A reminder that he was my boss first and foremost.

A dying little dream that was burning itself out.

“It’s fine,” I told him, noticing how flat my tone sounded and getting frustrated over it. “If you wouldn’t mind helping me move it, please.”

Silence.

There was another sigh.

His gradual “All right” wasn’t what I expected. It was soft. So soft it slid right off me and onto the floor, lost forever.

And then we moved the panels.

Chapter 15

“How was it?”

I set my food on the table beside Mr. Cooper and gave his shoulder a pat. “How was what, Mr. C?” I asked, pretty certain he wasn’t asking about the reaming I’d given Jason again that morning just in case the first one, the day before, hadn’t been enough.

I was still mad about it. Bitching him out the morning before, then refusing to speak to him the rest of the day hadn’t been enough to get the anger out of my system. I had gotten to work that morning, still unable to forgive him, and when he’d decided to go out on a limb and ask me a question about an hour ago, I hadn’t been particularly nice in my response to him.

I only felt like a tiny bit bad about biting his head off.

Then again, I had gotten my head bitten off because of him, so I knew I shouldn’t.

Mr. Cooper smiled at me, not giving me a single clue what he was referring to, as I pulled out the chair next to him. “How was it?” he asked again.

I plopped into it and gave him a smile right back. “Mr. C, I don’t know what you’re asking.”

I hadn’t complained about what had happened the day before. As far as I knew, only Rip, Jason, and I knew about his screwup, and I highly freaking doubted he had found out about Rip going with me to Dallas over the weekend. The only people who knew about that were Thea, Rip, and me. As much as I was willing to share with Mr. Cooper, my sister’s crap was one of those rare things I would rather keep to myself. On top of that, I hadn’t overheard a single argument between him or Rip either so….

He tipped his head to the side. “How did your date go, little moon? I thought you told me you were going on one on Saturday.”

Oh. Oh. That.

I had told him about it. “Oh. It didn’t happen on Saturday, but I did meet up with him yesterday.”

“Did it go well?”

I lifted a shoulder as I pulled the top off my container of food. The noodles were from the batch I had made on Sunday. They were overcooked, the vegetables were soggy, the meat didn’t have enough seasoning, but… I had made it. And it hadn’t given me the runs yesterday, so I could only hope they wouldn’t today either.

“He was… decent,” I admitted.

Mr. Cooper snickered. “It didn’t go that well then?”

I set the lid of my food between us with a sigh. “I went in with zero expectations, Mr. C, and I’m glad I did.”

That was the truth. I hadn’t gone to the bar expecting to meet the love of my life, but I had gone with my hopes up that my day couldn’t get any crappier after what had happened with Rip.

It hadn’t. But it hadn’t made it any better either.

The Out of my League man had been in his forties and very good-looking, just like Lenny had shown me. He had been outgoing and talkative.

I didn’t mean to laugh as I thought about how the night before had gone, but it happened.

I lifted a shoulder as I shot Mr. Cooper a look and snorted then shook my head. “It wasn’t total crap. Maybe 50 percent.”

The expression on his face was so overprotective it warmed my heart about a hundred degrees. “That bad?”

Well...

I didn’t want to bother with all the details. I had called Lenny on my way to work that morning to let her know that the man Grandpa Gus had set me up with had spent the entire time telling me all about how he had just gotten divorced and how he was so excited to move on with his life and do all the things he hadn’t been able to do for all those years.

I took it as: I’m single and not looking forward to reliving marriage any time in the next decade.

I had only been in one actual relationship in my life. I had dated one other man for a little while but didn’t count that. Since then, I had gone on another handful of one-off dates. I had even tried the online dating app that was more of a hookup site, and that was where I had met the Daddy guy. So, I thought I was pretty good at recognizing the look in a man’s eyes when he wasn’t ready for commitment.

At least not commitment with me.

The man who had sat across from me hadn’t been looking forward to settling down in any way in the near future. Not even close. None of his words had given me the impression he felt otherwise either. He’d said all the right words and told me just how “cute” he thought I was, but that had been it.

“Nothing bad happened?” he asked carefully. A little too carefully, really.

Honestly, I loved it. It was a nice reminder after yesterday.

I shook my head, my ears picking up on the sound of two familiar, heavy footsteps coming from down the hall. Nothing had happened except for the fact he kept trying to get me to agree that I was basically looking for a booty call, but I wasn’t about to tell Mr. Cooper that, at least in those words. I lowered my voice just a fraction. “No, he just wasn’t looking for something serious, and I could tell. And I’m not… trying on clothes that I don’t want to buy, you know?”

Mr. Cooper’s smile was gentle as he nodded. “I don’t envy you this adventure, little moon.”

“I wish I didn’t have to do this, Mr. C, trust me, but hey, maybe the next guy will sweep me off my feet and treat me the way you treat Lydia.” I took a bite of my food and ignored all the things that were wrong with the taste of it. “Maybe my luck will finally take a turn for the better,” I covered my mouth and told him.

Bad dates happened. I’d heard about them enough from the guys at the shop. I’d heard it enough from my sisters. I wasn’t going to give up after the first one.

I was just not going to trust Grandpa Gus again to fix me up any time soon.

I’d only gotten one more bite in when a voice I was too familiar with spoke up. “Luna, you got time to go with me to the store and pick out some paint?”

Go to the store and pick up some paint with Rip? For the first time ever? After the partial weekend we had spent together?

After he had given me so much crap yesterday?

I chewed the rest of the lo mein I had in my mouth and turned my attention to my other boss, finding him standing there with his hands on his hips over his coveralls, his undershirt a navy color today. Heading into the kitchen, he moved that big body behind the chair I was in to grab something from the fridge, before he kept talking. “I wanna pick out some paint for the GTO and the SS you found, but I don’t like anything in the catalogue or the samples you got.”

To give him credit, he hadn’t been even a little weird with me that morning. I had brought him his coffee, muttered a “Hi, Rip” that was more out of good manners than anything. He had been working and had called out behind me, “Luna.” Like nothing had happened. Then I had said, still grumbling, “Leaving your coffee on the bench.” And he had replied, “Thanks.”

And that had been that. Normal. Fine… as if yesterday hadn’t happened.

So it was with that, that I told him, sounding pretty freaking nonchalant, “I can get you the address to my favorite shop.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mr. Cooper glance between the two of us—probably surprised I didn’t immediately say yes—but I pretended like I didn’t see his movement.

What neither one of us could ignore was Rip saying, “I want you to go with me.”

He wanted me to go with him.

Mr. Cooper eyed both of us again, and I wasn’t sure who was more surprised by Rip’s words. Me or him. He was always such a stickler for people getting paid to actually work. Two people going for paint? That was unheard of. Him inviting me twice to go somewhere with him in less than a month? It was practically a miracle.

My gut said he was doing it because he felt bad.

“You want me to go with you?” I echoed, still trying to process his invitation and why he’d even extended it.