All my hopes and dreams failed me the next morning.
I had told myself I was going to be better. Way better by the time I woke up the following day. Maybe I would have still been in a little bit of pain, but nothing I couldn’t have handled.
At least that’s what I had genuinely believed.
In reality, everything hurt even more. All it took was about five seconds after my alarm went off to realize just how much more. “Shit,” I muttered to myself as I laid there, wanting to reach up to massage myself and then stopping because lifting my arm would more than likely only make me choke up.
And I didn’t really feel like finding out for sure.
I was never going to tell anybody how loud I moaned as I rolled onto my side and then forced myself to sit up. Then I peeked out the window to make sure there wasn’t a black truck parked in my driveway. There wasn’t.
After he’d dropped me off at home yesterday evening, I had told Rip that he really didn’t need to pick me up. He had settled for giving me a look, then lifted a shoulder and said, “’Kay.” I still didn’t totally believe him that he wouldn’t come by, but at least his truck wasn’t there.
It took a long time for me to shower and stiffly pull on clothes; there was still no truck when I peeked out, and then it took even longer for me to make breakfast and fill a Rubbermaid with another serving of lo mein that somehow managed to look even mushier. I hadn’t thought that was possible.
It was thirty minutes later than I usually left when I opened my front door, juggling my things, and found a black Ford F-250 there.
Sure enough, through the windshield, I spotted a familiar dark brown head of hair attached to a massive body behind the driver seat.
In the minute it took me to lock my door and head down the steps, my boss was out of the truck and already holding the passenger side door open, all the while giving me a look that said “shut up, Luna.”
“Morning, boss man,” I called out as I walked in his direction, feeling pretty resigned.
He had his sunglasses on again, and his voice was just as low and hoarse as always. “Morning, Luna.”
I stopped right in front of him, noticing that he didn’t have on a compression shirt. Instead, in the middle of June, he had on a thin long- sleeved white T-shirt that ended right at the notch of his throat, showing off a whole lot of thick neck.
I met his gaze and raised my eyebrows. “Whatcha doing here?” “Picking you up,” he answered, even as his hand took the bag from
me.
Could I have held on to it? Sure. But I wasn’t going to.
But still…
“You don’t need any of this though,” Rip told me.
Now that had me hesitating and narrowing my eyes. “Why?”
He gestured me to get into the truck. “You’re not going to work.
We’re going to the doctor.”
I stared at that handsome face, taking in the fact that he wasn’t trying to avert his eyes or be sneaky or anything like that. He was being serious. “But I don’t need to go to the doctor,” I told him carefully.
“You’re not going to work. Worthless can handle whatever needs to be done.” He motioned inside the truck again. “Let’s go.”
Worthless? Is that what he was referring to Jason as? Because if it was, I could be all about that. Instead of picking at his nickname though, I didn’t move, and he noticed.
And when he noticed, he frowned. “Why you being stubborn? You’re hurting. You were in a wreck—”
“So were you.”
That frown didn’t go anywhere. “I’m not in pain,” he claimed before gesturing toward the inside of the truck once more. “Go to the damn doctor and have them check you out. You could have some other issue later on, and the car insurance won’t cover it if you don’t have a record that you weren’t feeling good from the start,” he explained.
He had a point.
But I knew there was nothing actually wrong with me.
One of those hands went up to his head and he smoothed it over the curve of his skull before letting out a deep breath and saying, calmly,
“Get in. Cooper made an appointment for you yesterday for eight in the morning today.”
Mr. Cooper had done that?
I didn’t even need to think about it then. If Mr. Cooper wanted me to go, then… that made this whole thing different. He was only trying to get me to go because he cared about me.
I would have traded anything to have a father who cared about me when I’d been younger. I’d take it now.
“Fine,” I agreed, trying not to sound all put out about it, because I wasn’t, especially now that I knew the entire story. Plus, the only reason I hadn’t gone yesterday was because Jason had almost screwed up, and I didn’t trust leaving him alone. He really was like a little kid I constantly had to babysit, except he wasn’t cute, curious or had the excuse of being a kid.
If he was feeling smug about it, Rip didn’t say anything. What he did do was point at the inside of the truck.
I pointed too, just to give him a hard time. “Give me a boost?”
I didn’t miss his cheek twitching. I also didn’t miss his response, because there wasn’t one. All he did was lower my bag to the ground, come right up behind me, and just straight-up lift me like he had the day before until I could reach the running boards. I got in and watched him put my things on the floor by my feet before going around to the other side and getting in too.
We had barely gotten out of the driveway when Rip asked, “You’re not pissed?”
I glanced at him, taking in the thick ink I could see along the side of his neck that almost looked like… flames? Huh. “What would I be pissed over?”
“The appointment.”
I was pretty sure those were definitely a skull and flames. Kind of artsy looking flames but flames. “No. I would never get mad over someone worrying about me.” The words were barely out of my mouth when I realized how pathetic they sounded.
Oh well.
“You’re sure you don’t need to get checked out just to be on the safe side?” I asked him, just to mess with him.
His snicker wasn’t a surprise at all. “No.” “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure,” he insisted, the tiniest trace of amusement in his tone.
I smiled only because I knew he wouldn’t see it. “I can call and make an appointment for you if you want,” I kept going.
“Anybody ever told you that you’re a pain in the ass?” he asked, as he kept his attention forward on the drive.
I smirked just as my phone vibrated from my lap. There was a message from my little sister Lily.
Lily: Morning. Got a breakfast shift today. Miss you so much.
I loved that girl.
Me: Miss you so much too, sugar lumps. Have a great day at work. Make some tip money.
I hesitated then typed up another message before I could talk myself out of it.
Me: I love you
Thirty seconds might have passed before I got a response.
Lily: I LOVE YOU SO MUCH <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
“Good news?”
I moved my eyes toward him.
“You got a big smile on your face,” he said as an explanation.
Oh. “Just a good morning message from my little sister.” I thought about it, then thought about his comment about his mom yesterday. Then, before I could think twice about what I was about to ask, I went for it. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
His “no” was immediate. Then he tipped his head to the side and kept talking. “My mom wanted to have more, but it never happened. Don’t know why, but it’s only me.”
Only him. I wasn’t sure why that made me sad, but it did. His mom was gone. He didn’t have any siblings, and I had no clue what was going on with his dad.
If he’d even known him.
It wasn’t like I had known my mom. Or wanted to know my dad after a certain point.
But I wasn’t going to bring up that subject. Nope. So I stuck to a safe one. “Did you want any?”
He thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. “No.” Before I could get another question out, he beat me to it. “You talk to your sister again?”
“Which one?” I asked, even though I had an idea who he was referring to.
“The one in Dallas.”
I’d been right. “Just yesterday.” I bit my cheek and didn’t understand why I kept talking. “But that’s been the first time since we went… to see her. It’s not unlike her though. She never calls me—” unless she needs something, but instead, I told him, “—during the workday unless it’s an emergency.”
His “hmm” sounded loaded enough to grab my attention. “What?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Rip didn’t drag it out. “You get a good vibe from her?”
That had me instantly getting defensive. “What do you mean?”
He must have sensed something because he slid me a look. “I’m not talking shit about your sister, Luna,” he stated calmly. “All I’m saying is that there’s some fishy shit going on with her, and you know there is.”
So I hadn’t been the only one imagining it. “What do you mean by fishy?”
He made a face. “You’re not gonna get all pissed off, are you?” “No,” I answered, sounding like I was lying, but I wasn’t. Because I
wasn’t going to get mad. There was nothing to get mad about. He said he wasn’t talking shit about my sister. So…
“Look, I didn’t wanna say anything, but some shit with her just doesn’t add up.” He shot me a look that was like a dare for me to contradict him.
I wouldn’t, because his comment had something inside of me perking up. “What doesn’t?”
He blew out a breath that should have been a warning I might not like what he was going to say next. But in true Rip fashion, he didn’t hold back. “You didn’t notice when we went to her apartment that there was nothing wrong with her front door?”
What?
“Her front door,” he repeated, like I’d literally asked the question out loud. “She said her place got broken into, but there was nothing wrong
with it. I’ve seen places that got broken into, Luna; it didn’t look like anybody had fucked with her shit. The doorframe was intact. She had an alarm system, for fucking sake.”
It took me a second to process his words. To think. But when it came down to it… he was right.
There hadn’t been anything wrong with the front door. I had rung the doorbell. I had knocked on it. Banged on it. And she lived on the third floor. How would they have gotten in unless they went all Spiderman and climbed up the balconies, but for what though? To get in through the sliding door? All that effort to steal a thousand-dollar laptop, which I didn’t even think was that expensive in the first place? Wouldn’t they have broken into more apartments to make it worth it?
Rip grumbled out as I sat there. “I’m just sayin’. It doesn’t add up.” Huh.
Huh.
He had a point.
And that point made my ears buzz. Because something hadn’t felt right about the entire thing, but I hadn’t been able to pinpoint what or why. I had just thought it was Thea acting weird, but it wasn’t.
Or maybe I just wanted to assume that was it.
I didn’t expect her to be my best friend, but I hadn’t taken her to lie to me either, not after everything we had been through together. But she had. For whatever reason, she had started lying to me from the moment she had moved out of her place and not told me.
…maybe even before.
That betrayal felt worse than anything else. Why would she make something like that up? Had someone broken into her place after all?
I wondered if Kyra knew something was weird with Thea. I doubted Lily did.
For once, I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was… think about
it.
And feel disappointment.
It was that disappointment that robbed the words from my throat for
a long time after that.
“Thanks,” I mumbled to the receptionist after settling my bill
for the doctor’s visit, an hour and a half later.
The woman reminded me again, “The pharmacy will have your prescription ready in about thirty minutes.”
I repeated my “thank you” before escaping through the door that led into the waiting room, where I found Rip. He was sitting sprawled out in one of the chairs, arms crossed over his chest, basically bursting out of the poor seat. For a second, I wondered what his couches at home looked like; then I told myself to stop. He climbed to his big feet and looked me over, like I’d have a sign on that gave my diagnosis. “Ready?”
“Yeah,” I told him, giving him a smile that was only partially forced. I wasn’t mad at him for bringing up Thea’s… thing, but it weighed heavily on me. So heavy I really didn’t know what to say to him. What to think, more than anything.
I rarely let people hurt me, but Thea not being honest with me… it hurt more than it should. I mean, hadn’t I lied to enough people over my life to be an enormous hypocrite over someone doing the same thing to me? I knew the answer to that. My lies weren’t always white.
I needed to snap out of it though.
So I balled it up and set it aside. For now. I was fine. I was loved. I had everything.
Just not my sister’s honesty. And possibly her loyalty.
And there I went again.
“I’m okay,” I made myself tell Rip as we walked out of the office and down the hall toward where he’d parked his truck earlier. “They did an X-ray. The doctor says everything is fine, but I’m just a little banged up.” I kept the like I told you to myself. “He called in a prescription for me that’ll be ready in half an hour, but I don’t see a point in getting it. I won’t take it.”
“Why?”
What more pride did I have? He already knew enough of the bad bits and pieces of me. What was one more, really? “I don’t trust myself around anything that could be addictive. I don’t want to risk it, and the pills are an opiate. I looked them up while I was waiting.”
I didn’t need to look at him to know he’d sobered. I could feel it.
Could sense him shoot me a glance.
I shrugged so he’d know it wasn’t a big deal. “Anyway, if you want to—”
“You’re not going back to work,” he shot back before I could even finish.
It was hard not to smile. “I know. Mr. Cooper sent me a message while I was waiting for an X-ray and told me not to bother coming in the
rest of the week. I was going to see if you could give me a ride home, boss.”
His grunt made me smile again. “I’ll take you. I didn’t wait around for no reason.”
I rolled my eyes.
Then I wondered what I was going to do now. I had never taken a day off just for the hell of it. It had always been for something with one of my sisters or on the rare occasion I was sick.
But now? The first and only thing I thought of was Lily. Lily and only Lily.
And Rip, doing that thing where I swore he could read my mind, asked, “You gonna take it easy?”
“Yes. I was just thinking maybe I could go see my little sister in Galveston.”
“Galveston?”
“Yeah.” And before he could say anything, I threw out, “If I go, I’ll take an Uber or something. I’m not going to risk my life or anyone else’s trying to drive, okay?”
He held the door open for me that led outside, and I brushed by him, feeling the hard muscles across his chest and abs graze my arm. Sheesh, the man was buff. Tight. Hard.
And my boss.
My boss who I needed to keep messing with so he wouldn’t think I was thinking about his body.
“Unless you want to come?” I threw out for the hell of it as I went down the steps that led into the building.
He didn’t respond as we headed to his truck, and I didn’t take it personally. It wasn’t like he ever took me up on any of my invitations, and I’d asked, what? A hundred times over the last few years?
Pulling my phone out of my pocket while I walked, I found Lily’s name under my messages and smiled at the last one she had sent me.
I sent her a new one.
Me: Taking today and tomorrow off, and I was thinking about coming to visit if you’ve got some time. Let me know. No pressure.
If she was busy, I’d understand. No big deal.
“You gonna spend the night or go for the day?” Rip asked as he unlocked his truck.
Oh. “I’m waiting to hear back from Lily, but if I go… I guess I could spend the night. I don’t think I’ve ever spent the night in Galveston before, now that I think about it.”
He opened the passenger door before going to stand directly behind me, hands going to that familiar place really low on my hips again. “Haven’t been to Galveston in twenty years. Feet up.”
“You don’t like the beach?”
“I like the beach. I don’t like sand up my ass.”
Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t—
I couldn’t help myself. “Is there something you, uh, do like up there?” I asked.
Rip choked.
I laughed as I tucked my legs up right as he lifted and put them down when it felt about right. He slammed the door closed as soon as I was in the seat, and I couldn’t help but smile at how unnecessarily nice he was being. The second he was behind the wheel, I told him, “Rip, you know you don’t have to be nice to me because of the accident. It wasn’t your fault.”
He didn’t even bother sliding me an annoyed look. “We already talked this shit over.”
This shit.
And he didn’t blame himself. Yeah, sure.
“Good, I’m glad you don’t blame yourself, but seriously, you don’t have to drive me around. I’m not Miss Daisy. We’re even. We’re good. I would still go to work if you and Mr. C let me, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
What did he pick up on? “We’re still not even,” he had the nerve to try and claim, using that dry tone with me.
I didn’t want or mean to glare at him, but… what the hell? “Why?” He shrugged. “’Cause we’re not.”
Right then, my phone vibrated, and I glanced down to find a new message from my sister. Then another one came in.
Lily: I have to work until 5 but COME SEE ME. I MISS YOU SO MUCH.
Lily: You can hang out at the restaurant with me.
Another one came in before I finished reading the first two.
Lily: My room is really small but SLEEPOVER. We can share a bed like old times.
And then another one came in, and I couldn’t help but smile at her messages.
Lily: Are you already on your way? I loved her. I loved her so much.
Me: Not yet but I will.
“What’s that smile for?” asked the man beside me.
Slipping my phone back into my purse, I still couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. “My little sister has to work, but she told me to come see her, so I guess I am going to get a car to take me.” Just thinking about her made me feel better. “I miss her so much,” I told him with a sigh. “And even though I’m really sorry about your truck, and I feel bad I have to take time off, I’m excited I get to go see her. I could use a few dozen of her hugs.”
He “hmmed” me.
Making a list in my head of what I should pack, I was genuinely surprised when my phone started vibrating, but not in the way it did with a message. It was a call. Half expecting it to be Lily, I paused when I had it in my hand and saw the San Antonio area code on the screen. Was it the lawyer guy again?
I only hesitated for a second before answering. “Hello?”
There was a loud noise in the background before a man’s voice came over the line. “This Luna?”
Okay. That didn’t sound at all like the man I had spoken to weeks ago over Grandma Genie. “Yes?” I replied, knowing I sounded uncertain but not really caring.
“Fucking finally,” the man on the line muttered, and I had to pull the phone away from my face to look at it, because who the hell was this?
“Excuse me?” I asked when I brought it back to my face.
He didn’t make me wait. “We need to talk,” the man went on, shooting the words out quickly. “Sooner the better.”
Wait. Wait.
I was fine. I was loved. I had everything I needed.
Except for this conversation with a man who I suddenly knew, some way, somehow, was my father.
How the hell had he gotten my number?
My father was calling me. After nine years. After telling me he was going to kill me. After holding a—
Calm down, Luna.
I was calm. I was calm. I was fine. I could think.
“Don’t ever call me again,” I said into the receiver slowly, cutting off the man on the other end.
What did he do? He cursed. He cussed like he had every time I had ever asked him for anything growing up. Like I was an inconvenience, and his next words confirmed that nothing had changed. “I’m only fucking calling you because of your sister, don’t think it’s because of anything else.”
Because of my sister? Which one?
“Tell her she needs to quit that fucking job she’s at. She’s not taking my calls anymore.”
Taking his calls anymore? She was taking them in the first place?
Since when? Why?
Why would she do something like that?
I wouldn’t hold it past him to lie, but… why? Why would he do that? “Just talk to her. She doesn’t have any business doing that shit,” he
went on, rambling, talking too fast.
Shredding me a little word by word. Or maybe it was my sister who was doing it with every word that came out of his mouth.
My hands started to shake. Mine. And just as I was about to shove the empty one under my thighs, I stopped. Then I made a decision.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I told him honestly, because I didn’t, and I wasn’t going to hide it. “But I don’t ever want to hear your voice again. Don’t call Lily or Kyra either. If you do, I’ll call your parole officer. Don’t think I won’t.”
And I hung up.
Then and only then, did I shove my freaking shaking hands under my thighs as I let out a deep breath.
What in God’s name was Thea into? What the hell was she doing?
Why the hell was she talking to him of all freaking people?
Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse… I found this out? This?
“You all right?” Rip didn’t wait to ask.
I wanted to say I was fine. I really did. But that wasn’t what I responded with. “Yes. No. I think… I think you’re right about my sister doing something fishy. That was my dad who just called.”
My dad. What a joke.
“I haven’t talked to him in years, and he just said…” Why the hell was I telling Rip all this?
Slipping one of my hands out from under my thigh, I lifted it up to my head and rubbed the palm of it across my forehead pretty freaking roughly, like that would erase the conversation that had just happened.
Rip’s voice was low and gravelly, and so, so serious as he asked, “What he say?”
Keeping my gaze forward, I could barely tell him. “He said my sister doesn’t have any business doing something, but he didn’t say what, and…” Bitterness, honest to God bitterness, swelled up in my throat for the first time I could remember. I wasn’t bitter. I wasn’t. But I felt it then. Understood it then. I got why people could hold on to resentment for the rest of their lives. “He said she’s been ignoring his calls, like that was new.”
How could she? After everything he had said and done to me? She’d been the oldest. The one who witnessed more than the rest of my sisters just how our relationship had been.
And she was talking to him?
“I’m sorry.” I picked my phone back up and instantly hit the speed dial number I needed, my heart in my freaking throat. “I need to call her.”
He didn’t reply as I hit the icon to start the call. But I sat there, listening to it ring, then ring some more, then ring a little more. Until her voice mail picked up.
Then I called her again, and again she didn’t answer. Screw it. I’d leave a message.
“Thea, it’s Luna. I just got a call from… back home. Are you okay?” She had been talking to our dad behind my back. God, I was pissed. But more… more than anything… it felt like a stab. It hurt me so much I could barely talk and barely keep it together. I could barely think. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll help you any way I can. Just talk to me, all right? Call me back please. I’m not going in to work today. Call me any time.” I breathed in through my nose and back out of it. “Be safe, okay?”
Only then did I hang up, feeling weirdly… numb. What was she doing?
Pulling my hand out from under my thigh, I fisted both of them on my lap and stared down at them, trying to put my thoughts back in order. She wasn’t dying. Nothing terrible had actually happened to her. There was no reason for me to freak the hell out and go back up to Dallas to see her—not that she’d even open the door to her apartment for me.
I took another deep breath that honestly sounded like a backed-up muffler on the way out.
Calm down. I needed to calm down.
It was only the rocking of the truck that had me noticing we had stopped. Right in front of my house.
“Luna,” Rip drew out my name slowly and carefully. “You good?”
I bit my bottom lip and heard the lie that wanted to come out of my throat. I replaced it with the truth. “I will be.”
Familiar, long, and tattooed fingers crept over the top of my hand and stayed there, brushing the LOVEYOU bracelet I’d put on that morning. Lucas Ripley’s voice swept over me as he said, “I don’t know what’s going on with your sister, but you tell me if there’s something I can do. You’re not alone, you hear me?”
I pressed my lips together and nodded.
But he wasn’t done. “You’re not, Luna, and I gotta tell you, you don’t need to be letting anybody run all over you or try to get away with shit
—”
“I don’t do that,” I cut in.
It was only because of the soft face he gave me, all those normally harsh features without tension for once, that I didn’t let his words, or what he was implying bother me. “All I’m saying is, you don’t have to take shit, and you need to quit believing you do. Think about that, all right? Have fun with your sister but think about what I said.”
