Chapter 2
two
RUBY
“Oh my God, Rubes. I can’t believe you’re getting married in just over two weeks’ time,” my best friend Sabrina aka Sab says. “Then you’ll no longer be Ruby Olsen, you’ll be Ruby Prior.” She tops off my wine glass and drops down into the seat next to me by the fireplace.
Sab is here for the weekend plus a few extra days because she surprised me and arrived early for a little Sab and Ruby time, hence my midweek drinks with her. Even though I live here, we rented a cottage on the lake because it will allow us to attend the annual tree lighting but still get away for some girl time. It’s my unofficial bachelorette party. Getting drunk in Vegas isn’t my style, so Sab and I decided on a girls’ weekend with wine, cheese, and a hot tub.
The cottage she booked has a wraparound porch with a swing out front. It’s open plan inside with a large living area and a gourmet kitchen, with top-of-the-line appliances and granite countertops. There’s a hot tub on the huge back deck that overlooks the lake, and just off the deck is a firepit. There’s a stone path down to the lake and a private dock. I’m going to suggest we come here in the summer too so we can make use of the private dock, lake, and firepit … without freezing our tits off. The winters here can be unbelievably cold but in saying that, today can be in the negatives and tomorrow will be twenty degrees warmer. Mother Nature can be psycho at times.
The original plan was for me to finish early on Friday. Sab is going to pick me up from my place, and then we’ll head into town for the annual tree lighting before the two of us are going to hide out together at the lakefront rental for the rest of the weekend. I’m looking forward to sitting in the hot tub with my bestie, where we will drink copious amounts of wine and laugh.
Oh my God, will we laugh.
Sab and I always laugh when we’re together and they say, “laughter is the best medicine” and Dr. Sab is a pro at making me chuckle. Hopefully, it will be the medicine I need to calm my inner unrest. Even though it’ll just be the two of us, I cannot wait. It will be my last chance to relax before the chaos of Christmas and the final wedding prep begins.
Like seriously, who gets married just before Christmas? Ohhh, that’s right, me. I’d always dreamt of having a Christmas wedding, so as soon as Joel proposed the planning began. He wanted to get married at the ski lodge—not my preference—so we booked it for the weekend before Christmas the following year. It was already August by the time he proposed, and there was no way I could arrange a wedding in four months. I may be a planner from way back but I didn’t need stress like that, so we agreed to the following year, and here we are; our big day is almost here.
Sabrina has been a life saver when it came time to planning the wedding, she really is the bestest friend a girl could ask for. She and I have been best friends since the Whitworth’s moved in next door when we were seven. As an only child being raised by her grandparents, after her parents were killed in a house fire when she was three, it was great to have kids nearby. She’s my sister from another mister. My ride or die. There isn’t one memory from my childhood that doesn’t involve her.
We always joked around about me marrying her older brother, Maddox, and then we could become “real” sisters and I was always happy to go along with that plan. Her brother, Maddox Whitworth, is the most beautiful man in the world and it would have been no hard feat to marry him, but best friend’s brother is so cliché … even if my romance-loving heart would love that.
She, along with her parents, were always aware of my crush on her brother, which as the years went on became an infatuation. But if she’d seen what I’d seen when I was sixteen, she’d understand. It was a Saturday afternoon in July, and I got more than I bargained for when I went upstairs to pee. I walked into the bathroom, and I saw him in nothing but his birthday suit. He’d just stepped out of the shower and was reaching for his towel. Water droplets slid down his body, it was the first time I’d seen him without a shirt on that summer, and thanks to his rigorous training at the police academy, Maddox Whitworth had abs on abs on abs. And his dick? Oh, my God—perfection. It was the first dick I saw in the flesh, and it was massive and beautiful. My little sixteen-year-old-heart fell deeper for him and my crush intensified tenfold. No other dick has ever lived up to that memory, sorry Joel. Don’t get me wrong, my fiancé has a nice dick but as of late, in the lead-up to our wedding, our sex life has become meh . Thank God for Thumper, my trusty vibrator, but I digress, back to Maddox. He was the man of my teenage dreams and secretly, like her, I always hoped Sab and I would become sisters-in-law. That dream almost became a reality a few Christmases later. For two blissful weeks, Maddox and I snuck around together. That Christmas, he took my virginity, and my heart. I remember that night as if it were yesterday and not nine years ago. It was late and we’d both had a little too much mulled wine at the Christmas festival. One thing led to another and he popped my cherry in their garage apartment. It was magical and once wasn’t enough so we kept doing it while we were both home, then real life kicked in and we went our separate ways. Sab doesn’t know he was my mystery man that Christmas or that he was the one to take my V card. It was nothing more than a holiday hookup and we’ve never spoken about it since. In fact, I haven’t seen him since Sab’s wedding but now he’s the new sheriff, I’m bound to run into him from time to time.
According to Sab, he’s still single and is leaving a trail of broken hearts behind him. She thinks he’s pining over a girl because he once let slip that he let “the one” go, but he never told her anything more about this mystery girl. I like to think it was me, but it’s too late now because very soon I’m going to become Mrs. Joel Prior.
When I met Joel, he swept me off my feet and we fell in love. Just after we graduated, Joel got a job in Kingsbury Point, just across the lake from Evergreen Lake, at the Luxe Hotel there in the accounting department. It made sense for us to return to my hometown since I’d inherited my grandparents cottage. My pop, Erik Olsen, my last surviving family member, died just before I graduated. He never got to see his Reindeer—the nickname he gave me because my nose is always red like Rudolph’s, even in the summer—walk across the stage and get my degree, and he won’t be there to walk me down the aisle in a few weeks’ time.
With Kingsbury Point being only a thirty-five minute drive around the lake, it wasn’t too much of a commute for Joel, and the move back home allowed me to open my very own bookstore on Main Street. In doing so, Read Between the Wines went from being a dream of mine to a reality.
Six years later, my little store is thriving and my romance- loving heart gets to indulge each and every day. Books are a way to escape reality and book boyfriends are perfect in every way, even the douches. Sometimes I wish Joel was like the hero in my novels. I wish he’d come home from work, walk over to me, and slam me up against the wall. Devouring my mouth with his tongue, while stripping me naked, and fucking me right there in the living room.
He does deserve credit where credit is due because when he proposed it was super romantic. We were in Hawaii on vacation, staying at the Luxe resort in Lanikai Beach. He’d arranged a sunset dinner on the beach across the road, and just as the sun dipped beneath the horizon, a sign was lit and as the flames grew, it heated up the frame and the words, “Marry Me?” appeared. When I looked back to Joel, he was down on one knee with a ring. Of course I said yes, who wouldn’t after a proposal like that?
As soon as we got back to Evergreen Lake, the planning for our special day began and now, sixteen months later, our wedding is nearly upon us.
The sound of Sab’s voice snaps me back from my memories and I listen as Sab tells me a story about her girls, Monique and Cassie. I love those girls as if they were my own, and I cannot wait to see them in their flower girl dresses.
“You realize you created mini versions of us? Mon and Cass are just like you and me from when we were younger.”
“Oh my God, you’re right. I’m screwed when they become teenagers.”
“At least you’ll kind of be prepared.”
“Thank God for wine,” she states. Raising my glass, we tap them in a silent cheers.
“Your turn,” Sab says, pointing to the empty wine bottle.
“I have to work tomorrow.”
“Rubes, you’re the boss, you can go in late. ”
“Well, yeah, but?—”
“A girl needs to let loose every now and then and when your sister from another mister arrives early, you drink wine and eat cheese with her.”
“Well, when you put it like that, how can I resist?”
“You can’t, now, wine me.”
Saluting her, I jump up and head into the kitchen for another bottle of wine. When I return, she’s sitting there with a sheepish look on her face.
“What are you up to?” I ask, as I refill our glasses and sit back down.
“Here,” she states. “Happy early birthday,” Sabrina singsongs, handing me a beautifully decorated gift box.
“My birthday isn’t until March,” I remind her.
“Hence early. Now open it.”
“Okay. Okay.” Lifting the lid on the box, my eyes widen when they land on the most beautiful Christmas ornament I have ever seen. It’s a handblown purple, blue, and pink star adorned with glitter. It’s so delicate I’m scared I’ll break it. “Sab, it’s gorgeous.”
“I grabbed it from this store Mad was telling me about in the city, but as soon as I saw it, I knew you needed it. The storekeeper told me it was enchanted.”
“Enchanted, huh?”
“Mmmhmpf. She said the person who receives it would be able to look into their future to find their true love. It was that story that sold it for me because I knew you and your romantic heart would eat that shit up.”
“Sab, I already have my true love.”
“But do you?”
Her question shocks me and I pause. “Yes?” My answer is more of a question than a reply, but I do love Joel. “I love him,” I tell her .
“I know you do, ignore me, but seriously, do you really love it?”
“I do, Sab, I really, really love it. It’s stunning and I can’t wait to put it on my tree when I get home.”
“Before you do, make sure you ask it to show you your true love.”
“For you, Sab, I’d do anything.” Carefully, I pull out the ornament and I hold it up by the gold string, I stare at the shimmery ornament. “Okay, ornament, show me who my one true love is.”
No sooner do I finish asking the ornament who my one true love is and there’s a knock at the door.