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“She’s not!”
They turn and look at each other with a laugh.
“What else am I gonna do?” Ruby adds. “Sit out on the porch and read all day?”
“Oh my god that sounds amazing.” Bellamy draws out the last word, stretching back out along the counter, likely envisioning curling up on the porch and digging into the next thriller on her Kindle.
“I’m here for another eleven days and I’m all by myself until Ken gets back.” Ruby looks at me, almost like she’s asking permission. “I’ll get bored if all I’m doing is reading and trying to tan my pasty skin.”
“And it’ll give you guys some more time to hang out,” Bellamy offers, a shit-eating smile on her face.
I look her way with an expression that tells her to cut the bullshit. She doesn’t give a damn about me spending time with Ruby. She just wants to curl back up in her nest and fall asleep.
“I’m a good helper, I promise.”
“Yeah, Boyd, she promises.”
I narrow my eyes at Bellamy, my unspoken words clearly having no effect on her as she continues to smile at me. She knows she’s won, knows Ruby is going to come with me to One Stop and help with the buildout.
As much as she’s able to, anyway. I don’t want to make quick assumptions, but Ruby’s tiny. It’s hard to picture her lugging wood or hoisting beams.
That said, I’m sure she’s the type of person to always find a way to make herself useful, maybe in ways one wouldn’t entirely expect.
“Alright, Ruby, if you want to gear up and spend your day sweating and doing construction work on your vacation, I’m not going to be the one to stop you.”
She gives me a big cheesy grin and does a wiggly little dance on her stool, as if I’ve given her some amazing gift.
Who knows? Maybe by giving her something to do with her free time and distracting her from the fact that her dad’s an asshole, I am giving her a gift.
Inviting her along is completely selfless, really.
It isn’t about the idea of her dressed in construction gear, maybe one of the sexist things I’ve ever imagined. And it isn’t because the idea of spending the whole day with her sounds like the best plan in the world.
It’s because I don’t want her to be alone all day. Because she needs to be distracted and have a little fun.
I’m doing this for Ruby, not for me.
Hopefully if I repeat that to myself enough times, I’ll eventually believe it’s true.
chapter ten
Ruby
The town grocery store—One Stop Shop—is a lot smaller than what I pictured when Boyd told me we’d be working at the only grocery in town.
It reminds me more of the bodegas scattered on corners through the city and near my apartment than what I would consider a full-sized store.
It’s hard to imagine an entire community relying on this one little place to get all of their food, year-round, but I guess that’s what life is like when you live in a small mountain town. You make do with fewer amenities because that’s your only choice.
When we round a corner at the back, I see what Boyd meant when he said the guy with the recent heart attack wouldn’t be able to help with the expansion. The only thing in place is the concrete foundation.
I kind of assumed the framing would be done and that we’d be helping put up things like drywall and finishing touches, things I can help with. Clearly, I was mistaken, and I’m worried I’m just going to get in the way.
Hopefully, I can make up for my lack of knowledge with enthusiasm. I’m great at that.
“I’m glad you’re here, guys,” says a man around the same age as Boyd as we approach. “We are just about to put up the framing, and it would be amazing to have extra hands.”
“Put us wherever!” I say, clapping my hands together, my excitement about helping this family probably overwhelming to him since he has no idea who I am.
