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DAHLIA
When Dahlia arrived back at the shed that night, Ruby wasn’t there. She could tell she had been. The door to her room was flung open and there were boxes everywhere.
Dahlia locked the front door behind her, then went to check the back and make sure it was locked too.
What if the man Ruby had seen really was Nathan Brewer? Though it seemed like if it were Nathan Brewer, rumors about him would have been flying already.
Dahlia heard a key in the lock a moment later, and then Ruby. “Hi,” she said.
“I was worried about you,” Dahlia said.
“Why?” Ruby frowned.
“Because you saw a man skulking around earlier.”
“Ah, right,” Ruby said, as if she’d forgotten about the skulking man. “Can you help me carry stuff in from the car?”
“What did you get?”
“Everything,”Ruby said. “Retail therapy, Dee. It’s a thing.”
She vanished out the front door again, into the twilight.
“Are you using Mom and Dad’s car?”
“Mom said I could,” Ruby said, bending over and digging into the back of the small SUV. “She said Dad never goes to town anyway.”
Dahlia supposed that she shouldn’t find that annoying. Particularly considering she was living on her parents’ property for free.
Ruby appeared, not with bags as Dahlia expected, but a very large box. “I drove into Medford. I went to Target. You said that I needed my own desk.”
“Why are you retail therapizing?” Dahlia asked, watching as Ruby hefted the long box and carried it inside. Then she went to the back of the car and grabbed hold of the bags that were sitting in there. There were many.
“I had a whole day,” Ruby said, waving her hand. “And I felt bad, so I thought I should throw some money at it and make it go away.”
“You realize this is a very small space, right?”
“Yes. I do. I needed a desk, though, and I needed storage. But my desk can go next to yours.”
Cozily, Dahlia thought with much annoyance.
“Yeah,” Dahlia said.
“Also, I got some succulents,” Ruby said. “Because of your plant.”
Dahlia shook her head. “You’re a whole thing—do you know that?”
“What?”
“You came in here and basically took over, and just when I start to get irritated at you... I can’t.”
“I don’t want you to be irritated with me.”
“I know,” Dahlia said. “I know you don’t. And I can’t stay irritated at you anyway.”
“I didn’t mean to take over either. I’m just trying to... Help.”
Dahlia grimaced. “You always are.”
