IF RUBY HAD her way, she would eradicate the world of men. Maybe not all men, just the ones who didn’t give a damn about their children and the ones who thought they could fix the world’s problems by smiling and offering…their signatures.
Okay, the signature part was still weird. Why anyone would think writing his name on something could make this horrible day better, she’d never understand.
With an hour to kill and an ex-husband she’d also like to kill, Ruby figured the safest place for her was under the watchful eye of her best friend.
Holly Davis was editor of the Grass Lake Gazette. The Gazette was published on Thursdays and had a distribution of a whopping 2,600 people. Holly certainly didn’t need to work on a Saturday, but she often put in more hours on the weekend when her husband could be home to watch their three kids.
The small-town newspaper was housed on the top floor of the tallest building along Main Street. Ruby decided walking up the six flights of stairs would help her burn off some of the adrenaline that seemed still to be coursing through her veins.
Sure enough, the door to the Gazette was unlocked when she reached the top. Holly sat at her desk with a pen in her mouth.
“I know you come here for peace and quiet, but I need to spend some time with someone who likes me,” Ruby said, slightly out of breath.
Holly removed the pen and stuck it in the bun on top of her head. Her round face and large blue eyes gave her a childlike appearance, such a stark contrast to the streaks of gray in her dark brown hair. “I love you,” she corrected Ruby. “Who doesn’t love you?”
“I’ll give you a hint. She’s about this tall and is a professional eye roller.”
“How is my favorite thirteen-year-old?”
“She’s a pain in my butt.” Violet had a way of perfectly pushing Ruby’s buttons. She somehow managed to make her mom feel bad for her and infuriated by her at the same time. And whatever the problem was, it was always Ruby’s fault.
Never mind the fact that what had sparked the whole meltdown today was that Levi had once again canceled his visit with his daughter. Never mind that he’d spent months promising to take Violet to California for a long weekend. They were supposed to go to Disneyland and see the Hollywood sign. Only, Levi called last night with yet another lame excuse for why he couldn’t follow through.
“She loves you,” Holly said. “She’s starting puberty. It’s natural for her to clash with her mother. It’s her destiny to fight you on everything until she’s grown and on her own. Then she’ll think you’re the wisest person in the world.”
Ruby dropped into an empty office chair. “Ha! I hope I live that long.”
Jesse had once explained that it was safer for Violet to be angry with Ruby because she could trust that her mother would always be there. If she were to lash out at her dad, he might cut and run for good. Even the occasional phone call was better than nothing, so Violet couldn’t express her frustration to the real cause of all her angst.
Sometimes being the responsible and reliable parent really stank.
“When I was Violet’s age, I used to tell people I was adopted because I didn’t want them to think I was related to anyone in my family.”
“Holly!” Ruby leaned back and put her feet up on the desk. “That’s terrible. Your family could not have been that bad.”
“Oh, that’s nothing compared to what my younger sister did. My parents deserved a medal for surviving our teens.”
Ruby knew all about pushing parents to their limits. Her own mother could have written a book about the things Ruby had done at Violet’s age. What was happening now was most definitely karma.
“I don’t need a medal. I’d be happy simply to get one day without her sighing or telling me I don’t understand. Don’t worry. I won’t hold my breath, I promise.”
“Good, because that could take a very long time.”
Even though Holly had three boys who still let their mom tuck them in at night and asked for extra kisses before they could fall asleep, her opinion still fed Ruby’s fear that she and Violet would never find common ground. Especially when Violet’s father constantly played games with her emotions.
“Tell me something good. What amazing things are happening in Grass Lake this week?”
Holly rubbed her hands together and giggled like she had when they were roommates in college and had a secret to tell. She leaned forward, putting her elbows on her cluttered desk. “Grass Lake is about to be put on the map.”
Ruby raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
Holly’s blue eyes somehow got bigger. “We have a celebrity in town. A megastar.”
“What kind of celebrity? A movie star?”
“Not someone from Hollywood. Someone from Nashville.”
Ruby’s interest diminished significantly with that revelation. Country music wasn’t her thing. Never had been, even though Levi loved it. She was more of a progressive rock kind of girl.
“Nashville stars are not mega.”
“Oh, I know a whole lot of people who would disagree. Boone Williams is easily one of the biggest names in country music. He’s right up there with the likes of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson.”
Boone Williams. Ruby knew the name. She’d have to live under a rock to not have heard of him. He’d been married to some other country singer and made a mess of his life a few years back. Ruby couldn’t picture him, though. A quick Google search would remedy that.
As she typed his name into her phone, Holly added, “In fact, he’s staying over at the Stratton farm. You have a decent shot of laying eyes on him when you’re there with Violet.”
Oh, Ruby had laid eyes on him. In the images on her screen, he resembled more of a rugged cowboy than the average Joe he’d seemed to be in the barn. Not that he was average-looking by any means. His piercing blue eyes had caught her attention, as had his rock-hard chest. Of course, then he had opened his mouth.
“I definitely saw him there.”
Holly nearly fell out of her chair. “You met Boone Williams? Did you talk to him? Did he talk to you? Did you ask him for an autograph?”
Ruby wanted to laugh out loud at the last question. He had been offering her an autograph because he thought he was as famous as Holly did. His ego was incredible, but perhaps a bit more understandable now that she knew who he was.
“Had I known you were such a fan, I would have taken him up on his offer to sign something to make up for the horrendous argument I was having with my dear daughter when he stumbled upon us.”
“He what?”
“I guess that’s how he rolls. Whenever he sees pain and suffering, he offers to sign his name on a piece of paper so all the troubles will be forgotten.” Ruby placed a hand over her heart. “He’s such a giver, a true hero. Just think if he used his amazing powers of peacekeeping in the Middle East or North Korea.”
Boone, ego and all, was similar to the other men Ruby had known in her life. They thought they could charm their way out of anything and women should simply be grateful for their existence. They certainly didn’t have to be responsible or deal with the messy parts of life. They never truly cared about anyone’s feelings but their own.
“Are you telling me you didn’t get his autograph?”
Ruby found her friend’s disappointment a tad disturbing. “Holly, are you not hearing me? Perhaps the sarcasm distracted you from what I said. The guy thought giving me his autograph would make up for the fact that my daughter thinks I hate her. That it would make that little girl forget her father is a lying deadbeat. His delusions of grandeur are ridiculous.”
“Cut the guy some slack. He’s used to people knocking each other over to get a look at him,” Holly said in his defense. “Maybe we can get him to agree to do an interview for the paper.”
“We? I have nothing to do with this. I deliver babies, not the news.” Ruby had moved to Grass Lake because Sadie Greenville decided that after sixty years as a midwife it was time to retire. She had offered Ruby her office space and her handful of patients.
Refusing to give up, Holly reminded her, “You do a great job with the column.”
Ruby had also inherited Sadie’s monthly advice column at the Gazette. Ruby was now responsible for enlightening the town on how to be a good parent. She was waiting for someone to call her out as a fraud.
“Not the same thing,” Ruby argued.
Holly folded her hands together and started with those puppy-dog eyes. “Pleeeease. You have a reason to go to the farm. I only need you to see if he’d be willing to sit down with me. You wouldn’t have to do the interview.”
“I go to the farm because my kid is falling apart thanks to the fact that her dad doesn’t care about her.”
“Oh, man.” Sympathy quickly replaced the pleading look in Holly’s eye. “I know things haven’t been easy, but I thought they were getting better since you moved here.”
That was true, but as long as Levi was still in the picture, things would never be okay. His constant indifference was the reason Ruby had agreed to take over for Sadie. She had an excellent reputation, and that meant a viable business for her successor. Once Ruby made enough money to hire a lawyer, she planned to file for full custody and take off to Seattle to be near her older sister.
“Coming here was the best decision I’ve made in a long time.” Ruby tried to smile for her friend’s sake. She didn’t want Holly’s pity.
“Jon and I knew this community was exactly what you needed. And I, selfishly, love having you so close.”
It had been Holly who had convinced her to come to Grass Lake. Sadie had delivered Holly’s boys and wrote the parenting column for the Gazette, so when Holly found out she wanted to turn everything over to another midwife, she suggested Ruby. Holly even rented her mother-in-law’s house to Ruby dirt cheap.
Friends like Holly came along once in a lifetime.
“I don’t know about an interview, but I bet I can get Boone Williams’s autograph when I go back to pick up Violet.”
Holly grinned from ear to ear. “I’ll take it. But maybe slip in that I’d love to do an interview. My sister will be absolutely Wicked-Witch-green with envy if I tell her I’m going to sit down with Boone Williams.”
Holly’s sister wouldn’t envy her at all if they both knew what Boone was really like, but Ruby would try to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he wasn’t good with first impressions.
* * *
JESSE AND VIOLET were leading one of the horses around the paddock when Ruby returned to Helping Hooves. She noticed the content smile on her daughter’s face as she spoke with her social worker.
Ruby’s heart ached the way it always did when she thought about how Violet would feel if she had a father who actually participated in his daughter’s life. It was so depressing; she couldn’t dwell in that thought for too long.
Slamming the car door shut garnered the attention of both of them. Violet’s smile quickly disappeared, and Ruby’s heart took another stomping.
Someday she’ll like me.
Teenagers weren’t supposed to like their parents, and parents weren’t supposed to be their teens’ friends. In a few years, her daughter would thank her for being a parent and not a friend. Ruby had been given all that advice and then some as Violet approached this wretched age. It didn’t always ease the pain of her daughter’s constant rejection, though.
“Why do you always have to show up so early?” Violet complained. “I still have to clean Sassy up before I can go.”
Ruby took a deep breath and reminded herself not to be offended by her daughter’s tone. “I can wait. No worries.”
“Why don’t you let your mom know what you accomplished today?” Jesse prompted.
There was a small glimmer of pride in Violet’s eyes. “I got Sassy to perform a flying lead change.”
“Really?” Ruby tried to show the right amount of enthusiasm. Violet hated too much and resented too little. “That’s awesome.”
“Do you even know what that means, Mom?”
Ruby had no idea, since she had little to no experience with horses, but she wasn’t about to admit it. “Yeah, of course.”
Violet seemed unconvinced. Jesse saved the day. “Violet’s doing a great job of getting Sassy to change her lead legs. I think the two of them are going to do really well at the horse show in a couple of weeks. Do you want to join us in the tack room, Ruby?”
The look on Violet’s face made it clear she did not want her mother to come with them. The last thing Ruby needed was to agitate her bear of a daughter.
“I need to touch base with Dean about something,” Ruby said, throwing a thumb over her shoulder. “But I’ll meet you in there in a few minutes.”
Violet’s visible relief was yet another punch in the stomach.
“All right, we’ll chat when you get back,” Jesse said.
Ruby headed toward the main house. She’d probably have to go through Dean to land Holly an interview with Boone Williams. He ran his record company from somewhere on the property.
As she climbed the porch steps, the sound of someone screaming bloody murder made her pause. Someone was not happy and was letting the heavens know about it. Fearing someone was hurt, she followed the porch around to see what was wrong.
Boone stood in the yard and was doing his best impression of a woman in the throes of childbirth. He puffed his chest out and let his head fall back as he roared at the sky. He took a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders. When he opened his eyes, his gaze fell squarely on Ruby.
Feeling as if she had been caught snooping instead of doing a welfare check, she took a step back and tripped over a rocking chair that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Ruby fell on her behind and felt a sharp pain in her wrist as she attempted to break her fall.
Those stormy blue eyes that had blown her over were now glaring at her through the slats of the porch railing. He somehow managed to look angrier than he had a moment ago.
“Unbelievable,” he growled.