And it was right then, with the j-word at the front of my brain that I realized how stupid that thought was.
Rip joking? In my dreams.
If he was going to tell me no, he was going to need to say it. It wouldn’t bother me. It wouldn’t offend me. I’d move on and find someone else to go with me.
But what he said instead was “You wanna cash in your favor?”
The “yes” out of me was croaked and dumb-sounding, but if he didn’t understand it, my nod would have to be enough.
Rip… Rip just sat there, lowering his glass to the table. He let out a deep breath that I barely managed to hear. A muscle in his cheek twitched. Then he just said one word, and it wasn’t the one I’d been expecting. The one I wanted, but not anticipated. “Okay.”
Okay?
That was it?
I’d learned as a kid never to give someone a reason to second-guess their answer if you had already gotten the one you wanted. So, all right. Maybe I didn’t trust how easily the answer had come, but I was going to work with it. “I need you to go with me to a funeral.”
The only sign I had that he’d heard me was his nostrils flaring. Then, he blinked. Lucas Ripley sat back in the stool, that tight shirt curving over his impressive chest, and pressed his lips together. His sentence was slow. “You want me to pretend we’re getting married or something?”
Yeah. My mouth opened. Then it closed.
It was my turn to stare at him. My turn to press my lips together.
Then, and only then, did I tip my face up to the ceiling and freakinglaugh.
I slapped my palm over my eyes, leaned back in my stool just like he had done, and I laughed even more.
I was so caught up in it that I almost missed out on the way he barked, “What?”
Did he think I wanted us to pretend we were engaged?
I laughed even more, dropping my palm but only to drag the back of my hand across my eyes.
“What the fuck is so funny?” he growled.
I couldn’t help but grin at him, at this moment, at myself, ateverything, and I couldn’t help but keep laughing as I said, “No, I don’t want you to pretend we’re engaged.”
I burst out laughing again, looking up at the ceiling as I did, before somehow managing to get out, “Why… why would I want that?”
I would swear on my future children that his face instantly went red. If someone had asked me if I thought he was physically capable of blushing, I would have thought they were nuts. But there it was: red on his cheeks. Even on his nose.
On anyone else, it would have been kind of adorable because he was scowling at the same time.
“No, that’s not what I’m asking.” I laughed again, genuinely trying to stop but not capable of it because his face was still red, and I was eating it up. “I wasn’t expecting you to say that. It was straight out of a rom-com,” I pretty much cackled, imagining him watching one at home, smiling to himself.
My boss full-on frowned. “What’s a rom-com?”
Like he didn’t know what a rom-com was.Sure. I could let it go. For now.
I took one look at his pink-red face and lost it all over again.Pretend we’re getting married.Who would have known that Rip would make me laugh when I’d been so stressed about asking him for my favor all freaking day?
He didn’t even let me enjoy it because his expression wentI’m gonna kill you-likeas I cracked up at his expense. “All you want is me to go to a funeral with you then?”
And there was the reminder of what I was asking of him.WhyI was asking.
The smile and the laughter instantly left my face and my heart when I nodded, the severity of it stripping all that joy away. “Yes, please.”
His eyes didn’t narrow. He even lost the serial killer face. He just watched me. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t trust me or didn’t believe this was what I was asking him, but I didn’t really care.
