Chapter 14
I knewsomething was really wrong on Monday when I showed up to work and found the lights in my room were already on.
There had only been one car in the parking lot when I’d showed up, and it had been one I knew well. The owner of it had never, in the years we had worked together, gone into my room that early in the morning for no reason. If I really thought about it, he had probably never gone into my room when I wasn’t in it, period. There was no reason he would start now.
Even after everything we had done together this past weekend after leaving Thea’s.
“Everything” being us going to the closest twenty-four-hour diner and eating burgers, fries, and a sundae each; then staying in a hotel close by. In different rooms. The ride back to Houston the next day hadn’t been awkward… but instead a nice, easygoing quiet with both of us humming along to the radio. It had been okay—more than okay, considering Friday had sliced me deeper than anything else had in a long time.
I hadn’t cried over Thea since then. Even if she hadn’t called me or bothered texting me to make sure I made it back to Houston safely. Even if I did ache a little still from it, kind of like a papercut that you knew wasn’t going to kill you, but it still stung like hell.
But I wasn’t going to linger over any of that longer than I needed to. I had better ways to spend my energy, and in that moment right then, it was trying to guess why the lights in my room were on.
Approaching the door, with the lights on through the square-shaped window at the top of the door, I balanced my tote bag, holding a container full of funky-looking stir-fry I had made to last the entire week. I couldn’t help but wonder why Rip would be in there. To help me? No way. He had enough things to do. Check something? Maybe.
I had left Jason with only a small project before I’d left on Friday for my gynecologist appointment, but he should have gotten it finished before he’d bounced. Chances were, Rip was double-checking his work. He had done that to mine from time to time when he’d first come to CCC, doubting I could do what I had assured him I could.
So even though my gut knew something was off, the rest of me tried to push that nagging feeling aside as I turned the knob and pushed the door open. There was no way I could be surprised when I found Rip inside, standing just outside the booth’s opened doors, looking in. I didn’t worry when I found him with his hands on his hips, doing that.
But when I said, “Good morning” as I came inside, my purse over one shoulder, tote in my hands, and he didn’t look at me… that’s when something in me confirmed that there was something wrong.
He didn’t look at me.
He didn’t say anything.
Okay.
Not like I had cried into his body after my sister had shot a freaking arrow into my heart and made me feel about three inches tall.
I hadn’tletmyself think of how nice it had been to lean up against him and have him hold me.
I wasn’t about to start now. I knew he was my boss, and I knew he owed me a favor and that’s why he’d gone with me in the first place. Maybe comforting me hadn’t been part of it, but I knew he didn’t hate me. Maybe somewhere inside of him, he was a little fond of me.
But that was all there was.
He was a good enough person to be there for me when he didn’t need to.
But none of that reflected on the face that was aimed at me. Any bonding, any connection we might have made with each other, wasn’t reflected there. At all.
I watched him as I set my things down on top of the desk and didn’t bother putting my purse into the compartment where I usually left it. He still hadn’t moved. He was too busy looking at whatever was inside the booth.
The only thing in there should have been the parts Jason had finished days ago.
Oh, God. He’d messed something up, hadn’t he?
But how? What?I really hadn’t left much for him to screw up.
“Rip?” I called out again, taking my time to approach him.
From where I was, he took a deep breath, and I saw the muscles on his forearms get tight. His attention did waver though as he said, “What the fuck is this?”
Fucking Jason. Fucking,fuckingJason. I knew it. I should have known it.
Hadn’t I learned to trust my gut? And hadn’t my freaking gut told me that Jason would find some way to screw things up?
Hell.
Freakinghell.
