AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ruby walked past Heath, shaking her head. “Please don’t make it worse,” she said under her breath, then kept going right on through the door.
Heath closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, then followed her outside. “Ruby. Please,” he called after her. “Let me explain.”
She was already nearly fifty yards ahead of him, taking hurried strides toward his truck. She didn’t respond to his plea. She didn’t turn back. Heath was smart enough to know when a woman was angry with him. Hell, he’d just stood there and taken it from Chelsea and Morgan, and it had hurt. But seeing Ruby’s anger and disappointment was an entirely different experience. It cut him to the core. And he was desperate to make it stop.
He ran to catch up, but she was already at the truck, standing at the passenger’s door and avoiding eye contact. Heath clicked the fob and waited for Ruby to get in before he did the same. Part of him was worried she’d take off running the instant he climbed in and put on his seat belt. “Ruby, I’m so sorry that happened,” he said once they were both inside. “It had to have been horribly embarrassing.” He reached for her arm, needing to touch her. It created an ache square in the center of his chest.
She stared down at his hand on her, then shook her head and pulled her arm away, turning toward the window. “Drive, Heath. Just take me back to your place so I can get my car and go home.”
Heath swallowed hard. “I think we should talk about this.”
“Just drive.” Uncomfortable silence filled the cabin of his truck like poisonous gas, making it hard to breathe. Ruby turned to him and their gazes connected. Her eyes were ringed in pink and full of pain. “Please drive, Heath. I’m begging you.”
He didn’t need any more persuading. Perhaps she was right. They just needed to get to his place. Cool off. Then they could figure out what to do next. He started the truck and headed home. A million thoughts tumbled through his mind. He had a lot of things to fix right now, and although the most logical place to start was with a long conversation with Albert, he was far more concerned with mending things with Ruby. Surely she would understand where he was coming from. She always had before. It was part of what had drawn him to her. Why would now be any different?
As he pulled into his driveway and headed up to the house, he decided that he would let Ruby take the lead on this. He’d done an excellent job digging himself a hole with his words. He didn’t need to be in any deeper. He parked in front of the house and killed the engine, then opened his door, but Ruby didn’t move. “Are you coming inside?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m going to leave in a minute. But I have a few things I need to say first, and I don’t want to go back inside your house, and I don’t want to stand outside and freeze to death.”
Heath immediately closed his truck door. It wasn’t worth arguing that they would be far more comfortable in his living room, sitting in front of a roaring fire with something strong to drink. “Of course. Whatever you want. Why don’t you tell me what you’re thinking? And don’t hold back. Let it rip. I figure we might as well get it all out now.”
She took several long breaths in through her nose and blew them out through her mouth, like she was trying to center herself. “You know what, Heath? I know that justice for your mother and sister means a lot to you.” Her voice was already cracking with emotion, which made Heath’s heart bind up into a tight ball. “But I had hoped that your better nature would win out. That you wouldn’t break up another family’s legacy just to fulfill your own.”
“This isn’t aboutmylegacy. It’s about my sister and everything she can’t do because she’s not here.”
“Listen to what you just said. Ashley isn’t here anymore. Neither is your mother. They’re both gone. And I’m not sure you’ve come to terms with that. You can’t get real justice for a memory. You can’t. Anything you accomplish with a lawsuit will be for you. No one else.”
The hurt in her voice was like a knife to the center of his chest, but he accepted that he had to hear these things, even when he didn’t fully agree. “I don’t think that’s entirely true. The foundation will help people. You’ve said it yourself. Plus, is it so wrong that it matters to me? I’m here. I’m not a memory. I’m sitting right here with you, Ruby. And I need you to understand where I was coming from when I made one last attempt at getting the Grandins and Lattimores to own up to their misdeeds.”
“Do you think I don’t understand that you’re holding on to more than a memory?” she croaked. “I know the difference between someone being here and not being here. Every minute of my existence is wrapped around knowing the difference. I lived through that when I lost Lucas.”
“And that’s one of the reasons we grew so close so quickly. We have that shared experience. We are cut from the same cloth, Ruby.”
“We are not the same. You have this need to get even. You’re vindictive. And it’s your vindictiveness that’s gotten everyone into this situation. I thought I knew you, but clearly I do not.”
At first Heath had no response to that. Ruby’s words were still slicing through him. After a few weighty moments, he said, “I hope you realize that being vindictive is not a normal part of my personality. If I ever became that way, it was because of things others did. I didn’t start this.”
“And I’m so tired of hearing that story, Heath. At some point, you have to let it go.”
“I did let it go. I have. I told my lawyer to drop the suit. I don’t see why everyone doesn’t understand that. I had no way of knowing Nelson Redfield would get wind of any of this. And if the Grandin and Lattimore families committed a crime, that’s not my fault.”
“That’s not what I’m angry about. I’m angry because the whole time we’ve been together, we had dozens of talks about the importance of moving on. And now I know that you were just saying things that you didn’t really mean. That whole time, you weren’t actually moving on. How am I supposed to believe that anything between us was real? That it was anything more than sex?”
Heath could not believe what she was saying to him right now. Was her opinion of him really that poor? “You really don’t believe that what happened between us was real? Do you have any idea how much that hurts me? I told you about my mom and my sister. I told you my deepest feelings about everything that happened to my family. That was all real to me. Just like it was real when you told me about Lucas.”
Pink rose to the surface of Ruby’s cheeks and her shoulders drew tight. “But it’s not exactly the same, is it? I was going to spend the rest of my life with Lucas. My entire future was wrapped up in him. He took a piece of my heart with him. It will never be replaced. There will always be a part of me that is missing. And it’s not coming back.”
“Are you trying to say that romantic love is stronger than what I had for my family? I don’t see how that makes any sense. Family is the beginning and the end.”
“Family is about more than blood, Heath. It’s about love and trust. You can make someone your family. You can also send them away.”
“Well, that much is true. My brother did that.”
“Please don’t feel sorry for yourself.”
“I’m not. These are facts.” The frustration inside was so immense that he could hardly think straight. “You know, Ruby, you told me that you were disappointed in me, but I have to say that I feel the same way about you. You have always understood my side in this. What changed? What’s different?”
She scanned his face as if she were looking for answers or deciphering a puzzle. “It’s different because I love you.”
