“Theo's obsessed with space right now. He checks out every book the library has on planets and astronauts. Last week he informed me very seriously that when he grows up, he's going to Mars and I'm not allowed to worry about him.”
“That's adorable.”
“It is. But I'm definitely going to worry. Luna’s a huge reader and in addition to that, she draws constantly. Her room is covered in sketches of animals and gardens. She has an incredible eye for detail.”
“She sounds amazing. They both do.”
“They really are.” Celeste glanced at her. “They're the best thing I've ever done. Even with everything else being complicated, I've never regretted them for a second.”
Ruby could picture it so clearly—Celeste with her kids, patient and loving. The kind of mother who let her children stay up late reading about space and listened to their stories and loved them fiercely.
“I'll find them the perfect gifts at the festival,” she said without thinking. “There's bound to be something space-related for Theo, and I saw in the program that there's this amazing art supply vendor. They sell handmade watercolors and these gorgeous sketchbooks. Luna would probably love it.”
She paused, realizing what she'd just implied: Being involved enough in Celeste's life to give her children gifts. Was this standard one-night-stand etiquette? Probably not.
“I mean—” she started, backtracking. “If that's weird, I don't have to—”
“It's not weird,” Celeste said kindly. “That's really thoughtful. They'd love that.”
“Okay.”
In the following hours, as Ruby shared stories about her disastrous attempts at learning guitar in college, Celeste confessed her brief but intense obsession with competitive Scrabble.
“Wait, competitive Scrabble?” Ruby turned in her seat to look at her properly. “Like, you went to tournaments?”
“Three of them. I was very serious about it for about six months. Studied word lists, practiced tile placement strategies.”
“That's the most Celeste thing I've ever heard.”
“I won second place in the regional championship.”
“Of course you did. Why'd you stop?”
“Law school happened and I didn’t have time for both.” Celeste shrugged. “Besides, I think I was mostly doing it because I needed something where success was measurable and predictable.”
“And winning games wasn't enough?”
“Apparently not. What about you? Any weird competitive hobbies I should know about?”
“Did I tell you about the time I accidentally dyed by hair green? Does that count?”
“You did. And it doesn’t. That's not a competition.”
“It was a competition with common sense. Common sense did not win.”
Celeste laughed, and Ruby felt ridiculously pleased with herself for causing it.
When Celeste pulled into a gas station for a bathroom break and snacks, Ruby stayed in the car, scrolling through her phone. There were missed calls from Ronan and two from her mother. She frowned, confused. She hadn't noticed her phone ringing.
Then again, she'd had it on silent in hopes of putting off communication with her agent. And she'd been so caught up in Celeste that she hadn't bothered checking her muted notifications.
In that moment, a video call came in and Ronan’s face filled the phone screen.
Ruby shook her head affectionately and answered. “Hey.”
“She lives!” Ronan's grin was wide, relief evident in his eyes. “Mom and I have been trying to reach you.”
“So that was what some of the vibrating meant. I had my phone on silent and I just assumed all the notifications were from Nora so I didn’t bother to actually check.”
