Chapter Ten #3
Ruby snorted at him. “Oh, is the Marbled Hog’s signature dish not up to that elevated Madden palate?
” she asked tartly. There it was. Kel took another bite of the insipid burger as he admitted to himself it had been way too optimistic to think Ruby would have let the fight go.
“So sorry to hear that. Maybe you can get your house boy to cook you something organic and ethically sourced?”
Kel snorted. He wiped sauce off his lower lip with his thumb. “You really have the wrong idea about him.”
“Oh, no,” Ruby deadpanned over her shoulder as she headed into the kitchen. “Well, I’m sure he’ll stick around long enough for me to get to fix that.”
“Jee…z,” Kel said. He grimaced at the sour burp in the back of his mouth and rubbed his chest with the heel of his hand. “I said I was sorry.”
Ruby stopped halfway through the barn-style doors. She turned to level a hard look at Kel, one hand propped on her hip and the other weighing the plate, like she might throw it.
“Nice try,” she said. “But I’ve not been apologising for my fuck ups longer than you’ve been alive. Do you want some pie?”
For a second Kel thought of Shepherd and the taste of sugar and custard on his mouth. He could feel his ears flush. He ignored Ruby’s exasperated look as he cleared his throat and said, “Yes.”
A few bites finished off what was left of the burger. He grabbed a napkin from the metal holder to wipe his hands and smear away the string of onion that had fallen onto the counter.
“Speaking of the family,” he said. “When Dio came back, people said he was a lot like his grandfather. Was he?”
There was a pause. Then Ruby bumped the kitchen doors open with her hip as she came out, a plate of pie in one hand. She handed it to him and shrugged.
“I suppose,” she said as she pulled two spoons out of her apron pocket. “People said they looked alike, but they’d not known Albert. Dio was definitely better looking, not such a rat-faced bastard.”
Kel snorted.
“There was a family resemblance, but it was more down to how he acted and his mannerisms, you know?” Ruby absently tapped the bowl of the spoon against her chin as she thought about the question.
“I remember the first time he came in here, he ordered the exact same meal as Albert, and he called me Dorothy. Nobody has called me that in years except Albert. I always thought Ruby was more me. That’s what your grandad called me.
Just goes to show, Albert knew what he’d done back then.
Otherwise he wouldn’t have felt guilty enough to tell his kid about it. Why do you ask?”
Kel supposed he should have expected that.
He bought himself a moment as he cracked the crust of the pie with his spoon.
The truth would hardly do. Ruby wasn’t the sort of woman to believe in anything she couldn’t hold in her hand.
He wasn’t sure it was a good idea to convince her otherwise.
Ruby could do enough harm with a sharp eye for human nature and absolutely no conscience.
She didn’t need to have Hell on speed dial.
“Just trying to think of an angle to get Doncaster on-side,” he said as the sugar-thickened red filling oozed out onto the plate.
He poked it over toward the ice cream and swirled the two together.
“Even if there’s no other claimants, he could still tie it up in the courts if he wants to be a jackass.
If he actually believes it, maybe it’ll go faster. ”
Ruby snorted. “You should have run that by me,” she said as she tapped his spoon out of the way to steal the first bite of the pie. “He won’t. No one will. Everyone in town knows that I was your grandfather’s girl, and that Albert didn’t like women that much and didn’t like me at all.”
Kel ‘huh’d’ as he got another bit of pie on his spoon.
“Still,” he said. “It might help if you had some photos from back then? You, grandad, and Albert hung out, didn’t you? You have a few of the three of you?
An old shadow fell over Ruby’s face. She reached up and batted something away from her ear.
“I’ll have a look,” she said unenthusiastically. “But keep your attention where it matters. You’re grifting the legal system, not Doncaster. He doesn’t have to believe you. Remember that.”
“It’s just…I can’t imagine finally getting what we deserve,” he said slowly. “And still being stuck in Marble Falls because someone has a ‘bad feeling’.”
Ruby pulled out another spoon and helped herself to some of the pie, scraping a lump of cherry toward her side of the plate.
“Think of it this way,” she said. “You’re stuck here anyhow. At least then, you’d be stuck here with options.”
That made Kel pause as he stuck the spoon in his mouth. The filling was sticky and the crust flaky, but it tasted like paste. Maybe he was coming down with something. Disappointing pie aside…
“Yeah,” he said. “I suppose that’s true.”
Ruby looked smug. “Good,” she said. “Then maybe you’ll hear me out on how you could turn that lien on the Milligan property to your advantage.”
The smoke licked at the back of Kel’s throat, the taste of cherry suddenly so thick it sickened. Kel put the spoon down.
“You’re on a roll,” he said. “Why not? Maybe you’ll get lucky.”
She sniffed. “Only losers need luck,” she said. “I’m not a loser.”