. Even if I did ache a little still from it, kind of like a papercut that you knew wasn’t going to kill you, but it still stung like hell.

But I wasn’t going to linger over any of that longer than I needed to. I had better ways to spend my energy, and in that moment right then, it was trying to guess why the lights in my room were on.

Approaching the door, with the lights on through the square-shaped window at the top of the door, I balanced my tote bag, holding a container full of funky-looking stir-fry I had made to last the entire week. I couldn’t help but wonder why Rip would be in there. To help me? No way. He had enough things to do. Check something? Maybe.

I had left Jason with only a small project before I’d left on Friday for my gynecologist appointment, but he should have gotten it finished before he’d bounced. Chances were, Rip was double-checking his work. He had done that to mine from time to time when he’d first come to CCC, doubting I could do what I had assured him I could.

So even though my gut knew something was off, the rest of me tried to push that nagging feeling aside as I turned the knob and pushed the door open. There was no way I could be surprised when I found Rip inside, standing just outside the booth’s opened doors, looking in. I didn’t worry when I found him with his hands on his hips, doing that.

But when I said, “Good morning” as I came inside, my purse over one shoulder, tote in my hands, and he didn’t look at me… that’s when something in me confirmed that there was something wrong.

He didn’t look at me.

He didn’t say anything.

Okay.

Not like I had cried into his body after my sister had shot a freaking arrow into my heart and made me feel about three inches tall.

I hadn’t let myself think of how nice it had been to lean up against him and have him hold me.

I wasn’t about to start now. I knew he was my boss, and I knew he owed me a favor and that’s why he’d gone with me in the first place. Maybe comforting me hadn’t been part of it, but I knew he didn’t hate me. Maybe somewhere inside of him, he was a little fond of me.

But that was all there was.

He was a good enough person to be there for me when he didn’t need to.

But none of that reflected on the face that was aimed at me. Any bonding, any connection we might have made with each other, wasn’t reflected there. At all.

I watched him as I set my things down on top of the desk and didn’t bother putting my purse into the compartment where I usually left it. He still hadn’t moved. He was too busy looking at whatever was inside the booth.

The only thing in there should have been the parts Jason had finished days ago.

Oh, God. He’d messed something up, hadn’t he?

But how? What? I really hadn’t left much for him to screw up.

“Rip?” I called out again, taking my time to approach him.

From where I was, he took a deep breath, and I saw the muscles on his forearms get tight. His attention did waver though as he said, “What the fuck is this?”

Fucking Jason. Fucking, fucking Jason. I knew it. I should have known it.

Hadn’t I learned to trust my gut? And hadn’t my freaking gut told me that Jason would find some way to screw things up?

Hell.

Freaking hell.

I walked faster toward my boss, cutting the short distance between us until I stood a couple feet to the side of him. I held my breath as I took in the sight before me.

Before I’d left, I had finished up the last coat of primer on two quarter panels. Jason had promised to get them out of the booth so he could finish the four sets of wheels for another project. I’d had to get to my appointment, and I’d been trying to give that pain in the butt an olive branch; I’d given him something he could do to earn a tiny bit of loyalty. To show me that maybe I could trust him.

But as I looked into the booth, the panels were definitely still in there.

Panels to what I knew were a 2010 Ford Mustang. The same make and model of the car I had left on Friday. Only, it wasn’t the solid gray I had left it. And it wasn’t the so-dark-green-it-looked-black color that I had locked away to use this morning.

It was green. A spotty green that had been applied so badly, I could tell from the distance I was at. It was terrible.

Just… freaking… terrible.

“Crap,” I whispered to myself, stunned. Stunned.

“You do this?” he asked slowly like he couldn’t even believe he was asking me that question.

I reared back to look at him. “No!” I had screwed up recently, sure, but nothing like this. Not actually skill-wise.

He was still focused on the car inside when he let out a deep breath that made me think of the hug he’d given me outside of my sister’s apartment. “Then who did?” he asked, not sounding at all like we had overcome some barrier between us less than two days ago.

In fact, it sounded like before. Like worse than before. And I didn’t like the way it made my chest feel funny.

“I don’t know for sure,” I started to say, “but it had to have been Jason. I finished the primer before I left on Friday, and he was supposed to stay and do the rims, not work on this.” After our Friday morning meeting, Mr. Cooper had told me to leave whenever it was time and let Jason finish whatever was needed.

“Where’s the order at?”

The work order?

I looked around the room and tried to find the folder with all the order information for it. I didn’t see it on my desk. I’d left it there for sure that Friday, so Jason could have access to it if he needed. “Let me find it. I know I left it on my desk before I left, but he was only supposed to do the rims. I told him three times.”

I couldn’t stop looking at the freaking car I had spent hours on. I’d seen people’s DIY paint jobs look a hundred times better than this. Taking off the color was going to be a major pain, especially after I’d had to do the same thing so recently.

“You left him here alone?”

I kept going through my desk, knowing I was a little bit of a coward for not looking him in the eyes as I answered. “Yes.” Mr. Cooper had known. He’d been the one to tell me to go before he and Rip had gotten into that crappy argument.

Rip let out another deep breath that unsettled me.

And still, I couldn’t manage to look at him. “I didn’t do it, Rip,” I said, giving myself away. “I’ve started triple-checking orders to make sure I’m doing the right color after that other time a few weeks ago. And I’ve definitely never done that to any car, even when I was learning.”

He let out another breath, and I’d swear I heard his jaw crack.

Jesus Christ. This was… what? Three screwups in his eyes? In just a matter of weeks? Three times now that something had gone wrong?

And hadn’t he put down those times on my record or whatever it was called?