It was the second time I’d knocked on the yellow door, but only silence answered. There was no flurry in the house or uneven steps to greet me. The box of groceries balanced on my hip dug into my skin when I knocked again.
Still no answer.
Fear gripped around my throat, but I shook my head, urging myself to calm down. I always overreacted when it came to Ruth. No need to panic. She was probably working in the garden and didn’t hear me. It wouldn’t be the first time.
I hauled the box under my arm and barrelled my way off the porch and down the stairs.
Everything’s fine.
My boots crunched in quick steps down the gravel path, and rusty hinges squealed when I pushed through the gate. I added it to the mental list of things I needed to fix.
“Ruth?”
A floppy straw hat popped above the wall of pea shoots edging the vegetable patch.
“Aiden!” Ruth’s good hand clutched around the small trowel that she waved at me across the yard. “Is it that late already? I must have lost track of time.”
I made my way over, crouching beside a mound of fresh soil, the box of groceries balanced awkwardly on my knee.
“How’s the veggie patch coming along?” I asked her.
Most of Ruth’s face stayed hidden under the shadow of her hat until her chin tipped up. Her familiar crooked grin flashed my way. “Good.” She huffed with frustration as she stabbed her trowel upright in the soil, done with her gardening for now. “But some days, I feel like I’m growing an all-you-can-eat buffet for my archnemesis.”
“Paulie the Possum’s struck again, huh?”
Ruth pointed at a row of mangled tomato bushes. “That bloody terror ate my whole crop!”
“We can put up some netting if you want.”
“I’m willing to try anything at this point. We’ll figure out a day around your work next week. But right now, forget it. I’m starving!” Her fingers fumbled in the dirt. “Where the heck—” Her hand froze. “Aha! Found it!”
Her cane popped out from under the pumpkin vine in a rain of soil, and she anchored it into the path and pushed up to her feet. She wobbled, always a little unsteady at first, and when a grimace tugged at her lips, my hand shot out, ready.
Her face stayed hidden under her hat, but I didn’t need to see her eyes to know she was glaring at me. “Don’t you dare,” she hissed. “I can do it myself.”
It took a few shaky steps for Ruth to get started down the path, but once she had a good rhythm, her pace quickened. Her chin tipped up with another crooked grin—a silent“I told you so”I’d seen a thousand times. She was gloating, but I didn’t mind. Not one bit. She was walking. And as I followed Ruth into the kitchen, the sight of the jagged scars carved into her legs reminded me how much rehab she’d pushed herself through to be walking at all.
With a wave of her cane and a shout over her shoulder to “Make yourself comfortable!” she disappeared to the bathroom to wash up.
Comfortable?
I snorted, and the box of groceries hit the countertop with a thud. The last ten years of my life had been like the shirt I’d shrunk in the dryer. A size too small. Suffocating. Worse than a straitjacket. Make myself comfortable? Yeah, right.
I just had to keep moving. My mind couldn’t start spinning fairytales again. If the sweet woman twirling that damn scam jam in her fingers hadn’t landed in town, the idea of me settling down would still be dead and buried—where it belonged.
I unpacked the fruit and vegetables from the box, arranging everything in Ruth’s neatly labelled containers in the fridge. A flip of the switch and the kettle was on. Out came the coffee pot. What next? Maybe I should start on some sandwiches…
“Aiden?”
The uneven pad of feet slowed through the kitchen doorway. I glanced up. Ruth’s dark hair dripped in thin, wet strings down her back. The corners of her mouth drooped lower and lower as her eyes flicked between the coffee and mugs before landing on the snacks cluttering the wooden dining table.
Grumbling, Ruth said, “I could’ve helped with some of that.” Her cane nudged out a chair, and I was careful not to offer my hand when she eased down. “I’m disappointed Harry couldn’tmake it today. I feel like the two of us haven’t been able to gang up on you in weeks.” Grinning, she grabbed a jam drop from the box.
“His mum’s not doing well at the moment.” Nothing more needed to be said about that. Ruth understood. “But he ran the gauntlet to get you those biscuits. He wanted to be sure he got credit for them.”
“He was at the markets?”
“Yeah.”
