Rip shook his head, shook his hand out at his side and muttered in this crazy calm voice that I didn’t know what to do with. “Do it all over again.”
Do it all over again?
Was this a joke?
I wasn’t a drama queen, and I didn’t get offended easily either, but all I could do was literally stand there.
What he was asking me to do…
I squeezed my eyes closed, squeezed my hands closed, and told myself that there was nothing to be upset about. It wasn’t like I wouldn’t get paid hourly. It wasn’t like this was going to hurt me.
Besides internally for getting blamed for something that wasn’t technically my fault.
At least I thought so.
And you screwed up not that long ago, my brain reminded me.
“Start on it now. I’ll find the paint sample and call in the order. I’ll get somebody to pick it up,” he said in that low, icy voice that I had zero affection for.
I didn’t say anything as I opened my eyes and just stared at him, indignation and I don’t know what else taking the breath and the fight right out of me.
He wanted me to start over again. He wanted me to repaint a project I had already been working on. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he was blamingme.
We both knew I was right. Deep down he had to know I hadn’t been in the wrong. Because we both knew that I had called. It wasn’t my fault he hadn’t been paying attention or he’d been too distracted to tell me what he wanted.
It definitely wasn’t my fault that he’d been on a roll with his triggers and short temper.
But I didn’t call him out on that or say any of that to his face.
He was my boss.
This was a job I didn’t want to lose, especially not over something that some subconscious part of me realized wasn’t worth being right over.
But that little part of me… that little Luna who’d gotten blamed for things she had nothing to do with… she wasn’t a fan of getting blamed for something that wasn’t anywhere near being her fault. I was tired of that.
But he was my boss.
My boss that was staring down at me, as I stared right back at him.
Therewassomething going on with him. I knew it. This wasn’t like him. He couldn’t have hidden this kind of crazy for three years, and I had to understand it.
I bit the inside of my cheek and just went for it. What was he going to do? Yell at me some more? So I asked him, even though I wasn’t sure if this would just come back and bite me in the butt even more. “Rip, what’s wrong?”
Those teal eyes stayed zeroed in on me. His body almost too still, but he said, “You fucked up the car, Luna. What do you think?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
His response was a glare.
So, we were back to that. Okay.
I wasn’t going to say anything about the dumb car. I knew he was wrong, he knew he was wrong, and something in my gut said that this, to a certain point, had nothing to do with the damn car he claimed to be so riled up about. But I had always struggled with leaving people alone, even though they might take their anger out on me, yet I still couldn’t keep my mouth closed.
I stood my ground. “I know you hate how much I try and joke with you, but if you wanted to talk about something, I would never tell anyone. Honest.” I blinked at him, lifting a shoulder. “I’m really good with secrets. No foolin’.”
He watched me, but he still didn’t respond. Those wide shoulders stayed tight. That mean expression stayed on his face, and this handsome, handsome man gave me nothing at all. Not a single thing.
I should have been used to it.
