Lenny:I know at least 3 guys at the gym that would pretend to be your bodyguard if you just fed them.
That solidified plan B, even if I hated asking for favors almost as much as I hated relying on people.
My only consolation with Rip was that he owed me in the first place. At least he thought he owed me. It also helped that I couldn’t think of a single person, a big MMA fighter or not, who was as scary or intimidating as Lucas Ripley was. That was the truth.
The fact that I didn’t mind looking at him, and that I enjoyed him when he wasn’t grumbling at me, was only a tiny factor. Tiny, tiny.
Only idiots liked men who they had no chance with.
But this was my curse—to love and care for people who didn’t love or care for me back. At least not the way I wanted them to.
With Rip, I’d accepted what our relationship was from the beginning.
Out of all the men in the world that my heart could gowhoosh, whoosh, whooshover from time to time when I didn’t have it reined in, out of all of the men who could have the ability to make me master looking out of the corner of my eye, it had to be one of my bosses who had that effect on me.
Of course it had to be.
My not-so-very nice boss.
Because it was my curse.
I was so dumb.
Holding my phone on my lap, I glanced up, even though a giant part of me didn’t want to, but all I saw was the same thing I’d seen moments before. A man, who I knew was six foot four, wedged onto a tall stool. A man with deep brown hair with a hint of silvery gray threaded through it. A man with a face that was usually set into an aggravated expression or an angry one… except when there was good news that was work-related. Well over two hundred pounds poured over a frame that wasallsolid. Huge thighs, big butt, forearms the size of my biceps if not bigger, a chest that could double as a bed for a medium-sized dog….
Buck up,Luna, just ask him,my conscience told me.He owes you. He owes you big time. Sort of.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to tell my dumb heart to calm down. I tried to tell my eyes to go somewhere else. Anywhere else. Anyone else.
But the heart wants what it wants. And it’s scared of what it wants to be scared of, no matter how reasonable you try to be about it.
Like a fearless but total moron.
The vibrating from my lap had me glancing down at the screen to see the last message that had come through.
Lenny:Don’t go to the funeral if you don’t want to. Your grandma would understand.
That icky, thick feeling flooded my stomach again, covering over the frustration I felt with myself for being attracted to Rip in the first place. But if there was something that could make me forget about that, it was the guilt I felt for walking out of my grandmother’s life so many years ago and never seeing her again.
We had both known it was the only way things could be between us, but it still didn’t help me feel any better.
Me:I have to, even though I would rather get stuck behind someone driving ten miles under the speed limit for an hour. You know what she did for us. It’s the least I can do.
That much, Lenny did know. She and her family had been there for me when I had taken my siblings. She knew almost as much as I let anyone know, minus the Coopers. It wasn’t everything. No one knew about all the little pieces, but it was a lot.
Two seconds went by before I got a response.
Lenny:The offer stands, bish.
Lenny:You’re the best person I know, fyi.
I smiled down at my phone.
Me:I love you too
Lenny:[eye rolling emoji]
Lenny:I was texting you because Grandpa G is making margaritas and he was asking where you were.
