13. Ruby
“I have news,” Dexter says, planting a kiss on top of Ruby’s head as she sits at her kitchen table on New Year’s Eve morning, nursing a cup of coffee and waking up. She’s feeling a million times better than she felt at Christmas, and while she was disappointed to have missed out on being a fun hostess as people showed up at her house, she’s happy to be back on her feet for Heather’s wedding day. This is important to her.
Christmas comes around every year, but a woman’s wedding day—well, okay, Heather has had a few of those, to be fair, but everyone is hoping that Dave will be the last.
“What’s up?” Ruby says to Dexter. She glances up from her iPad, where she’s been skimming The New York Times.
Dexter has a huge grin on his face and a brown paper-wrapped package in his hands. “It’s the galley proof of our book,” he says, laying it gently on the table. “I wanted you to have the chance to read it and offer feedback, but we’re pretty close to publication, so don’t go making changes to the whole thing.”
A silence falls over the kitchen; Athena and Harlow are out on a morning walk, and the only sound in the downstairs is the clock ticking in the front room.
“Wow,” Ruby says, placing a flat palm on top of the package. This book represents the culmination of over a year of collaboration between her and Dexter, and within its pages are the stories of her life with Jack. Of Jack’s life. Of their children. Of his betrayal. Of…everything. The feelings and the emotions of knowing how much effort went into this book are big ones. Sometimes it felt like rehashing and reliving some of the worst and hardest parts of her marriage as they wrote the book were going to drive her crazy, and Ruby had spent most of the summer reading Jack’s personal journals, digging through the past like an archaeologist on a mission.
“Do you feel up to reading it?” Dexter asks, placing one hand on Ruby’s shoulder as he stands behind her chair.
She nods. “I do. I’m ready to read more than the first chapters that you already gave me, and to see how the whole book turned out. I know it’s going to be amazing.”
“I hope so.” Dexter sits down next to her so that their shoulders are nearly touching. “My publisher is already talking about a book tour, and I’d like you to be with me for the entire thing. Do you think you’d be up for it?”
Ruby smiles. Would she be up for traveling the world with Dexter North? Most definitely.
“I’d love to. I’m just as proud of this book as I am of you, and I haven’t even read the whole thing yet.” Ruby nudges his shoulder with hers, and they both train their eyes on the table. “I’m really glad you’re here, Dex,” she adds quietly. “With me. It’s been a hard year, waiting to see how things would shake out between us. But it was worth the wait.”
“I’m glad you think so. I needed time to contemplate, and I know you did, too.” Dexter pauses and they sit there in the peaceful silence, with the eternal roll of the waves just outside the kitchen window, and the endless ticking of the clock in the other room. “I never doubted that you were the one, Ruby, but you gave me a lot to think about with all that talk of children. I didn’t know if you wanted me to leave to make your own life easier, or if you just needed me to be sure of what I wanted?—“
“It was the second one,” she says definitively, her hand still resting atop the book on the table. “I needed you to be sure that this was enough. That I’m going to be enough.”
Dexter waits a beat. “I don’t want to propose to you on someone else’s wedding day,” he says. “But I do want to propose that we just do this for real—you and me. Forever. And that we see where life takes us. I never want you to doubt for one second that I’m here for the long haul.”
Ruby leans her body towards his, letting her head rest on his broad, firm shoulder. The way Dexter looked after her over Christmas while she was sick gave her a glimpse into how he would be if she ever needed him to take care of her, and she knows that, no matter what, Dexter North is someone she can count on.
“I’m here for the long haul, too,” she says, turning her head so that she can rub her face against the fabric of his shirt. She inhales deeply, taking in the scent of him. “I don’t want to be without you, Dex. If you go on this book tour, I want to go on the book tour. If you want to leave Shipwreck Key, I want to leave Shipwreck Key. I just want you.”
“Well, lucky for you,” he says, leaning his head toward hers and putting his lips on top of her hair, “I love this place, and I can work from pretty much anywhere. So I say we stay on Shipwreck. Let’s live here and I’ll write books, you sell books, and we’ll wait for your daughters to come visit. But we can also see the world, and experience everything, and just be together.”
Ruby nods, but doesn’t move to take her head off his shoulder. “I’d like that.”
“I would, too,” Dexter says. “I never thought at thirty-five that my whole future would be laid out before me and that I’d like that feeling, but it turns out that I do.” He sounds wistful. “I don’t feel the need to search anymore. To run around the globe chasing stories.”
Finally, Ruby lifts her head and looks right at him. “But you love writing articles and going after stories, Dex,” she protests.
“Yeah,” he says with a smile that spreads slowly across his face. “But the best story of my life is happening right here.”
As she hears his words, a matching smile begins to glow on Ruby’s face and she leans forward to kiss him.
Just then, Harlow and Athena burst in through the kitchen door, bringing with them the cold air of the beach. “Oops,” Harlow says, catching them mid-kiss. “Sorry, lovebirds.”
“You’re just in time,” Ruby says to her girls. “We’ve got a wedding to get ready for. Heather needs us to help set things up.”
“Okay!” Athena claps her hands with purpose. “We need to shower and get ready—all of us. Let’s do this!”
* * *
There is a windswept church on the east side of the island that Ruby has to admit she never really attends. She’s been once or twice—a baptism, a Christmas Eve service—but she’s not been a regular churchgoer in some years; not since Jack died and she no longer had to attend on his arm wearing navy pantsuits or pastel skirts and little hats for Easter. There’s a peace and a comfort that being in a church brings to Ruby, but she’s not here today to fill her own spiritual cup, so after a moment of quiet contemplation in the empty church, she heads back to the little set of rooms behind the altar, searching for Heather, and ready to roll up her sleeves and pitch in.
But what she finds there is not a blushing bride who is waiting for her friends to come and fasten her borrowed pearls around her neck, but instead a woman in tears, her face puffy and her eyes red from crying.
“Heather!” Ruby says, stepping into the room with its tiny mirror and counter. “What’s going on? Is it Dave?” Her immediate thoughts are that perhaps Dave has changed his mind, or that Heather has found out he was cheating on her. But she pushes those thoughts away, trying to keep her own experiences and prejudices out of the room. Dave Hutchens seems like a perfectly nice man, and she’s never seen Heather happier than she’s been with him in her life.
Heather wipes two manicured hands over her eyes as she shakes her head, crying silently. She doesn’t speak, and as Ruby looks around the room, she has no clue what might be wrong.
Pastor Evan, a young transplant from Tallahassee who lives behind the church with his pregnant wife in what appears to be little more than a shack, might know; Ruby turns to go and find him.
“Ruby,” Heather croaks, reaching out a hand in Ruby’s direction. “Don’t go.”
Ruby looks around, feeling the panic rise within her. Heather’s dress hangs from a metal rack beneath a high window that lets in a flood of natural light. The walls are painted a soft, buttery yellow, and the linoleum floor shines beneath their feet. There is an uncomfortable looking futon couch pushed against one wall. It’s shrouded in a navy slipcover, and on it sits a duffel bag that must belong to Heather, as a curling iron, a pair of shoes, and a makeup bag are peeking out.
“Honey,” Ruby says, going to her and kneeling before the bride, who is sitting on a folding director’s chair that looks creaky, at best. “You have to tell me what’s wrong. The wedding is in two hours, and we need to decorate the church, get everything set up for guests to arrive, test the music, and make sure that the reception site is set up, too.” Ruby takes Heather’s cold hands in her warm ones and shakes them lightly so that Heather will meet her gaze. “You have to tell me what’s wrong so that I can fix it and we can start moving on things.”
The days that Ruby had spent in bed over Christmas come flooding back to her, and she has the sudden sensation that she’s overdoing things, but she pushes the thought away. Being sick is no excuse right now; there’s a wedding to put on, and she needs to get this bride back on her feet and moving forward.
“It’s not Dave,” Heather finally says with a deep shudder. “It’s his daughter.”
Of course it is, Ruby thinks. She’d met the daughter briefly at The Scuttlebutt, and she’d sensed a mild current of disapproval running through the woman. She’s known people like Celia before, and she also understands that, from Celia’s perspective, a much younger woman appears to have strong-armed Celia’s beloved father into moving to some far-flung island to spend all his money while she waits for him to die.
But Ruby knows Heather, and she understands that her heart is truly one that falls hard. Love is love to Heather, but she just happens to favor older, more established men.
”Heather,” Ruby says, looking up and into her eyes from her kneeling position. She winces. ”I want to walk you through this, but I think this linoleum just killed my knees.”
”Oh, god!” Heather springs to her feet, offering Ruby a hand. ”Get up. Here.” Heather helps Ruby back onto her feet and they sit on the futon together, still holding hands.
”Okay, so his daughter is giving you trouble,” Ruby says, leaning back on the couch and giving Heather her full attention. ”What did she say?”
”She”s basically accusing me of being a money-grubber. A gold-digger.” Heather shakes her head back and forth like it might dislodge the thought from her brain. ”I can”t...Ruby, that”s not who I am!”
”No one who knows you thinks that,” Ruby assures her. ”I promise you.”
”What if Celia has gone to Dave and told him what she thinks of me? What if he changes his mind and doesn”t show up here today?” She looks up at the water-stained ceiling of the tiny church dressing room. ”What if he tells me he can”t go through with the wedding because he thinks I”m just here for his money?”
Ruby doesn”t want to say anything without giving her words some thought before she speaks, so she sits quietly for a moment, holding Heather”s hands in hers. ”Listen.” She levels her gaze on her friend. ”I”ve met a lot of people in my life, and I like to think I have decent powers of observation. Now, mind you, I missed some big clues when it came to my own husband”s faithfulness, but I think it goes without saying that sometimes we”re too close to the fire, can”t see the forest for the trees, yadda yadda.” Ruby lets one hand flutter through the air and then grabs onto Heather”s again. ”But when it comes to looking at other people--those I”m not married to or in love with--I can see what”s happening. And I”ve seen you and Dave together: it”s real love. On both sides of the equation.”
Heather sniffles. ”So you don”t think he sees me as a gold-digger?” Her eyes are wide as she looks to Ruby for confirmation.
”I do not, because you are not.”
Heather looks into her lap. A single tear courses down her cheek. ”I love him so much.”
”I know you do, sweetheart,” Ruby says. Her heart swells as she looks at Heather”s tangible sadness and anguish. She”s such a lovable person--how can Celia not see this? But of course Heather isn”t just a nice woman in Celia”s eyes; she”s the woman who is, effectively, replacing Celia”s mother. And certainly there”s a ton of emotion wrapped up in that.
”I just want him to show up here today in his suit and tie, ready to say ”I do” without reservation.”
”He will,” Ruby says firmly, squeezing Heather”s hands and then letting them go as she stands. ”We need to get you ready to see your groom, girl. He”s going to be here and waiting at that altar, so let”s start by tracking down some ice so you can do a little de-puffing.” Ruby points vaguely at Heather”s face as she backs out of the room and walks into the tiny kitchen there in the back of the church.
”Here you go,” she says, returning with a bag of ice. ”Put this under your eyes while I go out and get the decorations going. I hear the other girls out front.”
Heather does as she”s told, resting her head on the back of the couch as she places the Ziploc bag full of ice over her eyes.
Out in the nave of the church, Marigold, Sunday, Molly, and Vanessa are waiting, chattering excitedly about flowers and ribbons as they point here and there and talk decor.
”Should we get started by putting a bow at the end of each pew?” Sunday asks, standing in place to demonstrate where she wants to affix a big white satin bow.
”Yes, definitely,” Ruby says absentmindedly. ”But ladies, we’ve got trouble brewing.”
The other women fall quiet as Ruby slides into a pew and sits facing them. ”Heather is back there in tears because she thinks Dave”s daughter is going to wreck the wedding somehow.”
”Uh oh,” Molly says.
”Indeed. This is going to take some diplomacy to handle, so we need everyone to pitch in.” Ruby looks each of them in the eye in turn. ”Sunday, I want you to talk to Celia. You”re good at navigating situations with tough cookie daughters.” They exchange a long look, and Ruby knows that she and Sunday are both thinking of the long, now healed-over, feud between Sunday and her oldest daughter, Cameron. ”I”ve got some decent diplomatic experience, so I think I”ll check in with Dave and take the temperature there. Marigold, Vanessa, and Molly--can the three of you handle the inside of the church while Harlow and Athena decorate outside?”
The women all spring into action, which makes Ruby”s heart rate slow a few paces. They”ve got a lot of ground to cover, and not a lot of time to do it.
”Where you think I”ll find this wicked stepdaughter?” Sunday asks, but not before glancing around to make sure they”re still alone in the church.
”Try Heather”s house--my guess is that the family is getting ready there.” Ruby is already making for the door and is ready to jump into her golf cart when she realizes that Heather is alone in the back room, most likely still icing her puffy eyes. ”Shoot,” she says, stopping in her tracks. ”Actually, Marigold, can we get you to take over Heather duties in the back dressing room? No offense to the rest of us ravishing beauties, but I think you”ve had the most experience with hair and makeup.”
Marigold passes the single roses she”s been bundling into bouquets off to Vanessa. She wipes her hands on the front of her jeans. ”Definitely. Back room?” She points behind the altar and then hurries off at Ruby”s nod to start prepping the bride.
Outside, Ruby takes a long, deep breath. This won”t be the first event she”s ever brought together on a wing and a prayer, but generally when things go sideways, it”s an event where the caterer brought the wrong brand of non-dairy creamer for the coffee, or one of the keynote speakers is feeling a bit nervous and just needs some encouragement. Having a good friend”s wedding day in flux feels a bit more personal to Ruby, and she understands the magnitude of getting this right. It”s going to take a heck of a lot more work than convincing a finicky event planner that Silk and Coffee Mate are totally interchangeable for most people, or reminding a guest speaker that it never hurts to try the old trick of picturing the audience in their underwear.
At Heather”s house, Ruby knocks and is let in by a jovial man with thinning hair and a bright red bow tie. ”Hi,” he says, offering her a hand to shake. ”It”s such an honor to meet you. I”m Matt, Celia”s husband.” As he talks, two little kids in dress up clothes run around the house, shouting at one another gleefully as they jump over ottomans and hide behind couches. ”Sorry,” he says, nodding at the kids. ”My son and daughter just get really excited when they hear they”re going to an event where there will be cake.”
As if in response, the little girl climbs up on the couch in her tights and dress, shoves both fists in the air like she”s just won a prizefight, and shouts, ”CAAAKEEEE!”
Matt looks back at Ruby and shrugs. ”Again, sorry.”
“Not to worry. I’ve raised two rowdy cake-lovers myself,” Ruby says with an understanding smile. ”Listen, Matt, I was actually hoping to talk to Dave. Is he dressed and possibly willing to see a visitor?”
”From a former First Lady on his wedding day?” Matt lifts an eyebrow. ”I think he”d be crazy not to. Most of us get a visit from our drunk Uncle Howard before the ceremony, and we have to listen to his outdated advice on how to keep a woman happy. But a visit from Ruby Hudson is a horse of a different color.”
Ruby laughs at this. ”Well, I hope I can at least match Uncle Howard”s wisdom.”
Matt disappears into the back of the house for a moment and then pokes his head out into the front room and beckons for Ruby. “Right this way,” he says.
In the ground floor guest room, Dave is standing before a full-length mirror, nervously tying and re-tying his own bow tie. He turns when he sees Ruby enter the room, then nods to Matt that he can close the door when he goes.
”Mrs. Hudson,” Dave says formally. He lets his hands fall from the tie that he can”t quite manage to get right.
”Do you mind?” Ruby nods at the tie as she sets her purse on the foot of the bed. ”I used to do this for my husband all the time before he went out.”
Dave looks taken aback. ”I”d be honored,” he says. ”It”s not every guy who can say that the woman who used to tie the President”s bow ties has done his for him on his wedding day.”
They stand there in amiable silence as Ruby futzes with his tie, looping it and fashioning a perfect bow on her first try. As she works, she catches a glimpse of Sunday and Celia outside together, standing on the small patch of lawn and talking seriously.
”So,” Ruby starts. She pats both ends of the bow tie and smoothes them down. ”Heather is feeling a bit uncertain at the moment.” Ruby makes a point not to look Dave directly in the eye, but to let him process this information slowly. ”Not about marrying you, but about how you might be feeling.”
Dave is quiet, contemplative. ”I see,” he says. He clears his throat. ”It”s an emotional thing, a wedding.”
”It is,” Ruby agrees. ”And your wife has been gone--how long?”
”Three years.”
Ruby gives a single nod. ”It”s an interesting thing, moving on,” she says. ”I had a bit of a hard time myself.”
”When you lose them, you don”t really get their input on what you do next, do you?” Dave asks, turning to look at his reflection in the mirror again. ”I can”t really know what Lila thinks, and all I have to go on is my own feeling, and the input of my kids.”
”Mmm,” Ruby says noncommittally. ”Kids do have opinions.”
”Were yours okay with you dating Dexter North?” Dave asks. ”If I may be so bold as to inquire?”
”You may.” Ruby smiles at his reflection as she stands behind him. ”My girls felt like me moving on was a healthy thing to do. Of course, my circumstance and yours are different, but we are both in love with someone who is a bit younger than us, aren”t we?”
”Maybe men age a bit faster, Mrs. Hudson, because I never would have noticed an age gap between you and Dexter.”
Ruby grins at him. ”You”re sweet. Dexter is fifteen years my junior,” she admits.
”And Heather is twenty-five years mine.”
”Neither is an insurmountable gap, but by the same token, neither is insignificant,” Ruby muses.
”Indeed.”
”Do you have any misgivings about that?”
Dave shakes his head. ”None at all. A beautiful, brilliant, artistic, younger woman wants to marry me--where”s the downside in all of that?”
”Fair,” Ruby says. ”But some might look at your situation and think she was angling for something from you.”
”Some might look at your situation and say the same.”
”Fair again.”
”Are people saying that?” Dave frowns and turns so that they”re no longer looking at one another in the mirror, but instead eye to eye.
”I think some people might have hinted at that to Heather, and it has her a bit spooked. I can say with my whole heart that, in the time I”ve known Heather Charleton-Bicks, she is the most gregarious, fun-loving, big-hearted, and romantic woman I know, Dave. She truly is. I”m sure you”ve traded histories with one another extensively, and you undoubtedly know that her husbands tend to skew slightly older, but I can also promise you that she”s loved them wholeheartedly, just as she loves you. She”s clearly crazy about you.”
”As I am about her.” Dave is still frowning. ”I don”t like thinking that anyone is filling her head with nonsense.” It”s at this moment that Celia walks away from Sunday and past the window, her face stony. Dave watches his daughter, and then turns back to Ruby. ”Was it Celia?” he asks.
Ruby inhales and holds her breath before letting it out. ”I”m not looking to stir up any family trouble,” Ruby says. ”But I wanted you to know that Heather was worried that you might not show up today, and that she feels as if there are people who don”t believe her motives are pure.”
Dave bites on his lower lip and looks pensive. He nods absentmindedly at Ruby. ”I appreciate you letting me know,” he says. ”I guess I have some things to work out in the next,” Dave pulls back the sleeve of his jacket and glances at his expensive watch, ”hour and a half.” He gives his reflection one last glance in the mirror. ”Thank you for coming, and for the help with my tie. I appreciate everything you”ve done, and I appreciate the friendship you”ve given to Heather.”
”Of course,” Ruby says, picking up her purse and reaching for the doorknob. ”I”m going to leave you to it and get back over to the church to make sure that everything is ready to go.”
Dave gives her a tight, nervous smile. ”I”ll see you there,” he says.