CHAPTER TWO
Ruby
“This is me.” I point to the duplex I’m renting while trying to figure out how to live on a first-year teacher’s salary. It’s not as easy as I assumed it would be back when I was still in the dorms taking classes.
He chuckles as he pulls his Jeep into the gravel lot. This Jeep is the manliest thing I’ve seen. Completely blacked out with all the bells and whistles anyone could ask for. The glow of the dashboard is blue, and the contrast between the light, his coloring, and those soulful brown eyes of his is almost my undoing as we sit here in the dark, alone.
“Why the laugh? I know it’s not much.” I’m slightly offended by the way he’s reacting to where I live. And really disappointed.
“I’m not laughing at you, Ruby.” He grips the steering wheel with those long fingers of his, causing his forearms to flex tight. “It’s just that back in the day, a couple of my co-workers lived in this duplex before they fell in love and got married.”
“They allow women on the Moonshine Task Force?” I’ve never heard of it before, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t true.
“No.” He laughs again. “When I was a teenager I worked at The Café, and there was a waitress who worked there too. She had a bad experience with her husband, and Ace, now my co-worker with the MTF helped her out of it. They ended up living here next to each other, and when her divorce was final, they admitted their feelings for one another and got married.”
The sigh that comes from deep within me is light. I’m a helpless romantic, and while that’s sometimes played against me, I do love when two people come together in the face of adversity. “That’s a sweet story.”
“They’re a sweet couple.” He runs a hand over his chin. “Do you want me to come in and make sure everything’s okay? Given the way Seth threatened you tonight, I asked the arresting officer to fill out a temporary protection order, especially since he’s wanted for breaking and entering. He won’t be getting out of jail tonight, and I have no idea what’s going to happen when he goes before the judge. If you give me your phone number, I can text you and let you know. Chances are he’ll be given bail, but if he can’t make the amount, he’ll be sitting in lockup until he’s arraigned. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” He shrugs. “But I’m also not God, so if you feel that something’s off, please give us a call.”
“Or I can text you?” I raise an eyebrow because I don’t really want this whole town to know my embarrassment at being caught in this situation.
“Absolutely.”
Within a few minutes, we have each other’s numbers and he’s walking me to my front door. “Thank you again.” I turn, looking up at him. He’s taller, so much taller than me that he dwarfs my body. If he wanted to surround me, it wouldn’t be that hard, and I’d probably let him. I’m a sucker for a man who can take control of a situation and not back down. That’s the epitome of what Caleb has done for me tonight.
“Just doin’ my job.” He puts his hands in his hoodie, rocking back and forth on his heels.
I don’t know why, but those words hurt slightly. A part of me hoped he’d come to my rescue because he’d actually wanted to, not because he felt like he had to. The last thing I want to be is someone’s job.
“I’m sorry to have ruined your night,” I try to keep the emotion out of my voice. This has been the weirdest few hours of my life and telling myself the reaction I’m having is emotional isn’t helping the lump I feel in my throat.
“You didn’t.” He pulls one of those hands out of his hoodie, bracing it against the door. “It was my pleasure to rescue you, Ruby. I’m glad you’re okay, I’m beyond glad that asshole didn’t hurt you, and what I’d really like to see again is that smile on your face you gave me a few times tonight.”
My heart pounds in my chest, my throat dry as I try to swallow, and my stomach has those butterflies again. The smile he’s asking about spreads across my face without me even thinking about it. “I’m lucky you rescued me; today could have ended pretty shitty for me,” I admit, pulling my gaze away from his intense brown stare.
“It could have.” His voice is sober. “But it didn’t. I know this is crazy, but I had a good time with you tonight, even if it did start off kind of weird. Could I see you again? Maybe show you what a real man does to woo a woman?”
That heart of mine speeds up to double-time. My palms get slightly sweaty and I’m embarrassed to say my knees knock just a little. “I’d like that,” I manage not to sound like an idiot.
“I work nights all weekend.” His tone is apologetic. “But I’m available for breakfast in about ten hours, if that’s not too soon.” The look on his face is so hopeful that I can’t help but be impressed.
A laugh bubbles up from my stomach, and I throw my head back with the force of it. “Breakfast it is.”
“I know a place, over in Calvert City,” he mentions a town about an hour away. “They have one of the best breakfasts around, and there’s a nice little section of downtown we can explore, before I have to come back and take a nap before work. Is that okay?”
“Sounds great.” I nod, thinking that I’ll like the chance to spend some time with him. Even though maybe I should be apprehensive after what happened to me tonight, I inherently trust the man standing in front of me. Something tells me to trust my gut with this one, and my gut is giving me nothing but signals to go along with whatever this man is asking of me.
“I’ll pick you up around eight? We should get there in enough time that we get breakfast but most of the rush is gone.”
“I’ll see you then.” I lean in, kissing him on the cheek, before turning around, unlocking my door, and walking inside.
“Be sure and lock it, Ruby. Be safe.”
“You too, Officer.” I give him a little wave before doing exactly what he asked me to do.
Cruise
Jogging back to my Jeep, I get in and execute a three-point turn to get out of the drive, before I allow the smile to spread all the way across my face. I do a little dance in my seat and gleefully beat a hand against the steering wheel.
There are lots of things that have happened in my life that I can’t explain. Why my mom left me at such a young age, why I was blessed to get another one in the form of Kari, why my little sister is nine and I’m twenty-eight, how my dad and I have such a great relationship even though we’re only sixteen years apart in age. I’ve had tough times, and I’ve had great times, but there’s always been parts I’ve never been able to explain. Much like what just happened.
From the moment I sat down at the table in The Café, I felt something drawing me to Ruby. I wanted to protect her, to make sure she got home safe, to be sure this dumbass she’d been set up with didn’t try something he shouldn’t have. The feeling increased as she had dinner with me and Morgan. We laughed, we joked, a meal that should have lasted an hour extended to almost two, and I could tell that none of us wanted to leave when we got our checks. There’s been few times in my life when I had such a great meal with someone of the opposite sex who wasn’t obviously trying to get into my pants. The invitation to breakfast tomorrow was spur of the moment, but now that I’ve extended it, I can’t get it off my mind.
Turning the radio up, I sing along to the country song, tinged with a little bit of rock. If anyone had to ask me to describe myself, that’s probably the best way. I love the simple things in life, they’re my favorite. I don’t like to make anything complicated, but at the same time I like to ride the edge – more sexual than anything – but I have a past, and sometimes I just gotta let it out.
The song is interrupted as a call comes through my Bluetooth. Mason Harrison. Probably checking up on his son. I allow the call through. “Hey, Dad!”
“You arrested someone at The Café tonight?” He goes right into the reason he called without even offering pleasantries.
I roll my eyes. Should have known he’d hear about it first thing in this small town. “No, I didn’t arrest them, but Renegade did. I was sitting there having dinner with Morgan when I heard the guy she was on a date with threaten her. It was a fuckin’ shitty move and I couldn’t sit there and listen to it. She was obviously uncomfortable.”
“He threatened her?”
I relate back the story, and my dad whistles through his teeth. “What a douche.”
“Yeah, so when I called in his name, he had warrants for breaking and entering. I actually just took her home because she was stranded.”
I leave out the detail that I’m seeing her tomorrow. Since Jess, who I dated during my senior year in high school, I don’t introduce women to my parents unless I know they’re going to stick around. In ten years, they’ve met one other woman, and that had been a huge mistake. I’d let her meet my family, and when we agreed to go our separate ways, it was sad for everyone involved. Unfortunately, she and I just weren’t meant to be. There were no hard feelings, still isn’t, it just wasn’t right for either of us.
“Yeah, so that’s my night in a nutshell. How’s the fam?” I turn his attention away from me, onto the women in our lives.
“Good, Rina is already in bed and so is Kels, but I was still up because I worked a little over and wanted to check in with you after I heard what happened. I’m hitting the hay here soon.” He yawns loudly in my ear. “You know you don’t have to eat with Morgan all the time, you can come have dinner here.”
“I have dinner there plenty,” I argue. “At least three times a week.”
“I’m just saying, it doesn’t matter how many times a week you’re here. We love to see you whenever that is.”
“I know, and Morgan knows he’s invited too, but sometimes we just want to be dudes.”
“I get it,” Dad laughs. “Your mom wanted me to tell you, in case you didn’t know.”
The transition from calling my stepmother Karina to Mom had happened slowly. It wasn’t something that one day I woke up and just blurted out. It was a decision I made and then had to put into execution. But as Kelsea had gotten older, I was afraid she’d ask questions – why did she call her Mom and I called her Kari? The reality of the situation would be way too much for a little kid to comprehend, much less handle, and I’d made the decision on my own to take it out of the equation.
Never having called anyone Mom before, I had to try to the word out on my tongue. I had to practice saying it, really let the motion of moving my lips to form the word become second nature. I’d called her Mom in my head for months before I’d actually tried the word out in person. The day I had, she’d stopped what she was doing, turned to me, and cried like the emotional woman she is. She’d hugged me, clung to me, and thanked me for letting her be a part of my life. It’s tough to admit, but even I cried that day, and a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders. Karina Harrison is my mom, no matter if she gave birth to me or not. She’s always loved me more than the actual woman who gave birth to me did.
“Tell her I’m fine.” I pull into the apartment complex I’m living at for the moment and park my Jeep in my designated space. “I’m home, so I’m gonna go. I have to work night shift tomorrow,” I groan.
“Good luck getting your sleep in.”
The one good thing about having a parent with the same job as you? They get your sleep habits. “Will do, Dad. Love you.”
“Love you too. Be safe, kiddo.”