When I did get there, I was relieved to see that Claire's shiny white Jeep was the only vehicle in the parking lot. I huddled down into my coat and rushed to the front door and pressed the buzzer.
Claire swooped over with a big smile on her face which froze into a grimace when she saw it was me. "Ruby? What the heck are you doing here?"
"Freezing my butt off," I replied. "Can I come in?"
"I'm working," she hedged.
"I know. But I drove all the way over here just to make sure you hadn't fallen down a well or something." When she looked at me, confused,I elaborated. "You haven't returned my texts. I even called and you know how I hate the phone."
She pressed her lips together and smoothed her hands down her skirt before she sat down at her desk. "Okay, so I know I didn't write back," she said. I sat down without her inviting me to because fuck it, this was Claire and she's been my best friend since fourth grade. "I honestly didn't know what to say."
"You didn't know what to say to, 'hey, when you get a chance, let's get together for a chat?"
"Well I knew what I wanted to say," she said fiercely. "But I didn't want to write anything mean that I'd regret, so I decided to not write anything at all."
There was a sensation of someone pouring cold water in my chest. "Who told you?"
"Finn told me," she said, ducking away so she wouldn't have to look me in the eye. "Like literally the second he found out."
I felt like the chair was sinking underneath me, and also a renewed wariness of Finn King. "I'm sorry," I told her. "I should have come to you right away."
She looked at me, eyes bright, "You know, he's my brother."
"I realize that - ," I started to say but she held up her hand to stop me.
"And I don't get a say in who he dates," she said. "But as your best friend, I always thought that I'd get it say in who you dated." Her eyelids fluttered a second. "Or maybe just that you'd want my opinion."
"Well, what is your opinion then?" I asked her. I clenched and unclenched my fist.
She sneered. "Jonah? You really want to be with Jonah?"
"You know?" I said. "I think you've all decided that Jonah is somebody that he isn't."
"I think I know perfectly well who my brother is."
"Well, did you know that he didn't actually stay with that manager like you all thought he did?"
She blinked. "How do you know about all that?"
"Because he told me!" I burst out. "Because I asked him instead of just that assuming he'd been an asshole."
Claire was so transparently obvious in all of her emotions that I could plainly see them all as they crossed her face. First she was confused, then disbelieving. Then she was wondering why no one had told her the truth yet, her sense of righteous indignation as the keeper of family gossip kicking into high gear.
Ultimately, she decided she didn't care and tossed her hair. "Whatever. That's between him and Gabe."
"And he and Gabe figured it out," I told her cooly. "They worked out their differences, and he explained what had happened, how he had got caught up in a breach of contract lawsuit but didn't want to trouble his brother with it because he'd had just gone through a terrible trauma already. So he took it all on himself. Don't you see that's what he does? Don't you see that's how he works? You Kings, you always told me what an asshole he was, but I wonder how much of that is him and how much of that is just you."
"Jesus, Ruby," Claire hissed. "Let it all out, why don't you?"
"You all formed your opinion on him way back when, and you've never let him grown beyond that," I said, blinking back furious tears that suddenly filled my eyes. "He's a good man. A really good man and his heart is in the right place, and I'm not going to let your opinion of him cloud my own judgment any more."
"Well fuck," she sighed and looked away for a long, long moment.
I looked down at my hands, resisting the urge to flounce off. So many fights Claire and I had had over the years lasted a lot longer than they should have because one of us was always flouncing off in a huff. So even though I had to grip the handles of the chair I was sitting in to keep myself there, I did. Waiting for her to make her peace.
When she finally turned back, she looked almost surprised that I was still there. "Like I said," she exhaled. "He's my brother."
"I told you, I don't -."
She held her hand up again. "And I love him." She must have seen my expression because she laughed out loud, "I do! I might want to kill him most days, but that doesn't mean I don't love him." Her eyes softened and she sniffed. "And I love you too, you bitch. You should have told me right away. I could have given you some really good tips on how to deal with him."
I sniffed with her. "I think it caught us both by surprise," I said with a happy sigh.
She wrinkled her nose. "Like, I'm really happy that you're happy but I'm also totally grossed out right now. You're going to need to give me a minute."
I laughed and stood up. "But you'll return my texts now?"
She stood up and grabbed me in a fierce hug. "I'll return your texts. Sorry for that," she sighed and then pulled back and grinned at me. "I backslide into being a little brat, sometimes."
"Sometimes?" I asked with an arched eyebrow and she laughed and smacked me, then the front door opened and pure terror crossed her face. "Go!" she hissed. "I'll talk to you later!" and hustled me towards the back door as I laughed.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Jonah
I'd been working straight through for the past seventy-two hours. Phase one of my plan was nearly complete.
Now I needed to put phase two into place. But that was proving hard to do.
Venues with the right kind of equipment around here were in short supply. If I'd had a manager it would have been a matter of a simple phone call and I'd get what I was after. But I was determined to do this myself.
I swallowed and pushed my way into the Crown Tavern.
Just like I hoped, and like I feared too, Taylor was behind the counter. He glanced up, but his eyes slid right over me in a way that would have made me anxious as hell a few weeks ago. But now I was in a different position entirely.
It was odd to need a favor.
I sat down at the bar. "Taylor, man, you got a minute?"
He looked like he wanted to ignore me but I slapped a twenty down and he slowly came over. "Jonah," was all he said.
I smiled at him in a way I hoped made up for the fact that I'd been a little bit of a dick the last time I'd been in here. "Remember you asked me if I wanted to play here?" I asked him.
He lifted his chin. "Quite well, yeah," he said, grabbing a pint glass and giving it a vicious polishing.
I looked away from his hands. "Does the offer still stand?"
The corner of his lip curled. "I don't know," he said slowly. Musing. "You know we've had a lot of sign-ups for open mic and I don't have the new schedule set up yet so it's not really a good time..."