Me:Tell him I love him.
Lenny:I will. You find Rip?
Me:I’m watching him.
Lenny:Stalker
Me:He’s standing in front of me, I can’t help it.
Lenny:Pretty sure that’s what every stalker thinks.
I chanced another glance at the man and held back a sigh.
Me:Sometimes I don’t understand why him.
Lenny:Because he looks like he’s been in jail and that’s about as far away from what every jackass you’ve ever dated looks like?
Lenny:Grandpa G says he loves you too and to come over and bring the girl with you if she’s around. I didn’t tell him you’re at the bar, otherwise he’d want to invite himself. You know how that man gets in public.
I almost laughed at the first comment and definitely laughed at the second one. Rip did look like he’d done time. That was unfair, but it was the truth.
For all I knew, he probably had.
Then again, I was probably judging him by a face he had no say in. For all I knew, he had a marshmallow heart and rescued and rehabilitated small animals when he wasn’t at work. Deep down, he might have a caring and loving disposition that he only shared around very few people—people who had won his trust.
You never knew.
The idea of that put a small smile on my face and kept it there as I typed a message back, leaving the first comment alone.
Me:I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here, but if I leave soon, I’ll drop by. Tell Grandpa G that the girl is working tonight. You’re all coming for the graduation, right?
Lenny:Yes. I’m legit ready to cry this Saturday.
Lenny:I’ve got the blow horn ready by the way. TOOT TOOT, bish.
She wasn’t the only one preparing herself to cry this weekend, and that made me happy for some reason.
I was still smiling over Lenny’s text when Rip turned from where he was at the bar, holding a glass with some dark liquid inside, and instantly locked his gaze on me.
I didn’t hesitate smiling wider before setting my phone back on the table, even as my heart started thumping at the fact that I was about to ask him for something.
I didn’t want to. I had never wanted to. I had planned on never asking him for anything.
But…
Well…
I would ask him for this.
I had to. For my sisters. For me, because I really was nervous going alone back to the place I’d grown up.
Almost like he could sense what was going on inside of me, his eyes narrowed just a little, just barely enough for me to be able to tell that he had. And because of that, I made my smile go as big as possible, even flashing him teeth. He already had a feeling that something was going on. There was no hiding it, unfortunately. I was a decent liar until people got to know me.
Rip stood there for a second watching me with those heavy, dark brown eyebrows low over his blue-green eyes. By the time another second had passed, he had taken a step forward. Then another foot went ahead. And another.
He was coming toward me in his tight long-sleeved green shirt, showing off more tattoos on his neck than I had ever,everseen in the years we had known each other. There was a skull—an actual skull—tattooed over his Adam’s apple with lines and shapes spread out along the sides of it. And I was thinking to myself that I wanted to change my freaking mind about the favor… but I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t.
