Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
R uby came home from her shift at ten to find Callie and her sister at the kitchen table playing gin rummy.
Rafe had dropped her off out front with a grumbled promise to pick her up again tomorrow.
He hadn’t been particularly chatty. Apparently, their afternoon conversation had been some kind of anomaly, and he’d reset to his usual reticent self.
Maybe it was for the best. Ruby wasn’t sure she could handle anymore werewolf fun facts at the moment.
“Ooh, what did you bring us?” Callie asked, looking up from her cards.
“Shepherd’s pie.”
Lena crinkled her nose. She looked a bit better than she had this morning, but Ruby had already heard plenty of whispers at the bar about what had happened at Gert’s diner.
“Sorry,” Ruby said. “It was tonight’s special and it wasn’t exactly a big hit. But that means there were plenty of leftovers!”
She plopped herself down in the chair next to her sister, laying the Styrofoam take-out containers on the table. When she looked up both women were staring at her.
“What?”
“I heard you had a visitor this morning,” Callie said, raising her eyebrows meaningfully. “A naked man type visitor. A certain naked lumberjack .”
“He’s not a lumberjack,” Ruby muttered, trying very hard to communicate to Callie with her eyes not to mention anything about the wolf.
Whether or not Callie thought it was odd that Ruby had had both an injured wolf and an injured man in her garage on the same night was still to be determined.
But she definitely didn’t want to discuss it in front of her sister.
“He’s not a lumberjack but he was naked in our garage, and according to Ruby it was all because of a?… what did you say: aggressive game of strip poker?” Lena teased, clearly not buying her story.
“Wow, this town has gotten even weirder since I’ve been gone. Now the bar hosts strip poker games?” Callie dug into the closest container, scraping some of the mashed potatoes off the top of the shepherd’s pie.
Ruby rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t that weird, just a few of us playing after work, that’s all.”
“And whoever won Rafe’s clothes decided to?… keep them?”
“I will not be answering any more questions at this time,” Ruby said, stuffing a fork full of meat and potatoes into her mouth.
“Okay, that’s fine,” Lena said with a grin.
And she looked so like her old self, so vibrant and fun, that Ruby almost didn’t mind the teasing.
If speculating about Ruby’s sex life kept her sister smiling, then so be it.
“That leaves us free to come up with our own theories.” She waggled her eyebrows.
“Oh God,” Ruby groaned. “Please don’t.”
Callie was studying her in the soft glow of the kitchen light that hung over the table.
Everything in the house was as their aunt had left it, the old light fixtures, the kitchen table and chairs that their aunt’s father had made.
They even had her old chipped mugs and plates in the cabinets, blue and white with little Dutch children on them, and her worn red cloak hung on the back door.
It was like the old woman was still here, like she could walk in at any moment and join the girls at the table.
Aunt Millie loved a good card game. And Shepherd’s pie.
Ruby missed her fiercely.
“So that’s it then? Nothing else out of the ordinary to report?” Callie asked pointedly.
“Nothing else.” Ruby gave a subtle shake of her head, widening her eyes at Callie, pleading with her not to say anything else. Maybe she was being overly protective, but she’d seen how lately just existing seemed to be taking everything out of Lena.
And Lena was the only family Ruby had left.
Lena’s gaze flicked between the two of them like she knew there was plenty being left unsaid.
She was sick, not stupid. But Ruby could see the dark circles under her eyes, and the way her body had started to curl in on itself again.
She looked so tiny inside that damn pink robe she wore around the house.
“Why don’t you get some sleep?” Ruby suggested.
Lena’s lips turned down into a pout. “We didn’t finish our game.” Even as she protested, Ruby could see her eyelids drooping. She could practically feel her twin’s exhaustion in her own body.
“We can pick it up tomorrow,” Callie said. “I’m going to head home anyway.”
Lena yawned. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Definitely.” Callie leaned in and gave Lena a hug and again Ruby was overcome with gratitude that she was back.
That was until Lena was out of earshot, and Callie swung her gaze back to Ruby.
“What the hell happened to the wolf?” she hissed.
“He was gone in the morning.” There. That was the truth. Mostly.
“Gone?”
“Yes.”
“And Rafe from the bar was there in his place? I know he didn’t come home with you, Ruby. I was with you in the middle of the night and there was no sexy lumberjack in sight.”
“He… I…”
Ruby sighed. How the hell was she supposed to formulate the words to explain things to Callie that she wasn’t even sure she fully believed herself?
How could she tell Callie that all the stories they’d heard growing up, the ones they’d whispered to each other late at night, and all the movies they’d watched from half under their blankets, too scared to look at it head on, were real?
The stories were true.
“You have secrets too,” was what she landed on.
Callie looked shocked for a moment and then sad, a furrow forming between her brows.
But then she nodded. It was the truth. They both had secrets now.
And maybe at one time, they would have shared with each other—they would have told each other everything—but it had been two years.
Two years apart. Two years of wondering, of worrying.
As glad as Ruby was that Callie was home, it didn’t fix everything between them. It didn’t mean their friendship could go right back to how it always had been.
They sat quietly at the table, the old clock on the wall ticking away the seconds. It was windy outside and dry leaves and bare branches scraped along the kitchen window. The perfect night for a spooky story, but Ruby kept hers locked away.
Eventually, they got up to clear away the leftovers, silently working side by side.
“You can tell me when you’re ready,” Callie said as they piled the empty mugs and dirty forks into the sink. “Whatever it is, I’ll believe you.”
“Same,” Ruby told her and meant it. At this point she’d believe anything.
Ruby walked her to the front door and stood in the doorway as she watched Callie make her way out to her station wagon.
It was dark and a shiver raced down Ruby’s spine.
She couldn’t see much beyond the glow of her porch light, but she kept her eyes on Callie’s blonde head, listening for the sound of the station wagon’s engine, thankful for the headlights illuminating the street.
Once Callie had safely pulled away, Ruby ducked back inside and locked the door.
But the feeling of being watched, the thought that she hadn’t been alone out there, didn’t leave her all night.