Chapter 14 #2
Suitably chastised, Ruby tried the same half-pleading, half-innocent look she'd pulled on her sister many times in the past: when she'd cut her doll’s hair, when she'd borrowed her favourite knee-high boots and broken a heel, when she'd deliberately dated a long-haired, heavy-metal guitarist because her sister decreed him not good enough.
Now, like then, it didn't work.
"Wipe that fake sorry expression off your face and tell me what the hell you were thinking."
It would be much easier if Ruby could lie to her sister and profess some great, undying love for her husband. But they'd always been close, and with their mum gone, they only had each other and she couldn't start lying now.
Understanding dawned in her sister's expressive eyes. “Hell no. You did this for Seaborn.”
"Uh… well… he's actually not too bad once you get to know him and I think—“
"Bullshit.” Sapphire snapped her fingers. "We're going under, so you attack the source of the problem, exactly how you've attacked every problem head on since you were a kid."
Sapphire shook her head. "Rubes, this isn't some game you can pack up and shelve if it goes wrong."
This time, Sapphire took her hand and Ruby let her. "You've married the guy, for goodness sake. Do you have any idea what this means?"
Yeah, considering Ruby would be shackled to the enemy for the foreseeable future, she had some idea.
"You've given Seaborn a lifeline, but at what cost?"
Thankfully, Ruby hadn't confirmed or denied Sapphire's assumptions, but she should've known her sister couldn’t be fooled.
"I could kill you," Sapphire muttered, before hugging her so tight she could barely breathe.
"But you won’t, because I'm the best creative genius Seaborn has ever seen, and I wouldn't have gone to all this trouble if you were going to kill me anyway."
Sapphire punched her on the arm. "I knew it. You're insane."
"But you love me."
"Yeah." Sapphire teared up. "You're amazing, Sis, doing this for the company, for us."
Blinking back tears, she squeezed Sapphire's hands. "You promised Mum you’d save Seaborn. I would've done the same."
Given the opportunity.
It hung unsaid between them, the one thing they hadn't spoken about when Sapphire finally confessed the truth to her. Ruby had threatened to take her to hospital if she didn't take a few months off and the promise Sapphire had made to their mum spilled out, driving an invisible wedge between them.
It had seemed petty to blame her dead mother she missed every day at the time, so she'd inwardly blamed Sapphire instead.
Her sister should've trusted her enough to tell her, to allow her to shoulder some of the load, and the fact Saph hadn't thought her responsible enough…
it hurt as much as not being trusted by their mother in the first place.
She hadn't said anything at the time. Saph had been too fragile, too sick. But now she'd put it out there. If her sister picked up on the nuance, she'd say something. Much healthier than bottling it up as Saph had done the last year.
"You resent me for that." Sapphire sagged against the bench and Ruby almost backtracked, until she remembered how awful she'd felt, stewing over this the last month, and she nodded.
"Yeah, a little." She touched Saph's arm. "We're more like best friends than sisters. I can't believe you didn't tell me."
"I wanted to…" Sapphire shook her head, her hair bouncing around her shoulders as it once had, before it turned lank and lifeless with stress. "But that promise…"
Ruby knew how obsessive her sister could be with a promise. Sapphire had promised to find their neighbour's runaway pet mouse when they'd been kids: she'd spent four hours searching the garden, only to use her precious pocket money at the local pet store to replace it.
She'd promised to help her sixth-grade class bully to pass Maths if he stopped tying her pigtails to the chair. She'd almost failed herself, she'd put so many hours into tutoring the deliberately obtuse brat.
She'd promised to 'make it all better' when Ruby's first crush had dumped her, and she had. By sitting up with her all night, plying her with ice cream and cookies and candy, before heading around to the jerk's place first thing in the morning and ramming his prized bicycle into a tree.
Ruby sighed. "I understand how much your word means, I really do, but I could've helped. I could've eased the load and not been responsible for this."
She waved her hand towards the building and Sapphire grabbed it. "Don't do that, blame yourself. You weren't the stupid one working ridiculous hours, skipping meals, taking caffeine supplements to get through the night."
Sapphire tapped her chest. "I did that, not you, so don't you dare think this is your fault."
Trust her sister to shoulder everything, even now. Ruby held her hands and squeezed.
"But that's just my point, Saph. It is my fault, because you didn't think I could handle any of this." She shook her head. "I respect the promise you made to Mum, but when you started going downhill you could've come to me but you didn't. You chose to get sick rather than rely on the bubblehead."
Sapphire's lower lip wobbled. "I only called you that as a kid because I was jealous of your creativity."
"Yeah, I know, but want to know something?" Ruby held her thumb and forefinger an inch apart. "A small part of me believed it. Mum believed it. Every guy I ever dated believed it, because I let them."
Sapphire reared back as if she'd poked her in the eye. "Mum adored you. She never thought that—"
"Yeah, she did. She would've told me about Seaborn at the end, otherwise."
Sapphire blinked back tears and Ruby almost wished she'd never brought it up. But telling her sister about her festering resentment felt good, rather than allowing it to constantly niggle.
"I'm sorry, Rubes. I never meant to make you feel inferior or stupid." Sapphire shrugged. "Guess I got caught up playing the control-freak big sister like I always have and didn't give you enough credit."
"Hey, it's okay, I'm the boss now," Ruby said, swiping away her tears as she nudged her sister. "Better me than you. Otherwise, you would've had to march up the aisle with Jax."
Sapphire wrinkled her nose. "Marry Jax Maroney? Not likely."
They laughed through their tears and, relieved, Ruby knew things would be okay for now.
Until she remembered her husband waiting for her in the car.
A husband who'd apparently organised a wedding night she'd never forget.
Sapphire snapped her fingers. "Speaking of your husband, I want to meet him."
Uh-oh. Ruby could only imagine what her overprotective big sis would say. She had visions of Saph upgrading her revenge tactics and using Jax's car as her weapon of choice for tree-ramming this time.
"Not a good idea, Sis—"
"Non-negotiable." Saph’s lips compressed and she crossed her arms in a familiar stubbornness Rudy had seen too many times over the years to try and sway her sister.
Saph could out-stubborn a herd of donkeys.
"What are you going to say to him?"
Sapphire arched an imperial brow. "If I haven't given him a fat lip by the time he leaves after I've finished with him, maybe he can tell you."
Ruby chuckled at the thought of her sister going one-on-one with Jax.
Both commanding, both powerful, both used to having control.
Maybe she could sneak down to the river bank and watch.
"Okay, I'll let him know."
"Good." Sapphire nodded, unfolded her arms, linked her fingers together, and stretched forward, unkinking her knuckles. “It’s been a while since I kicked ass."
A mighty fine ass, Ruby thought, and cursed herself for noticing.
"I'll send him in." Ruby leaned over and hugged Sapphire. "Be nice, okay?"
"To Jax Maroney, the guy who's single-handedly been driving our business into the ground?" Sapphire snorted. “Yeah, right.”
Well aware Jax could handle anything her sister dished out, Ruby blew her a kiss and headed for the car.
It would be interesting to see how far Jax’s cockiness got him with her protective sister.