“Have you?” Ruby’s tone wasn’t unkind, just honest.
Millie didn’t answer.
Ruby reached across the table and rested her hand over Millie’s. “My son carries a lot of regrets. More than he’ll admit to most people. But I can tell you this—deep down, he always tries to do the right thing. Even when it costs him.”
Millie looked up, searching Ruby’s face. “What does that mean?”
Ruby smiled faintly, but there was sadness in it. “It means sometimes people make choices they think are right in the moment, even when those choices end up hurting everyone involved.”
Millie wanted to ask more, wanted to understand what Ruby was hinting at.
But before she could, the back door opened.
Caleb stepped inside, his jacket dusted with frost and his expression tight.
He paused when he saw them, his gaze flicking between Millie and his mother.
Ruby straightened, her hand slipping away from Millie’s. “Hey, sweetheart. I brought dinner.”
“Thanks, Mom.” His voice was careful, like he knew he’d interrupted something.
Millie quickly stepped back, suddenly desperate for space. “I’m going to go freshen up before we eat.”
“Of course,” Ruby said.
Millie didn’t look at Caleb as she slipped past him, Biscuit at her heels.
But she felt his eyes on her as she left.
chapter
thirty-five
Caleb watchedMillie disappear down the hall, her shoulders tight and her steps quick.
He’d interrupted something. That much was obvious.
But what could she and his mother have been talking about?
Part of him didn’t want to know.
He turned back to his mother, who was already moving toward the stove, stirring the pot of Brunswick stew as if nothing had happened.
“What was that about?” he asked.
“What was what about?” His mom didn’t look at him.
“Mom.”
She glanced over her shoulder, her expression innocent. “The two of us were just talking.”
Caleb crossed his arms. “About?”
“Girl stuff.”
He didn’t believe her for a second, but he also knew better than to push. When his mother decided not to share something, there was no prying it out of her.
He moved to the counter and leaned against it, the weight of the day pressing down harder now that he’d stopped moving. “They identified the body.”
