by Layla Holt
“I’m not the girl I used to be Dean,” she said. “I don’t make impulsive decisions anymore.”
“I’m glad,” Dean said. “Because I want this Ruby. The one who sticks it out.”
Her lower lip trembled with the anticipation of waiting to feel his lips on hers. “Kiss me—”
Before the words were out, Dean brought his mouth to hers for a sweet lingering kiss. Her body melted into his as they held each other tight. Ruby lost track of time as their hands gently touched, squeezed and loved each other.
The increasing wind brought them from the bubble they had created for themselves. Ruby giggled and took a step back.
Dean touched her cheek. “Good night.”
“Good night,” Ruby said and watched him enter his car.
He turned on the engine. “I’m waiting for you to go in before I go.”
She waved one last time and jogged up to the front door.
RUBY ENDED UP NOT SEEING Dean for the next two days. He and Lance had to go and sort out some issues with their distributors. He texted her once to let her know that he would be out of town.
By Saturday, she was going out of her mind. The evenings were long and her work refused to hold her attention. In desperation, she called Penny.
“What a nice surprise,” she said when she answered her phone. “Usually what I get from you is sporadic texts.”
“I’m not that bad,” Ruby said, guilt coming over her.
“I don’t mind. I expect the same understanding when I fall in love. Which will be...never.”
Ruby laughed. “It crawls up on you and before you know it, you can’t live without that person.”
“I take it that’s where you are now,” Penny said.
“I think so, yeah. Something urgent came up at work and Dean and his brother, Lance, had to leave town. I miss him so much.”
Penny was silent. “Have you sorted out the issues that made you run off the first time?”
Ruby frowned. “What issues?”
“No bride runs off from the wedding of the year without some serious issues,” Penny said.
Sometimes Penny exasperated her when she decided to play therapist. “I was young and foolish and I didn’t know what I wanted.”
“And now you do?” Penny said.
“I should hope so,” Ruby said with a laugh that sounded hollow even to her own years. “I think I’m ready for the fairy tale life now. I want that dream house nestled in the hills and surrounded by acres and acres of land.”
“You’ve thought of nothing else since Dean told you about that piece of land,” Penny said.
Ruby sighed. “That’s true. I want that life so badly.”
“I don’t know Dean but I like the guy for some reason,” Penny said. “Please don’t hurt him again. Don’t give him hope and then steal it back. No one deserves to have that happen once, let alone twice.”
Ruby gasped. She couldn’t believe that her own best friend had no faith in her. “How can you say that Penny? I wouldn’t hurt Dean.”
“Maybe not now,” Penny said.
She had called Penny for some pick me up. “I love Dean, Penny, and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize what we have.”
Penny said something under her breath and then changed the topic to Ruby’s relief. They gossiped for ten minutes and then said goodbye. Ruby looked at the time. Eight. Two more hours before bed time. Dean was returning today but late in the night.
She forced herself to go back to work. Leah’s jewelry was not going to make itself.
Chapter Sixteen
Dean should have been tired, instead his body felt awake after only five hours of sleep. Distributor agreements were a nightmare when one of the parties wanted to change the terms of the agreement. Hopefully, that was now sorted but it had cost him two days away from Ruby.
Every day counted when he had to show her that Lockwood was right for her. That he was right for her. Dean grabbed his camera and hurried out of the condo even though he was not late for his date with Ruby.
He caught himself looking at his reflection in the window of his car. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. The last thing he wanted was to turn into Lance. The family could not handle a second Lance personality.
Dean whistled as he drove to Ruby’s house. He was too early as always. They’d agreed to meet at eleven in the morning, do two hours at the gallery and then go to Glenn Acres. He couldn’t wait to show Ruby the land.
Maybe it would be the final clincher that would convince her to stay in Lockwood. Dean’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket as he drove. He ignored it then thought it could be Ruby with a change of plan.
He slowed down and pulled the car over to the side of the road and reached for his phone. Dean frowned at the unfamiliar number on the screen. He’d learned over the years not to ignore calls. You never knew when it was an emergency and someone desperately needed you.
He hit the call back button.
“Dean hi,” a familiar voice said. “It’s Jonathan.”
Dean grinned. “Hey Jonathan. Good to hear from you.”
“Are you free sometime today?” Jonathan said.
“Not really. Can it wait until tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow’s fine. I’ll swing by your office during my break at eleven-ish.”
They said goodbye and rang off. Dean put the car in gear and coasted the car onto the road. He couldn’t think of why Jonathan would want to see him. They were buddies but not especially close as the other man was a lot younger than Dean was.
He soon forgot about Jonathan when he got to Ruby’s house. He got out of the car just as the front door flew open and Ruby appeared. A man could lose his mind just looking at her. She looked sexy and cute in a button-down striped shirt and skinny jeans tucked into her customary boots.
Her short hair blew about in the wind, strands of it falling across her face. She shut the door and ran down the porch towards him. He seized her in his arms and held her close.
God, she smelled good. “Sweetie,” he said.
“I missed you Dean,” she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder.
He pulled back and skimmed his lips along the sweep of her cheek, inhaling her sweet orange and vanilla scent. He brought his mouth to hers and kissed her. Her kisses were as necessary to him as air and water. He pulled her as close as he could without breaking her bones.
She did the thing she did with her hands, raking her fingers through his hair and driving him insane. He dragged his mouth away with a groan.
“If we don’t stop now, we’ll never leave,” he said.
She touched his lips with her finger. “Not a bad idea.”
“Not happening,” Dean said, as tempting as it was to keep Ruby in his arms. He was looking forward to the day and couldn’t wait to show her the land he had bought with her in mind.
He opened the passenger door for her and after she settled in, he kissed her forehead and slammed the door shut. He hurried to his side and entered, smiling so hard for no reason whatsoever.
“How was your trip?” Ruby said as he drove.
“Exhausting,” he said and went into the details of the contract clauses that had caused a dispute with Candin Inc distributors.
Ruby had always been intrigued by his work, which was surprising as most people, women especially, found the details of his work tedious. She asked after Lance and laughed when he told her how annoying it was to have to share a hotel room with his self-absorbed brother.
“He is very handsome,” Ruby laughed.
“Please don’t ever tell him that,” Dean said.
Dean was sure that Ruby had not been to the new art district of Lockwood. A whole street was dedicated to art with theaters, museums and studios lining the streets. The buildings were splashed with bright beautiful colors that lifted your spirits no matter which mood you were in.
He parked the car a distance from the gallery so they could walk and Ruby could enjoy a close up of the murals painted on the wa
ll.
She was enchanted, barely talking as they walked the almost deserted street.
“When did all this happen?” she said.
Pride for his town swelled in his chest. He was part of the town development advisory committee that suggested ways of growing their town. “Last two years,” he said to Ruby.
It had also been their idea to request gallery and theatre owners to open on Sundays to give time to people who were busy the rest of the week to visit their establishments.
Dean held the gallery door open while Ruby went in. Soft soothing music surrounded them as they stepped onto the floor of the gallery. Ruby immediately went to a large watercolor painting of a mother and her child.
He followed her silently, uneager to interrupt her concentration. She moved on to an abstract painting, the kind that Dean could never make sense of.
“It’s sorrowful,” Ruby said.
Dean stared at it. He couldn’t see anything apart from flowing colors. “If you say so.”
She laughed and hit his shoulder. “Art is wasted on some people.”
“Hey, I appreciate art, I just don’t understand some of it,” Dean said.
“That’s your mistake. You shouldn’t try to understand it. It’s about emotions. You’re supposed to feel it.”
He came close to feeling those emotions when they stopped in front of a landscape. “This is gorgeous.” It reminded him of his land at Glenn Acres. Acres of wild uncultivated land and a stream of water flowing through it.
The landscape depicted what his land would look like in summer. The sun reflected on the stream and the grass tinged with brown from the dry heat.
Ruby sighed. “It reminds me of Glenn Acres.”
Dean turned to her in surprise. “My thoughts exactly.” He didn’t tell her that for him it reminded him of his land. She would remember the similarities when they went there in the afternoon.
They stayed at the gallery for an hour and a half.
“What did you think?” Ruby asked him as they walked out holding hands.
“I could learn to like it,” Dean said.
Ruby laughed. “Good enough.”
It was nearing lunchtime and he was eager to get to Glenn Acres. “We could buy some sandwiches and take them with us for lunch.”
“Good idea,” Ruby said.
He knew just the place. A sandwich bistro on the next street that did the freshest sandwiches. A man walked past them, his gaze bouncing from Dean then to Ruby and to their joined hands.
Dean knew what the man was thinking. He had been there one too many times. Seeing couples everywhere and wondering where he had gone wrong and if he would ever be part of that lucky group that found someone to love and who loved them.
RUBY KNEW SHE HAD FOUND heaven the moment they drove through the rough dirt road that accessed Dean’s property. She looked around her surroundings in awe. It was a warm afternoon, but the trees south of the property kept the air cool.
Rolling hills bordered the land on the east. “Are they part of your acreage?” she asked Dean as he brought the car to a stop.
He grinned. “They are. We can make our own hiking trail along those hills.”
Her heart leaped. He had said ‘our’. She felt giddy with joy to know that in his private thoughts, Dean included her in his plans. She already thought of the land as theirs.
Ruby got out of the car and imagined coming home at the end of the day. It would be the kind of home where you dumped all your worries at the gate. How could you be stressed surrounded by such wild beauty?
“Come, let’s walk,” Dean said and took her hand.
“Should we carry lunch with us?” Ruby said.
Dean grinned. “Hungry already? Sure, why not.” He reached into the car and grabbed the package from the back.
Dean took her hand back into his and looked at her with a look filled with so much love, it left her breathless. She hoped that her own gaze reflected the love she felt for him. The path came to an end and they threaded their way through the long strands of grass until they came close to the wooded area.
They stopped walking and looked back the way they had come. "This would be a good spot to build a home," Dean said. "What do you think?"
The spot they stood on was on slightly higher ground and she had a good view that extended to the main road. "It would be perfect. You would be able to see someone driving up to the house."
"That's the idea," Dean said.
Ruby loved the smell of cut wood, damp moss and fresh clean grass. It evoked the few memories she had of her and her dad. On the rare days when he was not at the bakery, he would drive them to the woods where they would stay for hours, poking around fallen logs, discovering tiny creatures hidden in the crevices of tree trunks and under bushes.
Wanting to get closer to those smells that she loved so much, Ruby led the way into the woods.
She felt as if she had come home as her boots crunched on the leaf covered ground. She spotted it as soon as it came into view. She crouched on her feet and touched it gently with a finger, afraid to mar its delicate beauty.
"It's a native orchid," Dean said behind her, his voice low as if he was afraid to break the silence of the woods. He crouched beside her and hooked a finger under her chin. His blue eyes were fixed on hers. "It's said to be the epitome of perfection amongst all flora of the world."
Her breathing went shallow and her legs turned to rubber. "It is said that once an orchid attaches itself to another plant, it never lets go until the end of its days."
They moved at the same time and brushed their lips against each other. Dean got up, took her hand and helped her up. They lost all sense of time as they explored the woods, laughing softly when they happened upon a family of squirrels.
Dean's stomach rumbled and Ruby's quickly followed.
Ruby laughed. "Time to go I guess."
She could not remember spending a more pleasant afternoon. “I used to do this with my dad."
"I remember you telling me about it," Dean said. "I envied your memories with your dad. My siblings and I don’t have too many of those. Candin Inc took the bulk of dad's time."
Ruby squeezed his hand. "But look what he created. A company that employs thousands of people and puts Lockwood on the map. If it weren’t for Candin Inc, no one would know Lockwood."
"You're right. But I want to do it differently. I don’t have a wish to impact many people as my father did. Just my family. My wife, kids and family. I want them to carry treasured memories of things we did together. That's all."
Ruby’s chest filled with syrupy warmth. "That sounds perfect."
They left the woods and climbed up the hills, choosing the peak of the tallest one as their picnic site. At the top, Ruby stretched out her hands like wings and let out a sharp melodic whistle.
"Ancient Indians used to call each other for a feast like that," she said.
He stretched his hand and tried it. Ruby giggled. "You sound like something’s stuck in your throat.”
Dean grabbed her and before she knew what was happening, she was in the air. He turned her upside down, her head nearly touching the ground.
"Take that back," he growled.
"Never surrender," Ruby yelled amidst hysterical laughter.
They fooled around for several minutes and then sat down to eat.
"I have an idea," Ruby said as she chewed on a crunchy chicken sandwich. "How about we never leave?"
Dean cocked his head and gave the matter some thought. "It's done. We're now inhabitants of the woodlands."
Ruby giggled and dramatically dug for her phone in her pocket. She placed it on the grass next to her. "I shall not be needing this."
Chapter Seventeen
Dean’s mind was abuzz with plans for the future. He and Ruby would build their dream home and fill it with children. They would spend their weekends on their own little part of paradise.
A knock came on his office door, jolting him back to the present. It swun
g open and Evelyn, his secretary, peered in.
“There’s a gentleman by the name of Jonathan here to see you,” she said.
“Send him in please,” Dean said.
He stood up when the sandy haired giant walked in. They shook hands and Jonathan invited him to sit down.
“What can I do for you?” Dean asked after they’d covered the niceties.
Jonathan clasped his hands together. “I’m here because Ella and I are interested in buying the café,” he said.
“Oh,” Dean said, keeping his facial expression neutral.
“We didn’t want to express an interest too early before our backers gave us the go ahead. The couple that came to look at it, have they put in an offer?” Jonathan said.
“They haven’t,” Dean said his mind working fast. He was worried about the young couple’s experience in running a business. On the other hand, if they had backers, that meant they had a pretty solid plan for the café.
Jonathan rubbed his forehead for the third time in a span of less than five minutes.
Dean smiled to put him at ease. “What plans do you and Ella have?”
Jonathan’s face lit up. “We plan to modernize it, make it a proper coffee shop, complete with comfy chairs as well as an outdoor seating area.”
Ruby’s dad had not taken advantage of the space outside which could easily be filled with several tables and chairs.
“Lockwood is a big town and there’s a very young population. Professionals who would love a place to hang out and meet with friends or even have work related meetings. We’ll have wi-fi and numerous power outlets.” Jonathan’s eyes twinkled as he spoke.
Their vision came alive in his mind and he could see the renovated coffee house as Jonathan was describing.
“We’d like to keep some of the bakery goodies. People love a good coffee with something to munch on. Ella was thinking a couple of meals to choose from. Nothing too grand...” Jonathan’s voice trailed off and he looked embarrassed.
“Why did you stop?” Dean said. “It sounds like a place I’d want to hang out.”
Jonathan grinned. “Thanks. We’re very hopeful that we’ll get funding. In less than two weeks we should have a written agreement.”
