I grinned and whispered, “The new guy?”
“Good,” he confirmed. “He works hard, very respectful and professional. I’m happy.”
“Good.”
“What’d you do on your days off?”
I had decided I wasn’t going to tell anyone about the Thea thing, including Mr. Cooper. “I went to see Lily and stayed with her for the night. I spent last night watching TV and doing laundry.”
“Gone on any more of these dates?”
Hell. If it hadn’t been for my little sister sending me a message that morning, I would have forgotten all about it, even after she had brought it up a dozen times while we had been together. “Tonight actually. I’m going out with Lily’s old teacher.”
“A teacher?”
Did he sound skeptical or was I imagining it?
I nodded anyway.
“I could see you with a teacher,” he said, thoughtfully. So he wasn’t skeptical about it. All right.
“I can’t. She said he’s nice. We’re meeting at Mickey’s, so hopefully it goes well,” I replied, glancing to the side to see Rip halfway into the break room. I hadn’t even heard him come in, he was so sneaky.
He shot me a stone-faced look I wasn’t sure what to think of.
When I had walked in that morning, he’d already been working. And when I brought him down his coffee not too long afterward, we’d had the same exchange we always did, except he’d asked if I felt any better. I had told him, yes, and that had been the end of that.
He hadn’t asked about my sister after offering to help me out with her situation if I needed.
Not that I would.
Well, unless it was absolutely necessary.
“Feeling better, Luna?” another voice asked, drawing my gaze back toward the door as Rip walked right behind me.
It was the new guy, Ashton, at the door, holding what looked like a bag from the burger truck that was a block away from the shop.
“Yeah,” I said, shooting him a smile. “I can finally turn my head a little. See?”
The blond man smiled as he dropped his bag into the seat in front of mine. “Nice.”
“Thanks,” I told him.
Out of my line of vision, Rip stuck something into the microwave.
“Everyone was complaining about you not being here,” Ashton kept going as he pulled his seat out.
“Aww, they don’t have anyone else to pick on is all,” I joked.
Two bites of food later, the scrape of the chair on my other side being pulled out had me preparing for Rip to drop into it, and he did. He had a reusable glass container with what looked like… chicken, brown rice, and veggies. Then I looked down at mine and found the same sticky, tan noodles, and wilted brown vegetables that still didn’t taste any better than they had the first day.
He must have peeked at my food too because our eyes met, and I had to shoot him a grin.
The cheek closest to me went up—it was the one with the dimple too—and I couldn’t help but feel a little triumph at our inner joke.
I nudged my container an inch closer to him and asked, totally serious, “You want some, boss?”
That cheek went up a little higher as he replied very clearly, using all the depth of that deep voice, “I’m good.”
