Ruby Island

by Anita Rodriguez

  "I thought we shared everything, Amy, but you never told me you had children with this guy, Matt, when we were dating. It's scandalous." He was joking, but Amy pushed away from him.

  "I told you what happened, or that I don't really know what happened, Bill. I think I'm losing my mind." Amy turned away and wiped her face dry with the sleeve of her bathing suit wrap. "Is Matt their father?" she asked.

  "I don't know. He left so fast that we don't have any of his DNA."

  Amy sighed. That didn't matter right now. What mattered was that she was a mother to three boys, one who was almost a teenager. Her entire life had changed three days ago, but now it was official.

  "I'm going to take the boys climbing, Amy. You relax here and process all of this. I've gone through the baby-momma thing a lot of times, and it can really make you rethink your whole future."

  "Yes, but you were never the baby-daddy. Right?"

  Bill nodded. "You've got me there times three." He smiled the soft smile that brought specks of stars into his eyes, and Amy melted a bit.

  When Amy and Bill came back to the pool, the boys were already gone. Amy was sure that Donnelly had whisked them inside to get ready for their hike. She was glad that they weren't there though. She was just taking it all in as Bill had recommended. She had a sense that she was their mother, but now she knew for certain. She went to Bill's suite and lay down on the couch while he got ready for his outing. He sat next to her for a moment and wiped the tears from her eyes. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead and without a word, he left her with a smile.

  Amy cried for a long time for reasons she understood and at times she cried just to cry. She had wanted children, she thought, but she almost never expected it to happen. And here she was the mother of three. When she got herself together, she thought about calling Nicole and Lucy, but she picked up the phone and called her mother instead.

  "Hi, Mom," Amy said at the sound of her mother's voice.

  "This is Mabel," her mother said.

  "Mom, it's Amy."

  "Yes, sweetheart. How are you enjoying the island? I expected you back by now." Amy had texted Mabel two days earlier to let her know she was going to be away for a few days and that she was with Bill Ruby. Mabel hadn’t replied, but she never replied to texts, and Amy wasn’t sure her mom had figured that out yet.

  Amy took a deep breath and decided there was no way to really say this. "Mabel," she returned to her mother's name because her mother preferred it. "Something happened on this island, or I should say on the way to the island."

  "My God, are you okay? I heard about some fool trying to fly to the island, but I knew it wasn't you. As Bill always likes to say, no one flies to Ruby Island."

  "I'm fine," Amy said exasperated. "There was an accident though, Mom… Mabel, something happened." Amy was surprised that she was calling Mabel 'mom' again. She hadn't called her ‘mom’ since she was eight years old unless she was trying to annoy her. "Are you sitting down?"

  "Why would I need to sit down, honey? I've heard it all."

  Amy took another deep breath and then plunged in.

  "Mabel, you’re a grandmother." Amy waited over the silent line and let her mother process this fact. She was sure it wouldn’t go over easily. Her mom was aging well but she was not accepting her age gracefully. Amy knew that she wouldn’t like to hear the word grandmother. "Did you hear me?"

  "I'm not sure I heard you correctly. Did you just say the word ‘grandmother’ to me?"

  "Yes, I did say that. You are a grandmother," Amy said a little impatiently. She needed Mabel right now. She needed the strong, carefree mother that Amy had counted on in the past.

  "Did that Bill Ruby have your baby in a test tube when you weren't looking?"

  "Mabel."

  "What? I always said he was a bit too intense about you. He was like a stalker. And when you left here three days ago, you weren't pregnant, honey."

  "He's not a stalker. He's just about the nicest man I know." Amy was pacing now. She hadn't realized that she was going to have to convince her mother.

  "Amy, were you in that plane crash? Are you all right?" Amy could hear concern in Mabel's voice, and she stopped pacing.

  "There wasn't a plane crash."

  "Yes, there was. There were photos on the news of a small plane sinking near Ruby Island. I didn't think anything of it because I know you go there by boat."

  Amy wondered what Mabel was talking about since they had landed on the island in one piece, but she got a sinking feeling in her gut that she should hang up and call Matt right away. What if he had been stupid enough to try to fly off the island? He couldn't have though, because if there was anything wrong, Bill would have told her. She took a deep breath and readied herself for the task at hand.

  "I was in the plane with Matt Cole from work, and there was a flash of light." Amy told Mabel what had happened from the white haze that had engulfed them to the boys showing up out of nowhere, but she omitted the engine failure and the almost crashing into the sea. When she was done telling her story, there was a minute of silence.

  "The Bermuda Triangle. It was the Bermuda Triangle," Mabel said. "Remember Betty Stringer? She was on some charter in the Bahamas and she went through the Bermuda Triangle and her plane had to land on the water. Luckily it had pontoons and she was rescued in less than twenty-four hours."

  "Mabel," Amy groaned, although she believed in the Bermuda Triangle whole-heartedly today. "You are a grandmother. I have DNA proof. I will explain more when I see you."

  There was silence on the line, and then Amy heard a small exhale.

  "Mabel?" she asked.

  "I'm here, sweetheart." Amy could hear tears in her mom's voice, but her mother never cried. She was a rock, the captain of the ship, and she always kept it together. Amy assumed she was having a hard time with the word 'grandmother'.

  "Come on, Mabel. It's not like the doctor just diagnosed you with cancer."

  "Bite your tongue, Amy. It's not about me. I'm just so happy for you."

  This took Amy aback. Her mother was not known to show emotion, and Amy could feel her sincerity through the phone. "Thank you, Mom. We're going to stay down here for a few more days. It's quite a shock, and we need time to get to know each other before I come back to New York. Bill is taking care of everything."

  "Of course he is. That's what Bill does," Mabel said with a touch less sarcasm this time.

  Amy lay in the king-sized white bed with Benjamin, her youngest son. Steven, the middle boy, was asleep on the floor. She found herself relishing the simple sound of their breathing and smiled a half-smile. It was all too unreal, but it felt right to her in some way.

  There was a light knock on the door and Bill Ruby peeked his head inside. He looked at Amy and the boys and smiled his million-dollar smile, and Amy felt that old familiar surge of happiness she felt when she was around him. She had always been attracted to Bill. A woman would have to be dead not to be dazzled by him. Even now in his khaki shorts and white unbuttoned shirt, his skin tanned golden all the way down past his belly button, he was casually irresistible.

  "William likes having his own room," Bill whispered.

  "When the boys said we all lived together, I didn't realize they meant in the same room," Amy whispered back.

  Bill came to the side of the bed and held his hand out in question, and Amy nodded. He pulled the covers back and lie down right next to Amy. She picked her head up and he put his arm around her, and it was all so familiar.

  "I've missed sleeping with you," Bill said, and Amy hit his arm lightly.

  "Bill," she warned.

  "What? You are the only girl I ever slept with that I didn't sleep with."

  "Yeah," Amy said. She put her hand up to her face. As much as Bill dazzled her and made her feel comfortable, it was moments like this that Amy felt exposed as a fraud. She never considered herself beautiful, and she couldn't understand what someone like Bill Ruby could possibly see in her. They were great
friends and she wished she could get over it, but there was always that soft voice reminding her that she wasn't completely comfortable with him on every level. Sure, she was comfortable in his arms and he'd always been completely respectable, but the spark just wasn't there for Amy.

  "I've been trying to figure out what’s going on. What am I supposed to do? I don't even know how old I am now. Ugh."

  Bill chuckled and kissed Amy on the forehead. "You're the same age you were a week ago."

  "So you believe me?" she asked.

  "Of course, look at these boys. It's all too real to be made up. I mean, they never saw my movies, Amy. They had to be stranded on an island or living under a rock."

  "Well at least they knew who you were," Amy said, snuggling into Bill.

  "Thank you for naming your first born son, whom you had with another man, after me. Remind me to thank you for that over and over."

  "I will remind you on William's birthday every year. Oh my gosh, I don't even know when my son's birthdays are," Amy complained.

  "We'll ask them," Bill said, squeezing her shoulder. "And if they don't know, we’ll let them choose dates." They talked quietly, and somewhere in the night, the lull of the ocean sang them to sleep.

  Chapter 7

  Matt's cell phone rang but he didn't answer. He wasn't answering any calls from numbers that he didn't recognize right now. He got a text shortly after the phone rang.

  "This is Amy. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. I heard there was a plane crash near Ruby Island".

  He texted back, "I'm okay," but left it at that. He was walking into his fiancé's television studio in New York City’s Times Square. He loved to watch her under the lights reading the news from a teleprompter. She was great at ad-libbing, and between that and her perfect body, she was a shoe-in for the job. She wasn't a reporter, she was more important than that. Sarah Robinson was a celebrity, and Matt loved to walk into a room with her on his arm.

  It wasn't that he liked to see the other men ogling Sarah. He'd heard a song about that: the singer enjoying other guys’ reactions to his girl because he knew she was all that. Matt knew that was just a song to get the ladies. No man liked the ogling of his girl. Matt attributed this fact to the primal male instinct to keep what is his. Like male animals fighting in the wild: he'd almost hit a few guys whom he noticed undressing Sarah with their eyes.

  Sarah finished her prep work at the news desk and then stood up, her thin figure beautiful under the bright stage lights. Her eyes scoped the studio, and when she saw Matt, her smile lit the room. She moved around the desk and Matt moved to greet her.

  "Sarah, you look beautiful as always." Sarah leaned in and rubbed up against Matt. She’s magnificent, he thought. She was really the whole package: beauty, brains, success. She would take the world by storm, and he would be right there with her.

  Matt admired the way Sarah always knew what she wanted without hesitation. She knew what to order on a menu within ten seconds, she knew which moves to make in her career, which apartment to rent, and which parties to attend. He was floundering a bit in life with his current writer's block, but he felt successful when he was with her.

  The hair on the back of his neck prickled and he leaned in for a kiss, but she kissed the air next to his cheek.

  "I'm on in twenty minutes, babe. Don't mess with the makeup." Matt took a deep breath and smiled, but he was a bit annoyed. She never let him kiss her in public, and no matter where they were, it was always about the makeup.

  One of the suits from upstairs came toward them, and Sarah took a step back. "Jim, so nice of you to come down," Sarah gushed to the suit. He took her hand but didn't quite shake it, just holding it out in front of her for a moment too long.

  "I need to keep tabs on my new superstar." The suit forgot that Matt was standing there and smiled at Sarah, making sure to check out her figure in the process.

  "Jim, have you met Matt?"

  "I don't believe I have." The suit turned halfway toward Matt and absently shook his hand.

  Matt was about to introduce himself as Sarah's fiancé, but she snapped to attention and barked, "Matt, get me a drink."

  "Sure," Matt said, feeling put off. "Coffee?" he asked.

  Sarah looked at Matt with the eyes of a disapproving schoolteacher. "Matt, I go on in twenty, you know I can't drink coffee right now. Be a dear and get me a bottle of water with a straw."

  As Matt walked away, he realized that he was annoyed with the way Sarah had just barked at him. He used to jump at any request, but today he was bothered by her attitude. He chalked it up to his increasing level of stress due to the Ruby Island incident. That's what he was calling it: The Ruby Island Incident. It sounded so sinister, and it was to him. He didn't want to think about it, so he walked faster to get Sarah her water.

  He would get her whatever she wanted. They were a couple, a team. What she needed, he needed. He turned back to see Sarah leaning in and touching the suit's arm, and the guy was buying every ounce of charm she was selling. This had never really bothered Matt before, and he shook his head when the word 'bitch' passed through it.

  Amy stepped out into the hot sun and let it warm her to the core. She was wearing a bikini under her long, white bathing suit wrap. Her pale freckled skin was starting to tan, and she was calm and refreshed. She held the cell phone to her ear and waited for Matt to pick up, but it went to voicemail for the tenth day in a row. She knew he didn't crash the airplane trying to leave the island because he had texted her back once. Still, she wanted to talk to him. She wanted to hear his voice to know that she wasn't losing her mind. He was the only other person on that airplane, and she felt like she needed to at least touch base with him. Of course, there was also the matter of the DNA results. She had officially been a mom for two weeks.

  "You look wonderful, Amy," Bill said as he walked past her to the waiting Jeep. He was carrying her camera bag and a cooler. It was strange to see him carrying bags on his own. It wasn't that he was a prima donna, but he paid his staff well to handle things before he even knew what those things might be, and they worked like a well-oiled machine.

  Bill was changing, and Amy thought it must have been the time he was spending with the boys. It was like he was a family man all of a sudden, and that had surprised Amy. She watched his gorgeous body load the items and realized she was crazy for thinking of Matt when a specimen like Bill was within arm's reach.

  Bill didn't stop to talk to Amy, instead returning to the house to make sure all was ready. They were going on a picnic in a spot the boys had found yesterday. Bill assured Amy that it was a spot that was easy enough to get to, but she slipped on some hiking shoes and carried her flip-flops to the Jeep. She put them in the outside pocket of the bag Bill had placed in her seat. The bag wasn't hers from New York. It was a new bag with a new camera and new film for her to use. He had sent for it two days ago when she had opened her gig bag and realized that all of her film had been used up. She had been shocked to see roll after roll fully used, and even more shocked to see there was wear on the labeling, and the boxes looked faded. There was even a little sand in the bottom of her bag, and she had hastily shaken it out to preserve the film. She had decided to use the new camera because she wanted to have hers properly serviced when they returned to New York.

  They, she thought. When they returned to New York. It wasn't just Amy anymore, and it would never be again. Those were her boys, her three sons. They knew everything about her, and she could remember nothing. They had reminded Amy that she had used up all the film on the island, taking a photo of the family every once in a while until the film was used up. That was when Bill said he was going to install a dark room for her to develop the film, but Amy said it could wait until she returned home. She didn't tell Bill, but she was terrified to develop that film. She was petrified to see what her life might have looked like together with Matt.

  When Bill returned, the two younger boys came running out behind him and piled into the Jeep. Amy
noticed that the eldest boy, William, walked to the SUV a bit slower. Amy had come to calling him William since that was his proper name. Her son preferred Bill, but it was just too confusing with Bill Ruby and Bill at the same table. Of course, Ruby joked that she could call him 'Sweetie' like she used to. Amy could see this hadn't gone over good with William, and when he started talking about Matt every five minutes, she realized that to these boys, Matt was their father, and the only man they had seen their mother with. Heck, he was the only man they had seen period.

  As the days went by with Bill, Amy could see William and even Steven trusting him less. They liked him when they had his attention, but when it switched to their mother, Amy saw them clam up. She knew it was because of her. The oldest, William, had asked her where their dad went. He reminded Amy of Matt every chance he got, as though she were forgetting.

  Of course, he couldn't know that every other thought in her head was about Matt. She was trying to keep it together, trying to move forward as a single mom as Bill put it. She could easily read what Bill wanted, but she wasn’t at the point in her life to entertain thoughts of them being a couple again. She would wait on the island until it was time, and then she would return to New York City with the boys and see what kind of life she could put together for them as a family.

  Bill stopped at Amy's door and Amy climbed into the passenger seat and tucked the photo bag at her feet. Bill closed the door and walked around the front of the Jeep, his perfect smile melting Amy's confused heart for a moment. Benji scampered around after him and hopped in the front seat on Bill's lap and pretended to drive the SUV. When William finally climbed in the back, Bill actually started the engine and let Benji steer down the main driveway. Benji was a young child, and he enjoyed all of the attention and adventure. Bill was showing the boys a new world, her world. It was a world with houses and cars, swimming pools and electronics, and a world with interesting people and not just their family. Amy frowned at that thought.