Recklessly Rogue (Royals Gone Rogue #4)

7. Henry

Chapter 7

Henry

W ell…so much for ignoring each other.

I kiss Ruby like I haven’t kissed a woman in years.

No, I kiss Ruby, as if I’ll never get enough of her . Which I’m beginning to fear is the truth.

How this woman, a small-town girl from Ohio that has mostly worked as a bartender and stripper, is the one who got under my skin and made me rethink everything I’ve been so sure of in my life is beyond me. I haven’t wanted to fall in love. And I certainly didn’t fall in love with Ruby Gale on purpose. But now that it’s happened, I have absolutely no idea how to get out of it.

I lift my head, my fingers still tangled in her hair so that I can hold her still as I stare into her gorgeous face.

I know every detail of this face. Every swirl of blue in her eyes, the two freckles at the corner of her left eye, the sweet bow to her lips, the exact shade of pink the tip of her nose turns after I kiss her the way I just did.

I toss the bar towel I came back here to discard, then rest my hand on her hip.

“I’m going to be staying at your house,” I tell her. She needs to know that simply because it’s a fact. But also because, obviously, we have a hard time keeping our hands off one another.

Her eyes widen as what I said sinks in.

Then, as expected, she flattens her hands on my chest and pushes me away.

“What? No. You can stay at the bed and breakfast.”

That’s where Cian and I stayed when we came back for Cian to win Scarlett over.

But in my previous visits to Emerald, I stayed at Ruby’s. In her room. In her bed.

“I’m staying at your house,” I repeat. “I’m here to protect you and your friend from her husband. I can’t do that if I’m not right there.”

“You’re overreacting,” she tells me, taking a step to the side and sliding out from the small space between me and the counter.

“I don’t care. This isn’t up for negotiation.”

“It’s my private property,” she tells me. “You can’t just move yourself in there if I say no.”

“And how do you think you’re going to prevent it?” I ask.

She takes a breath, preparing to respond, but then thinks about the question. And frowns when she realizes she doesn’t have an answer.

Exactly. She can’t physically throw me out. She can’t change the locks. I’ll pick them. She won’t call the cops on me. I’d find a way around that anyway. And she cannot emotionally manipulate me. I’m too stubborn, and being there to protect her is more important than her feelings about it.

I give her a slow smile. “I will stalk you. I’ll break into your house in the middle of the night. I’ll follow you everywhere you go. Just try to get rid of me, Gem.”

I see the quick breath she takes at my use of the nickname. It comes out so easily when we’re alone.

Then she crosses her arms and presses her lips together as she studies me.

Her phone starts ringing before she decides on what to say. Which is probably for the best. For both of us.

She pulls it from her back pocket. Neither of us ever lets calls go without at least checking who’s calling.

She frowns. “It’s April.” She lifts the phone to her ear. “Hey,” she greets. Then her eyes widen and she starts toward the back room. “We’ll be right there. Don’t open the door and do not go outside.”

I don’t know what’s going on exactly, but I hear the change in Ruby’s voice, and I immediately prepare to leave the bar. I shut the lights off, make sure everything important is shut off behind the bar, and meet Ruby at the front door, my keys in my hand.

“Chris is at my house. He’s banging on the front door and yelling.” She’s got her bag and her keys in hand as well.

I push the door open and she steps outside. “Should I call the cops?” she asks.

“No need. They won’t get there before I do,” I tell her. I start toward the car I rented.

I turn back when I realize she stopped walking.

“Is that a Porsche ?” she asks.

I grin. “They didn’t have any Jaguars for rent.” I’m going to be buying something soon since we’re going to be here long-term now, but I needed a car tonight.

“You rented a regular car last time,” she says, staring at the silver beauty.

“We were hiding out last time. Trying to stay under the radar.” We’ve been doing that for years. I’m anticipating not needing to do that anymore.

Her eyes finally come to my face. “And that’s over now?”

I shrug. “Everyone knows who we are now. I might as well like the car I’m driving.”

She opens her mouth to reply, then shuts it and shakes her head. “Right. Of course.” She starts for her blue Honda Accord, muttering something I can’t hear.

“Hey,” I call after her.

“What?”

“Wait a few minutes before following me. I want to get there well ahead of you.”

“But…why?”

“I need to deal with Chris.”

“And you don’t want a witness?”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t want you getting in the middle of it.”

“You think I’ll try to defend Chris?” she asks.

“I don’t want to risk him trying to grab you or something,” I tell her. “Just hang back.”

She sighs. “I’m not afraid of Chris.”

“Well, you probably should be.”

I know Ruby and Scarlett have been on their own for a very long time. I can only assume that Ruby has had to deal with men at the strip club and bar who were aggressive or just assholes—drunk or not. I actually don’t want to know if they ever had to defend themselves at any of their homes. I’m not sure I want to know.

She frowns. “Henry?—”

“Don’t make me handcuff you to a chair in the bar until this is over,” I say.

Her frown deepens, then her mouth drops open. Probably when she realizes I’m not fucking around.

“ Henry .”

I cross my arms.

“You can’t just handle all of this for me.”

“Of course I can.” She’s ridiculous, and not thinking clearly, if she thinks I’m not going to do exactly that.

“But…what about…”

“What about what, Ruby?” I ask, a bit exasperated. “I need to get to your house where your friend and her little boy are being harassed.”

She presses her lips together and nods. “Fine. Go. But I’ll be behind you.”

“ Several minutes ,” I tell her firmly.

She sighs, but says, “Yes, several minutes behind you.”

“And don’t make any stops on your way home.”

“Where would I stop?”

“Ruby,” I say. “Can you, please, just say ‘yes, sir’?”

I can see her eye roll even from several feet away in the shadowy parking lot.

“No, actually I can’t.”

I don’t smile. I just say, “I’ll settle for a ‘fine’.”

She blows out a breath and gives me a soft, almost inaudible, “Fine.”

Good enough. For now.

I have a feeling we’re going to be having this conversation, or something much like it, again, so I get in my car and pull onto the highway to make the short drive into the tiny town of Emerald. I pull into Ruby’s driveway a few minutes later.

Sure enough, a man is pacing back and forth across the porch. He’s in blue jeans and a flannel jacket with work boots and has a cap on.

The porch light is on, but it’s not enough light for me to tell anything about a weapon other than he’s not holding anything in his hands.

I get out and slam the door hard.

He comes to the top of the steps, where he stands with his feet braced apart, his hands on his hips.

“Who the fuck are you?” he asks as I approach across the grass.

“I’m the guy who’s going to tell you one time nicely to leave. Then I’m the guy who’s going to make you leave if you don’t.”

He gives a short laugh. “Sure, I’ll leave. As soon as my wife and kid come out here and go with me.”

I stop at the bottom of the steps. I take a quick inventory. Chris is shorter and wider than Jeff, but it looks like his width is muscular and not from too many burgers and pints.

He looks angry, but he also looks tired. I don’t think he’s been drinking.

“That’s not going to happen,” I inform him.

“That is not for you to say.”

“Oh, but it is,” I tell him in a tone that I know is very condescending and will likely infuriate him.

“Are you fucking her?”

I lift a brow. “April? No. I haven’t even met her. But she’s here because of Ruby. And that makes it my business.”

“You’re fucking Ruby,” he says bluntly.

I haven’t in a while, and that’s starting to wear on me, I’m not going to lie. “That’s none of your business,” I tell him. “But you’re trespassing and harassing our guests. You need to leave.”

“They’re my wife and kid !” he shouts. “You don’t get to tell me what I can or can’t do.”

“I do while you’re standing on this private property,” I tell him firmly. “And April does when it has to do with her. She can leave you whenever she wants to.”

“The fuck she can!”

“You need to lower your voice,” I tell him, keeping my voice calm.

“You can call the cops. We’re friends.”

Of course, they are. “I don’t need to call the cops.”

“I’m not leaving without my wife.”

“Yes, you are. By yourself or with my help. Your choice. You have to the count of ten.”

He scoffs. “You think you can physically remove me?”

“I absolutely do.” I step up on the first step. “But I won’t need to. I can make you absolutely miserable without ever laying a finger on you.” I take another step up. “I know how much you owe on all of your credit cards. I know which porn sites you visit and how often. I know everything in your personnel file. I know about the DUI that your friend, the cop, covered up for you.” I take another step up. “Trust me when I say that I can make any of those into a problem if I choose to. There are a lot more miserable things than a broken nose or jaw. Things that don’t heal as quickly. Not that broken bones don’t really suck too.”

Now I’m only three steps down from where he’s standing.

He’s staring at me with worry now rather than anger. “How do you know all of that?”

“I have resources that you can’t imagine,” I tell him. “Which is why you’re going to leave right now. And you are not going to come back. April is going to stay here as long as it takes for her to figure out what she wants to do.” I take one more step up. “You are not going to harass her here, or at work, or in public. You’re going to leave her alone.”

“She’s my wife ,” he says one more time.

I nod. “And if you’d treated her as such instead of being an abusive asshole, she might want to stay with you, but you fucked up, Chris. Now be a man and face the fact that this is all your own fault.”

“Oh, I see,” he says, taking a step back. “She said I hurt her?”

“Yes.”

“And you believe her?”

“I do.”

“It never occurred to you that she might be lying?”

“No.”

He shakes his head. “The guy never gets the benefit of the doubt, right?”

“No.” I narrow my eyes. “If she wants to get away from you enough to lie, then she still really wants to get away from you.”

“Fuck this,” he spits. He steps around me. “I’m leaving.”

“And staying away,” I say, watching him stomp down the steps.

He doesn’t answer.

Ruby pulls into the driveway just then. She gets out quickly, standing in the open door of her car. Which is the opposite of what I told her to do. I roll my eyes. Of course it is.

She’s watching him go. “Ruby,” I say. “Come on.”

She slams the door of her car and hurries up to the porch, pulling the strap of her purse up on her shoulder. “What happened?” she asks, breathlessly.

“I told him to leave and not come back,” I say, grabbing her purse and digging inside for her keys.

“And?”

“And he won’t come back,” I say. I mostly believe that. I think he believed me when I said I have a lot of ways of making his life very miserable.

That doesn’t mean he’s going to go away entirely or sit quietly by while April works through what she wants to do.

Which means, I’m going to have to push this. Make it happen as quickly as possible.

I won’t have Ruby in any kind of danger. Even if it’s just the danger of some guy bad-mouthing her, being a creep while she walks down Main Street, or sending his asshole friends to harass her at the bar.

None of that is going to happen.

Her keys are not in her purse, so I slide my hand into the front pocket of her jeans.

“Hey,” she protests, but her voice is breathless.

I pull the keys out, and she says, “oh,” softly.

I wish I could linger over that reaction. This situation is extremely frustrating.

I shove the key into the lock and push the door open. “Where does Chris work?”

“He’s an insurance agent.”

“I know that. Where is his office?”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s a long flight from Cara to Ohio,” I remind her, nudging her across the threshold and stepping into the house behind her. I shut the door and lock it, engaging the deadbolt as well.

“You read about Chris on the flight?”

“Among other things,” I say. I also faced the fact that I was going to be living in small-town Ohio for the foreseeable future. “I got a bunch of information from your sister and then did my research on him and April.”

Ruby kicks her shoes off and shrugs out of her jacket. “His office is downtown. The tall building across from the coffee shop.”

I know the building. I spent a lot of time in this town and patronized all of the businesses at one time or another during the time Cian was here winning Scarlett over. I got to know the layout of the town, got to know the names and faces behind the businesses. Which means Chris is an associate, not an owner of the insurance company.

So he works mostly out of an office. He’ll be easy to keep track of. I’m going to need to get a couple of extra guys here. That or someone Chris works with on my side. I need to know what the guy is doing and saying until April and her little boy are safe and stable somewhere he can’t easily get to them.

I’ll also have to put in a call to Iris. So far, I’ve not told my boss that I’m in Ohio. She might understand why. Maybe. Cian will always be Iris’s first priority. She’ll also expect him to be mine. But now that he is more settled, and his future is at least partially mapped out with Scarlett and their foundation, surely Iris will ease up on how much of my constant attention Cian needs.

Still, she won’t like that I just took off to come to Ruby’s aid. That was reckless and very unlike me.

The only times I’m truly impulsive are when I’m following Cian on one of his adventures, and hell, that’s my job.

Ruby is just my…obsession.

Okay, Iris probably won’t understand, or like, this.

I follow Ruby into the living room. I take in the scattered toys, and a half-filled popcorn bowl. But April and Elliot are nowhere to be seen.

“What is all of this?” Ruby asks.

The plastic and cardboard that had encased the toys are lying on the floor in a neat pile in front of the stone fireplace.

“I had some things sent over.”

She turns to face me. “Things? You sent toys over?”

“Toys. A few books. Some bedding. I also had dinner delivered. And a few things for April.”

Ruby stares at me as if she’s never seen me before. “What kind of things for April?”

She almost looks jealous. Interesting. “Just some self-care things. Bath salts, lotion. A bottle of wine. Though I’m not sure what she drinks. I went with a sweet white. Some new pajamas.”

Ruby’s mouth falls open now. “ Pajamas ? You’re a stranger to her. Why would you do all of that?”

“I’m assuming she assumes it’s all from you,” I say.

“But…” Ruby frowns. “Why? You don’t think she has pajamas?”

“I have no idea what her frame of mind was when she left home. In any case, I wanted her and Elliot to feel comforted and welcome here on a scary night that is probably full of second- guessing and stress. At least, as if it was a fun stay away from home. But it’s a subliminal message that this is a fresh start that is going to be easy and full of good things.” I lift a brow at her continued look of puzzlement. “I’ve been around women and kids, Ruby. And I knew you were busy. So I just had some things sent over. It’s not a big deal.”

She crosses her arms. “Have you dated a single mom?” She looks like she’s just now considering the women in my past. And as if she doesn’t like it at all.

“I lived with a single mom and her daughter,” I remind her.

Her frown pulls tighter. “You did ?”

I can’t fight the small smile that tugs my lips up. I like her jealous. I won’t deny it. “Fiona and Saoirse,” I say.

She knows that I lived with Cian and his sister and her daughter. And Fiona’s bodyguard. And their brother Torin and his bodyguard, long before Torin was crown prince of Cara.

Understanding dawns on Ruby’s face and she nods. “Oh, right. Of course.”

She breathes out, and I wonder if she’s relieved.

Then she frowns again. “Only them?”

We haven’t discussed our past relationships. We haven’t actually spent a lot of time together one-on-one. And when we have been alone, a lot of our conversations have been focused on present day situations. Her sister and niece. Cian and Cara. My job. Her living in Emerald and being estranged from her father who is the pastor at the megachurch just outside of town. That’s a whole can of worms that took up plenty of time.

And then there was the time we spent together not talking.

“Fiona is the only single mom I’ve ever lived with,” I confirm.

Ruby props a hand on her hip.

“I haven’t dated a single mom either,” I add. That would have been far too complicated. I’ve had enough extra family to consider with the O’Gradys. “But I have dated women who liked to be pampered,” I say with a shrug. “And I know kids like new toys and pizza.”

That wasn’t a huge stretch, though I haven’t been around many little boys. I was a little boy, though, and lived with two princes and three bodyguards. While our “bachelor pad” had expensive espresso machines, high thread count sheets, and a housekeeper when we lived in Florida, boys still like their toys, gross jokes, and junk food even when they’re in their late twenties.

Ruby takes a step towards me, and it almost seems subconscious. “It is kind of a big deal. You’re a man. A stranger to them. But you did all of that to make their first night more comfortable?”

“I want April to feel that leaving was a good decision. She’s got to be scared. I’m sure she’s second-guessing everything. Maybe a bubble bath and some flannel pajamas will at least make her feel like she can relax tonight and that there are good things ahead.”

Ruby studies me with a tiny furrow between her brows. “So you understanding women and kids isn’t a shock. But how do you know what a woman leaving her husband or a kid leaving his dad is feeling?” She has a thoughtful look now as if it’s occurring to her that something deeper might be going on here.

I shake my head. “I don’t. I haven’t been in that exact situation myself. But I have been alone in a new place, by myself, wondering about my choices.”

I haven’t told Ruby about my childhood, my mom, what happened with my brother, or my relationship with my father. I’m not keeping it from her. We just haven’t gotten to that yet. Not that I’m eager to tell her, exactly. It’s not a happy story.

“And did new flannel pajamas make that situation better?” she finally asks.

I just lift one shoulder. “I don’t know. I didn’t have new flannel pajamas there.” I pause. Most of what I remember of being sent off to boarding school, dropped off by no one but our driver, was the gray cloudy sky, the gray stone walls of my private room, and how bloody cold everything was, literally and metaphorically. “But I’d had them one Christmas when I was younger. And I know when I finally got to a place where I was with people who wanted me and wanted to help me, it kind of felt like new flannel pajamas.”

The O’Gradys are definitely like soft, very colorful flannel pajamas. They are comforting and warm, and they never fail to make me smile.

I wonder how the king would feel about that metaphor.

He’d probably love it.

Ruby just stands there not responding for a long moment. Then she says, “I didn’t think about having anything here for them. April’s been taking care of herself and Elliot for a long time. She’s had Chris around, but he hasn’t been a lot of help, so I just told her to make herself at home and that she was welcome to anything in any cabinet or closet.”

I nod. “Because you’re used to women being able to take even the shittiest situation and make it better. It never occurred to you that she might need some bath salts because you and Scarlett never did.” I blow out a breath. “I wasn’t assuming that she couldn’t handle it.”

Ruby steps toward me again. “I didn’t think that’s what you meant. And the thing is, maybe Scarlett and I didn’t need bath salts or flannel pajamas. But there were lots of nights that they still would’ve been really nice. We didn’t know what we were missing.”

My chest feels tight. I hate the idea that this woman spent so many years having to be tough. I recognize that all of that has made her into the woman that I respect and love, but I still resent the fact that her life hasn’t been easy. And it’s fucking hard as hell to squelch the nearly constant urge I feel to make her life easy now.

Did I possibly project that in part onto April? Maybe. It is just a fact that I have the resources to make things better for the people around me, and when I know that someone needs something, it’s ridiculous for me not to provide it.

Before either of us can say anything more, there are footsteps on the staircase.

“Ruby,” a soft voice says.

We both turn.

April is slender and pale, with long blond hair that hangs in a thin braid over her shoulder and looks like she could easily pass for seventeen or eighteen, but the little boy hugging her leg has dark hair, big, brown eyes, and has a round face with chubby cheeks.

He looks like his father.

Ruby’s expression lightens. “Hi, guys.”

“We were upstairs. It was a little quieter up there,” April says carefully.

“We were playing games on my mom’s tablet,” Elliot tells me.

I assume April took her son upstairs to get away from the commotion Chris was causing at the front door. Or at least as far away as they could get.

“Definitely quieter up there,” Ruby agrees. “That’s where I take my tablet to play on and read too.”

Elliot nods. “Did you hear that man? He was so mad.”

I glance at April. She’s giving Ruby a look.

Okay, so Elliot doesn’t know the man banging on the front door was his dad. That’s probably good.

“I did,” Ruby said. “He was at the wrong house and Henry helped explain that and told him where he was supposed to be instead.”

That’s one way to describe what I did, I suppose. I nod when Elliot looks at me.

“You did?” he asks.

I tuck my hands into my pockets and rock back on my heels, working on looking at ease. “Yep. He’s gone now, and he won’t be back.” I need the kid to understand he’s safe here from all the loud, angry men, father or not.

“That’s good,” Elliot says. Then he descends the steps and comes to stand in front of me. “Want to see the new toys Ruby sent me?”

“I really do,” I tell him.

He takes my hand, startling me, and I look up at his mom. But April is just watching us with a mix of relief and obvious fatigue.

She says to Ruby, “You really didn’t have to do all of this for us. The toys and pajamas and pizza. It was too much.”

Ruby shoots me a look. I just wink at her as Elliot leads me into the living room. Taking care of people is never too much. Someday, Ruby will understand that.

I settle at the coffee table with Elliot and he starts explaining how he and his mom got to Ruby’s house and found all the packages on the front porch with their names on them.

I grin. I love that I was able to surprise them. I had to pay the shopper from Columbus a ridiculous amount to make out gift tags, go to so many stores, and then come all the way over to Emerald, but it had to be done.

I look around the living room, feeling a familiar sense of comfort being here. Ruby inherited the house from her stepfather, and the classic two-story farmhouse style boasts walnut woodwork throughout, including real wood floors on the first floor. But I’m guessing Ruby and her sister and niece are responsible for the buttery yellow color of the walls.

I take in the multicolored throw pillows, blankets on the blue sofa, and matching armchairs that are so different from the carefully coordinated color schemes in the palace and that the professional decorator gave to the house we remodeled in Autre, Louisiana, when we moved there. Ruby’s bedroom is similar. The duvet on the bed is pink, her pillows are green, and her sheets are blue. Not because she’s chaotic or just loves bursts of colors, but because she simply buys whatever she needs at the moment, likely on sale, without thought to things like color coordinating or aesthetics.

I’d be willing to bet very good money that all of the furniture in this room was Brian’s and left over, or is hand-me-down, or was bought from friends or people in town at garage sales.

Ruby and Scarlett don’t do excess. They don’t do extravagant. They don’t do over-the-top.

Marrying a prince is by far the most over-the-top thing Scarlett Gale has ever done or will ever do and I know it’s going to take her a long time to fully adjust to her new lifestyle.

Leaving her sister and niece to pursue a law degree in another state is as extravagant as Ruby Gale will ever get.

And that shouldn’t be something that’s extreme in someone’s life.

The urge to kidnap her and force her to let me take care of her gets stronger every time I’m with her, I swear.

I listen to Elliot happily babble about the toys, pleased that he’s so excited.

“I got planes .” Elliot moves around the coffee table and pushes the LEGO airplanes he put together earlier toward me.

“I love planes,” I tell him honestly.

I’m very happy to see the toys. I ordered them, but I haven’t seen them. I love LEGOs, especially airplane sets. Cian doesn’t like all the instructions and steps that go into sets like this and prefers to just dive in and start sticking things together, which never works, of course. There’s a reason step one comes before step two. Jonah, Saoirse, and Fiona don’t like to sit that long. Torin will do them with me sometimes but I’m usually on my own with building sets, puzzles, and things like that.

When Scarlett told me Elliot was into planes and rockets and not into sports or many “outdoorsy” activities, I took a chance on quieter things like coloring books and age-appropriate LEGOs.

“Wow, these look great,” I tell him of the three planes he’s put together on the coffee table.

Elliot giggles. I like hearing that. He doesn’t seem withdrawn or scared, at least at this moment. I assume he knows Ruby at least well enough to be comfortable staying in her house, and I’m apparently acceptable because I’m with her.

Elliot goes to another box and starts to open it but April protests from the living room doorway. “Oh, not another one tonight, buddy. It’s bedtime.”

She looks exhausted.

I jump in before Elliot can protest. I yawn and stretch. “I’m so tired,” I tell him. “Ruby is, too.”

We both look at her, and she also fakes a big yawn. “ Really tired,” she says.

He looks so disappointed.

“But,” I tell him. “I’m going to need help in the morning. Like early. I’m making…” I glance at April and Ruby, then lean in to share a “secret” with Elliot. “Pancakes,” I whisper. “But I can’t do it alone.”

He looks at me with a puzzled frown. “My mom makes pancakes alone.”

I nod. “Because she’s a mom. Moms are amazing. But I need help when I do it. Do you think you could be my helper?”

He nods. “Yeah. For sure.”

“Okay, so we have to get a lot of sleep so we do a good job.”

He jumps to his feet. “Okay!” He runs to his mom. “Come on!” He takes her hand and starts up the stairs.

April looks at me with surprise.

“April, this is Henry,” Ruby says quickly. “He’s a friend. He’s also a—” Ruby pauses, then spells, “B-o-d-y-g-u-a-r-d.”

April’s eyes widen. “Really?”

“Really,” I tell her. “And I’m going to be staying here with you all until everything is settled.”

It’s clear she’s not sure what to say to that.

“He’s good at what he does,” Ruby says. “This is probably the best solution for now. We’ll talk about a plan tomorrow.”

“By the way, you don’t have work tomorrow,” I tell April. I’ll get a hold of Dan before the bar is set to open and buy it outright. Then I’ll hang up a CLOSED sign on the front door, and that will take care of both of my main issues—keeping April and Elliot away from Chris until we can get them set up out of town and keeping Ruby by my side.

“Wait.” April pauses. “What do you mean?”

Ruby jumps in, hands on April’s shoulders, turning her and nudging her up the stairs again. “That’s all going to be fine. I’ll talk to him. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“But Charles…”

“I know.”

“And Mandy and Ada.”

“I know.” Ruby nudges her again.

“And the?—”

“April, I promise it will be okay. I’ve got it. But you need to relax and you don’t need to get up early. Just sleep late, have a day off with Elliot, and let me and Henry take care of things.”

I like the sound of us taking care of things as a team. But I’m taking care of Ruby right now too.

I can’t see them now from where I’m sitting on the floor by the coffee table, but it sounds like April has stopped at the top of the staircase, and Ruby is still at the base.

“But the money…” April says, either trailing off or finishing quietly enough that I can’t hear.

“Henry will make sure you don’t miss any money.”

Damn right.

“How?” April asks.

“He’s got even more money than he does, good looks, and audacity.”

I roll my eyes. But I can easily cover April and Ruby’s salaries for a couple of weeks until we can get her divorced and relocated.

April laughs softly. “This is a little crazy.”

“Yes,” Ruby agrees. “But good crazy. I promise.”

I’m glad to hear her say that. Being stuck under the same roof for even a day will make it very hard to keep our feelings in check, and this will take longer than one day, even with my people pulling strings. But the less Ruby fights me on, the easier this will all be.

Finally, April gives a soft laugh and says, “Thank you. Seriously. Dinner tonight, the new pajamas. You thought of everything, Ruby. You didn’t have to do any of that, but I started crying when I saw the way you worked to make us feel welcome here. You’re a very good friend.”

Ruby clears her throat. “I know that you are completely capable, and you don’t actually need help. You are an amazing mom and a kick-ass woman, and you can handle whatever comes your way. But—” She glances at me, then back up the steps. “We’re here for you. Whatever you need. If it’s just dinner, that’s fine. If it’s something bigger, that’s fine too. We’ll do whatever we can.”

I love this gorgeous, stubborn pain in my ass. She’s not doing this to take credit, she’s doing it to make everyone comfortable. And we feel like a team. I know that she means what she says when she tells April that we’ll do whatever we can to help. And I know she would’ve done that even if I hadn’t shown up. But I love that she’s going to let me help. At least that she’s going to let me help April . I have a feeling getting her to let me take care of her won’t be quite as easy.

Maybe I should buy her some new pajamas and LEGOs.