We happened to come up to a stop sign when he glanced at me with those blue-green eyes and said, not softly but not roughly either, just… different, “I want to, all right?”
As quickly as I opened my mouth, I closed it.
He wanted to?
Lucas Ripley wanted to be nice to me?
My first thought was: why?
My second one was: who was I to tell him no?No, sir, please be a jerk and don’t care about me.I wasn’t that dumb.
* * *
I had just finished foldingthe clothes I pulled out of the dryer, when there was a knock at my front door.
I glanced at my phone and took in that I hadn’t missed any calls or texts. No one I knew was coming over; otherwise they would have messaged. I grabbed my biggest kitchen knife, because luckily those had survived the jerks, and headed toward the front door.
But when I got to the peephole, I took a step back afterward.
Then I took another step forward to look into it again. The person was still the same one, and the face on the other side hadn’t magically morphed either.
I couldn’t even think as I flipped the lock and pulled the door open, finding a duffel bag sitting on my porch and a tall man with wide shoulders and a wide chest standing there.
He didn’t even give me a chance to say a word. “You gonna let me in?”
Well. “No,” I told him with a grin even as I moved to the side to let him inside.
He didn’t even try to sneak by either; his entire side brushed my front as he did.
“You eat dinner already?” he asked as I was closing and locking the door.
“Yeah, did you?”
I mean, he’d dropped me off two hours ago. We had both worked late, and he’d offered to take me home whenever I was ready. He was the one who had come by my room right before seven asking if I was done for the day, and I had been. Or at least I’d been pretty close to it.
“Nah,” the man replied, dropping the duffel at the bottom of the stairs.
My eyes focused in on the bag, putting together what he was doing at my house at nine o’clock at night withthat.
He was going to spend the night.
“Want me to order you something? I ordered pho, but I ate it all, I’m sorry,” I apologized, still looking at that navy blue bag that had some miles on it.
“No,” he replied, bending over to unzip it and pull out the same kind of container he’d brought me lunch in. But then he pulled out three more just like it too, stacking them up carefully in his hand as he straightened. “I brought food. I’ll put the rest in your fridge, all right?”
“Okay,” I basically croaked.
Those eyes caught mine for a second before he disappeared down the hall that led into the kitchen.
Just like Lenny did when she came over. Or when Mr. Cooper or Lydia came over. Or when my sisters were here.
Like it was normal.
And he’d brought me food. Again.
Man, I could fall in love this man if I let myself. I really, really could. But only dummies fell in love with their bosses—bosses who didn’t dogirlfriendsorrelationships.
There was no use dreaming about things I couldn’t have. There was no use thinking I could fall in love with him even though some tiny part of me quietly whispered that I already was. That was for sure. It was with that thought that I yelled down the hall, “Rip! I’m going to shower but make yourself at home!”
