* * *

“Thanks,” I mumbled to the receptionist after settling my bill for the doctor’s visit, an hour and a half later.

The woman reminded me again, “The pharmacy will have your prescription ready in about thirty minutes.”

I repeated my “thank you” before escaping through the door that led into the waiting room, where I found Rip. He was sitting sprawled out in one of the chairs, arms crossed over his chest, basically bursting out of the poor seat. For a second, I wondered what his couches at home looked like; then I told myself to stop. He climbed to his big feet and looked me over, like I’d have a sign on that gave my diagnosis. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” I told him, giving him a smile that was only partially forced. I wasn’t mad at him for bringing up Thea’s… thing, but it weighed heavily on me. So heavy I really didn’t know what to say to him. What to think, more than anything.

I rarely let people hurt me, but Thea not being honest with me… it hurt more than it should. I mean, hadn’t I lied to enough people over my life to be an enormous hypocrite over someone doing the same thing to me? I knew the answer to that. My lies weren’t always white.

I needed to snap out of it though.

So I balled it up and set it aside. For now.

I was fine. I was loved. I had everything.

Just not my sister’s honesty. And possibly her loyalty.

And there I went again.

“I’m okay,” I made myself tell Rip as we walked out of the office and down the hall toward where he’d parked his truck earlier. “They did an X-ray. The doctor says everything is fine, but I’m just a little banged up.” I kept the like I told you to myself. “He called in a prescription for me that’ll be ready in half an hour, but I don’t see a point in getting it. I won’t take it.”

“Why?”

What more pride did I have? He already knew enough of the bad bits and pieces of me. What was one more, really? “I don’t trust myself around anything that could be addictive. I don’t want to risk it, and the pills are an opiate. I looked them up while I was waiting.”

I didn’t need to look at him to know he’d sobered. I could feel it. Could sense him shoot me a glance.

I shrugged so he’d know it wasn’t a big deal. “Anyway, if you want to—”

“You’re not going back to work,” he shot back before I could even finish.

It was hard not to smile. “I know. Mr. Cooper sent me a message while I was waiting for an X-ray and told me not to bother coming in the rest of the week. I was going to see if you could give me a ride home, boss.”

His grunt made me smile again. “I’ll take you. I didn’t wait around for no reason.”

I rolled my eyes.

Then I wondered what I was going to do now. I had never taken a day off just for the hell of it. It had always been for something with one of my sisters or on the rare occasion I was sick.

But now? The first and only thing I thought of was Lily. Lily and only Lily.

And Rip, doing that thing where I swore he could read my mind, asked, “You gonna take it easy?”

“Yes. I was just thinking maybe I could go see my little sister in Galveston.”

“Galveston?”

“Yeah.” And before he could say anything, I threw out, “If I go, I’ll take an Uber or something. I’m not going to risk my life or anyone else’s trying to drive, okay?”

He held the door open for me that led outside, and I brushed by him, feeling the hard muscles across his chest and abs graze my arm. Sheesh, the man was buff. Tight. Hard.

And my boss.

My boss who I needed to keep messing with so he wouldn’t think I was thinking about his body.

“Unless you want to come?” I threw out for the hell of it as I went down the steps that led into the building.

He didn’t respond as we headed to his truck, and I didn’t take it personally. It wasn’t like he ever took me up on any of my invitations, and I’d asked, what? A hundred times over the last few years?

Pulling my phone out of my pocket while I walked, I found Lily’s name under my messages and smiled at the last one she had sent me.

I sent her a new one.

Me: Taking today and tomorrow off, and I was thinking about coming to visit if you’ve got some time. Let me know. No pressure.

If she was busy, I’d understand. No big deal.

“You gonna spend the night or go for the day?” Rip asked as he unlocked his truck.

Oh. “I’m waiting to hear back from Lily, but if I go… I guess I could spend the night. I don’t think I’ve ever spent the night in Galveston before, now that I think about it.”

He opened the passenger door before going to stand directly behind me, hands going to that familiar place really low on my hips again. “Haven’t been to Galveston in twenty years. Feet up.”

“You don’t like the beach?”

“I like the beach. I don’t like sand up my ass.”

Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t—

I couldn’t help myself. “Is there something you, uh, do like up there?” I asked.

Rip choked.

I laughed as I tucked my legs up right as he lifted and put them down when it felt about right. He slammed the door closed as soon as I was in the seat, and I couldn’t help but smile at how unnecessarily nice he was being. The second he was behind the wheel, I told him, “Rip, you know you don’t have to be nice to me because of the accident. It wasn’t your fault.”

He didn’t even bother sliding me an annoyed look. “We already talked this shit over.”

This shit.

And he didn’t blame himself.

Yeah, sure.

“Good, I’m glad you don’t blame yourself, but seriously, you don’t have to drive me around. I’m not Miss Daisy. We’re even. We’re good. I would still go to work if you and Mr. C let me, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

What did he pick up on? “We’re still not even,” he had the nerve to try and claim, using that dry tone with me.

I didn’t want or mean to glare at him, but… what the hell? “Why?”

He shrugged. “’Cause we’re not.”

Right then, my phone vibrated, and I glanced down to find a new message from my sister. Then another one came in.

Lily: I have to work until 5 but COME SEE ME. I MISS YOU SO MUCH.

Lily: You can hang out at the restaurant with me.

Another one came in before I finished reading the first two.

Lily: My room is really small but SLEEPOVER. We can share a bed like old times.

And then another one came in, and I couldn’t help but smile at her messages.

Lily: Are you already on your way?

I loved her. I loved her so much.

Me: Not yet but I will.

“What’s that smile for?” asked the man beside me.

Slipping my phone back into my purse, I still couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. “My little sister has to work, but she told me to come see her, so I guess I am going to get a car to take me.” Just thinking about her made me feel better. “I miss her so much,” I told him with a sigh. “And even though I’m really sorry about your truck, and I feel bad I have to take time off, I’m excited I get to go see her. I could use a few dozen of her hugs.”

He “hmmed” me.

Making a list in my head of what I should pack, I was genuinely surprised when my phone started vibrating, but not in the way it did with a message. It was a call. Half expecting it to be Lily, I paused when I had it in my hand and saw the San Antonio area code on the screen. Was it the lawyer guy again?

I only hesitated for a second before answering. “Hello?”

There was a loud noise in the background before a man’s voice came over the line. “This Luna?”

Okay. That didn’t sound at all like the man I had spoken to weeks ago over Grandma Genie. “Yes?” I replied, knowing I sounded uncertain but not really caring.

“Fucking finally,” the man on the line muttered, and I had to pull the phone away from my face to look at it, because who the hell was this?