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Ruby grilled up two sandwiches and cut up the apple. Before she could call Violet down to eat, there was a knock on the front door.
“Hey, Ruby.” Mary Ellen Kingston lived next door and had twin daughters who were almost two. Ruby envied how put-together she always was. Her blond hair never failed to look like she’d just left the salon. She always wore some cute little sundress and strappy leather sandals that required buckling.
When Violet was two, Ruby had been lucky to get out of the house wearing clothes that weren’t covered in something Violet had wiped on or thrown at her. And if her shoes didn’t slip on, she went barefoot.
“How are you tonight, Mary Ellen?”
“Good. We’re on our way home from gymnastics. The girls and I have had a busy day. In fact, we were shopping at Valu-Save earlier and—” her voice dropped lower “—I don’t want to come off like I’m minding your business, but I feel like I need to tell you what I saw there.”
The uneasy feeling in Ruby’s stomach told her Mary Ellen wasn’t here to share information about a sale on orange juice. “What did you see?
“Well, Violet was there with her friend, but I noticed her later in the checkout lane with a man I didn’t recognize. I think he might have bought her something. She walked out of the store with him. I think he was trying to get her to go in his truck, but she kept on walking. Not that I would have let her go with him, of course,” she added.
Mary Ellen glanced back at her minivan parked in Ruby’s driveway. Her angelic twins were probably strapped inside, waiting patiently for their mother to return. They would never talk to strangers when they were older, or break any rules. Or shut their mom out of their lives.
“I swear I would have stopped her if she had made a different decision. I just thought you should know. We gotta look out for one another, being neighbors and all, right?”
“Right.” Ruby didn’t know what else to say as her heart beat out of control. She thanked Mary Ellen for her concern and shut the door.
For about a year after deciding to leave Levi, every communication Ruby had with her mother contained some reminder of the damage divorce did to children. Children raised by their mothers were ten times more likely to be physically hurt or murdered. Seventy percent of long-term prison inmates were from broken homes. Children from two-parent homes were happier, healthier and better-adjusted.
Ruby hadn’t needed scientific studies to tell her what divorce did to children. Her father had walked out of her life when she was seven years old. He hadn’t even tried to pretend he cared like Levi did with Violet. Ruby knew better than anyone the cost of a failed marriage and how the children paid the price.
Given Violet’s tendency to make trouble, Ruby always figured she needed to be more worried about her daughter ending up in jail than becoming someone’s victim. But the thought of Violet almost getting into some strange man’s truck caused tears to prick at the corners of her eyes.
This time she raced upstairs and didn’t bother knocking. Violet was on her bed and sat up when Ruby burst in.
“Mom! Seriously, leave.”
“Who was the man you were talking to at Valu-Save?”
“What?”
“Don’t play games with me, Violet.” Ruby clenched her fists to keep her hands from shaking. “Mrs. Kingston saw you and someone who isn’t from around here standing in line together. She said he bought you something and tried to get you to come into his truck. What happened?”
Violet rolled her eyes, and she flopped back on her bed, phone in hand. “Oh my gosh,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “People need to mind their own business.”
Ruby sat on the bed and blinked back her tears. “Honey, there are dangerous people in the world, even in small towns like this one.”
“I know, Mom. I don’t need you to lecture me about stranger danger. I got it. You can leave now,” she said, going back to her phone.
“Vi.” Ruby snatched the smartphone from Violet’s hands. She would not be dismissed. “Do you have any idea what I would do if something happened to you? You are all I have in this world.”
For a moment, Ruby thought she saw a flicker of remorse in her daughter’s eyes. It was quickly replaced with familiar annoyance.
“Nothing is going to happen to me. Stacy dared me to steal a lighter so she could smoke these cigarettes she snagged from her mom’s purse, but that guy from Helping Hooves who thinks he’s famous caught me and made me stand in line with him because he said the manager saw me, too. He wouldn’t even buy me the lighter. He’s so lame.”
“Boone Williams was the man in the store?”
“I don’t remember his name because he’s old. And not cool. Can I have my phone back now?”
Ruby felt relieved and enraged at the same time. Thankfully some creepy pedophile hadn’t attempted to lure Violet into his car. However, Boone had interjected himself into Violet’s life without any thought to how his actions might affect Ruby’s ability to parent her troubled teen.
“I will be holding on to this until I can think of a more appropriate consequence for attempted shoplifting,” she replied, standing up and slipping the phone into the back pocket of her jeans. “And tonight at dinner, we will be discussing all the reasons someone your age shouldn’t take up smoking.”
“Oh my gosh! Are you serious? I didn’t say I was going to smoke.”
Ruby paid her no mind as she headed for the door. “Dinner’s ready, by the way.”
“I shouldn’t have told you anything. Boone was right. I should have kept the whole thing between him and me.”
That, on the other hand, got Ruby’s attention. She spun back around. “He told you not to tell me?”
Violet rolled over and curled into a ball. “I’m never telling you anything ever again.”
The heat of her anger crept up Ruby’s neck and burned her cheeks. Violet didn’t have to tell her anything. Ruby would confront the supposed adult in this scenario. Of course, that was if she didn’t knock him out instead.
CHAPTER FIVE
STARING AT EMMY’S number on his phone, Boone contemplated what he could say on her voice mail today that might make her finally call him back. He paced the inside of the Airstream and fought the anxiety that made his palms sweat.
He pressed the button to call. Four rings and there she was.
“Hi, this is Emmy.” She giggled, and Boone’s heart swelled, then dropped. “Leave me a message or text me and I’ll get back to you.”
Boone cleared his throat and waited for the beep. “Hey, Em. It’s Dad. I, ah, I’m trying to remember the name of that horse you used to ride when you took lessons at Tressman’s. You know, the all-black one? They’ve got a beautiful black gelding here named Renegade. Cool name, huh?” This had to work. Nothing he’d said in the past few months had earned him a response. He hoped her love of horses might convince her to reply this time. “Well, if you remember that horse’s name, give me a call back. I miss you, honey. I hope we can talk soon.”
He hung up and slid his phone into his back pocket. The knot in his stomach stayed tied tight. Boone could perform in front of thousands without an ounce of fear, but his daughter made him more anxious than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
His nerves eased and gave way to his anger. He was a grown man groveling for a minute of his child’s attention. It was pathetic. There was no way he could keep this up. What was the point of leaving message after message if she wanted nothing to do with him? This was all her mother’s fault.
Maybe the best thing to do was to give Emmy what she wanted. Maybe he should leave her alone. That would sure make his ex happy. But that was as good a reason as any not to give up. He wouldn’t decide today.
The lack of space inside the trailer was giving him a headache. Boone pushed the door open, and it almost knocked Faith over. The woman jumped back.
“Sorry about that,” he said, stepping out and taking a deep gulp of fresh air.
Faith ran a hand through her thick brown hair. “Getting out of the way is one of my many talents, thanks to years of working with horses. You only have to get kicked once to know you don’t want it to happen again.”
“What can I do for you, Miss Faith?”
“I’m here to invite you to dinner again. My fiancé hasn’t had much success getting you to accept, so I’m here to personally invite you.”
“That’s mighty kind of you, but I just got back from the grocery store with plenty of food.”
The sun sat low in the sky, hovering over the Airstream like a giant egg yolk. Faith squinted up at him. “You’ve been staying on my property for four days. I understand you’re a private man, but when someone graciously opens their doors for you and you make excuses not to come in, it feels a bit like a personal rebuff.”
Boone’s mother would have slapped the back of his head for being so rude. It had been so easy to say no to Dean, he hadn’t thought about the message he had sent to the actual hostess.
“I never intended to offend you. I’m not very good company, that’s all. I was trying to spare you the trouble.”
“It’s no trouble,” she said surely. “We’ll see you in an hour for dinner.”
He watched her walk away, not giving him any chance to decline her invitation this time. He appreciated her straightforwardness, though. Sharing one meal couldn’t be that bad, as long as Dean didn’t bring up getting in the recording studio. Boone would need to set clear ground rules, and number one was no business talk at the dinner table.
* * *
BOONE TUGGED THE collar of his button-down shirt. Dinner attire wasn’t specified, so he went with a dress shirt and jeans—the best of both worlds. Knocking on the door, he prayed this get-together wasn’t a bad idea.
“Come on in,” Dean said, pushing open the screen door for his guest. “Whatever Faith is cooking smells so good, you’ll regret not taking us up on this offer earlier.”
“Your fiancée’s definitely more persuasive than you are. You might want to consider hiring her to make all your deals from now on.”
Dean laughed as he led Boone inside. “No one knows how hard it is to say no to that woman more than I do.”
Faith came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on the pink apron tied around her waist. “Glad you could make it, Boone. Can I get you something to drink?”
A whiskey on the rocks would be nice. It had been hard not to think about how a drink would taste since he held the wine bottle in his hands. He could feel the burn and missed the way it would make his head fuzzy. It muted the feelings that often felt too big to carry around sober.
“Thank you, but I’m fine.”
“We have sweet tea,” she offered with a smile.
Not exactly what he needed to quench this thirst. “Maybe with dinner.”
A chocolate Lab flew down the stairs, followed by a young man whistling like today was nothing but a good day. “Well, I’ll be,” he said as he hit the last step. “I can’t believe Boone Williams is standing in my living room.”
“Our living room,” Faith corrected him. “Boone, this is my brother, Sawyer.”
“Sawyer’s new to the label,” Dean said. “He’s got a hit single out right now, so we had him start recording his debut album this week, which is why you haven’t seen him around. You remember what those days were like.”
The two men shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Dean’s future brother-in-law reminded Boone of a younger version of himself—cool, confident and completely unaware of how the business wouldn’t think twice about chewing him up and spitting him out.
“If you wanted to drop in and take a listen one of these days, I’m sure Sawyer wouldn’t mind.” Boone hadn’t even been in the house five minutes and Dean had set another trap to get him in the studio.
“Mind?” Sawyer echoed. “I’d be honored.”
“We’ll see,” Boone replied halfheartedly.
“What did I say about no Grace Note talk during dinner?” Faith asked Dean.
Dean wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her temple. “I’m not eating dinner yet, so this doesn’t count. But I promise to be good the rest of the evening.”
Their display of affection, although small, still caused Boone’s chest to tighten. There had been a time in his marriage when he’d held Sara like that, when they had actually cared about one another. Sometimes it seemed unbelievable that what they’d had could have unraveled so thoroughly.
“Well, I was about to tell you dinner’s ready,” Faith said. “Why don’t you show our guest to the dining room?”
Just as they started to move, there was a knock at the front door. Sawyer hung back to answer it. Boone was pulling his chair out when he heard a familiar voice. Ruby wanted to know where she could find Boone, and it was clear her daughter wasn’t as good at keeping secrets as he had hoped. Ruby didn’t sound like she was there to thank him for keeping Violet out of jail.
“Is that Ruby?” Dean asked.
“You guys have a back door I can use?” Boone asked, pushing his chair back in.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything. That woman’s got problems. Problems I don’t need.”
Dean didn’t look convinced. “Faith’s clients are like family. I wouldn’t say anything like that in front of her.”
“You wouldn’t say what in front of me?” Faith asked, carrying in a steaming casserole dish.
Dean and Boone exchanged a look, but they were saved by Sawyer.
“Ruby Wynn is outside. She says she needs a minute with Boone.”
“Ruby wants to talk to Boone?” Faith set the food on the table and wiped her bangs from her face. “Do you need a midwife for something?”
The only thing Boone needed was a way out of this, but there was no way to avoid this confrontation. He could run back to his trailer and call it a night, but now that he not only smelled dinner but also could see it, there was no way he was missing out on this meal.
“I’m kidding,” Faith said. “You probably don’t even know what she does for a living. She’s not a fan, is she?”
“They met the other day when Violet was here,” Dean explained. “I don’t think she knew who Boone was.”
Boone shot Dean a look. He didn’t need to be reminded. “I’ll be right back.”
Ruby had her back to the door as she leaned over the porch railing. She righted herself and spun around at the sound of the creaky screen door.
“Porch spying again?” he asked, knowing it would get a rise out of her.
He could certainly see that fire in her eyes. “I thought we had an agreement.”
“Yet here you are keeping me from the delicious dinner that’s waiting for me inside.”
She took a step toward him. Her proximity was unsettling, mainly because there was something about it that he liked. “Maybe I wasn’t clear, but staying away from me includes staying away from my daughter. She told me what you did today, and I don’t appreciate your meddling.”
“If by meddling you mean keeping your daughter from getting arrested for shoplifting...” Boone barked a laugh.
“You’re not funny.”
He wasn’t trying to be funny. He was just as annoyed as she was. “I have no idea what you’re so hot about—I did her a favor. But I’ll be happy to let the police deal with your kid next time.”
“It’s obvious you don’t know what it takes to parent a teenager.”
Boone bristled at her assumption. “You don’t know anything about me and my parenting.”
She seemed to take pause. “You’re right. We don’t know anything about one another, and I thought we wanted to keep it that way.”
“I do.” Like Boone had told Dean, he didn’t need or want Ruby’s problems. Her kid was entertaining, but not enough to put up with this kind of nonsense.
“Then I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t do Violet any more favors. She’s going through some tough stuff.” She bit her bottom lip and wrung her hands. “Her dad isn’t really involved in her life. I am doing my best, but sometimes my best isn’t enough. We come here to work with Jesse, and some days I think it’s helping, and then days like today make me think no matter what I do, I can’t make things right for her...”
Boone stood silent as Ruby dumped all of her parenting fears like a pile of dirty laundry right at his feet. Her worry and insecurity were palpable. The empathy he felt in return was unexpected, but her emotions were so similar to the ones he wrestled with every day. Parenting was a lot tougher than he’d ever imagined, and it was nice to know other people struggled to get it right.
Ruby leaned against the railing. Her vulnerability was so much more attractive than her anger. “I’m sorry. None of this matters to you.”
“Don’t apologize.” He stepped closer. He wouldn’t touch her no matter how much his fingers were itching to. “I get it. I have a teenager, too. You might not believe me, but I know how it feels to wonder if you’re doing this parenting thing right or not. And I’m sorry for making things harder for you today. I really thought stopping her from stealing was doing the right thing.”
“It probably was,” she relented with a sigh. “The bigger issue was conspiring with her not to tell me. I can’t help her if I don’t know what’s going on. Hearing it from you would have been better than from my neighbor, who thought you were trying to kidnap my daughter, by the way.”
“Kidnapping? Seriously?” People were unbelievable.
“One thing you need to learn about a small town is that someone is always watching.” Ruby smiled, and it sure looked good on her. “Trust me—it’s not my favorite part, either.”
“Maybe we have more in common than we first thought.”
“We should start over.” She held out a hand. “I’m Ruby Wynn—midwife, Worst Mother of the Year according to my daughter, and Tennessee’s biggest Pink Floyd fan. Welcome to Grass Lake.”
“You’re a Pink Floyd fan? No wonder you had no idea who I was.” Boone shook her hand. “Boone Williams—Grammy Award winner, incredibly handsome country music superstar and not exactly the most humble guy in the world.”
“I might have noticed that,” she said with a laugh.
They were still holding hands, but she didn’t seem to mind and, much to Boone’s surprise, neither did he. She had beautiful green eyes and cheeks that looked naturally pink.
“This went a lot better than I thought it would,” he said, letting her go.
Ruby’s gaze dropped to her hand and then went back up to him. “Yeah, well, I should let you get back to your dinner. Have a good night.”
“You, too.” Boone watched her go down the steps and walk to her car. The last thing he expected was to have compassion for the woman who’d made him want to pull his hair out a few days ago. “Hey!” he shouted to get her attention. “You can’t be the worst mom in the world. Your kid might be a pain, but she’s brave and has a sense of humor that makes her interesting.”
“Interesting’s good?”
Boone didn’t have to think twice. Violet wasn’t the only interesting one in the family. “Always.”
CHAPTER SIX
VIOLET DIDN’T TALK to Ruby for two days. The silent treatment finally came to an end when she needed something. So typical.
“One of my flip-flops broke. I need new ones. Can you take me to get another pair?”
“Oh my goodness, she speaks!”
Violet rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. “Are you done?”
“Are you?” Ruby looked up from her laptop.
“Forget it. I’ll ask Dad.” Violet turned to go.
Good luck with that, Ruby thought but didn’t say aloud. She hit Print on her laptop so she had the documents she needed for her next patient. “I can take you in about an hour, but you’ll have to come with me to check on one of my mommies-to-be.”
“Fine,” Violet said, climbing the stairs back to her room, where she had been holed up since the attempted shoplifting incident. The child was so stubborn; she could argue with a wall...and win.
“Knock, knock,” Holly said, opening the front door and popping her head in. “Can I come in?”
“You’re my landlord.” Ruby shut her laptop. “Of course you can.”
Holly dropped her purse on the floor and flopped down next to Ruby on the couch. “Jon’s sister took the boys to the lake to go swimming, and I have a whole hour of me time.”
“So you came here for wine or chocolate?”
“Chocolate. My four-year-old patted my belly last night and asked me if there was a baby in there. If I have to endure looking as though I’m eating for two, I might as well enjoy it.”
Ruby couldn’t keep from giggling. “Oh, come on. It was probably just wishful thinking on his part. Zander’s always saying he wants a baby sister.”
“Well, he can keep wishing if he wants to, but my baby-making days are over.”
Ruby went to the kitchen and grabbed two chocolate chip cookies she had made the day before in a failed attempt at luring Violet out of her room. She handed one to Holly and took a bite of the other.
“They weren’t both for me and my pretend baby?” Holly whined as Ruby sat back down.
Ruby elbowed her friend playfully in the side. “At least your children talk to you and ask questions about how you’re doing.”
“Vi’s at it again, huh? What did you do this time?” Holly asked before devouring her cookie and snatching Ruby’s half-eaten one from her hand.
“I grounded her from all electronic devices for one week. You would think it was a fate worse than death.”
“How long could you live without your phone?” Holly challenged her.
“I use my phone for work. It’s a necessary evil.”
It was Holly’s turn to laugh. “Keep telling yourself that. I saw your new high score on Jelly Chains posted to Facebook. Was that for work?”
Ruby gave her another elbow.
“Speaking of work,” Holly continued. “Any chance you asked Boone Williams about that interview?”
Hearing his name sent a strange tingle through Ruby’s body. Ever since they’d made amends on the Strattons’ front porch, she couldn’t stop thinking about the way he had looked at her and tried to make her feel better about her shortcomings as a mother.
“I’m not too sure he’s a big fan of the press.”
“Oh, please. I’m hardly the press. We’re a tiny paper, eager to hear what the other half thinks of our humble hometown.”
Ruby smiled. “Boone and humble definitely don’t mix.”
“So you asked him and he flat out said no?”
“I mentioned I had a friend at the Gazette, and he made it clear he wasn’t interested in being interviewed.” Ruby left out the part where she had threatened to have Holly write a scathing article on his bad behavior.
“Did you at least get him to sign something for me?”
Ruby cringed. “I forgot,” she said, making Holly frown. “But I will the next time I see him. Violet’s got a session over there tomorrow.”
“Maybe I could come with you. If he meets me, he’ll like me and want to do the interview.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” The foundation of Boone and Ruby’s truce wasn’t the strongest. Bringing “the press” would likely cause some strain.
A couple of days ago, Ruby wouldn’t have cared. But Boone had shown her something she absolutely hadn’t been expecting—compassion. He had also made her believe his intentions were to help and not make things harder on her when he intervened with Violet.
“What’s that look?” Holly snapped Ruby out of her thoughts.
“What look?”
“That’s the look you got the first time you saw Levi ride a bull at the rodeo,” Holly accused her.
Ruby shook her head. “No way. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
The first time she had seen Levi, she’d been a naive twenty-year-old with absolutely no idea what she wanted in life. Falling for a cute bull rider had seemed like a perfectly rebellious thing to do. It was a stupid crush that had turned into a horrible marriage that ended in an even worse divorce.
Ruby did not have a crush on Boone Williams. And she certainly wasn’t some naive kid without a clue. Ruby knew exactly what she wanted, and it had nothing to do with getting involved with a man who clearly had more issues than she did.