His “Yeah” came out more like “duh.”

I picked up some more noodles with my fork and shoved them into my mouth. Because I was hungry, not because I was at a loss for words.

Definitely not because a part of me wanted to be petty and tell him that no, I didn’t want to go anywhere with him because he’d been so mean the day before.

Not me. I was better than that. Yup.

He was still hanging out by the fridge when he kept going. “You got time, don’t you?”

If I said I was just busy enough, it would sound like I didn’t have enough to do. If I said I had time, it would sound like I didn’t have enough to do. And if I told him I was barely catching up after the crap with the Mustang, then I would sound like I was harboring some resentment toward him.

So…

How was I supposed to answer him?

Did I want to go?

I didn’t have to think about it too long. The answer was: not so much. Normally, I wouldn’t mind going. I really wasn’t very busy, and I didn’t want to be around Jason more than I needed to since we were on thinner ice than usual. On top of that, I didn’t want to talk to Mr. Cooper about the day before and cause another argument between him and Rip, because that’s what would happen. I had already planned on going to bother the guys on the floor to see what I could help them with.

But if I insisted I didn’t want to go, he would know I was butt-hurt, and I was almost never butt-hurt. If he thought that, he would know he had gotten under my skin.

Rip had just been my boss. He did to me what he would have done to any of the guys. I had no logical reason to take it personally.

But it was really hard to know that and accept it.

It was hard to tell your heart what your brain was smart enough to understand.

“Nothing’s pending?” he asked when I still hadn’t replied.

There was always something pending, technically.

He didn’t wait for me to answer. He didn’t give me a chance to give him an answer. “Finish your lunch, and then we’ll head out.”

I didn’t need to go with him. I actually wasn’t even sure why he wanted me to. He might listen to me sometimes, but not that much.

But…

I was better than this. I wasn’t going to let him get to me. I wasn’t going to let him know that he had.

“Okay,” I finally got out, shrugging. I had made myself let Jason do what was on the schedule for the day since it had only been small projects, and I’d watched to make sure he did it right. I hadn’t wanted to, but that’s why Mr. Cooper had stuck him with me. To learn. Me leaving would be good, for both of our sakes. There were only a couple things left the rest of the day that needed to be done.

I could be a mature, reasonable person and put the day behind me.

I was loved. I had a good job. I had everything I needed. I’d had a decent date the night before, but I had another one coming up.

Every day was a new day that gave you the opportunity to have your entire life ahead of you.

And that was what I was going to keep telling myself.

* * *

“What do you mean you’re leaving?”

I tried to control my temper—a temper that I didn’t normally have unless it was provoked, a temper that this guy seemed to stoke like a snake charmer, like it was his superpower, while my superpower was that I was easygoing and didn’t get mad that often.

But I guess even Superman had his kryptonite.

Mine was a coworker with an attitude problem who had cheated on my sister. An attitude problem that I had unfortunately noticed mostly only flared up in my company.

That seemed to be a running theme throughout my life for some reason that I wasn’t about to focus on.

“I’m going with Rip to pick out paint,” I said again as I unlocked the cabinet in the desk that held my purse. I’d only started doing that since Jason and I had gotten stuck with each other. I didn’t trust him to not eat the snacks I kept in there or rub my toothbrush along a toilet rim if he had the chance. The booth was mine. I wasn’t sure what I would end up doing if they tried to put him with me permanently, like I had been Mack’s assistant for years, but I’d make sure it didn’t happen.

Somehow.

“Why?” he had the nerve to ask, like the last time we’d exchanged words, I hadn’t wanted to strangle him.

Did I need to give him an answer? No, but I did anyway. “Because he asked me to,” I responded as I locked the cabinet back up. He didn’t need to know that I had tried to get out of it.

“But now I’m stuck here doing your work,” Jason complained, like he wasn’t paid to do just that. He’d been acting like an abused puppy since yesterday. All meek and whiney, but not in a cute or likable way.

I made sure my back was to him as I made a face that couldn’t hide how much he was getting on my nerves. “Going with him is part of my job. You also get paid hourly, so you’d either be in the booth or out there helping out the other guys. If you would rather go back out there, go tell Mr. Cooper. He won’t force you to do something you don’t want to do,” I told him, not able to totally hide my irritation.

But man, I hoped, I hoped, I hoped, I hoped he would go tell Mr. Cooper he wanted out.

If he wasn’t out of here by the time my birthday came around, I knew exactly what I was going to ask for.

There was a moment of silence and then, “I can go with him.”

Oh, boy.

I was choosing happiness and patience.

I was choosing happiness and patience.

I was choosing happiness and patience.

So I bit my cheek. “Ask Rip. I’ll stay if he’s fine with you going.” I mean, I was going to get paid anyway. I didn’t care if I’d end up staying instead of him.

Then again, I was also 99 percent sure Rip wouldn’t say yes even if Jason had the balls to invite himself. I had seen the way he took him in, and I’d bet he’d heard him complain enough on the floor to know what he was like. After yesterday, he had firsthand experience of the mess that was this turd.

I hoped that, if he hadn’t already, he would eventually chew him out. Or even fire him. I had been more than a little disappointed he hadn’t yesterday.

The lack of response he gave settled that he either saw the point I wasn’t making or understood that maybe he shouldn’t try and change the boss’s mind.

“Can’t you ask for me?”

“No, she can’t, and you’re not coming,” came a voice we both recognized.

A voice that startled both of us, because somehow we’d both missed the door opening. Missed getting eavesdropped on. But only one of us was embarrassed by it, and that person wasn’t me.

“Luna’s going with me,” Rip confirmed, sounding bored.

Fortunately, unlike with his conversations with me, Jason managed to actually shut his mouth and not argue or beg or be a passive-aggressive jerk. His head had snapped over to Rip’s direction the second we’d heard him speak up, but at our boss’s decision, he dropped it.

Sucker.

But had Rip given him a hard time yesterday after giving me one? I wondered.

“You ready?” that deep voice asked.

I nodded, gripping the strap of my purse tight.

He stood there, holding the door open.

I didn’t say anything to Jason as I walked by him, but I did smirk.

Like usual, neither one of us said a word on the way out of CCC. Rip didn’t ask if my sister had called to check in with me—she hadn’t—and he didn’t comment about anything else this past weekend, which all worked for me. The only words out of my mouth on the way over were the instructions on how to get to the business, which wasn’t far, but it was still a nice twenty-minute ride away in Houston traffic. It wasn’t until we were only a couple minutes away that I asked Rip what he had in mind.

Because I wasn’t going to give him the idea that he’d hurt my feelings. Staying quiet would do just that. Fortunately, it worked.

The problem was, he didn’t have anything in mind. He wanted to look and see what could be mixed for him in person. Fine by me. We had never gone to the store together, but there was a first time for everything, from the looks of it. I enjoyed going to pick up paint. It was one thing I didn’t mind leaving the booth for, even though most of the time it got dropped off in our weekly deliveries.