by Tamara Blake
“Sitting on your ass again?”
Ruby jumped as Violet strode into the room. “I’m not paying you to fart around all day and paw at my stuff with your grubby hands. Get up and finish your work. My room is still a mess.”
Ruby leaped to her feet. “Clean it yourself.”
“What did you say?”
“I said: Clean. It. Your. Self.”
“Why, you little nobody. You need to learn your place.”
Before Ruby could react, Violet hauled back and cracked her palm across Ruby’s face. “Now get to work.”
Ruby put her hand to her burning cheek in disbelief. What the hell?
Despite her searing anger, she said evenly, “I’m not your slave, and you better get out of my way or you’re about to be very sorry.” Her hand curled into a fist.
“What about this mess?” Violet said.
“Oh, don’t even go there.” Ruby stormed past Violet and out of the room before she really did something she regretted, like give Violet two black eyes and hand her an excuse to call the cops.
On her way to the front door, she grabbed her workbag and vacuum cleaner. It was then she realized that the necklace still hung around her neck.
“Screw it,” she muttered. Keeping the necklace would make up for all the bullshit she’d just gone through.
Tam was nowhere to be seen. A wave of regret washed over her. He’d been kind to her, the only decent person living in a house full of selfish assholes. And he liked her. She was pretty sure of it. But whatever. It would never have worked out between them anyway. Maybe it was better this way.
She doubted she’d ever see him again. And it didn’t feel good.
Chapter Six
Outside, the sky rumbled. A few fat raindrops smacked against her skin—the clouds were getting ready to open up again. Ruby hauled her equipment through the spooky garden, out through the gargoyle gate, and down the winding road back into the woods where her minivan had stalled out. She tossed the vacuum and workbag into the back before getting into the driver’s seat. She’d give it one last try. If the van still wouldn’t start, she’d have to hitchhike home.
Miraculously, there was a grinding noise as the engine turned over.
Yes! Ruby slammed the van in reverse and maneuvered until the headlights pointed in the opposite direction of Cottingley Heights. Then she floored it. Instead of sputtering and jerking, the minivan responded with a purr and a smooth burst of speed. It was as if the car itself wanted away from this place.
Maybe my luck’s finally changing, she thought, watching Cottingley’s driveway disappear in her rearview mirror. I’m due. My whole family is due.
The pendant swung comfortingly against her chest as she drove out of the woods and onto the two-lane road back to civilization. Even the rain stopped and a little bit of sun peeped through the clouds. A sign, for sure.
In the mobile home, all was quiet. Shelley had a play date over at her BFF Rosario’s house, and her mother was curled up on the couch, dozing, expensive prescription meds littering the coffee table. Ruby studied her mother’s pale face, still tight with pain even at rest.
“Don’t worry, Mom. It’s gonna be alright,” Ruby whispered. “I’ve got it all figured out.”
Her mother stirred, then settled back into a fitful sleep.
Ruby tiptoed into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She half-expected to see the imprint of Violet’s hand on her cheek, but there was nothing to mark her skin, not even a faint stain of red. In fact, she seemed paler than ever. “Probably from a lack of natural light,” she muttered, trying to remember the last occasion she had any free time.
She fished the necklace out from under her work shirt. Under the florescent light, the pendant’s ruby depths glowed richly, and the diamonds sparkled. She could probably pawn it for several thousand dollars, easy. She picked at the fastening at the back of her neck but the clasp was stuck.
She tried to pull the necklace over her head, but the chain was too short to lift past her chin. That was odd. She’d been able to slip it over her head when she was in Violet’s room. It had to be long enough. Ruby tugged at it again and again but she only succeeded in making the skin on her neck and around her chin raw. And she still couldn’t get it off.
Maybe if she soaped up the clasp, it would unstick…
That didn’t work either. Nor did greasing it with petroleum jelly or slicking her face with lotion in a final vain attempt to slide the chain up over her chin.
Panicking, she tiptoed into the kitchen, careful not to wake her mother, and quietly pulled a knife out of the drawer. At this point, she didn’t care if she damaged the necklace. She just wanted it off. Maybe if she pried the clasp apart…
“Come on, come ON!” she muttered, jamming the tip of the knife into the clasp and twisting with all her strength. The blade bent uselessly.
“What are you doing?”
Ruby looked over her shoulder. Shelley stood in the doorway, her Disney Princesses backpack on the floor next to her. Ruby had been so absorbed in trying to free herself from the necklace, she didn’t hear Rosario’s mom Mrs. Garcia dropping her sister off.
“Nothing.” Ruby stuffed the necklace back into her shirt before turning around. She forced a nonchalant expression. “How was school?”
“Good. I’m hungry.”
“I’ll make you a snack in a sec. Go put your school stuff away, okay? And try to be quiet. Mom’s still asleep.”
Shelley nodded solemnly. Ruby could feel herself flushing guiltily under the weight of her sister’s gaze. She made a terrible criminal. As soon as she was able to get the necklace off, she was sending it back to Cottingley. Anonymously, of course.
Lesson learned.
She’d just have to find another way to get the money for Mom.
The necklace hung even more heavily on her neck now, the pendant seeming to pulse against her breastbone. The guilt was freaking her out.
After Shelley wolfed down her snack of peanut butter and crackers, and settled down with their half-awake mother on the couch to watch a kid’s show on their tiny television set, Ruby grabbed the keys to the minivan.
“You need anything, Mom? I think I’ll run down to the store for some milk.”
And a wire cutter, she added silently, zipping her hoodie up to her chin to hide the gold chain.
She listened with half an ear to her mother’s request for eggs and bread and shook her head at Shelley’s plea for candy.
Rush hour choked the freeway, but after crawling bumper-to-bumper for a half hour she finally pulled into the parking lot of the discount megamart. As usual at this time of day, the store was slamming with the after-work crowd—cranky, tired, rude people, blocking the aisle, ramming their carts into hers. The necklace chafed her skin like a hairshirt and set her nerves on edge.
Milk, scratchy store-brand toilet paper, Saltines, bread, several boxes of $1 mac ’n’ cheese, wire cutters. Ruby sighed at the contents of her cart. Those wire cutters cost the same as a couple of pounds of hamburger.
She was debating whether or not to add a box of ramen soup to her pathetic collection of groceries when someone brushed by her cart, nudging it a little. She looked up in shock.
“Tam?”
“Ruby?” Tam seemed equally surprised to see her.
They stood blinking at each other. He looked both incredible and incredibly out of place in his hipster clothing and expensive shoes. No, he didn’t just look out of place, he looked out of this world. His gold hair seemed burnished by the glare of the store’s harsh lighting, the same lighting that turned all the other shoppers into pasty zombies. His features were so handsome it almost hurt. Clearly he didn’t belong in a store where people needed to buy nutrition-free $1 meals to make ends meet.
Oh God. As good as it was to see him, he was not the person she wanted to run into at the moment. What was he even doing here? Did Violet tell him the cleaning lady stole
her necklace? Did he track her down? Ruby flushed, glad she’d kept her hoodie zipped all the way up.
Tam’s grin, however, was as friendly and open as ever. “What are you doing here?”
“I think the question is, what are you doing here?” she returned cautiously.
Tam held up a plastic shopping basket. “Picking up a few things.”
“Really?” Ruby didn’t believe him for a second. No way did Tam need to buy groceries like mere mortals. He had staff for that, surely. She looked into the basket. He had a National Enquirer magazine, pet shampoo, and a can of tomato soup. As if he’d plucked items off the shelves at random.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, laughing a little. “But I like to get out. Away from Cottingley. Plus you can get everything here.” He gazed at the display of powdered milk like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
“Yeah. One stop shopping, I guess.” She felt herself coloring again. Everything from pretzels to tools that’ll cut stolen jewelry in half.
“What have you got there?” Tam peered into her cart.
Ruby wheeled it around before he could see. “Oh, just a few things. You know, it’s just a quickie shop. Great running into you, Tam. See you…around.”
“Are you ready to check out? So am I. I’ll walk you out.”
“Um.”
She couldn’t think of anything to say to get rid of him that wouldn’t be really rude, so she followed him to the cashier. It took less than a minute to load her items onto the belt, hiding the cutter under the loaf of bread and piling the rest of the groceries around it for extra cover.
The cashier, a woman with badly over-processed red hair, hit the total button on the register. “$47, hon.”
Ruby gulped. $47? How much were those cutters again? Slowly she counted out the bills in her wallet. After she paid for this, she’d have about a dollar left to her name until she managed to find more work.
Tam gave the cashier a charming smile. “I don’t think that’s right. Could you check the total again?”
The woman blinked stupidly at him. Then she said, “Oh, my mistake. That’ll be $27.”
Ruby glanced at the LCD screen on the checkout counter. $47. She frowned at Tam, who met her gaze with an amused lift of his brow.
“I think you were right the first time.” Ruby handed the woman the total amount but not without a pang of regret. They could have really used the extra $20.
“Oh. Oh, I guess I was.” The cashier counted out Ruby’s meager change with a vacant-looking smile.
Tam paid for his three random items with a swipe of a black plastic card, and they walked toward the exit.
“You know, you can’t charm people into giving you what you want all the time,” Ruby said once they were out of earshot of the cashier.
“Is it my fault people respond to persuasion?”
“I think they’re responding to the fact you look like a Hollister model.” She bit her lip, embarrassed that she’d basically called him smoking hot to his face.
But apparently he was used to it, grinning unrepentantly. “Whatever works.”
To her dismay, he followed her out through the parking lot to her minivan. He took the two plastic bags of groceries from her and loaded them into the back end.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said.
“Do what?”
“This.” She thumbed at her groceries. “Be nice to me. We’re not at Cottingley anymore. You don’t have to play Prince Charming to my Cinderella.”
“So cynical. Maybe I want to be nice to you.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t need your charity.” She went around to the driver’s side and climbed in. “Or your pity.”
She slammed the car door between them.
“Is that what you think this is about?” His words were muffled through the rolled-up window. “Do I look like the kind of guy who gets off on charity cases?”
He looked hurt. She rolled the window down. “I have no idea what kind of guy you are, Tam. I only know that you and I are worlds apart.” She jammed the keys into the ignition, turned it over, and…the engine did nothing. Not even a tiny sputter.
So much for a dramatic exit.
“Need a ride?” Tam said.
She wanted to scream. Why did shit like this keep happening to her?
“Look, confession time,” he said, dipping his head so his dark eyes looked straight through the slot of open window. “I’ve been thinking about you all day. Even since we first met. You ran out of Cottingley so fast I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to you, and, well—” He shuffled his feet in embarrassment. It was ridiculously adorable. “And ask for your number.”
“You want my number?”
“When I saw you in the store, I took it as sort of a sign,” he said quickly. “Plus I need to apologize for Violet. She’s jealous, and she can’t help being a bitch when she’s threatened. It’s in her DNA.”
“Why should Violet be jealous of me? She’s rich and beautiful. I’m broke and ordinary.”
“You’re beautiful, Ruby. Can’t you see that?”
She felt her face heat at Tam’s serious expression.
“Besides, Violet and me…let’s just say it’s complicated.”
“Complicated? Is that the new ‘we’re still dating?’”
He gave a harsh laugh. “No way. But she is kind of an ex.”
“What about Selena?” blurted Ruby before she could help herself.
Tam’s smile froze, and she regretted it instantly. But a moment later, he had recovered himself.
“I guess…It was a long time ago, but let’s just say Selena wasn’t from Cottingley. Like you. Violet didn’t want me to date her. In fact, Violet wanted to date me herself. She was kind of…horrible to Selena.” He grinned. “But hey, you know all about that, right? And I need to make it up to you. So how about I give you a ride home?”
“No. I’ll be okay.”
“Come on, Ruby. Throw me a bone.”
She bit her lip. What else could she do? She didn’t have the money to call a cab, and she couldn’t hitchhike across the freeway without extreme risk to her life. But it galled her that she was yet again put in the position of owing Tam.
Plus he would see where she lived. The embarrassing, hunk-of-junk trailer they called home.
He took her hesitation as a yes and opened the minivan’s door for her.
Ruby followed him to a gleaming black two-seat Mercedes roadster convertible that looked totally out of place parked next to practical family sedans and economy cars. While he loaded her groceries in the tiny trunk, two girls walked past them, nudging each other and giving Tam’s taut figure admiring glances while glaring enviously at Ruby. She couldn’t help feeling a spark of pride. So what if it couldn’t last? She could still bask in his reflected hotness for a little while.
The warm glow carried her through the exhilarating ride to her mobile home park, the convertible purring sleekly while the leather upholstery and new-car smell enveloped her. It wasn’t until Tam swung the convertible into the Sea Oats Estate’s crater-filled lane that discomfort began eating her up. She did not want Tam to feel sorry for her because she lived in a dump.
Tam’s face gave nothing away when he pulled up in front of the shabby mobile home.
“Okay, well, thanks for the ride!” Ruby said with false cheer as he put the Mercedes in park. “You don’t have to get out, just pop the trunk and I’ll grab my stuff.”
He got out.
Chapter Seven
The screen door swung open and Shelley appeared on the trailer doorstep. “Who’s that?” she asked.
“I’m a friend of your sister,” Tam said, hauling the grocery bags out of the trunk.
“This is Tam,” Ruby said. “He was just going.”
“You must be Shelley,” Tam said to her sister. “I’ve heard a lot about you already, but Ruby didn’t tell me how pretty
you are.”
Shelley giggled. “Do you want to see my drawing of the Little Mermaid?”
“What? Shelley, no—”
“I’d love to.” Tam slammed the trunk’s lid with his elbow and headed up the rickety front steps with the plastic bags like he’d been coming over to their craptacular trailer all his life. “Bet it’s really good.”
“It is,” Shelley answered. “Not as good as my Nemo picture, though. That’s my best drawing.”
“I’d like to see that one, too.” Tam disappeared inside with Shelley, leaving Ruby standing open-mouthed by his car. What just happened here?
Voices floated out from the open front door. Oh god, was Tam introducing himself to her mother? She bolted up the steps and inside in time to see Tam courteously shaking her mother’s hand while Mom gazed up at him from her seat on the sagging sofa like he’d just stepped out of the pages of GQ magazine.
“You didn’t tell me you were bringing a friend over,” Mom said to Ruby reproachfully, nervously patting her hair.
“I wasn’t.”
Tam gazed around their living room with bright interest, taking in the water-stained ceiling, the motley collection of thrift-store furniture. Ruby squirmed with shame.
Mom struggled to rise from the sofa. “Let me get you something to…to drink, Tam…”
“Don’t get up, Mom. You need to rest. Tam was just going anyway, weren’t you, Tam?” She shot him a pointed glare, which he blithely ignored.
“I’d love a drink, thanks, Mrs. Benson.”
Ruby regarded him with surprise. How did Tam know their last name? Was he really stalking her? No, he’d probably gotten it from the Happy Housekeepers service contract. It didn’t make her feel a whole lot better.
Mom nervously gestured for Tam to have a seat on the wobbly cane chair. “Is orange juice okay?” her mother asked him anxiously.
Tam’s dazzling smile made her mother blink at him. “That’d be great.”