Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
RUTH
The world turned upside down the instant she agreed to a date with Nick.
It really was an easy decision. He was... Nick.
Tall. Handsome. Built like a big, huggable teddy bear. Just the kind of man she wanted to snuggle up with and... do things to.
Pretty much the man of her dreams.
Well, except the chip he'd had on his shoulder when they'd first met. He'd given her more than a cold shoulder at first. He'd barely looked at her.
It was his daughter Katie who'd welcomed her with her smiles and laughter.
Katie who'd kept contact with her.
Mostly under the watchful eye of her oftentimes scowling father, but Katie's sunshine was worth it.
It was like finding a light in the middle of the dark forest.
She loved baking. Loved people, too.
She just wasn't good with people.
She valued her quiet too much and only had the social battery of an off brand AAA, one that emptied too quickly to be of use in anything. Baking filled up that battery.
Katie did, too.
And Nick?
He was like a super charger. One touch. One tantalizing smell of his skin and was ready to take on the world.
Well, sort of.
She might get there someday.
Her worry was that she'd burn out or spontaneously combust.
A soft knock at her bedroom door turned her head and she saw herself in the mirror above her chest of drawers. Her face looked like she'd been standing in front of the hot stove for hours!
Ruth lifted her hands and gave her cheeks a patting down for a moment before she realized she was likely going to bring more color up then soothe it away.
Another knock. "Miss Baker?"
Ruth lowered her hands to her sides and walked toward the door. "Katie?"
She opened the door to find Katie standing there with a plate of oatmeal raisin cookies in her hand. "Did you bake those?"
Katie beamed with pride and held out the plate. "I did! My dad freaked out when I asked him to use the oven at home, but after watching me put these in the oven and set the timer, I think I calmed down a little." She wiggled a little in place and nodded at it. "Want one to try?"
"Absolutely!" Ruth reached out and took a cookie from the plate. It was warm and had the proper squish to it that said it was perfectly done.
She took a bite, inhaling all the spice and goodness in the cookie, closing her eyes to savor the taste. "Mmm..." She opened her eyes, smiling at the young girl before her. "Super tasty!"
Katie beamed at her. "Thanks! My dad said so, too."
Ruth nodded. "Good. It's nice when you have people who appreciate what you do."
Katie looked around her into the bedroom. "Are you... ah.. busy?"
Ruth paused and then stepped to the side. "I'm looking through my closet for something to wear to dinner."
"With my dad?" Katie drew out the word 'dad,' smiling as she did. "I heard he asked you out on a date."
Ruth felt her cheeks heat. "Yes." She nodded at Katie. "We agreed that he should ask you first." Ruth gestured for Katie to come inside.
Katie didn't hesitate, darting inside to half-jump, half-fly onto the bed. She didn't even drop a single cookie as she pounced.
"Well, I am all for it." Katie set the plate on her lap. "I've been hoping he would ask you some day before we all turned grey and wrinkled!"
"That would happen to us much faster than you, Katie."
She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Both of you act like you're in your forties or something."
Ruth almost swallowed her tongue. "Not quite but I'm getting there."
Katie's reaction was telling. Katie gaped at her. "What? How old-"
Katie clapped a hand over her mouth and mumbled through her hand. "Sorry. I'm not supposed to ask questions like that."
"You can always ask me." Ruth chuckled as she walked over to her closet. "I might not want to answer, but if that's the case, I'll tell you. Okay?"
"Okay."
Ruth heard her voice clear like a bell apparently she had lowered her hand.
"I was thinking about... this."
She turned to look at Katie and held up the dress in front of her. "What do you think?"
The look on Katie's face said it all. "That dress is going to make you look like one of those maids at the Haunted Mansion. It's nice, but looks..."
"Old," Ruth smiled. "I get it."
She turned back to her closet and hung up the 'aged' dress at the back of the closet. She wasn't going to wear that again.
The next dress in the lineup was one that she'd worn a few times to events where she had to dress up to drop off her baked goods for a private party. Dark green and flowy. "What about this?"
She turned to look at Katie and got a half-smile from the girl.
"It's... dark?"
Dark.
Uh.
Okay.
Ruth turned to face the mirror and looked at the dress she was holding up to her body.
It was, indeed, dark.
"It's comfortable."
"Uhhh... comfortable is nice. I think?"
Ruth looked at the bed where Katie was halfway through another cookie. "You think? Question mark?"
"I..." she pushed the rest of the cookie into her mouth, rounding out her slim cheek. "... don't want to sound... uh, mean, but... when was your last date?"
Ruth felt her cheeks heat again but with shame this time.
"A couple of years ago. I tried online dating and went out with my 'perfect match.
'" She shook her head. "But the picture he used turned out to be his brother's picture from a decade before.
His job wasn't even close to what he'd put online.
And then he left halfway through and I had to pay the restaurant. I was twenty-nine then."
She watched as Katie did the mental math. "Okay, well," she dropped her hands onto her knees, "I can guarantee that my dad won't make you pay for dinner. I know he's just as nervous as you are."
That stopped Ruth in her tracks halfway to the closet.
She turned and looked at Katie. "He... he's nervous?"
Katie nodded, her eyes alight with glee. "He emptied out his whole closet to find an outfit and in the end, I had to take him shopping for a shirt that didn't look like he was coming straight from the office." She groaned. "It was like pulling nails out with your fingers."
Ruth wasn't sure she'd ever heard that idiom in that particular way.
"Pulling nails out with your fingers?"
Katie nodded. "It sounds terrible, doesn't it?"
Ruth nodded but didn't say anything at the moment. The mental image of bloody torture were beyond her normal comfort level. "I'd say so... when did you hear about that?"
Katie shrugged. "Somewhere. When I went down to one of dad's construction sites, I tried to imagine using my fingers to pull the nails out of the wood." She shuddered. "That's like some kind of horror story!"
Ah... there it was. Not the same thought, but still gross! That would tear someone's nails.
"I'll have to remember to compliment him on the shirt."
Katie nodded. "Positive reinforcement. That's good. Maybe he'll dress hotter now."
Ruth's eyes widened at that idea. She thought he was pretty hot already, but she was not about to say that to Nick's teen daughter.
Was she?
"Katie?"
"Hmm?" Katie looked up at her with a wide-eyed curiosity.
"Do you have classes at school for biology?"
Katie frowned. "Biology? Like earth sciences?"
"Biology is like the study of living organisms."
"Organisms." Katie giggled. "Well, we have general science stuff. Why?"
Ruth bit into the inside of her cheek unsure if she should ask the question and if so... how?
"I was just wondering if you... if you ever need supplies for... you know... your-"
"My period?"
Ruth didn't know if she should be relieved that Katie knew what she was getting at.
Or if she should be mortified.
"Yes." Ruth was still feeling a little 'off' about broaching the subject. "I know that you've been living with your dad for years, I just didn't..." Ruth wanted to push the rewind button and start over. She really wasn't good at this people thing. "I'm sorry if this is uncomfortable."
"Uncomfortable? Nah." Katie put the plate on the nightstand beside the bed and scooted off the edge of the bed.
"Actually, my dad knows he'd be horrible at that kind of 'talk.
'" Katie walked over to the closet and Ruth stepped back to let Katie have complete access to the meager offerings hanging inside.
"He told me if I have a friend at school who's got a mom, I can ask them 'those' things.
" She sighed, sounding much older than her years.
"And I have friends at school, but none of their moms are the kind of person I can talk to. This school is kind of weird.
"The classmates that I like all have moms that look like they ate a lemon every morning and stayed sour all day. So I don't really have a 'mom' that I can talk to."
Ruth nodded. She wanted to offer, but she definitely wasn't a mom. So maybe she didn't count.
Katie's voice was muffled a little when she leaned into the closet to pick out a dress on a hanger. "...think I could ask you?"
Ruth was staring at Katie, confused to say the least. "What?"
Katie lowered her gaze for a moment before looking back up at Ruth. "Could I ask you questions about that kind of stuff? When I need to know?"
Ruth felt a whole bunch of conflicting emotions bubbling up inside.
"Uh... I should probably talk to your dad first. This kind of thing... People can be really sensitive about it."
"Sensitive? My dad? I bet he'd be relieved!" Katie folded the dress she'd pulled from the closet over her arm and fished her cell phone out of jeans pocket.
With a smile and a TAP TAP TAP she held the phone between them.
Ruth read the word DAD on the screen and a moment later, she heard Nick's unmistakable voice coming from the speaker.
"Katie? You okay? Did you get into Miss Baker's house, okay?"
"Yep. I put in my code like she told me and I slipped right in."
Ruth heard the relieved exhale.
"Good. I figured that since the cavalry didn't come down the street with lights and sirens."
"Oooor," Katie sighed dramatically, "you watched me through the windows and already know that I got it just fine."