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.AndI 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.”
