by Joy Elbel
As we brushed the cats, Rachel talked about shopping, cheerleading and her boyfriend, Boone Sterling. Boone was a linebacker for the Red Ravens and apparently the only reason she became a cheerleader. Scouts would be watching his performance pretty closely this year, she said, because his brother Drake Sterling had just gotten drafted into the NFL. I wasn’t a football fan but I had a feeling that in this town, I was going to have to fake it if I wanted to fit in. At least the school colors—black and red—were to my liking.
Her incessant chatter started to grow on me, but I got uncomfortable when she started to ask me questions about myself. She asked where I was from, what bands I listened to, and what kind of movies I liked. Those questions were easy to answer but I knew the big one was coming—did I have a boyfriend. I didn’t know how I was going to answer her until the words came out of my mouth.
“So do you have a boyfriend?” she looked at me with quizzical eyes and I was pretty sure that if I said no, she would probably say that Boone’s friend so and so would be perfect for me. The last thing I needed was to be set up with some loser who couldn’t get his own dates.
“Yeah,” I answered simply, hoping maybe she would let it go at that. No such luck. Luck was something I’d never had before—why did I expect it now?
“Oh.” She seemed disappointed. “What’s his name?”
“Seeley—but everyone calls him Lee.” It wasn’t really a lie, was it? He was still my boyfriend and she would probably never ask the dreaded question ‘is he still alive?’ I swallowed hard and focused on grooming King Tut’s silky fur. He was half asleep on a throw rug on the floor, snoring and enjoying each stroke of the brush.
“How long have you been dating? Do you think you can make a long distance relationship work?” She had more questions than a game of Jeopardy.
So I wove the lie a little tighter, like a vine of ivy climbing a stone wall. “We’ve been dating for a year but we’ve been best friends for as long I can remember.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Not to be a jerk or anything, but aren’t you afraid he’ll cheat on you? I mean, it’s not like you’ll see each other very often, right?”
Wow, she must really have her heart set on matching me with someone. “Lee would never cheat on me,” I said with conviction. Because he couldn’t. I was irritated and Rachel picked up on it instantly.
“Sorry, that was rude of me. I’m sure he’s a great guy.”
She fell silent momentarily, lending credence to her sincerity so I chose to forgive her. Rachel was the closest thing I had to a friend in this town. Hell, aside from Lee, she was the closest thing I’d ever had to a friend. I couldn’t alienate her so quickly after meeting her. She was struggling to change the subject when I heard the door open behind me. Her face lit up brightly so I assumed that I was about to meet Boone.
“Zach! You have to meet my new friend, Ruby Matthews.” Friend. It was nice to hear her call me that after only knowing me for a few hours. Maybe I wasn’t that weird after all—or at least good at faking normalcy. I turned to say hello to her little brother but the word got stuck in my throat. Towering right above me was my Norse god from the diner.
It made complete sense and I could have kicked myself for not noticing it earlier. With them both in the same room, the similarities were striking. They had the same ultra-blond hair and crystal blue eyes. Both were tall and athletic-looking and had the same smile. When she said little brother, though, I was expecting someone much younger and waaay less hot!
“Hello, Ruby.”
Those two simple words rang through my ears like a symphony. Zach. The name fit him perfectly. Just like those jeans he was wearing. Fancy came up and rubbed against his legs and let out a loud meow. I agreed with her wholeheartedly. Mee-oow!!
Zach kneeled down to pet her and looked me in the eyes. “I hoped I would see you again.”
I sat there dumbly, unable to respond. Say something, Ruby!! Don’t just sit there like a moron! I put down the brush with every intention of standing up gracefully but my legs were numb from sitting in the same position for the last hour. It was a recipe for disaster.
I stumbled and my hand instinctively reached out for something to balance myself on. That thing turned out to be his wonderfully sculpted shoulder. Every ounce of my blood rushed hotly to my face. I snapped my hand back quickly but nowhere near fast enough. He caught my hand in his and stood up in one fluid motion, pulling me with him like a ragdoll. I was less than an inch from his chest, his legs, his…. No! Don’t even go there! That was the last thing I needed to think about at a moment like this!
Thoroughly humiliated, I took a step back. My head was slightly clearer with some distance between us. Somehow, I managed to croak a rough “thanks” out of my throat as I prayed for Rachel to start talking about anything or nothing at all. It really didn’t matter right now. I just needed something to distract me from the fact that I just groped the Norse god, both mentally and physically.
“Zach, I volunteered your muscles for a job at Ruby’s house tonight.”
I take it back—anything but that! Something about her tone of voice gave me the sinking feeling that she noticed how flustered he made me. And she was enjoying it.
“That’s cool. And just what will my muscles be doing?” He directed that question to me with a flirty smile. How exactly did he expect me to answer that? My brain was enveloped by a Zach-induced fog and I forgot why he was even coming to my house in the first place. Thankfully, Rachel was ready with a proper response this time.
“Ruby has a cat tree she needs you to put together. We’re going over to Rosewood after dinner tonight. Is seven okay for both of you?”
“Yes,” we answered at the same time, chiming together in perfect harmony. There was something uniquely magical about the sound of his voice intertwined with mine. But then again, everything about him seemed magical. He was simply mesmerizing. I was mesmerized. His next words, however, broke that spell quickly.
“I’ll be glad to help but I’m going to need my hand back before then, though,” Zach said with a mischievous smile.
I quickly looked down at my hand. Yep, there it was still clasping his like a freaking idiot. I released my grasp immediately though he gave me a light squeeze before he let my hand drop. Epic embarrassment. Were there any large boulders nearby that I could crawl under? Nope, not a single one in sight.
“Well, if you know which cat you want to adopt, I can go let Andy know so he can do the paperwork,” Rachel offered. My gut told me she just wanted to give Zach and me time alone together. Was he the ‘loser’ she was trying to hook me up with? And even if he was, why did it matter to me? The answer was simple. It didn’t. Okay, so I found him attractive. Not hard to do considering he was hot enough to raise Cleopatra out of her dusty tomb just to get a second look at him. That still didn’t mean I wanted to go out with him.
Pulling myself away from thoughts of Zach, I regained focus. “I was hoping to adopt a kitten. I thought my cat Mimi would accept a little one easier than an adult.”
“Go ahead and have Andy get started, Rachel. This won’t take more than a few minutes. I know exactly what Ruby needs.” He smiled and winked at me. He was so self-assured—how could he possibly know what I needed when I didn’t even know myself?
He opened the door for me and led me to the room on the left. Cages lined every wall, each one housing one or two cats. The meowing was ear splitting. The noise helped me to distract my thoughts away from Zach and the fact that we were alone together now. He bent down, opened a cage and turned around with a handful of light gray fur.
“This is Coco. About a week ago, Matt Wehler brought her in. Matt works for his family’s logging company driving log trucks back and forth between here and West Virginia. He said he saw some kids in a truck stop parking lot trying to give away a box full of free kittens. He was only in the store long enough to get a coffee. When he came out, the kids were pointing at him and laughing. He shrugged it off, thinking it was jus
t kids being kids. He got in his truck and headed home. Just across the Pennsylvania border, he felt something moving down by his feet and when he looked down, this is what he saw.” The scared kitten crawled up the front of Zach’s tee shirt and nuzzled into the crook of his neck. He stroked the back of her head delicately with one finger, setting off a wave of sweet purrs. I never would have dreamed the day would come that I wished I were an abandoned kitten. But it had.
“Do you want to hold her?” I noticed that when he spoke to me, he made constant, penetrating eye contact. It felt like he could read my mind. Or worse yet—my heart.
He spoke to her softly as he carefully peeled her away from his shirt. “Come here pretty girl. I want you to meet Ruby. I know you’re scared and you’re a long way from home but so is she. Maybe you can take care of each other?”
I took her in my hand as she shook with fear. Zach stroked her gray coat from her head down to her tail and the quivering ceased. As she sat in my hand purring, I fell in love. And not just with Coco.
6. A Change in the Game
The ride home seemed to take forever. I had a lot to do before seven and the clock was ticking against me. I had to get something in my stomach, get a shower, find something different to wear, and get Coco settled in her new home all in about two hours’ time. Not to mention boy-proofing my room. If I left out a single tampon and he saw it, I would die of embarrassment. On. The. Spot.
Rachel talked incessantly the whole time about nothing that I could decipher. I just kept nodding my head in agreement, adding an occasional ‘uh, huh’ when it seemed appropriate. She didn’t notice a thing. When we finally pulled up to the house, I tripped over my own feet getting out of the car, my mind preoccupied with the list of things I needed to get done. I collected Coco’s carrier out of the back seat, gave Rachel a hurried goodbye and climbed the steps two at a time to save a few precious seconds.
I ran straight to the study where I knew Shelly would be working on her novel. The door was slightly ajar so I took the liberty of poking my head in. She was seated at the desk, fingers flying madly around the keyboard of her laptop. Her hair was tousled and she had a pen in her mouth. She always looked disheveled when she wrote. She said that the more disorganized she was physically, the more organized she was mentally. She looked like crap but it sure did work for her. Apparently the Cinnamon Jones Mystery Series had just been picked up by a major television network and would be on the schedule this fall. That solved the mystery of how we could afford such swanky digs.
Shelly stopped typing and motioned for me to come in. “How did it go today?”
“Good.” I needed to keep it brief so I left it at that, hoping she wouldn’t push for details. But of course not—what was I thinking?
“Tell me everything—did you and Rachel get along okay?” She got up from the desk, stretched and noticed the cat carrier. “I almost forgot—let me see our new addition! Have you named it yet?”
“Yeah, her name is Coco.” Time to cut to the chase. “What time’s Dad gonna be home?”
“Good question. He texted me about an hour ago thinking it was going to be at least seven before he gets out of there.”
Great. I was going to have to tell Shelly that I invited Rachel and Zach over. It would have been so much easier to bypass her and go straight to my dad. She was bound to try to include herself in my plans in some stupid way. Best to just say it and run away quickly.
“I invited Rachel and her brother over to help me put together the cat tree. They’ll be here around seven,” I blurted out forcefully and tried to sneak out the door before she could reply.
“Hey, wait a second, Ruby!”
Crap. I wasn’t fast enough. Begrudgingly, I faced her.
Her face lit up like she’d just opened the front door and found the Publisher’s Clearing House Prize Patrol on the other side. “Ruby, that’s great! What do you need me to do? Where’s the phone book? I can order pizza. There’s enough soda in the fridge but I’ll have to run out for some snacks. What do you think—some chips and dip sound good?”
My most embarrassing dream come true. Chips and dip? We were putting together a cat tree, not having a baby shower. I had to put an end to the insanity. If I stood any chance of fitting in in this town, I couldn’t let her embarrass me in front of them.
“Actually, they’re eating dinner before they come. So I’m just making a quick sandwich and jumping in the shower. I really don’t need you to do anything.” Nothing but leave us alone, that is.
Her face fell and for a split second I almost felt bad for her. Almost. Why did she feel the need to be sooo involved in my life? “Well, I don’t want to hold you up then, I guess,” she said with obvious disappointment. “Will you do one thing for me, though?”
She was jump roping with my last nerve. “What?” I snapped back impatiently.
Her tone of voice changed, sounding sterner and more like the evil stepmother I knew she was. “When they get here, bring them in so I can meet them.”
For real? How old did she think I was? “Is that really necessary? I’m not a baby, you know.”
“Yes, it is necessary. Your father would want to meet them so since he isn’t here, that responsibility falls to me. I promise not to embarrass you.” There was bitterness and a hint of sarcasm in her words that I’d never heard from her before.
“Fine,” I conceded. Arguing would only waste more time that I didn’t have enough of as it was.
This time I got out of the room before she could harass me any more and headed upstairs. Once inside, I put the carrier down on the floor and opened it. Coco ran out and immediately began to pounce around on the floor with one of Mimi’s toys. With Mimi sound asleep on my bed, I figured there was no threat of a confrontation anytime soon so I set about my other tasks.
I turned the shower on to warm up then headed to the closet to find the perfect outfit for tonight. I pulled each piece out one by one and found some reason not to wear it. Too warm for long sleeves, too cold for tanks, too dressy, too casual—nothing was good enough. I finally settled on a red top with a black lace overlay and my favorite pair of dark denim skinny jeans was the obvious choice to go with them. I shoved the rest of my clothes back into the closet and went to get my shower.
The bathroom was sufficiently steamy when I entered so I pulled back the shower curtain and stepped inside. The water temperature was perfect as it streamed down my body. I lathered up my bath sponge with body scrub and let my mind wander back to my meeting with Zach today. I had to get my act together. I couldn’t act like a lovesick puppy every time I saw him. He was so perfect, though, that he had my head swimming. Somehow he made me feel like a twelve year old, giggly from holding hands with a boy for the first time. I had experience in the realm of dating so why couldn’t I hold it together when he was around? It really didn’t make sense. But deep inside, I knew it did.
My relationship with Lee was great. It was comfortable and warm—he was practically like family. But we were linked emotionally more so than physically. I mean, sure, we kissed but nothing more. He helped me when my mom died and I did the same for him when he lost his father. It was my heart that got excited at the sight of him, not my hormones. But Zach was a different story altogether. The chemistry was undeniable. He was a thunderstorm on a hot summer night. I was confused. Was it too soon to be interested in someone else? Did I really want to be in another relationship? The big question, though, was did I deserve to be happy after what I did to Lee? Or was I just afraid to get that close to anyone else? I barely survived Lee’s death—if something like that happened again, it would probably kill me this time around.
The hot water beating down on my back turned to sharp, freezing stabs and I jumped out of its icy path in shock. What happened? I wasn’t in the shower that long, was I? Even if I’d used up all of the hot water, the temperature would have dipped slowly, not instantly. I stood as far away from the water as I could then reached through it with one hand to turn it off.
Logically, I reached for the cold water first and twisted it all the way to the right. The water stopped all but for a few last drops as they fell from around the edge of the showerhead. Somehow, the hot water had been turned off completely. Logic apparently wasn’t so logical anymore.
Immediately, a terrifying thought blindsided me more forcefully than the frigid water had. Lee! Could he hear my thoughts? Could he know that I was feeling something for Zach? No, it couldn’t be. Lee was never a jealous boyfriend so I couldn’t see that death would change that about him. But then again, he never really had any reason to be jealous. I never even looked at other boys. When he was alive, Lee and I were glued together at the hip. No one ever had a chance to come between us. Until now. I shook the idea out of my head. No, there had to be a reasonable explanation. I would have to research it later—there had to be a simple plumbing issue that would explain it.
In the meantime, I had to push the incident to the back of my mind. Zach would be here soon. And Rachel, too, of course. I needed to focus on that and nothing else at the moment. I dried off quickly, threw on my bathrobe and looked at my reflection in the mirror. Then heaved a giant sigh.
