I kept that annoying sweet smile on my face, watching him get closer to me. “But really, you should let me pay.”
“Really, I shouldn’t,” he replied sarcastically, brushing his shoulder against mine as he passed by me.
Now he was joking? Okay. All right.
Breathing in through my nose, I swung my gaze over to Mr. Cooper, not sure if I was going to do the right thing or… not. But I knew that if anyone deserved my loyalty, it was Mr. Cooper. It was bad enough I hadn’t told him the other things.
“Would you like to go eat with us?” I asked him, purposely turning my back to his business partner so I wouldn’t see his face if he was making one.
But of course he was.
The question must have surprised Mr. Cooper because he stood there for a moment. I didn’t miss the way he slid his gaze to Rip for maybe a second before going back to me. He plastered on a smile that wasn’t totally fake as he said, “Thank you, Luna, but I already had lunch.”
Had he wanted to go though?
When we had gone to eat on Ashton’s first day, the two of them had gotten along all right. Part of me thought they had been on their best behaviors in front of the new guy. They hadn’t talked directly to each other once, or even made eye contact, but it had gone okay. I’d watched them like a hawk the whole time, expecting something to happen, but nothing had.
Nothing had in a while.
“Next time then?” I asked, giving him a smile that felt more honest than the rest of them before. I really needed to tell him the truth.
Mr. Cooper nodded, his expression pretty freaking curious but… okay. Bright, but okay.
I glanced back at Rip finally, keeping that expression on my face so that hopefully he wouldn’t think I was trying to pull a fast one on him even though I had been. “Ready?”
His eyes bounced on mine, something in them that I wasn’t familiar with, but he nodded eventually.
With a wave to Mr. Cooper, I headed out the door and down the stairs, Rip following behind me. We made it to the bottom before I realized I wasn’t ready to go, and I glanced over my shoulder to find him literally a foot away. “Give me one second to grab my purse, okay?”
Those blue-green eyes slid toward me. “You don’t need money.”
I opened my mouth, but he cut me off.
“You don’t need money. Let’s go,” he insisted.
I opened my mouth again, but he did the same thing, giving me that exasperated expression.
“You can pay me back some other way, all right?”
“I didn’t invite you so you could end up paying for someone else’s food.”
He stared at me.
“You’ve done enough. I don’t want to take advantage of you,” I told him for what felt like the hundredth time lately, knowing he would understand that.
Those eyes focused in on me, and I watched them go to my ears. I’d put on the first set I’d found in the ruin of my bedroom: fake gold teddy bears. “I’ll tell you if I feel like you’re taking advantage of me. But let’s go, I’m hungry. Those kolaches this morning went right through me.”
Oh, man. He wasn’t going to let this go. “Fine. But I’ll pay you back for my food at least.” I squinted an eye. “Somehow.”
He didn’t agree, but he did give me another side look before he shook his head. “Come on.”
I was going to lunch with Ripley.
I was going to tell myself that wasn’t excitement or crazy high anticipation going through me. Just two coworkers going out to eat in public. No big deal. It wasn’t even the first time we did it.
I led the way out the doors, noticing that no one even looked at Rip and me as we headed out. We had barely gone out the door when those long legs caught him up to me and we walked side by side toward his truck. He’d insisted on driving us to work that morning, even shoving my keys into his pocket so I wouldn’t get any ideas. I swear I didn’t know who this man was anymore. Neither one of us said anything as he beeped the locks and opened the passenger side door, and then went around to do the same on the driver side. He slid in while I buckled up. In no time, we were on the road.
To go out to eat together.
