Nolan unlocks the door and opens it. “Take your time. I’m going to check on a few things in the garage.”
It’s as if there’s something invisible stopping me from going inside. All I can do is stand at the threshold and stare at the kitchen were we shared our first encounter. I can’t believe he saidIscaredhim. All I detected was this instant hatred. Theodore Reed found life in me that I never knew existed, like the gardener who sees a delicate sprout in the otherwise barren soil. I knew it the moment he locked me in my room. Something inside of me screamed,“This! This is what I’ve been missing.”
“Uh… you can go inside.” Nolan chuckles as he walks back toward the house.
I shake my head. “I changed my mind.”
He grabs the door handle. “May I?”
Swallowing the emotion attached to every memory of my time on Tybee Island, I nod.
Shut.
Lock.
Final.
“Need a ride back to town?”
I nod again as a slow numbness encapsulates my body.
Nolan opens the car door for me. “Too many memories?”
I shake my head and get in the car. As he walks around to the driver’s side, the only thought that goes through my head and my heart is:not enough memories.
*
I said Iwouldn’t wait for him. I lied. My new profession will be waiting for Theodore. Maybe I need some Tolle or Dyer. Yimin… I need Yimin, but he’s in Shanghai for the next eight months. His niece is taking care of his beach houseandmy plants while he’s gone. Just as well. I don’t have room for them anyway. However, he gave me his juicer and bags and bags of herbs to brew nasty tea, so there’s that.
Alone. That’s what I am. I came to Savannah to be alone, so why is it such a disheartening discovery that I now have what I thought I wanted?
“Ruby.”
I stop before I even get the key out of my door. Oscar Stone makes my picnic chair look like a throne with his bold presence, expensive suit, unwavering confidence, and black beanie. He made the black beanie an “in” thing long before The Edge of U2 made it his mark. Oscar also makes the peppered goatee look sexy in spite of his age. My dad has always turned heads for as long as I could recognize what it meant to actually turn a head.
He would die before he took credit for my sexual inhibitions, but it was years of hearing women in his bedroom that led me to find sex a mystery I had to solve. Anything that caused a human to make those noises was worth a little research. Sadly, it was just sex for Oscar. My mum was the love of his life, and no other woman, aside from me, has even come close to touching his heart.
“No.” I shake my head. “What have you done?” I jerk the key from the doorknob and shut it before falling back against it.
“I thought you’d be more excited to see me.”
“Why?” I continue to shake my head. “You could have been free.”
He lifts his hands then drops them back to the white plastic arm rests. “I am free.”
“You’re a fugitive. If they come for you, I will tell them it was me. I won’t let you go back… for even longer if they catch you.”
“You worry too much, Ruby.”
A sarcastic laugh rumbles from my chest. “I did. But not when I came here. I let go of it all.”
“Daniel said you’re getting better.” He clenches his jaw. “You should have told me.” The muscles in his face tense, matching the pain in his voice.
“I didn’t want you to worry about something you couldn’t do anything about. I didn’t want you worrying about—”
“The only family I have left?”
I nod. “Why? If he told you I was better, then… why?” I hate that he gave up his chance for true freedom for me. I add it to the long list of things Oscar Stone has done for me that has made me feel guilty for all my wrong doings. Wrong doings that he taught me.
