Rip didn’t even huff or roll his eyes as I said the same words I’d already told him five different times since he’d pulled up to my house and dropped the bomb on me.
Luna, I’m taking you to Dallas. Get your shit.
Of course I’d reacted the way any sane person would. I had sat there and stared blankly for about a minute until he’d raised his eyebrows at me and said,Night’s not getting any younger, baby girl. Let’s go.
And that,thathad snapped me out of it.
Which then started us into a five-minute back and forth discussion about why he didn’t have to take me and why he was going to. I mean he could barely get through a conversation with me without huffing and shaking his head. I hadn’t even known he’d had a dimple until tonight. Yet he wanted to drive me to Dallas?
I wasn’t the kind of person to tell someone not to help me, but it just didn’t make sense.
And yet, I still found myself in his truck twenty minutes later with a bag filled with a change of clothes, my toothbrush, contact case, and solution.
I sighed and leaned my shoulder against the window. “Rip….”
“Luna.”
I pressed my lips together, watching his profile in the dark cab. “Turn around and take me back. I shouldn’t have even gotten into the car in the first place. You don’t need to do this. I’m sure you have better things to do.”
“I don’t.”
I blew out a breath that had him swinging his eyes to me.
“I don’t,” he repeated himself, those long fingers flexing on the steering wheel.
I sighed again. “It was just one little lie, Ripley.”
“You lied to the fucking cops for me, Luna. That’s a felony if you didn’t know. There’s nothing little about that.”
I guess there was no arguingthat. I put my hand over my face and took a breath, sliding my gaze over to him, trying to be sneaky about it so he couldn’t see me doing it. Whowasthis man? Not that I was complaining that he was actually talking to me and asking me things and trying to be nice, but….
“Why are you being such a pain in the ass about me going with you?” he asked all of a sudden, forcing my thoughts back.
I stopped trying to be sneaky with my glances and just stared. “I’m not being a pain in the ass. You are.” I flexed my fingers, rememberingthis was my boss.“I say that with all the respect of you being an owner of Cooper’s and me being your employee, by the way. Please don’t fire me.”
He shook his head, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he wasn’t going to fire me or if I was just getting on his nerves.
Knowing Rip, it could be either.
“Look, I do appreciate you coming with me. I really do, Rip. I like your company. You know that.” I didn’t miss the way he turned to glance at me, just for a second, just for one single split second, but I didn’t miss it. The thing was I didn’t know what to think about the wary expression on his features when he did it. “But I told you, you don’t owe me. Honestly, I would have probably called my best friend to go with me if you hadn’t… volunteered.” I wasn’t sure I would call him telling me to get my shit as him volunteering, but close enough. “I really do appreciate you coming with me, but I don’t want to be an inconvenience.”
Those long fingers flexed again, but his attention stayed forward then. “You’re not.”
“You’re screwing up at least some part of your weekend off driving me to Dallas.”
“I’m not screwing up shit, Luna.” He flicked his gaze toward me and shook his head again. “Who told you that you’re an inconvenience?”
I didn’t mean for my body to get tight, but it did. “No one,” I tried to tell him as brightly as possible.
The look he gave me said he thought I was full of it.
He would have been right, because I was, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I didn’t like that he got that idea, especially so quickly.
“I don’t like to bother people, that’s all. I don’t like asking anyone for a favor, and if I can….”
Dear God.
I realized what the hell I had just said.
