She was still pinching her face. “I have to work at the gym tomorrow but text me after your date. We can do something Sunday,” she said, just as she got us a block away from Mickey’s.
I sighed at the reminder I had a date the next day. I already didn’t want to go. That wasn’t a good sign.
Lenny pulled her car up to the curb right outside the bar and gave me an almost half-ass wink that told me how aggravated she was that she was going to give someone stitches… or take them to the hospital. I didn’t really want to ask. “Let me know when you get home, okay?” she asked. “I can come get you if you’re still here when I’m done.”
I smiled and nodded at her. “Drive safe.”
Lenny blew me a kiss. “If Rip shows up, call me.”
I shook my head as I got out of her car and slammed the door shut behind me, clutching my purse to my chest.
She honked the horn the second I was on the curb, and we waved at each other before she busted an illegal U-turn that made me shake my head as she sped away.
It only took me a second to find my license and flash it at the bouncer who didn’t even look at it. He’d seen me enough times to know I was over the age. It was already eight o’clock by the time I walked in and found six people I knew: three coworkers and three wives and girlfriends.
I waved at them before making my way over and giving them all hugs, and it was just as I was turning around to see who else was there that I spotted the small table directly beside the one where I was standing at.
Sitting there, all alone, was Rip.
He’d come?
The surprise must have been evident on my face because Owen shrugged at me and said a little too loudly, “I didn’t think he liked Ro that much.”
Honestly, neither had I.
But hewasthere.
It made me sad that he was sitting by himself, when it only took me a moment longer to spot four more people I recognized. The thing was, none of the chairs at the table he was at were pulled out. He really was sitting alone.
He’d come and no one wanted to sit with him.
I was sure the argument he’d had with Mr. Cooper earlier hadn’t helped but….
I knew what I was going to do before my feet moved. I shrugged back at Owen and tipped my head to the side to tell him where I would be. He gave me the same look I gave Lily when she ate steamed carrots in front of me. Likereally?
And, yeah, really.
I was going to need to text Lenny and let her know she’d jinxed herself.
Trying not to come off too aggressive, I headed toward the bar first to get a Sprite. Then I turned around and headed back the way I had come. Rip hadn’t moved. He was still sitting there, not on his phone, not doing anything else, butsitting there. Present. I thought it was a lot sweeter than I had any right to think.
“Fancy seeing you here,” I told Rip as I crossed around the front of his table and stopped there.
My boss, who I wasn’t positive had seen me up until that point, blinked at me. “Luna.”
So much enthusiasm.
Just as I was about to ask if I could sit with him, I decided not to even bother. I pulled out the chair and took the seat anyway. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
That stubble-covered cheek kind of twitched. “Didn’t know you were either.”
I lifted a shoulder as I took a sip out of my Sprite. “My sister left, and I don’t want to be home alone.”
He lifted his own glass up to his mouth, some amber-looking liquid, and took a sip. I didn’t expect him to say, “Thought college didn’t start till August.”
I didn’t mean to give him a sad smile, but it happened, and I tried to cover it up by keeping my voice light. “It doesn’t. The plan had been that we were going to move her to Lubbock at the beginning of August so she could get settled in and find a job before everyone goes back to school, but… her friend’s family has a restaurant in Galveston and they invited her to work there for the summer.”
“Galveston?” he asked in that amazing voice, still surprising me by keeping our conversation going.
