“We can go get ice cream after this if you want.” I kept talking to him, not sure if that’s what was helping. “That sundae this weekend was pretty good, but I know this really good place close to the shop with the best ice cream. They make it in small batches every day. If we can’t go today, I’ll bring you some on my lunch break soon.”
I slid my hand back up to rub the back of his cool but damp neck. The thigh under me flexed and tensed, and I put a little more force into rubbing the hard muscles on his nape. “You know, I always imagined that if my mom had been around, she would have hugged me and rubbed my back when I needed her. I tried looking up information on her a few times, my mom, I mean, but there are so many people with the name Teresa Ramirez, it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. That’s why I’m on top of you right now in case you’re wondering. I bet she would have made me flan too.
“One time, I bought those little packages of flan when I lived with my dad, and he found them and lost it. I figured my mom probably liked it and it set him off, but I don’t know. Everything used to make him mad. Maybe he just hated flan, but I think it was more than that. I don’t know,” I kept rambling, not even sure what the hell I was saying in the first place, but sensing it was doing something.
“If you haven’t had flan before, I’ll bring you some from this bakery I go to sometimes. I’d say I would make it for you, but you really don’t want me to even bother trying. It would probably end up burning the pot and my entire kitchen down.” I dragged my hand up his spine and rubbed his neck, alternately. “Oh! Wait a sec.”
I dug inside my T-shirt and undid the clasp of the necklace I had on. I’d seen it that morning and had a feeling about it. How about that? Even with my fingers still a little shaky, it only took a second to slip the chain around Rip’s neck and redo the clasp to keep it on him. I pulled back just enough to see the ice cream charm on it fall right on top of the notch of his throat. It looked ridiculous there, but I patted it down in place anyway. “Look. See? It has a little ice cream cone on it. To make you feel better.”
His whole body tightened for a moment before a loud burst of a noise exploded from his chest. And in the time it took me to process the sound, it was gone, and his muscles had relaxed even more. I’d swear his breathing slowed too.
“There we go,” I told him, putting pressure on his back and neck again. “You’re good. You’re all right.”
For some reason, that only made me want to hug him tighter. He was so big, it was hard to try and wrap him up; my arms could barely reach. I palmed the back of his head and lightly scratched at his scalp the way Lily used to like when she was little. She had done it to me too every once in a while when she’d been falling asleep, and I had loved it too.
From the way his body loosened, muscle by muscle, I figured he did too.
So I kept scratching.
Slowly but surely, that big body relaxed against mine, not totally, but it was something.
“You okay?” I asked when the only movement I felt come out of him were deep, deep breaths.
Part of me expected him to snap at me, to shove me off his lap, to tell me to fuck off.
But none of that happened.
One of the arms he’d had at his sides came up and his hand settled at my hip, giving it a light squeeze. His forehead dropped to that spot where my shoulder met my neck, and I could feel his soft puffs of breathing on my collarbones and chest. His hand squeezed my hip again. And my heart… it didn’t know what to do.
“Tell me what you need,” I asked him.
He shook his head against me.
It was the sound of footsteps coming that had me glancing over my shoulder to see a police officer walking around the cars, heading straight for us.
Rip must have too because he tensed. Everywhere. From the thigh under me to the bulk up against my chest, Rip became granite. I took a sniff that told me he smelled lightly of a clean-scented soap and the crispness of a sporty deodorant.
“Nothing hurts?” I whispered the question.
Rip shook his head again.
“I’m sorry about your truck.”
“It’s just a truck,” he replied quietly, surprising me. The weight at my hip moved up until his fingers spanned around my lower ribcage, his fingers molding themselves around my bones.
“The cop is coming,” I warned him, letting my hand drag down his spine once more. I gave him one last hug before loosening my hold, beating him to it. I pulled back, his hand still on my ribs, and met his now bright blue-green eyes. I smiled at him, this knot in my chest forming when I thought about how pale he’d been. “You saved our freaking faces installing those seat belts, boss.”
The body under mine grew hard, but not in the same way it had a moment before. The hand on my rib didn’t move, and the arm connected to it didn’t loosen up either. Rip sat there, letting me stay on his thigh like we had done this a hundred times in the past—me sitting on his lap.
“I’m glad you’re okay and you’re not mad about your truck. I’ll help you fix it if we can.”
The hand on my ribs decided to give me my own squeeze.
He got the next words out of his mouth before the cop interrupted, quietly, gently, and more earnestly than I ever would have imagined. “I’m glad you’re good too, baby girl.”
Chapter 16
Lily had warned me I was going to be hurting. She had been in a car wreck two years ago. Her friend, the driver, had blown right through a stop sign and gotten T-boned. My little sister had gotten a face full of airbag, two black eyes and a swollen nose, but in all the ways that it mattered, she had been fine.
So when I had texted her the day before to tell her that I’d been in a wreck—because she would have found out somehow and I would have rather been the one to tell her than some other way—she had warned me. Before that, she had chewed me out for texting her something so serious. What happened? She had basically shrieked at me.
To give them credit, Kyra had texted me immediately afterward too, and Thea had sent me a message just an hour later. She didn’t bring up anything about the weekend, and I hadn’t had the heart to bring it up either.
But going back to Lily, she had said, It’s gonna hurt, sugar tits.
Yet I was still surprised when I woke up that morning and felt like what I’d imagined a person who had gotten run over would feel like. My neck hurt so bad I couldn’t turn my head in either direction. My shoulders ached. Honestly, everything hurt, even the spot right in the center of my chest where Rip’s hand had been.
It took me twice as long to shower and get dressed, twice as long to even go down the stairs, because I swore even my knees had taken a hit. I felt like a robot as I made my breakfast and thanked everything in the world that I’d made enough lunch to last for a few days, even if it wasn’t the tastiest thing I’d ever eaten.
Two painkillers later, I headed toward the door, grabbing the rest of my things and keys.
For one second, I thought about calling out of work. Mr. Cooper knew we had been in an accident. I had called him while the cop had talked to Rip to get his statement. He’d been the one to drive to where we were and pick us up. He had given me the biggest hug ever, giving me the opportunity to feel a faint tremor that shot through his body.
I had seen the long, long look he had cast Rip’s way, as the man made it a point not to look at Mr. Cooper once while I had been around. His eyes had been trained on the tow truck that would be taking his pickup to the shop.
Afterward, the older man had dropped me off at my house and sworn to have someone drop off my car later, giving me another hug and telling me he was glad I was fine after walking me to the door.
But as soon as I thought about calling out, I told myself no.
I wasn’t dying. There was nothing I could do at home to make it worth staying. If I had to go slower, no one would complain.
Except Jason, but I wasn’t going to waste my time or patience on him. Today was not the day for him to give me a hard time. Not with his two strikes. I opened my front door and took a step out, only to stop dead in my freaking tracks. Because parked in my driveway, behind my car, was a brand-new black double-cab pickup truck.