If the new employee was going to be there too, well, I wasn’t going to complain. I liked getting along with everyone I worked with—Jason being the exception.

“Sure,” I agreed, letting myself glance at the guy named Ashton for a split second again. “Give me a second to grab my purse.”

“You don’t need that thing,” my boss claimed.

Under normal circumstances, I would have grabbed it anyway, but I really didn’t feel like walking all the way down the hall to get it from my desk. And I felt zero guilt for letting Mr. Cooper pay for my food.

“In that case, I’m ready.”

Mr. Cooper put a hand on my shoulder and gestured in the direction of the exit for the shop. I led the way, smile-grimacing at the coworkers we passed by. We were halfway across the floor when I sensed Mr. Cooper stop, and definitely heard him say, “We’re going to lunch with Ashton. Would you like to come with us?”

I knew he was talking to Rip, the man who had bought me not just a twist donut that morning but a kolache too. I hadn’t even been hungry, but I’d eaten both things on the ride to work since he had driven with one hand, holding his own kolache in the other.

The same man who had helped me carry my things inside the shop and then turned around and walked right back out of my room, only throwing out over his shoulder, “Take it easy today.” If I had been harboring any more resentment toward him from two days before, those feelings would have disappeared after all that.

But at Mr. Cooper’s question, I braced for Rip to give him a rough response. At least yesterday, they hadn’t said a single word to each other. The tension in Mr. Cooper’s car after he’d picked us up had been uncomfortable, and that was saying something considering the arguments between them that I had broken up.

Instead, what Rip gave him was a “Let me wash up first.”

He was coming? With us? If I could have moved my neck, I would have, just to see if hell had frozen over.

Did he know Mr. Cooper was actually going or…?

The way Mr. Cooper said “Okay” meant I wasn’t the only one shocked he’d agreed. I mean, as far as I could remember, the older man took all of his new employees out to eat when he hired them. In my case, he’d done that and saved me from living in a crappy motel room, and then gotten stuck with me for years living under his roof.

I remembered when he hired Jason, I didn’t go—because I had been too busy—and neither had Rip, for whatever reason he could have had.

So....

Mr. Cooper’s muttered “huh” made me smile. “Let’s wait for Ripley then,” he stated, sounding different but not in a bad way. More… totally surprised. In a good way.

Not bothering to turn in a circle to face them, I just stood there until the Ashton guy spoke up and asked, “How long have you worked here, Luna?”

Then I did have to turn all the way around to face my boss and newest coworker. “Nine years.” Did I sound proud of myself or what?

“Luna here has been with us the longest now, isn’t that right?” Mr. Cooper asked.

I remembered not to move my head and said, “Yep” instead.

“If you need anything, this here’s your girl. She knows everything, and if she doesn’t, she figures it out,” the older man kept going, sounding like a proud dad. Man, I loved him.

“Ready to go?” came Rip’s deep voice from behind the other two men.

Mr. Cooper startled but nodded. “I was planning on driving, but if you want to…”

I could see Rip’s face as he replied, “You can drive.”

What was going on with him being so agreeable and nice? I took in how calm Rip’s face was but made sure not to let mine reflect the surprise there. I would have figured they would have argued even over that, but…

They didn’t even argue over going to eat burgers.

I led the way toward the exit and only held the door open long enough for Rip to reach out and take the weight from me.

“Are you okay?” came the question from behind me, specifically from Ashton’s mouth.

I didn’t bother turning around to say, “I just strained my neck.”

“We were in an accident yesterday,” Rip explained in that low, low voice of his.

“They’re both fine,” Mr. Cooper told the new guy just as I stopped right in front of his car. “Other than Luna’s poor neck.”

Poor everything, but I didn’t need to be specific.

He unlocked the door and moved the seat forward, so I climbed in and sat behind the passenger seat. What I wasn’t expecting was that, instead of the new guy climbing into the back, it was Rip who managed to wedge himself in beside me. In the process, he pretty much took up three-fourths of the seat, forcing me to squish into the corner as the entire left side of my body ended up pressed against his.

Even the tip of his elbow rested high up on my thigh.

Those blue-green eyes met mine as Mr. Cooper and the other guy got in too. Rip eyed me. “You good?”

Hadn’t I asked him those same words at least three times the day before while he’d been having his moment after the wreck?

“I’m okay,” I assured him. “You?”

He threw up a look like “no shit.”

I glanced at the cut above his eyebrow.

I couldn’t stop myself. I poked at a spot just above it, ignoring the flash of pain at my shoulder. The cut was already totally scabbed over.

“I’m really glad that’s all that happened,” I whispered as I dropped my hand with a barely contained groan. “Did you call your insurance?”

His eyes moved over my face for a moment. “They gotta come take a look at the truck, but it’s totaled. Not sure I’m willing to fix it.”

That made me sad, his truck was beautiful. Had been beautiful. “For sure?”

His cheek did the twitch thing. “For sure.”

I scrunched up my nose. “I’m sorry.”

His nostrils flared. “Just a truck. No big deal.”

It was only the car doors slamming closed that told me we were heading out.

The head in the driver’s seat turned to look around the seat, and Mr. Cooper asked, “You going to the doctor?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, glancing down at the length of thigh lined up with mine. It was easy to remember just how hard and muscular it had been under me. And I needed to forget that had happened. Just like I needed to shove aside what Rip had told me about his mom. “I might end up going, but nothing’s really messed up. I’m pretty sure it’s just whiplash.”

It wasn’t at all my imagination that Rip leaned into me or that his fingers grazed the top of my hand as he asked, “You want to go to the doctor?”

There was something about his voice that had me wanting to close an eye. “I’m thinking about it. I’m sure that jerk’s insurance will reimburse me for it.”

“It will,” Mr. Cooper claimed from his seat up front.

The fingertips went back to the top of my hand. He didn’t even try to lower his voice. “I’ll take you when we get back.”

I didn’t tense up my forearm as his fingers lingered over my knuckles, and unlike him, I did tell him quietly, “I’m okay.” Especially with him touching my hand.

He wasn’t quiet back. “I’ll take you when we get back.”

I blinked and tried again, quietly, “You don’t have to take me.”

It was his turn to blink. “Luna.”

I blinked right back. “Ripley.”

“I’m taking you to the doctor,” he told me just as loudly as he had said every other word before.

He really must feel terrible.

I had no business being so touched by his concern. He was my boss. If I wasn’t well, I could potentially do my job horribly.

“You’re being very sweet,” I managed to say without cracking a smile, just to be a pain. “But—”

He didn’t let me finish my statement, and I’d swear he leaned into me even more. “I’m not being sweet.”

His mom had died in a car wreck, I thought, before pushing that aside again for later like I had promised myself.