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Her little sobs slowed, and her hands, currently fisted in the cotton of my shirt, relaxed. She kept her head down for a minute, wiping her face.
And when she looked up at me, it was like catching a rainbow right after a storm.
Her hazel eyes were a soft blue with sage green rings around them and a bit of gold right in the center.
Soft.
Vulnerable.
Wounded.
“You okay?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
“Yes. Let’s go get something to eat.” She stepped back, face completely void of emotion now, and she stared straight ahead.
I hit the button on the elevator, and we rode down to the ground floor in silence.
I held the door when it opened, and she stepped off, walking slightly ahead of me toward the cafeteria. We each grabbed a cup of coffee, and Ruby reached for a blueberry muffin.
Once we took our seats, she broke off a piece of the muffin and popped it into her mouth before looking up at me. “If you tell anyone what happened in that elevator, I will use all of my evil queen powers to torture you until the end of time.”
“Don’t worry about it. I won’t say anything. You’re dealing with a lot, and it’s normal to cry sometimes.”
“Oh, yeah? When was the last time you cried?” She raised a brow.
“It’s been a while.” I chuckled. “How about you?”
“I haven’t cried since I was six years old, and my puppy ran away.”
I raised a brow. “You haven’t cried in over twenty years?”
“That’s the first thing that came to mind after that statement?” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Yeah. What else would I ask?”
“If we found the puppy.” She reached for her coffee.
“Did you?”
“We did. I made my dad take me out every single day after school, and we finally found him.”
“Where was he?”
“It’s funny you should ask. I found Bullet walking with Midge freaking Longhorn,” she said, as if this were the most scandalous thing she’d ever shared.
Midge Longhorn owned the Golden Goose, the diner in town, which was one of my favorite places to eat. But she was about as grumpy as they came, and I wouldn’t have guessed her to be a puppy snatcher. I figured small children and animals ran for cover in her presence.
“You named your puppy Bullet when you were only six years old?” I barked out a laugh. “That’s so fucking you to do that.”
She rolled her eyes. “Again, I tell you that Midge Longhorn stole my puppy, and you focus on the name of the dog.”
“So, what did she say when you confronted her? Because there’s no fucking doubt in my mind that you confronted her.”
“Of course, I did. It had been the first time in my life I’d ever cried other than when I was a baby. And the last time, up until now. So clearly, I was attached to Bullet. And Midge acted like she’d just found him a few minutes before in the park. He’d been missing for a week. Trust me—she’s shady. And she’s been uncomfortable when I’ve been at the Golden Goose ever since. She won’t even make eye contact with me.She knowsthat I know she stole that puppy from a child.”
I sipped my coffee and studied her. “You do realize Midge doesn’t look at anyone. She’s in a perpetual bad mood.”
“Trust me. She knows. But she has the best tomato soup and grilled cheese in town, so it doesn’t stop me from eating there when I’m home. Plus, I get a special kind of pleasure staring her down and watching her squirm.”
