I made a face to myself. “I can work the whole day.” I had worked with the flu before. I could survive a day with a little strain.

A little strain that had me hiding a groan when he went over a speed bump a little too fast.

One glance at his face had me wondering if he’d done it on purpose to prove a point.

Those teal-colored eyes slid toward me, and I’d swear one corner of his mouth went up a fraction of a millimeter. “I know.”

He had done it on purpose. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I did. Fine. He didn’t want me to suck it up? I wouldn’t. What I would do was continue being a decent person. “I’m glad then that you don’t feel guilty, because there’s no reason for you to be. But I promise you didn’t need to come get me. I can drive myself.”

Rip waited so long to say “Luna?” that I half expected him to change the subject.

That didn’t happen.

“Yeah?”

“If I want to come get you, I’m gonna come get you. Deal with it,” he stated, or more like told me. “You wanna stop at that donut place you like or what?”

I jerked a little in place, telling myself to not take his first comment too seriously. “We can go to the donut place if you want.”

“All right.”

I faced forward again. “Okay.”

“Sure you’re not mad anymore?”

“I’m sure.”

He glanced at me. “Do you even know how to sulk?”

I gave him a little smile. “No, not really.”

I heard Rip take a breath before his voice filled the cab. “Luna?”

“Hmm?”

“My mom died in a car accident when I was eighteen. I was with her when it happened,” Rip said, making me freeze in place as his words settled in. “That’s why I… that’s what happened yesterday. Just wanted to say thanks for what you did.”

His mom had died in a car wreck? The mom who scratched his head and bought him ice cream to make him feel better?

Then he kept talking, and I didn’t know what to say. “Add that to our secrets, all right? Just thought you deserved to know.”

* * *

As much as I tried telling myself that I had made the right choice coming in to work, the truth was, it turned out to be a terrible decision.

I was in pain. Physical pain, if you wanted to be specific, that had nothing to do with the ache that Rip’s confession earlier had given me. The confession that I purposely wasn’t going to think about until I got home and could ponder it in private. I wasn’t sure I could handle thinking about Rip basically losing it after the accident because of a traumatic experience in his life.

So, later. Later I would think about it. For now, I was going to focus on how bad I physically hurt.

I had learned real quick that there was no such thing as looking over my shoulder or looking down. I had to turn my entire body one way or the other to do any of those things, and even then, I still hurt. I had murmured “fuck you” to myself when I’d bent over to tie my boots earlier. The pain must have been so apparent on my face that not even Jason gave me the slightest bit of a hard time. Either that or he knew I still wanted to kick his butt after my Monday incident with Rip.

The over-the-counter painkillers I’d taken hadn’t done a single freaking thing. By the time lunch came around, I had resigned myself to the idea of visiting the doctor to make sure I wasn’t ignoring a bigger issue.

I left Jason in the room as I headed down the hall with the intention of going up the stairs to eat my overcooked, total crap lo mein.

I almost ran into Miguel by the bathrooms when he burst out of the men’s room.

“You’re a damn ninja, Lu—” he started to say before cutting himself off with a blink and followed that up with a wince. “You look like hell.”

Well. “Thanks, Miguelito.”

He didn’t even crack a smile at my response. Instead, he looked me over in a way that someone would a turned-over trashcan. “You okay? Mr. Coop said you were okay yesterday, but you look like you’re ready to die.”

Oh, Miguel. “Everything hurts,” I told him. “It’s making me a little nauseous.”

The wince turned into a grimace as he wrapped up his inspection by wrinkling his nose. “Looks like it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, even as it sent sharp pain shooting up my neck and had me cutting myself off with a groan. “Oh, my God, don’t make me laugh.”

His disgust at my nausea instantly turned into concern. “Take something. For real. You look like shit.” He went thoughtful for a second before dropping his voice. “I know where there’s some vodka if you want to take the edge off.”

I only barely managed not to laugh but gave him a smile instead. “That’s okay. I might see if they’ll let me leave early and go to one of those urgent care places.”

My coworker patted my shoulder. “You know they will. But you know I know where the vodka is. You need a ride, tell me,” he offered. “I didn’t see your car in the lot. Mr. Coop will let me take you.”

I kept my face neutral. “Rip picked me up.”

“He doesn’t look like anything happened to him,” Miguel confirmed, back to watching me too carefully like he was expecting me to projectile vomit all over him suddenly. “The devil’s not taking him back.”

I shook my head. “Don’t be mean. But I’ll let you know about a ride to the doctor if I go.”

He gave me one last pat. “You feel like you’re gonna vomit, aim at Jason.”

I snickered as I ducked into the bathroom and quickly did my business, ignoring the ache that shot through my quads as I squatted to pee. Finishing up, I kept walking down the hallway.

“Luna!” Mr. Cooper’s familiar voice boomed from just up ahead, where he was standing just on the other side in the main room. There was a man I didn’t recognize beside him in jeans and a T-shirt.

I lifted my hand only about waist level and waved as I approached them. “Hi, Mr. C. Hello, other person.”

The other man’s instant grin matched Mr. Cooper’s. “We were just about to come visit,” my longtime boss told me.

We were about five feet away from each other when I finally managed to get a good look at the other guy. Not much taller than me, with dark blond hair, in shape and with a face that was so boy-next-door good-looking, it kind of surprised me. I had to glance back at Mr. Cooper to see if he was going to give me a sign who this was. He didn’t do it fast enough though. “I’m taking my lunch break now, but Jason is in the booth if you want to drop by,” I explained, stopping a few feet away from them.

“I was going to take Ashton by to show him around the shop, but really, I was going to see if you wanted to go to lunch with us afterward,” Mr. Cooper explained. “Luna, this is Ashton, our new Rogelio. Ashton, this is Luna, our head painter who does a little of everything around here.”

I held my hand out first toward him, smiling at him and Mr. Cooper as he took mine and gave it a firm shake, his own mouth pulled up into a lopsided grin that was pretty cute.

“Nice to meet you,” the new man claimed just as he let go.

“Nice to meet you too,” I told him before trying to point over my shoulder and failing miserably when that hurt too. I groaned and didn’t do that good of a job hiding it. “I work back there if you need anything.”

“Hurting that bad?” Mr. Cooper asked, concern lacing his face and words.

I gave him a grimace-like smile. “Little bit,” I lied. “I was going to eat something, take a couple more painkillers, and see if it helps any.” I almost brought up asking if I could leave early, but I didn’t want to set a bad example in front of the new guy, making him think he could just ask to leave early over a little boo-boo. I’d just do it in secret later.

“Come have lunch with us,” my boss suggested, still frowning at me, his eyes looking me over just like Miguel’s had done. “Let’s see how you feel after. What do you say?”

Did I want to eat my food? Not really. Would I? Of course I would. But I was still going to take up Mr. C on his offer. I would never say no to spending more time with him.