“What are they doing in there?” I ask him.
Reid shrugs as he sits down. “Dunno, waiting to see if it’s okay that they come out here, I guess.”
I roll my eyes, leaning back in the chair as I open the door and call out for them to join us. As though they were waiting for permission, Ruby and Sie immediately walk outside and I grab Ruby’s hand and pull her down so she’s sitting in my lap.
“How’s that sister of yours, Ruby?” Adam immediately asks, a big grin on his face as he turns to her.
Ruby’s jaw drops a little and I can’t help but laugh, especially when Reid chimes in with, “She’s moving here soon, right, Rubes?”
Ruby’s mouth snaps shut as she glares at Reid, but he only laughs as he holds up his hands in mock surrender, before wrapping them around Sienna and pulling her into his lap.
“When does she actually get here?” I ask, wondering if she was supposed to be coming back with us from Tahoe, which is where we’d still be if I hadn’t fucked everything up.
Ruby sighs, her head resting on my shoulder. “Soon,” she says. “And you, don’t you go serving her alcohol if she comes onto the bar,” she adds, pointing at Adam. “She’s underage for another six months.”
He only laughs, shaking his head as he says, “Fuck, please, you think I need to give this guy any more excuses to lord it over me that he’s my boss.” He rolls his eyes dramatically even though I know he’s only joking.
“Whatever,” I murmur, before sliding a hand up Ruby’s thigh. “Don’t worry, babe, she won’t be getting away with using that fake ID of hers, I don’t care who she’s related to.”
Ruby smiles as she kisses me on the cheek. “Good, ‘cause it’ll drive her fucking crazy,” she murmurs in my ear and I know that’s half the reason she’s doing this. To protect my job and to annoy her sister.
We spend the rest of the afternoon outside, talking and having a few quiet drinks together. It’s easy and exactly what I needed after seeing that news report earlier today. By the time Adam gets up to leave, it’s late.
“You wanna stay, hang out and have dinner?”
Adam shakes his head. That same goofy smile on his face. “Can’t. I’ve got a date.”
“A date?” I ask as we walk out the front to his car. “Since when do you date?”
Adam laughs. “I don’t,” he says, standing beside his car. “But desperate times call for desperate measures.”
I shake my head at him, laughing a little. It feels kind of weird and awkward now, as though we are two people navigating this new friendship that neither of us even realized we had. I can’t even remember the last time I actually made a friend, having spent my entire life hanging out with Reid and Sienna and the past two years alone, afraid to let anyone in.
“When are you back at work?” he asks, even though I know he already knows.
“After New Year’s.”
“Okay, cool. Guess I’ll see you—”
“Adam,” I say, cutting him off. He glances up at me, that easy smile still on his face as he waits for me to speak. “Thanks, man.”
He stares back at me for a second and I see in his face that he doesn’t need to ask me why I’m thanking him, because just like earlier, this whole situation feels like something he’s already familiar with. A part of me wants to ask him about it, ask about his past in Australia and why he’s really over here, working and traveling, never putting down roots.
But I don’t, because just like me, I get the feeling this is something he doesn’t want to talk about. So instead, I just smile and say, “Thanks for dropping by. Was good to catch up.”
“Cool,” he says, lifting a shoulder. “I’ll catch you later.”
I watch as he drives off and just as I turn to head inside, my cell phone rings. Sliding it from my pocket, the relaxed vibe I had going disappears when I see Ed’s name flashing on my screen.
Fuck.
Chapter Thirteen
Ruby
I can hear Caleb’s phone ringing as I notice he’s now closed the front door and Adam is gone. The phone rings, once, twice, three times, but there seems to be no sense of urgency to answer it. Something about the ringing causes a spike of anxiety to swirl in my chest and then the phone stops.
I’m standing in our small hallway trying to tell myself it’s not my business and that a phone ringing can mean multiple things, but in Caleb’s case, it can also mean a lot more than just a simple spam call. It could be his lawyer, the police, his therapist. The amount of people is endless and the fact that he doesn’t answer makes me wonder if he’s really serious about getting out of this mess.
He rounds the corner and finds me awkwardly thinking about all of this. His eyes narrow and his lips form into a small scowl as if he knows I was listening. Listening to what? Really it was nothing, but it all feels a little too secretive.
“Who was on the phone?” I ask, making it feel like it’s just a passing conversation, but it suddenly feels like all the air has been sucked out of the small space.
Caleb is looking at me, his eyes wider than just a few seconds ago and it feels like he’s processing what to tell me.
“It was no one,” he responds quickly, skirting past me and into the bedroom we share. “It was a recording,” he now adds as if that will explain away why he didn’t say anything.
I need to let it go because this isn’t my battle. He needs to make his own choices in all of this even if at times I think he’s making the wrong choices. But here I am, asking more questions and pushing him further away.
“What was the recording about?” I hear the words leave my mouth, my brain screaming at me to shut the fuck up, but I don’t. I’m going to regret this.
“I don’t know, Ruby,” he says, a sigh coming out on the end of my name, a sigh that means he’s done with this.
“Did you even answer the phone?” I ask, accusation painted on every word.
Why am I pushing this?
“To be honest, no, I didn’t. I just told you that so you’d leave me alone, but clearly that didn’t work.”
“Caleb,” I shoot back, appalled by his sharp tone and the way he just spoke to me. This isn’t like him and this definitely isn’t the way we speak to each other.
“Ruby!” he now yells, and I step back, narrowing my eyes at him because if he thinks he’s going to shit on me and I’m just going to take it, he’s wrong.
The bedroom door slams, leaving me standing in the hallway, shocked into silence. I’m not going in there because I refuse to be his punching bag. I storm out into the kitchen, swatting at an open cabinet door just as Sienna appears from our small mudroom holding a laundry basket.
“You okay?” she asks, and the way her question comes out tells me she’s been here before. “He can be hard to deal with. More so now than ever.”
I bite down on my lip and let out a hard breath, the air blowing my hair out of my face.
“What happened?” she now asks.
“His phone rang and he didn’t answer it. I asked him who was on the phone to see what he would say and he lied to me and told me it was a recording. Then after I called his bullshit, he got pissed at me and slammed the door.” I shake my head, angry but also blanketed in guilt. I have no idea how to handle this or what I’m supposed to say to him anymore. I can’t walk on eggshells, but I also can’t police everything he does. It will kill us both.