Which reminded me…
I picked up my phone and dialed the same number I had every day for a week now.
It rang.
Rolling up my pant legs and the sleeves of my T-shirt up to my shoulders, I held the phone between my ear and shoulder, taking in the continued rings. I stretched my legs out to get some sun and slouched in the chair as I pulled my lunch out of my bag. I’d barely opened my container of three-day-old casserole disaster, when the door leading outside opened and a familiar figure in a long-sleeved shirt that clung to every single muscle on his chest and dark jeansmade his way over.
I didn’t narrow my eyes, but I did watch him a little too carefully.
What did he want now? I wondered as Thea’s voice mail picked up.
“Thea, it’s Luna again. I hope you’re okay and you’ll call me back, all right?” I said, trying not to sound mad or sad before ending the call.
Picking up my fork from inside my bag, I stabbed at the mush of rice and ground beef, making sure to focus on it and not the man making his way toward me. I managed to poke my fork through something that looked a little too brown and even got it into my mouth before the big man walked in front of me.
He didn’t say a word, and neither did I as he went to the chair on the other side of the table and pulled it forward until it lined up with the one I was in.
I watched him as he set his glass container on the table between us and took a seat.
Just as I was about to ask if there was something I could do for him, I stopped myself. I was on my lunch break. I didn’t have to do anything then.
And he had his lunch, same as me.
So…
I just didn’t understand why he was out here too all of a sudden.
I kept my curiosity to myself and made sure to look away from him as I chewed my food and brought my phone onto my thigh.
Whatever he was doing out here… it was none of my business.
The light pop of the lid coming off his food filled the air between us, punctuated by the occasional sound of him chewing or taking sips of whatever he was drinking.
Me on the other hand, I sat there and sucked back my can of Sprite and ate my casserole while I started looking up prices for television screens.
When my lunch hour was almost up, when there was sweat at the base of my neck and lower back from the heat, and when the skin on my legs was tight from too much sun, then I got up.
Neither one of us said anything as I walked away.
Chapter 27
My lunch breakthe next day was a repeat of the one before it, and I honestly didn’t know what to think of it.
Or even if I should waste my time thinking it over.
I went outside, had all of my food out, my clothes were rolled up the way I liked them, and I had my legs stretched out in the sun when the door opened and out came the same man I had just seen hours ago when he’d come into my room and peeked through the window of the booth while I sprayed. That day, he had on a gray compression shirt and another pair of jeans that were somehow dirty even with the coveralls he wore over them.
Everything on him was covered like usual.
From his neck down over his wrist bones, everything accentuated that big, muscular figure I had checked out every chance I could without getting caught for years.
But this time, it wasn’t so hard to look away. It really wasn’t hard at all.
I’d had another dream about my dad the previous night, the same one as before that left my head uncomfortable and tight and left me in bed sweaty and out of breath. It had only taken me a couple hours to shake it off. All it did was remind me of why it wasn’t hard to look away from Rip right then.
The thing was, I didn’t need to use my eyes to know what he was doing.
Rip did the same thing he’d done the day before. He came over and sat beside me, and neither one of us said a word. Not while we ate. Not in the sparse minutes I had after I’d forced down my food. Not while I looked at my phone and scrolled through reviews of couches that were on sale.
