Cupid’s Quest

by Ann, Natalie

  “My parents were murdered when I was eight. I was in the house hiding. I didn’t see it, but I heard it. From that point on I knew what I wanted to do. The FBI had gotten involved because it was a serial killer that had crossed state lines. I kind of looked up to them and the state police when everything was going on. I told myself I would give back.”

  “You only hear stories like that on TV. That had to be so horrible for you to be in the house. And I’m sure hearing it was just as bad. You were lucky he didn’t find you.”

  “I thought it was luck myself until the FBI told me it was smarts. That what I’d done saved my life. I guess they’d been so impressed that over the years some of those in the investigation had come back to check on me. I had a lot of good role models.”

  “I’ve got to ask, if you don’t mind. What did you do? It had to be something other than just hiding by the sounds of it.”

  Ruby was the first woman to ever ask details. There was curiosity there for sure. No pity.

  “It was a Friday night. I was in bed sleeping; my parents were downstairs watching a movie. I heard my father’s voice get really loud, asking what someone wanted. I got up and went to the top of the stairs. I couldn’t see anything, but I knew something wasn’t right. Then my mother was screaming and pleading. I’d seen on TV that you should always act like you aren’t in the house. Well, if my bed was messy it would look like I was there. I ran back to my room, made the bed fast and hid in the hallway linen closet. It was narrow, but deep. I figured no one would think to look in there and I got under the bottom shelf, then pulled the door closed by the slats.”

  “Wow. To have the mentality and courage to do that at eight. I’m just amazed.”

  “That was what the state police said too. When the house was quiet, I didn’t know what to do.” He’d told this story so many times it was almost like a rehearsed speech at this point. “I’d had my hands over my ears and lost track of the time.”

  He paused when the waitress returned with their drinks. “Your food will be out shortly,” she said and walked away.

  “You don’t have to go on if it’s too hard,” Ruby said. “I tend to be curious about my clients. I guess sometimes the more I know about them, the easier it is to find out what they really want. Or their motivation.”

  “So it’s only about the house?” he asked again.

  “No. It’s about you, but if it helps me find you that perfect home, then I’d like to hear it.”

  “I don’t have a problem saying more. I’d heard footsteps when I thought it might be clear to get out. I could see through the slats of the door. The guy was walking into the rooms, but not doing much. He opened doors, all the beds were made, and he walked right back out. He didn’t even check to see if there was anyone hiding.”

  “Because you gave the illusion no one else was in the house,” she said, shaking her head in amazement. He’d seen that look a lot.

  “That was the goal. He’d had shorts on, which I thought was funny. I mean you always think of someone dressed all in black. It was summer and it was hot. I was sweating in the closet, but nothing was making me leave it. On his leg I noticed a big shamrock tattoo with a skull and what I thought was the word ‘tool’.”

  “That’s a lot to remember,” she said.

  “They had to walk me through it a few times. And not right away either.”

  He hadn’t said much for days. Not after he knew he could come out. And to this day he never saw his parents again. Not pictures from the crime, not their bodies. Everyone protected him from it and he knew it was best that way. As Ruby guessed, the sounds were just as bad and he still heard the screams at times.

  “I’m sure. Did they ever catch him? Please tell me they did.”

  “Yes. The tattoo helped a lot. They were able to narrow it down to someone they already suspected. That gave them enough for a warrant. The guy took trophies from each house and they found a little wooden bird that was missing from my mom’s collection in the house. My mother managed to scratch the guy too and they matched the DNA up.”

  “But what you saw helped them, didn’t it?”

  “Yes. They said I was a hero back then. I didn’t feel it. Guess I figured I wanted to get to a place in life where I did though.”

  She smiled at him, one full of tenderness, and his heart started to race again. “That’s an amazing story. You’re an inspiration to so many people. Who raised you?”

  He snorted. “I don’t know that I’m an inspiration. I lived through a horrible ordeal and chose to not let it define me in a negative way. My father’s parents raised me. They found the bodies the next day when they came to get me. I was supposed to go to the fair with them. When they walked in, I heard my grandmother screaming and my name being called. I still wouldn’t leave the closet. The screaming made me think something was happening to them too.”

  Her eyes started to fill, but he still didn’t think it was pity. “Oh, Josh. What made you come out?”

  “The police came. At that point the house was filled with people and when I recognized my grandmother’s sneakers as she walked by I knew I could come out. I called her name first so no one yelled when I opened the door.”

  “And even then you were thinking ahead in a way most kids wouldn’t have the ability to do.”

  “I was told that too. Anyway, my grandparents gave me one heck of a life after that. They didn’t coddle me, but they taught me to make the best of everything and that is what I did.”

  “So you want a home like theirs?” she asked.

  “Actually, no. I want one like the one I used to live in.”

  8

  Never Found

  Ruby couldn’t believe how an innocent question could turn into what Josh just told her.

  Her first thought was to reach her hand over and lay it on his, but then she figured he got a lot of that in his life. He probably wouldn’t want it from a stranger. Even if they were on a date, she was still a stranger to him.

  “Then tell me about the one you used to live in,” she said, shocked he’d said that.

  “It’s not the house. It’s the area,” he said.

  That made more sense to her. “Okay. Where did you grow up? Not around here?”

  “No, Poughkeepsie. I lived in a development. I guess I like that, but I don’t want to be on top of people either. It was big. They had a park and playground in the middle of it. A baseball field and basketball court. Tennis courts. The kids would just all meet up there and have a great time. We were only a block away, so as young as I was, I was allowed to go there as long as I was with other kids.”

  “Okay, that helps a ton,” she said.

  Most developments didn’t have amenities like that and those that did were hard to get into. They went fast. She knew she’d narrow the search down to that, and even scrap some of the other things he asked for.

  “So how did you end up doing this?” he asked, then moved back when their food was sent out. She’d gotten loaded mac and cheese. She was such a sucker for a filling dinner. Probably because food wasn’t plentiful when she was a kid.

  That skinny girl was long gone once she got on her own. She wasn’t heavy by any means, but she had more curves on her. She liked to eat now that someone wasn’t watching everything she put in her mouth to ration for all the kids in the house.

  She debated telling him too much about her past. Though he pretty much laid his out completely. More than anyone else she’d ever dated. Especially on a first date.

  “I didn’t go to college,” she said, opening up her napkin and putting it on her lap. His burger and fries looked pretty darn good too. “When I was in high school, I got this internship thing for business courses I was taking. I started working in a real estate firm doing general office work. Filing, data entry, answering the phone.”

  She remembered that it was only two hours a day after school, but it allowed her to catch the bus and be home for dinner each night. That was important back then. She was also
able to keep her cashier job on the weekends at the grocery store.

  The more money she made, the more she had when she turned eighteen and knew she’d have to move out.

  “Ah, so you liked what you did and got your license?” he asked.

  “Not right away. They hired me as a secretary and I worked at that job for a few years.” She’d been trying to get on her feet. “The staff there were great. It was a small office and the owner encouraged me to get my license. I stayed a few more years and then moved to where I am now.”

  “And you felt bad about that, didn’t you?” he asked. “That they did a lot for you and you moved on to something better.”

  “Wow. You’re good.” She had felt horrible, but there wasn’t enough money for her there and she just needed to survive. The owners understood and helped her get the job she had now. “But I left on good terms. I still have a great working relationship with them. I owe them a lot.”

  Mitch and Emily Morris knew her personal situation. They had rental properties and let her rent a one-bedroom apartment above a garage on one of their properties. She owed them a lot in life and had cried when she said she was leaving, hoping they didn’t hate her for it.

  They’d totally accepted it and understood and wished her well. If she had a chance to throw business back to them, she did. She always would. But she had to come first. She couldn’t rely on anyone else. She’d known that her whole life it seemed.

  “I can see that about you. You seem like the type to not ruffle a lot of feathers.”

  If he only knew. Another trait she learned to have in order to just get on with her life.

  “Cupid!”

  She turned her head to see her foster sister Sheri walking over. She had a waitress uniform on. Ruby had no idea Sheri worked here. If she had, she might have avoided it for a date.

  She heard Josh cough and then laugh when Sheri came over and leaned down to hug her, realizing that she had been called Cupid.

  “Sheri,” Ruby said. “I didn’t know you worked here.”

  “Just started a few weeks ago. We haven’t talked in months. Sorry. I’m always busy.”

  “Not a problem,” Ruby said.

  She was just as guilty about not staying in communication. Some of it was wanting to put that life behind her. Not wanting the reminders. She knew that she turned out a lot better than most kids in the foster care system.

  Sheri was a good example. She’d been kicked out two months before graduation when she turned eighteen. Ruby had let her move in with her and then once Sheri got a job and enough money, she moved off of Ruby’s couch and in with some guy.

  “So are you here for business or personal reasons?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows at Josh.

  “Both,” Josh said. “I’m Josh Turner.”

  “Sheri Miller,” Sheri said, reaching her hand out. “I wish I could talk, but I need to get back to work. Give me a call soon.”

  “I will,” Ruby said, but then wondered if she really would.

  When Sheri walked away, Josh asked, “Cupid?”

  “A nickname.”

  “I gathered as much. The question is why?”

  And here comes the part where she had to figure out how much to say to him. “My birthday is on Valentine’s day.”

  “It’s got to be more than that,” he said. She figured he wouldn’t buy that as the only reason.

  “Sheri nicknamed me that because I was always fascinated with Valentine’s Day itself.”

  He frowned. “That seems odd. You like chubby babies in diapers aiming a bow and arrow?”

  She burst out laughing. He had a great personality. “No. It had to do with love and wanting something I didn’t have.”

  It wasn’t so much about a boyfriend or relationship. It was more about the fact that someone would care enough to do something silly like give her flowers or candy on Valentine’s Day. Even a teddy bear.

  She supposed, looking back, she’d talked about it way too much and that was why Sheri called her Cupid. Sheri told her she was on a quest for something that most never found.

  Sheri was kind of like her in that she was looking out for herself. They just did it differently. Ruby was fine on her own. Sheri always ended up with a man.

  “What was it you didn’t have?” he asked. “Or is that too personal of a question?”

  “Not too personal considering everything you shared tonight.”

  “You don’t have to share back,” he said. “Not if you don’t want to.”

  For once she did though. “I was in the foster care system since I was six. Sheri was in the last house I was in. We shared a room. So I didn’t have a lot of things. But the thing I wanted the most was a home.”

  He tilted his head. “And now you’re all about making sure everyone else gets what you didn’t have?”

  “That about sums it up.”

  “Yet you can’t find the one you want?” he asked.

  “That perfect home,” she reminded him with a grin.

  “So I get the feeling you aren’t sure what that really is?”

  Bingo. “Pretty much. Like you, I figured I’ll know it when I walk in. I can’t seem to get that feeling yet. I guess I would be the worst client for another agent if I weren’t one myself.”

  “I don’t think so. I think you just want to make sure when you take the plunge that you are ready to fully commit.”

  And for some reason she had a feeling he wasn’t talking about homes at all.

  He was right once again. The question was, would she ever feel like she could take that plunge since she’d never committed to anything unless it was solely for her.

  9

  Paradise Place

  Ruby’s computer dinged alerting her to a new listing so she pulled it up, ready to jump out of her chair and do a fist pump and booty pop.

  A house just became available in Paradise Place. The perfect development that had everything Josh wanted.

  She looked the listing over fast, saw it met everything he had on his list and then some. It was a bit bigger than what he had asked for and was almost at the top of his range. When she flipped through the pictures she noticed it needed some major facelifts in the kitchen and baths.

  But she had to let him see it and decide on his own.

  After their date the other night, he’d pulled her into his arms and kissed the living shit out of her in the parking lot. She’d never known what that phrase meant until it happened to her.

  It didn’t even start out slow like some men do. He had her against her SUV, his hand in her hair holding her head in place, his mouth covering hers, nudging her mouth open, his tongue sweeping in.

  She did the only thing she could. She gripped the sides of his jacket and held on for dear life as he ravished her mouth, leaving her wanting for so much more when he finally stepped back.

  She wasn’t sure she’d ever been that warmed up over a kiss before and she was more determined than ever to find his house so she could give them more time to focus on what this thing they had was.

  Without hesitating, she picked her cell phone up and dialed Josh, hoping that he answered. She wanted this viewing booked now.

  “Josh Turner.”

  “Ruby Gentile,” she said back.

  He laughed. “Sorry. I didn’t even look at my phone before I answered.”

  “Are you in the middle of something?” she asked. Please don’t let him be. “I can call back.”

  “I’m good. I was just trying to decode something on a computer that I brought in from yesterday. My mind gets lost in things.”

  “I found a house. I think it’s perfect, but it’s going to go fast. Everything does in this particular area. It literally opened up a few minutes ago and I’d love to get it booked right away.”

  “So you aren’t calling for another date? Geez. Guess it wasn’t that memorable of a kiss.”

  “Oh, it was a memorable one. I’m still thinking about it now.”

  That was the most she
was going to admit. No way she was saying that her hand was roaming over her body last night because the kiss wouldn’t leave her mind and there were too many tingles on her skin with every movement she made in bed. It was as if hives were covering her body she was so sensitive. Only in a good way.

  “Then let’s get dinner tonight and talk about it some more.”

  “You have a one track mind,” she said. “The house? Can I send you the link? Do you have time to look it over and let me know if you want to see it?”

  “You know what? After last night, I think you know what I’m looking for. Go ahead and book it for tomorrow. I can make any time work. Send me the link though.”

  “Great. Awesome. Thanks.” Then she hung up the phone, immediately requesting the booking. Two minutes later it was approved. Even better, they weren’t waiting for multiple requests before they agreed. Some homeowners did that.

  The phone rang in her hand right when she was ready to text Josh. Speak of the handsome devil calling her back.

  * * *

  Josh couldn’t believe Ruby had just hung up on him, making him wonder if this was about a sale more than a date.

  He was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt after last night. Her reaction to his past was nothing like anyone else had ever done before.

  And she didn’t have the best of childhoods herself.

  Maybe that was why he was so drawn to her. They shared something that not many did.

  Neither of them had their parents growing up. Only he didn’t know how she ended up in foster care. As much as he wanted to know, he knew last night wasn’t the time to ask.

  “Sorry about that,” she said when she answered the phone. He’d given her about five minutes to call him back and when she didn’t, he decided to find out what was going on.

  “Did you get it booked?” he asked.