Page 8 of Big Bad Wolf

Lena picked at the food on her plate, a furrow of worry between her brows. In the wake of their parents’ deaths, Lena had grown soft where Ruby had developed hard edges. When they’d moved here more than twenty years ago, Lena had managed to win their classmates over. She was well liked and well behaved. Where Ruby was seen as morose and sullen, Lena was bright and kind. Invitations to sleepovers and birthday parties were never in short supply for her sister, while Ruby stayed home with their octogenarian aunt and watched reruns of The Twilight Zone.

It didn’t matter. Ruby loved her aunt and her sister. She completely understood why everyone loved Lena, because she did too. But her sister was falling apart, and no one had stuck around to help.

The fact that Lena had become town gossip at the bar only drove the point home for Ruby. No one was coming to help them. It was up to her to fix whatever was wrong with her twin.

How the hell she was going to do that, she had no idea.

Ruby scraped the edges of the pan, getting every last bit of crispy cheese.

Lena gave her a tired smile. “I’m sorry you’ve been working double shifts.”

Ruby waved her fork as though she could brush away their problems. “It’s fine, really. I don’t mind.”

Shreya was right about Lena quitting her job at the local preschool. But she hadn’t been speaking in tongues. That little tidbit got added later as the story wound its way through town.

But it was true that Lena’s mind had drifted away during story time. Ruby maintained that the incident only proved what an amazing teacher Lena was. Not a single child moved from their seat as they waited patiently for Lena to start the story again. Unfortunately, her assistant teacher had returned from bathroom duty and found her unresponsive on the brightly colored alphabet carpet, Little Red Riding Hood in her lap.

Ruby reached across the table and took her sister’s hand again. “It’s going to be okay, Lena. I promise.”

Her sister sighed and shook her head.

“It will,” Ruby insisted. “Now go get some sleep.”

Lena’s pale blue eyes met hers. The girls were nearly identical in every way. Same dark hair, same fair skin, but where Ruby’s eyes were a dark brown, Lena’s were so light they sometimes looked translucent. Their parents used to say it was the only way to tell them apart when they were babies.

Lena looked as though she might say more, but instead, pulled her bathrobe tighter around her and shuffled back up the stairs to her bedroom. Shuffled, when she used to hike all the highest Maine peaks, when she used to be the center of every party.

Ruby listened to her footsteps overhead, the sound of her door clicking shut, the creaking of her old mattress as Lena sank into it.

And only then did she let her thoughts slip back to the woods.

Chapter Five

It took Rafe a week to work up the courage to return to town.

Unfortunately, he still hadn’t worked up the courage to enter the bar. So far, he’d gotten a week’s worth of laundry washed and dried at the laundromat while an older woman who introduced herself as Dolores repeatedly commented on his size. Then he spent far too long nursing a cup of coffee at Gert’s Diner in the center of town and stocked up on groceries at the cramped market next to the bar. He’d run into Dolores again in aisle six, her cart filled with cat food and cans of beef stew. She’d cackled with delight at seeing him, squeezing his arm with her arthritic fingers like they were old friends.

Maybe around here sharing laundry detergent counted as friendship?

Rafe wouldn’t know. He’d mostly avoided the town since he’d left his … family just over a year ago. Sometimes he’d go into one of the bigger towns nearby and stock up on supplies at a wholesale store, one big trip to avoid too many small ones, as strolling down the main street in Maple Hollow had felt too intimate, too dangerous. And he’d been right. He’d already accidentally befriended an old lady.

He still didn’t feel quite ready for so much human interaction, but Ruby happened.

Ruby.

He felt like her name had been etched onto his soul, written in permanent red ink. Or lipstick.

He hadn’t stopped thinking about her in a week.

He’d been consumed by her. By thoughts of her. Her moonlit skin and blood red lips, the rest of her like dark pools of shadow, black hair and black clothes. And that spicy cinnamon scent. Christ, he’d nearly reached out across the bar that night. The urge to touch her had been so strong. And for a minute, he could have sworn she wanted him to.

He ran a rough hand down his face, the ever-present stubble scraping against his palm. He needed to get a grip.

It was dark now and he was standing out in front of the bar, loitering like a creep. He’d already received several questioning looks from the locals as they headed inside. He needed to go in or go home.

Home to the safety of his cabin in the woods. There was a reason he lived out there on his own. He wasn’t fit for civilized life. He wasn’t fit for a woman like Ruby.

He’d hurt enough people in his life, and he had no intention of adding her to the list.