14. Ruby
Ruby
“I’m going to jump in the shower, then we can order dinner if you’re interested. You can choose the movie this time.”
It’s Friday, and we’ve made it through the week virtually unscathed—a win in my book. The last three mornings we’ve been up at six thirty, at the stables by seven, where we spend all day, then come home for dinner, and crash.
There’s a domesticity to it, almost like we’re a real couple. It’s something I’ve never experienced before, and I like it.
“Sure, I’m going to shower too. See you back here in fifteen?”
Miles scoffs. “Fifteen? Make it thirty.”
“Deal.” My foot’s already on the second step when there’s a loud knocking on the door. “You get it, it’ll probably be one of your free agents,” I tease.
And teasing Miles is something I’ve discovered is very enjoyable, especially because it distracts me from the jealousy creeping in my bones. Because it’s become increasingly obvious that girls flock to Miles like flies on cow dung—for want of a better description.
Grooms, women we’ve passed on the street. This morning alone, three different girls talked their way past security and onto the yard.
And since our kiss last weekend, it’s become more obvious to me that there’s a lot of competition in this race I have no stake in.
Therefore, it’s less painful if I joke about it.
“I’m not going to live that down, am I?”
“Not today, no,” I call back down the stairs.
I haven’t made it to the top before I hear a cacophony of voices, none of whom sound like free agents, especially when I hear my name being called and take a couple of steps back downstairs.
“Alex, I told you we’re not fucking coming,” Miles snaps.
Several pairs of feet come into view the farther I get. Feet turn into legs, which turn into three people standing in front of Miles, who’s trying his best to stop them from getting any farther into the cottage.
“What’s going on?” My eyes bounce between them.
I notice Hendricks, and the other guy must also be a brother based on the bone structure, but a small brunette is standing next to him, and I definitely haven’t seen her in any of the photos on the kitchen shelves.
My foot hits the bottom step, and before I know it, I’ve got a human bowling ball hurtling into me.
“Ruby!”
“Hi.” I laugh. “How are you?”
“Ruby.” Max squeaks again. “We’ve come to collect you for family dinner.”
Miles groans. “Alex, for fuck’s sake. I said no. Bringing Max is a low blow.”
I’ve never seen Miles so annoyed before. Even when I sprayed him with water, there had still been amusement on his face. But right now? He just looks pissed.
“What’s family dinner?” I ask, even though it’s obvious, and my question is clearly stupid. But I get the impression there’s more to it than it sounds, especially if it involves several members of his family and a child adept at emotional blackmail collecting him.
“It’s an evening we do every Friday,” Miles replies. “Everyone goes up to my parents’ house, and we spend time as a family. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“It is a big deal when our youngest brother has got a new wife we haven’t met yet,” Alex drawls, his tone jovial and filled with provocation.
“Alex, leave him alone.”
My eyes snap over to the brunette. I hadn’t expected her to have an accent exactly like mine—American. It’s been a little over a week, where all I’ve heard is English, and it’s a comforting change.
She also pulls me into a hug, instead of the English handshake, though we’re separated by her pregnant belly. “Hi, I’m Haven. It’s so good to meet you. Sorry about this. You’ll get used to the Burlingtons after a couple of months . . .”
A couple of months.
The season will end in a couple of months, and who knows what will happen then.
“. . . but you should come,” Haven continues. “We’d all really love to meet you, and it’s a fun night. I know it can seem intimidating when there are so many of us, but Holiday and Lando are here for the weekend.”
I turn to Miles, unsure what to say. There’s a nervous energy about him that immediately makes me wary, and he picks up on it instantly. Shoving all of his siblings out the front door before they can say another word, he slams it shut.
A chorus of complaints erupts from the other side.
“Just fucking wait there,” he yells through the door before he turns back to me. “Ruby, I’m so sorry. This is my family. Yes, we have dinner every Friday. But I already told them we weren’t coming this week.”
“You already told them we weren’t coming?”
He nods. “We have our first match on Monday. I thought we could spend the weekend in peace with some light training. And . . .” He grimaces. “I didn’t think it was fair to subject you to them all quite so soon.”
“Do they know about me?”
“Yes—”
“I mean . . . do they know that this isn’t real?” I lower my voice automatically, mouthing the last part of the sentence as a precaution.
“They know why we got married,” he says quietly. “But that doesn’t stop them from wanting to meet you because they’re meddling bastards. I’m warning you now—my family is a lot.”
“We can hear you, you know!” someone yells from behind the door. I think it’s Hendricks.
Miles bangs his fist against the wood. “Yes, because your ears are pressed against it, like the nosy fuckers you are.”
A grunt confirms it, and I laugh despite myself.
“Okay,” I say. Moving Miles out of the way, I hold on to the door and pull it open. “We’ll come for dinner. But I have to shower, and Miles has to shower too. Can you give us thirty minutes?”
“Jeans are absolutely fine,” Haven says quickly. “You can wear whatever you want. Come like that.”
“No. Absolutely not.” I put my foot down firmly. “We are showering. I need to shower.”
“Yeah,” Alex calls. “You do stink, Milo.”
“Fuck you, Al. You’d stink too if you’d been working even half as hard as we have today.” Miles turns back to me. “Ruby, I hope you know what you’ve let yourself in for. But say the word, and we are out of there. Deal?”
He holds out his hand to shake, and once again I take it. “Deal.”
My confidence isn’t quite so high forty-five minutes later as we drive over to Miles’s family house. What I thought was a turnoff road, he informs me, is actually the driveway. It’s two miles long. While I’m used to big ranches and endless acres, there’s something different about this place.
It feels regal.
Impeccably aligned trees. Picturesque fields. Freshly cut grass. Hay bales stacked with perfect symmetry. Horses grazing peacefully.
And then we round the corner.
The house comes into view through a long path of oak trees, and I swear it’s more palace than house.
“Miles,” I whisper, “where are we?”
“This,” he says, casually, “is Burlington Hall.”
“Burlington Hall?”
“Yes. Where I grew up. Lando lives here with his girlfriend, my mother, Clementine, Hendricks, and Max, but they’re moving into the cottage next door to ours once the summer begins. Story’s moving in too.”
The place is enormous. Three generations of a family under one roof, and the house is so massive that they could probably go days without seeing one another. I mean, one end of the house to the other is the same distance as Miles’s place to the coffee shop.
My nerves spike when Miles’s car crunches the gravel, and a flurry of dogs and humans rush out. Max is in front followed by Hendricks and Story, Alex and Haven, and a tall, very beautiful woman with long blond hair and the same blue eyes Miles and his siblings have.
“She’s here!”
I stare at the crowd gathering outside. “Oh my God!”
“Miles has finally brought a woman home. What a momentous occasion.”
“Even if it’s under extenuating circumstances,” Alex says.
“Jesus Christ, it’s an entire welcoming committee. I’m surprised they didn’t put out banners,” Miles grumbles.
It's Miles’s reticence at being here that makes me laugh and actually eases the tension, because I don't feel like I'm under any pressure to enjoy myself when he clearly isn’t.
“I hate them,” he adds, loud enough so only I can hear.
The Range Rover door is yanked open before I even touch the handle, and I’m pulled into one hug after another. There’s a scramble of feet and paws, dogs jumping around, until Miles finally rescues me.
“Leave her alone, for Christ's sake. I didn’t do this to Holiday or Haven—”
“You’d already met me,” shoots back Haven.
“Seriously, Ruby,” he mutters, ignoring everyone, “say the word, and we’re leaving.”
I laugh at his surliness. “Do you need me to say a word to you?”
“Yeah.” A slow grin finally curves his mouth as we step inside. “I think I do.”
We stop in an entranceway as impressive as the outside, a space separated by four big pillars and a sweeping staircase leading upstairs. Big pale stone tiles, the same color as the stable yard, are laid on the floor, but there’s a warmth to the place that brings it alive.
“So, Ruby,” Clementine says, linking her arm through mine, “tell me about yourself.”
“Clementine.” Miles sighs. “Can you at least let us get a drink before launching into the Spanish Inquisition?”
She throws her hands up dramatically. “Jeez. Touchy much?” She leans into me, whispering loud and conspiratorially, and despite myself, I laugh.
The feeling of being included is something I’ve not experienced often.
“You have to understand this is exciting for us. This is the first time Miles has ever admitted to having any type of girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Miles says dryly. “She’s my wife.”
Despite the annoyance in his voice, amusement sparkles in his eyes, which brightens further when Haven appears carrying a baby with a giant pink bow on her head, smiling wide and giggling. He plants a big kiss on her cheek, making her laugh even louder.
“I’m going to fetch us drinks,” he says. “Haven, protect Ruby from the rest of them.”
I roll my eyes and focus on the baby. “Is she yours?”
“Yes. This is Everly. She’s nearly seven months.”
“She’s adorable.”