2. Ruby
Ella is waving a stick of burning incense around her tiny shop three days before Christmas. She’s wearing a long necklace with a clutch of tiny, tinkling bells, and as she moves, the sound fills the air like wind chimes.
“You know I never used to believe in this stuff,” Ruby says. She’s come to Doubloons and Full Moons with Harlow and Athena, and even the act of doing so is indicative of how much she’s changed since moving to Shipwreck Key.
“You definitely didn’t,” Athena says. She’s spinning a small rack of beaded earrings that sits on the front counter, and as she does, Harlow is looping a glittering scarf around her neck, watching her own reflection in the mirror that Ella has hung on the wall.
“Mom, when did you get so quirky?” Harlow asks. She turns to look at them, and the ombre chiffon of the scarf looks soft next to her rosy features and blonde hair.
Ruby laughs. “I don’t know if I would call myself quirky, per se, but I feel like the older I get, the more open I am to possibility. Just in general.”
The girls exchange a look, and Ella sets down her incense.
“Let’s go into the back room, shall we?” Ella clasps her hands together and her rings clink, metal against metal.
In the small space at the back of the shop, Ella sits in her yellow brocade chair, plumping a pillow that she places on her lap. “Sit, sit, ladies,” she says, sweeping a hand around to indicate the other chairs that she’s crammed into the pocket-sized room.
Harlow and Athena take the folding chairs, leaving Ruby the other upholstered one. There’s a warm citrus scent coming from the candle on the shelf, and Ella has a tiny corner table that’s laden with succulents in various shades of green.
“I love seeing you all here together,” Ella starts, looking at each of them in turn. “I think the fact that you’re spending Christmas here with your mother is wonderful, girls. You’re both grown, and you probably have other things you could be doing, but spending the holidays on Shipwreck Key is a real gift to her.”
“And to us,” Athena says. “We love being here. If I could find something work-wise that was entirely remote, I’d do it from here.”
“You know,” Ella says, leaning forward and reaching for Athena’s hand, which she takes and flips over so that she can examine her palm as she talks. “I think that’s in your future, darling. You’ve been doing a lot of work on yourself, but you’ve also really been here for your mother the past couple of years, and I think it’s important to let you know that it’s nearly your turn.”
“Nearly?” Athena’s eyebrows lift.
“Yes, nearly.” Ella frowns at Athena’s palm and runs one finger along the lines that are etched there. “Sometimes you have to believe that it’s your turn before the universe takes over and gives you everything you deserve.”
Athena’s eyes scour Ella’s face worriedly. “What is it that you think I deserve?”
Ella pauses and thinks. “Love. Happiness. Peace. Forgiveness—for yourself and for others.”
Ruby watches her older daughter as Ella tells her these things. She knows that Athena has struggled with so many things these past few years, not least of which is forgiving her father for dying. Well, not just dying, but taking his own life in order to avoid a truly horrible death at the hands of a relentless disease. In addition to that, she’d had to accept that he’d had a mistress in another country, as well as a son they hadn’t known about. Ruby wants to reach over and gently tuck Athena’s hair behind her perfect ears; she loves her girls so much that it’s sometimes physically painful to watch them navigate the world and go through things that she’d rather they never have to experience.
“Okay, I think I understand that,” Athena says. She tucks her own hair behind her ears—almost as if she could read her mother’s mind—and looks right at Ella. “But it’s definitely me I have to work the hardest to forgive.”
Ruby holds herself back, ignoring the urge to butt in and tell her daughter that there’s nothing about herself that she needs to forgive.
“Athena,” Harlow says, bumping her sister’s knee with her own. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.” She’s casual when she says it, but there is real concern in her eyes as she looks at Athena. “That guy didn’t deserve anything from you, and he certainly doesn’t deserve you thinking about him now.”
Harlow is referring to Diego Santana, one of Athena’s coworkers at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. She’d made the fateful decision to accept a date with Diego, who she’d found attractive and interesting, only to find out (after losing her virginity to him) that he was scheduled to get married the very next week. Athena has beat herself up endlessly for that already.
“I think there’s love in your life now,” Ella goes on. “Maybe someone you already know, but you aren’t even aware yet that he’s going to play a larger role in your life.”
Athena and Harlow look at one another, each lifting one eyebrow in question.
“Elijah,” Harlow says knowingly.
Athena huffs. “Elijah and I are undefined.”
“Oh, come on,” Harlow argues. “You two are totally defined.” Athena shoots her a warning look. “Sorry.”
Ella turns to Harlow. “Your sister may have love in her life in the coming year, dear, but you have success. You’re working on a project right now, yes?”
Harlow’s cheeks pinken. “Yes,” she admits. “I am.”
“Well, I’m not sure what it is, but I see something good happening for you.”
“I’m so thrilled that both of my girls have good things coming their way,” Ruby says. “I worry about both of you.” She looks at their young faces as they sit there in Ella’s tiny room. “You’re both so magical to me, and I think you can do anything—be anything—you want to. I believe in you.”
“Mom,” Athena says, reaching out to take Ruby’s hand. “We love you. We want good things for you, too.”
Ella’s eyes darken slightly as she looks at Ruby. “Ruby. My darling girl.” Ella stops talking and laces her hands together as she closes her eyes. “You have created such a beautiful life for yourself here on the island, and we’re all so thrilled to have you here.”
Something in the way Ella is speaking raises the hair on Ruby’s arms; she isn’t sure why it feels like there’s a “but” in there somewhere.
“The foreseeable future is full of laughter, love, and happiness. I think the bookstore will do remarkably well?—“
“The bookstore?” Ruby frowns. She didn’t open the bookstore with any plans to make great money, and it’s only ever been a passion project. She loves it and is willing to keep putting money into it indefinitely because of the joy it brings her, but remarkably well? That seems like a stretch.
The citrusy smoke from the candle tickles Ruby’s nostrils and she puts a finger under her nose to ward off a sneeze.
“Yes,” Ella goes on. “The bookstore.”
“How about things with Dexter?” Ruby ventures. She’s almost hesitant to ask questions about her love life—after all, she isn’t even a full and true believer in psychics—but she’s also a little iffy on discussing her romantic life in front of her daughters. But the girls are grown women, she reasons, so she waits to hear what Ella will say.
“Dexter is a solid and permanent fixture in your life,” Ella says carefully. “He does and will continue to bring you the kind of security that you need. His love and support are integral to your future.”
Ruby shakes her head. “That feels so…vague. Do you think he wants to move here? Get married?”
Harlow and Athena’s heads volley back and forth as they look between their mom and Ella, waiting eagerly to hear the answer.
“I think he’s open to anything that you want to consider,” Ella says. She presses her lips into a smile and gives Ruby a long, searching look. “He’ll be there for whatever you need him to be there for.”
These answers frustrate Ruby slightly and she slaps both of her thighs. “Okay,” she says, nodding. “Thanks, Ella. I think that gives us an idea of what we have coming our way.” She looks at Athena. “We’ve got love.” Her eyes flicker over to Harlow. “And success.” Ruby pauses. “And I’ve got the bookstore and a man who will do whatever I want him to do.” She blinks a few times as the words cross her lips. “Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad when I say it out loud.”
“It’s not,” Ella assures her. She’s still watching Ruby closely. “Nothing wrong with books and a good looking man.”
Ruby can’t argue with this, but she’s still not entirely satisfied. She pays Ella for the reading while the girls pick out necklaces and earrings to send to friends in New York and Washington D.C. as Christmas gifts, but her mind is elsewhere as she hands over her Visa card. Of course she loves knowing that Dexter is a permanent fixture in her life, but a part of her wanted to hear that she was about to embark on a year of sheer bliss. That they were on the cusp of a wild, romantic ride. That he was going to tell her over the holidays that he’d sold everything and was ready to stay on Shipwreck Key and write his books from the guest room of her house forever.
But maybe those kinds of things are outside the purview of a psychic anyway, Ruby thinks. Maybe going to someone else and asking them to project into your future is a long-shot even under the best of circumstances.
”Hey, Mom?” Harlow says once they”re back outside on Seadog Lane, standing there in the bright winter sun. ”Want to get an iced coffee?”
Athena is already walking towards The Scuttlebutt with an eager look on her face. ”Oooh, yes. I could follow up a psychic reading with an iced latte, hands down.”
Ruby smiles at her girls absentmindedly, her thoughts still lingering on the way Ella had eyed her carefully as she predicted her immediate future. ”Of course,” she says, following them into the coffee shop. ”Let”s do it.”