AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I wondered if you had any thoughts about what her intentions for the visit might have been," Dexter says, glancing up at the screen.
Ruby takes a deep breath. "I think she wanted to sell me on a vision of her and Julien's life and to make me feel sorry for them, to be honest. Although, I guess not exactly, because they clearly aren't in any sort of financial distress." Ruby touches the tips of her fingers to her lips as she looks out at the ocean. "But maybe more like she wants me to feel the same sense of sympathy for their loss as I feel for myself and my daughters. I think she wanted me to see that they've lost someone too, and that they had counted on him for things in the same way that we did. Love, support, money." Ruby shrugs.
"Makes sense. And what did you explicitly hope to gain from going over there and staying with them?"
"It was selfish, but I think I wanted to be able to go there and prove to myself that he'd made a horrible misstep by taking up with that woman. I wanted to know firsthand that Etienne was a shrew and Julien a mistake." Ruby pauses and looks at Dexter until he stops writing and meets her eye. "I'm not sure about including that part in the book," she says, holding up a hand, "but I am trying to be honest with you. I just don't know if I want to publicly admit that I thought Jack's son was a mistake. That feels unkind and wrong."
"Noted," Dexter says, going back to his writing.
"I think I also hoped to go there and get some sense of Jack's other life, if I'm laying myself bare here--and I am. I wanted to touch the things he touched, sit at the table he'd eaten at, and walk around the village he'd come to know as his second home. So, I guess maybe I hoped to make peace with that by seeing it firsthand."
"I think that's understandable," Dexter says. He sounds impartial, but Ruby knows he's not. "If you had to describe the trip in one word, what would it be?"
"Muddy."
"Muddy?"
Ruby nods as she wraps both hands around her coffee mug. "Yeah. Like, I went there hoping for clarity, and I left in a hurry because things got too confusing. I realized that being there was disruptive to Julien, and that maybe there would never be a true sense of understanding between me and Etienne. Or from metowardsEtienne. Because, to be honest, I don't really believe the responsibility is on me to forgive and to forge any bonds. But regardless...it was just not as enlightening as I'd hoped."
Dexter stops writing and glances at her on the screen. Ruby looks back and their eyes meet. "When can we see each other in person again?" he asks.
"You said you were headed back to New York, so when will you be down here again?"
"I'm guessing in three or four weeks. But planes go both ways, you know." Dexter gives her an amused smile.
"I'm actually busy planning an event with Vance Guy," Ruby says, changing tacks. "Remember when you introduced us at the bookstore on Christmas Key and he mentioned us doing some sort of author tour together that involved both islands?"
"It's in the works?" Dexter leans back in his chair, readjusting his baseball cap as he does.
"June tenth," Ruby says. "Less than a month away. Do you think you can be back down here for that?"
Dexter pretends to consider this. "Hmm. I think I could work my travel around that. What's on tap?"
"Jantzen Parks will be there, as will Olive Singer. We're waiting to find out if Manda Monroe and Hannah Lovewell will join in."
"So you've got two mystery authors locked in and the other two are...?"
"Romance," Ruby says. "We wouldn't mind having a famous biographer--if you know of anyone." She grins at him over the rim of her coffee mug.
"June tenth, huh?"
"Yes. We're planning a trip with Island Paradise Excursions where we hit both islands and the authors can read and give talks, and then there's an extra day in each location for people to explore, hopefully spend money at the local shops, and enjoy our islands." Ruby watches him as he nods. "But if I could sign you up for the whole thing, that would make it a lot more fun."
"What kind of amenities are offered to these world class authors?" Dexter jokes.
"I think the rest of them get passage on the boat, obviously, and lodging at the Christmas Key B&B on one end, and at The Shipwreck Inn on the other. But if a certain big name author wanted to stay with me at my place, I think that could be arranged."
Dexter feigns horror. "You would let Jantzen Parks stay at your house?"
Ruby sets her coffee mug on the arm of her Adirondack chair as she laughs. "That would prove once and for all that I was deeply into age-gap romances," she says, "but also that I'm an equal opportunity dater. Jantzen Parks has got to be seventy, if he's a day."
"There's something to be said for a distinguished older man," Dexter says.
"There's something to be said for a man of any age who makes you laugh, who challenges you, and intrigues you."
Dexter's face goes serious. "The same could be said for women."
The tension between them has skyrocketed now that they've switched from book talk to personal talk, and Ruby can feel her pulse racing. "So you'll think about it?"
