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“Exactly when the storm started to get bad.”
“Yes, Nolan. So what?”
“How did you get home? The roads were horrible. And then you went back this morning?”
“I stayed here. What’s your point?”
Nolan laughed. “Well, I’ll be damned. Now you really have to come on New Year’s Eve. I want to meet Ruby the surveyor. And I won’t take no for an answer.”
Ruby was making her way back up to the house now that the truck was slowly heading back down her driveway.
“Fine. We’ll come. I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
“I’ll text you the details.”
“Yeah. Sure.” Heath was desperate to end the call so he could talk to Ruby. As to how he was going to broach the subject of New Year’s Eve with her, he wasn’t sure.
“I hope you know how happy this makes me,” Nolan added.
“Goodbye, Nolan.” Heath ended the call and stuffed his phone back into his pocket. “Hey,” he said to Ruby as she climbed the stairs. “All taken care of?”
“Yes. Sam is such a sweetheart. He was worried about me because he knew that the power had gone out. He drove up to check and that’s when he saw the tree. He went back to get help and, well, that’s how you ended up with a clear passage to civilization.”
Heath then realized that, aside from the folks he paid to take care of his ranch, absolutely no one would check on him or his welfare. Not even Nolan would. He’d be too busy worrying and thinking about Chelsea. That was the difference between Ruby and him. She was kind and people clearly adored her. He was a monster who people despised. “That’s really nice.”
“So, yeah.” Ruby looked down at the porch floor. “You’re free to go whenever.”
Heath wanted to take Ruby’s hand, but he wasn’t sure that was what she wanted, so he didn’t. “I need to ask you something, but let’s go back inside, okay?”
“Sure.” Ruby followed him back into the house and closed the door. “Were you able to talk to your brother?”
“I was.”
“What did he say about that little detail I pointed out about the old survey?”
“I didn’t get that far. He didn’t want to hear about it.”
She nodded. “Because he’s married to a member of the Grandin family.”
“Right. And he said I was living in the past. He also pointed out that I can’t really fix what happened because my mom and Ashley aren’t here.”
She drew in a deep breath through her nose. “What did you say?”
He shrugged. “There wasn’t much I could say. He told me he was going to hang up if I kept talking about it.”
“Okay, well, then how do you feel about it?”
Heath wasn’t particularly good at talking about his feelings. Emotions were too abstract. Too unpredictable and entirely impossible to control. But Ruby made him want to try, even if he was fairly certain he wouldn’t do well. “It makes me mad. He’s shutting me down without listening.”
“Sounds like you need to say that to him, then.”
“Maybe. We’ll see.”
“It doesn’t make him wrong. There is probably some truth to what he’s telling you about not living in the past and letting things go.” She reached for his arm and stepped closer. “But I also understand why you’re struggling with that. Between my mom and Lucas, I’ve been through a lot of loss. I know what it’s like to feel like the past is holding you back, but you don’t know how to do anything other than cling to it because it hurt so much to lose everything you did.”
It took Heath a minute to wrap his head around that. She was right. Of course. And she understood what he was going through, which helped him digest her words a bit better. But was he really clinging to the past? Or was it just that somebody, somewhere, had to right this wrong? Simply so a bit of order could be restored and he could finally sleep? And if that was the case, he was clearly the only person who could do the job. No one else had the mettle to continue with the charge. No one else cared as much as he did. “It feels good to know that you understand. It helps.”
Ruby leaned against the wall and smiled softly. “Good. I’m glad. Hopefully that will help you move forward.”
