I had worked for Mr. Cooper for nearly ten years and had never heard anything about another wife.
There were plenty of reasons why people wouldn’t share information like that, I told myself as I raised my hand. If his wife had died and he didn’t want to talk about it… it wasn’t my business to get why, much less to judge.
There were more than enough things in my life I would rather not talk about with anyone.
But the knowledge that he’d had another wife before the one I knew…. That we had known each other for so long and I had told him things I didn’t tell most others, when he hadn’t ever said anything to me about this….
This isn’t about you, I reminded myself. It wasn’t. Not even close.
Then I knocked.
The voices went quiet.
The “Luna?” from Mr. Cooper was low and beyond strained.
Of course he knew it was me. No one else was dumb enough to come bother them while they were yelling. Or I could think of it like I was the only one brave enough to.
Those scaredy cats were downstairs hoping for a miracle.
What they were getting was me.
“I’m leaving for the day. I have my doctor’s appointment, and I left Jason in my room. Do either one of you need anything before I go?” I called out, rolling my eyes at my own words. I wasn’t even trying to be subtle about breaking their argument up. Did they need anything? When had I ever asked them that when I was about to walk out? Never, that was when.
There was a pause that I was pretty sure consisted of them either sitting or standing on opposite sides of Mr. Cooper’s desk, glaring at the door or at each other.
Then Mr. Cooper called out, “No, I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”
I made a face at the door, because we both knew that was BS.
Then there was a rumble of a “Go to the doctor, Luna” that I barely understood.
“Okay,” I called out again, wincing at just how fake happy I sounded. “Have a good night!”
I took three steps away and stopped. Then I listened and waited.
But there wasn’t a single sound from inside the office.
Until the doorknob turned suddenly and the next thing I knew the door itself was being opened.
Crap.
There wasn’t a point in hiding or running. It was just going to make it that much more obvious and worse. So, I walked like normal toward the stairs to go down, only glancing over my shoulder when I actually made it to the landing. That was when I saw that it was Rip who had followed me out.
His expression was that usual one that seemed like bottled-up thunder under skin and bone.
Screw it. I waved at him.
“See you tomorrow, boss,” I called out to him, knowing I wouldn’t get a response. He was a grumpy little goose.
My phone vibrated from my pocket, and when I picked it up, my sister’s name flashed across the screen.
It was a picture message of what she’d told me earlier was Jamaica Beach in Galveston.
Then another message came through.
Lily: WISH YOU WERE HERE
My poor little heart honestly ached, but I still texted her back.
Me: Me too. Love you and be safe.
I typed another message and then let my fingers linger over the screen, deciding whether to send it or not.
I sent it.
Me: Don’t forget about me.
Her reply was instant.
Lily: I could never forget about my FAVORITE SISTER.
Her favorite sister.
Well. Okay. She had never called me that before, but I liked it. I liked it a lot.
Just as quickly as I decided that, the idea of going home to an empty house seemed like hell. With my phone still out, I shot out a quick text to Lenny.
Me: I’ve got a gyno appointment in thirty. You free later? My coworkers are getting together after work, and the girl is gone, and I don’t want to go home too early.
Chapter 12
“Look, look!”
I was already looking at Lenny, who was behind the wheel of her car, gesturing to me with one hand as we left the Greek place we had gone to have dinner at. “No,” I cut her off. “I did look, and he’s out of my league.”
She groaned.
I looked down at the picture of a half-naked man on my phone and shook my head. “He is, Len. I can see it. He probably has girls hitting on him all the time. Just look at him.”
She didn’t bother arguing that the man she had apparently set me up on a date with—a retired MMA fighter—had plenty of girls hitting on him. She’d be a freaking liar if she did, and Lenny was a whole lot of things, but not a liar. That was me. The route she did decide to go down was, “Give me a break. You’re out of his league.”
I would have laughed, but she kept going like she knew exactly what I was going to say and wasn’t about to let me.
“You’re the fucking best, Luna.”
I smiled at her and lifted a shoulder. “I’ve got my moments,” I tried to joke.
“What have you got to lose? He’s hot, but you’ve got that Cinderella thing going,” she tried to say.
I rolled my eyes because I hated when she used the Cinderella example on me. I was usually dirty, cleaning up after others, working too much, and taking someone’s shit. The Life of Luna.
“If he gets hit on during our date and leaves me there for another girl, I’m blaming you,” I told her.
She snickered. “If he sucks, blame Grandpa Gus. He’s the one who picked him out.”
Oh, Grandpa Gus.
“He’s really proud of himself, by the way. I swear he had a list and was checking names off of it over the last few days. I saw he had a comment next to one guy’s name that said ‘too hairy.’”
It was my turn to snicker. “I love that man.”
Lenny shook her head. “Me too, but I swear the only person who loves him more than I do is himself.”
She so had a point. While Mr. Cooper was calm, easygoing, and had every personal trait that was fatherly and comforting, Lenny’s Grandpa Gus was… something else.
“Hey, we’re going to Mickey’s, right?” she asked, referring to where I had told her my coworkers were getting together after hours to celebrate Rogelio abandoning us.
“Yup.”
After my gynecologist appointment ended, I had headed over to her gym. Grandpa Gus had waved us off, telling me to take her away. We had left and gone shopping at the nearest strip mall, and then gone to eat afterward. Now, I was dragging her along with me to Mickey’s. Except we’d ditched my car at my house because she was the worst back seat driver, and I didn’t feel like getting griped at for driving too slow. Should she be driving with one arm in a sling? Probably not, but I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her that.
“Is Rip going to be there?” she asked.
“Doubt it.”
Her muttered “shit” made me laugh. She’d been trying for the last three years to make seeing him in person finally happen. I couldn’t exactly get her to come over while I was working.
“I just want to see him. Just once,” she said.
“I’ve shown you pictures.” Pictures I had maneuvered to get him into the background.
It was her turn to make a noise. “It’s not the same.”
“It’s the same,” I tried to argue.
“Maybe it’ll be my lucky day and he shows up.”
“Don’t hold your breath or you’ll end up passing out.”
We both cracked up just as her phone started ringing from where she had set it in the cupholder between our seats. Connected to her car’s Bluetooth, GRANDPA GUS came up on the screen of her dashboard. She didn’t hesitate to hit answer.
“Grandpa.”
“Can you head back to Maio House?”
Concern flashed across my friend’s face. “What happened?”
There was some rustling, then just barely the sound of Grandpa Gus whispering, something like I will pop you if you ever use that tone of voice on me again filled the car, but he wasn’t talking to us.
I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing, and it was obvious that Lenny was too because she shot me a funny face.
“There was an accident,” he came back on the line after a moment, his tone mysterious.
“What kind of an accident?”