“I noticed you looking and wondered if maybe you read him but didn’t want to ask. You’d be surprised how many people fluff their way through it or laugh. But I get the feeling you really do like to read. I can keep it to myself. We’ll have to talk about it when you read it though.”
“I do read when I can. Normally thirty minutes before I fall asleep each night. Just kind of winding down. I don’t count the books I read to Jonah.”
She laughed. “I find that very sweet. My mother read to me when I was younger, then stopped.”
“Because you could read it yourself?”
She smiled. It was almost sad though. “No. My father, he was an alcoholic. I didn’t know it when I was younger. I think he was clean for years. But he was mean when he was drinking and when he fell off the wagon, he didn’t get back on. My mother kind of catered toward him so he wasn’t a jerk to her.”
“Mean, like physically?”
“No. Never that. Just his words. I seemed to get the worst of it. Matt, my brother, he was the son and played sports and they bonded. They were like bros. Matt was cool, so he was in good graces. Erika, she was popular and had a lot of friends and kind of the same thing. Then there was me. I was smart, didn’t play sports, didn’t have a lot of friends.”
“Really?” he asked.
He wasn’t sure he could see that. “It took me a long time to come out of my shell.”
Not unheard of. “So your father was mean to you?”
“Yeah. I guess I was just never good enough. He put me down a lot. Words can hurt and they did. And my mother…well, she didn’t stand up for me and that hurt worse. Seven years ago my father needed a kidney transplant. He wasn’t going to get a donor and none of us could do it, and that is when he admitted he had another child out there we didn’t know about.”
“Seriously? He hid another child but when he needed something to stay alive, he wanted to reach out to her?”
“Yeah. Ruby. Matt found her and asked her to do it and she said no. I don’t blame her in the least. And I was so hurt to know she existed and that my father wanted her and was talking about her more than even me, that I didn’t want any part of her in my life. Neither did Erika. Could be my mother getting in our heads too. But after a few months, after my father passed, I changed my mind and reached out.”
“I’m not sure I could have done that. That takes some balls.”
“It does because I thought for sure she’d want no part of us. Her husband, he’s an investigator with the State Police. They weren’t married then, but he was in her corner and didn’t want her hurt. I think I realized that my father’s actions hurt a lot of people and she wasn’t to blame either. She had more reasons to not want to know about me.”
All he heard was the name Ruby and then investigator and his wheels were turning.
“Does Ruby live around here?”
“Yes, and she sold you your house. I forgot about it until we just talked.”
He gulped. “What did she say?”
“That you’re handsome. I didn’t tell her too much, don’t worry, and she didn’t say much. She wouldn’t. Only that sheshowed you one house, you bought it and that was it. It was before Jonah was born.”
If he asked more questions, she might get suspicious.
And if she knew more, she’d bring it up.
He was trying to remember what Ruby even knew?
Nothing more than he wanted a nanny space. But people used the word nanny and sitter like he had interchangeably.
And with his hours and being a single father, it’d made sense.
But he’d had Carly’s space built after he’d bought the house. Ruby had no part of that unless someone from Butler Construction brought it up to her.
He’d just have to let it slide now.
He hadn’t paid cash for his house and people had money more than what their job would dictate all the time for lots of reasons.
“I remember her. She was nice. And you both have red hair.”
“We do. Neither Matt nor Erika do. I think we bonded over that. We are much closer now. But it was more like finding a friend later in life than a sister.”
