Mr. Cooper groaned as I made my way around the couch and headed toward the kitchen, directly beside the living room.
And it was right then, as I turned, that I almost bit my tongue.
Because standing in the hallway that led from the front door to the living room and kitchen was a person.
Just. Standing there. Quietly. Not moving.
And that someone was Rip who took up most of the width of that hallway.
Rip who was standing there watching me with heavy eyes and a jaw that was tighter than ever.
“Lu, what—” Mr. Cooper started to say before he cut himself off, head turned toward the doorway. “Rip.”
Ripley’s eyes slid to his… dad… for a moment. His voice was gruff, and his question was the last thing I would have expected. “You all right?”
Mr. Cooper didn’t hesitate nodding. “Yeah.”
Yeah? That was it? I mean, I guess I shouldn’t expect him to tell him thatno,he wasn’t okay because he’d just been talking about how his own son hated him.
“Any news from the doctor?” Rip asked.
I bit the inside of my cheek and headed into the kitchen. I listened to Rip’s low voice and Mr. Cooper’s slightly louder one as I pulled a glass out of the cabinet and filled it with water from the fridge.
“I don’t want you to die,” Rip said, so quietly I could barely hear him.
The answering pause said everything, I thought, and it made me flinch.
“Shit’s not ever gonna be the same, but I don’t hate you either, old man,” he kept going, gruffly. “Can’t stand you but I don’t hate you. Got it?”
There was a sniff and a “got it” right back.
Well. Okay. All right.
It was just as I pulled a bag of grapes from the fridge that the two men’s voices cut off.
By the time I finished rinsing and setting the grapes into a coffee cup, they still hadn’t continued speaking, but I figured that was okay. Peeking over the counter that led into the living room, I found Mr. Cooper in the same spot, and Rip was nowhere to be found.
“Here are your grapes.” I handed the cup of fruit over to Mr. Cooper.
He wrinkled his nose as he took it. “Thank you?”
I couldn’t help but grin at him. “Do you have medication or anything you need to take, Mr. C?”
“No, ma’am,” he responded dryly.
Just as I opened my mouth, another voice cut across the air. “Talk to me outside for a minute, baby girl.”
I froze there and only moved my eyes over to the man who had reappeared in the same place I had last seen him. I kept my face nice and even. “I’m supposed to stay with Mr. Cooper until Lydia gets back.” That was the truth, and it was believable, wasn’t it?
“I can be alone for a minute,” Mr. Cooper threw in the second I finished my argument.
I closed my mouth.
By the time I had moved my gaze back over to Rip, he had his hand out.
Toward me.
And he’d taken steps closer so that he was within reaching distance.
