CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Ruby
“Where are you taking me?” I watch as Caleb drives through the streets of downtown. This fall night is cool as rain falls from the sky. It’s not sheets like the day he shot the armed man, but a steady drumming against the roof of the Jeep.
“You’ll see.” His deep voice has a secretive lilt to it, one that I’ve come to know well in the year we’ve been together. He’s not great at keeping secrets, but when he does, they’re the best kind.
As he turns in front of The Café, I grin. No matter what’s happened inside the building or in front of it, this is still one of our favorite places to go, to be. On any given night, we can walk inside and find any number of friends or family inside. It’s darkish in there tonight, but I figure maybe the electricity is flickering because of the rain storm we’re in. Earlier in the day, the school had lost power.
He snags a parking spot near the door. “Don’t touch the door, I’ll come around for you. I don’t want you get wet.”
Since the first night I met him, he’s been a gentleman. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he can be pretty demanding too, but no one has ever taken care of me like Caleb does. He comes around to my side of the Jeep, holding his jacket over our heads as we make a dash for the front door.
As we enter, I realize there’s something off about what we’ve walked in to. Typically The Café is almost so loud you have to speak with some bass to be heard, and the tables are usually jam-packed. Taking a look around tonight, I notice the only people here are our friends and family. People who have come to mean a lot to us in the year we’ve been together. People we’ve made memories with.
My parents and brother, Caleb’s parents, and Kelsea sit in one booth. Behind them Morgan, Brooks, and Trinity look at us, small smiles on their faces. In all the other booths I see members of the Moonshine Task Force and their families, as well as a few of the teachers I’m friends with and roommates from college. I have no idea how they all came to be here tonight, or why they even are, but I do have an idea that Caleb is probably behind it.
“What’s going on?” I whisper to Caleb as everyone watches us walk to the middle of the room. We’re the center of attention, and it makes me a little self-conscious, but I also want to know what’s going on.
“Nothing.” He shakes his head, as he leads me to the table.
It’s almost like everyone is holding their breath as they watch us, and it makes me nervous. But I trust Caleb, with everything I have. We’ve been through a lot together. There’s no one I trust more than him, and no one I want to do life with more than him.
“You remember this table?” he asks quietly when we get to the middle of the room. It’s the one I sat at while I listened to that awful date of mine make disparaging remarks about me.
Glancing around, I’m hit with a flashback of the first night we met. Giving him a huge smile, I nod. “I do.”
Cruise
“Morgan and I were sitting right there–” he points to where his parents and mine sit. “–when Leigh came over to us and told us the couple sitting right here–” he touches the Formica top with his finger “–weren’t having a good night. That the girl seemed scared out of her mind, and the guy was creeping even Leigh out. I kinda thought maybe Leigh was overreacting, because that’s kind of what she does, but then I listened.”
“Hey!” Leigh yells. Whatever else she says is muffled as Holden pulls her to him, covering her mouth up with the palm of his hand. I laugh, thankful as hell I did listen.
“I remember.” She puts her arms around my waist, tilting her head as she looks up at me. “He really was creepy,” she says loud enough for everyone to hear. “I was eating our appetizer like I hadn’t eaten it weeks, just trying to choke it down to get out of the situation. At one point, he looked at me, and told me at least I could swallow.”
She makes a face, looking around at all the people who have gathered. There’s a sound in the room as everyone gets offended for her, at least the people old enough to realize what he’d meant.
“Then the jerk made a comment about knowing where she lived because he’d picked her up, and how he was going to invite himself in.” I pick up the story. “At that point, I knew I had to step in.”
She giggles. “I remember him pulling up a chair, and when I glanced over I was in shock. I’d never seen a guy as gorgeous as you, hot stuff.”
“That’s right, eat your heart out.” I give a wink as I look around. Moving my hands up from her waist, I cup her jawline. “But I’d honestly never seen anyone as beautiful as you. And it pissed me off that this guy was scaring you and didn’t realize what he had sitting there right in front of him. I knew pretty quickly that I wanted you in my life.”
“You did?” she asks softly, almost as if she doesn’t believe I knew almost immediately, and I can tell why she wonders. It took me forever to tell her my feelings. But that was more me than it ever was her.
“I did.” I lean down kissing her lightly on the lips. “Then the months of amazingness came, and I wondered what I’d done to deserve it, waited for the bad thing – whatever it was going to be – to happen. Because, babe, with me, there’s always something right around the corner.”
I hear sniffles in the room, can see tears in Ruby’s eyes, and I know she’s thinking back to the summer. How I pushed her away, how I was a fucking asshole, just trying to cope with the bullshit that was handed to me. “But you didn’t leave me, Ruby Red. You kept fighting for me, for us. It wasn’t long after that, I knew you were the one.”
“It took that long?” She pinches my arm as everyone laughs through their tears.
“I knew it before then, but it took me longer to admit it. Sometimes, I’m slow. You know this.”
She leans in, kissing my jawline. “Doesn’t matter, Caleb, I love you just the way you are.”
My heart pounds in my chest so loudly I’m surprised she and everyone around, doesn’t hear it. “You do love me. Anyone who didn’t, wouldn’t have been able to put up with me for those weeks while I did everything I could to push you away.” I swallow roughly. “They wouldn’t have stayed, they wouldn’t have listened to the shit I spewed and still kept coming back for more.”
“Caleb…”
“No.” I put my finger up to her lips. “Let me finish. You’re the strongest woman I know besides my mom, it takes a strong woman to love me. For all my goodness, I have a lot of faults. For all my strengths, baby, I have a ton of weaknesses. But with you beside me, they don’t cripple me. Not like they used to. I’ve learned that instead of pushing you away, I need to lean on you. That when I’m not strong, you are. When I’m faced with a mountain of self-doubt, you’re right there beside me when we scale it, go over it, and conquer that bitch.”
She laughs, as does everyone else. It makes me feel like I’m doing a good job, and I’m not fucking this completely up.
“You love me, you love my sister, and that means more to me than anything in this world. I waited a long time for her, as you’ve come to know.” I grin. “But I’ve waited even longer for you, Ruby Red. I didn’t know it, didn’t realize it, but everyday we’re together I’m reminded of what my life could be like without you. I smile so much now, I laugh, I get this fluttery feeling in my stomach and chest when I see you.”
“I get it too,” she whispers, standing up on tiptoe to kiss the dimple in my cheek. “Every time I see that strut you have, the swagger, the attitude. Every damn time.”
“You’re beautiful, and you’re too good for me, but I don’t want to ever let you go, don’t think I ever can let you go.” I lean my forehead into hers, closing my eyes as I breathe deeply.
It takes a lot of courage to bare yourself in front of your friends and family, in front of the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with. But I’ll do it anytime I need to for the woman whose forehead touches mine. Taking a big inhale, I remove my forehead from hers, reach into my pocket for the ring, and take a knee in front of her.
The whole place loses it, as does she. There’s already tears streaming down her face, and fuck it, I’m feeling choked up too. This is the culmination of a lifetime of not feeling like I’m good enough, and I’m about to ask this woman if I truly am good enough for her. There’s a chance she could say no. I don’t think she will, but there’s always a fucking chance. I push that thought out of my head and forge on with what I want, more than anything.
“Ruby Red, will you do me the absolute privilege of letting me take care of you the rest of your life? You can take care of me too.” I bite my lip, trying to hold back the emotion. It’s threatening though, threatening to break free and show everyone just how much this woman means to me. “We can do this thing you’ve taught me – ya know? Take care of each other. We can wake up together every day, go to sleep together most nights – when Havoc doesn’t have me working night shift.”
The guys laugh, and so does she.
“But more than anything, I’ll have a partner. We can eat junk food, watch stupid TV, walk in the rain, and do everything either of us have ever wanted to. Bonus is we don’t have to do it alone.”
She leans down, caressing my face. “You’re never gonna be alone again, hot stuff.”
“Do life with me? Be my best friend? Be the amazing mom to my kids I know you’ll be? Marry me?”
“Yes!” she screams loudly as she launches herself at me, knocking me to my back on the floor.
I close my arms around her, holding her tightly to me, whispering so many words, I don’t even know what they are. She’s straddling my waist, kissing my neck, mouth, every piece of skin she can get to. I’m kissing her too, giving her everything she’s giving me. Eventually as everyone surrounds us, they pick us up, and I put the ring on her finger.
Eventually I feel someone tugging at my waist. I look down and see Kels. “Yeah?”
She reaches up, hugging me tight. I pick her up, so that I can hear her above all the noise. Ruby comes to us. With a huge smile on Kels face, she says what I’m sure she’s wanted to say a long time. “Told you both you were gonna get married, and now she really is going to be my sister!”
A while later, Dad pulls me aside. “How does it feel?”
I look up at him, because he’s still a little taller than me. “Just like you said it would. It feels good to be wanted.”
“You’ll never know what it’s like to be alone again.” He hugs me tightly.
And I realize he’s right. What my mom did to me, didn’t define me. It never has, and with Ruby Red by my side, I’m never going to feel like the kid who wasn’t good enough again.
As I walk over to her, scooping her up in my arms, twirling her around, Leigh brings out the food she’s prepared. I realize this is the beginning of my journey. It’s not the end, not the middle.
This is where Caleb Harrison beats the odds and becomes the man he’s always been meant to be.