“What do you want to eat, boss?”
“Don’t call me that when we aren’t at work,” he said, his voice easy, not mean or anything like that. Just… him telling me not to call that.
For some reason.
I made a face. “Okay… what can I call you then when we aren’t at work?”
His grunt was his reply to that, but he didn’t look at me as he asked, “What do you think about barbecue?”
“I think I can eat a half pound of brisket,” I told him as I genuinely thought about what else I could call him instead that would be pesky but not too pesky.
His cheek twitched, and I’d take it as a smile. “You hear anything from your insurance?”
Ah. “Yeah, I talked to them earlier. They’re sending out an adjuster, and I have to send some paperwork to them, so I’m betting I’ll be fifty by the time I get a check.”
His fingers stretched out again on the steering wheel and his head ticked to the side.
“It’s fine. I’ll make it work. You fixed my door enough for me to be okay, and it isn’t like the people who came in are going to come back. They already took all the good stuff,” I tried to joke, but really, it sounded like anything but one.
Everything was fine. Things were just… stuff. They weren’t everything. I could live without them. I had survived with less before. But…
“Luna…”
“I’m okay. I know it’s stupid to be worried they’ll come back or the same thing will happen.”
“It ain’t stupid.”
It was and we both knew it.
“You don’t feel safe. Nothing stupid about that,” Rip tried to tell me in that voice I had no defense against. “Thought about getting an alarm?”
“I’vethoughtabout it,” I told him. “But the company that came by my house once was more than I could afford. They were asking for three hundred dollars down for the equipment. That’s the cost of the fancy tile I want for my kitchen backsplash.”
His fingers flexed on the steering wheel and he tapped them. “I know someone. Let me give him a call and see what he says.”
I couldn’t help but eye him. “You don’t have to do that, Rip.” Because he didn’t.
“I’ll get back to you after I talk to him.”
Of course he was going to ignore me.
Well, I couldn’t do anything about it if he was going to insist. He’d have to understand if I couldn’t afford it. The cops had said there had been a couple of break-ins around the area.
So, it was supposed to be… normal. Getting your house broken into wasn’t unheard of. Even if I hadn’t heard a single thing from any of my neighbors over them hearing about break-ins.
“Thanks for offering,” I told him. “You—”
That handsome face turned toward me, and he rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “Quit thanking me for everything.”
I made sure he watched me roll my eyes right back at him. “Okay, but thank you anyway.”
He shook his head again, turning back to face outside the windshield. “You don’t need to thank me.”
“You don’t need to do all the things you’ve done for me either but—”
“Stop,” he grunted.
I would have crossed my eyes if he’d been looking at me. “I appreciate it, okay? You’re being really nice, and you don’t have to. I just want you to know I’m grateful, so suck it up.”
