Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) (6 page)

The closer I clung to him, the more I could feel his
muscles
unwind.
Full body
tautness
slowly
gave way
to
relaxation until all that remained of his anger was a slight
tremble.
He put his arms around me and I collapsed against
him. All he said to me was, “Let me take you home, Ruby.”

I nodded my head, grabbed my stuff, and let him lead
me out of the room. I took one look at Lucas and wanted to
throw up.
How could I have been so stupid? He was nothing
like his
brother.
As
we were
about to
walk
through
the
doorway, he called out to me.

“I’m sorry, Ru, but I needed the money.”

Money? He did all of this for money? I couldn’t even
face him and there wasn’t a single thing in this world that I
wanted to say to him. Instead, I did something I rarely ever did.
I took my hand off of Zach just long enough to flip Lucas off as I
walked away. Like. A. Boss. It felt like one of those scenes in a
movie where the hero strides off into the sunset while multiple
things explode behind him. Yeah, that’s exactly how it felt.

Neither one of us spoke a word to each other as we left
the theater.
I had so many questions for Zach.
How did he
know that I needed help?
Where did he go after he left the
theater? Why was his dad waiting for him in the parking lot
looking incredibly pissed off? But the biggest question that had
been on my mind no longer needed an answer—he still loved
me. Even though we hadn’t had time to talk yet, I knew that
everything was going to be okay between us. He would give me
a chance to explain and to make things up to him. He didn’t
have to tell me he still loved me.
It was something I felt
inside—I couldn’t explain it but I knew. It was a feeling I never
wanted to have to live without. Ever.

I handed Zach the keys to my car and he opened the
door for me to get in.
He asked me to wait there for him while
he talked to his dad for a minute. After a brief, initially heated
but eventually civil, conversation with his father, Zach joined
me in the car and we drove away. There were so many things
we needed to talk about but there was one odd thing at the
forefront of my mind. My feelings for Zach hadn’t changed at
all.
In fact, he somehow managed to do the
impossible
tonight—he made me love him even more. But after everything
that happened with Lucas, my feelings about one thing changed
significantly.

“I don’t want to have sex with you, Zach!” I blurted out
like a total moron.

 

“O-kay,” he replied hesitantly.

I was hoping for a different reaction to my badly timed
outburst but instead the car filled up with awkward silence.
Would my mouth ever learn to wait for my brain to fully form a
sentence before it tried to fill in the blanks? What I said came
out so wrong, so dreadfully wrong.

“What I mean is, after tonight and what Lucas intended
to do to me, I don’t even want to think about that kind of stuff
for a while anyway.
I know that it would be completely
different with you but it’s just not something I want to do any
time soon. Are you okay with that?”

Zach took one hand off the steering wheel and wrapped
it around both of mine. “Ruby, you have no idea how long I’ve
waited to hear you say that. I’m more than okay with it. It’s not
that I don’t want to, it’s just that I know that everything will
change after we do. I kind of like who we are now and I want to
enjoy it while it lasts because once it’s gone, we’ll never get it
back.”

That—that right there—was
why
I loved him.
He
thought about a lot of things that most people didn’t think
about. He looked at our relationship differently—he looked at
it with his heart. His depth of understanding of the true beauty
of what we had overwhelmed me. We always ended up in the
same place eventually—just sometimes we took different paths
to get there. What I found with Zach was irreplaceable.
He
was
irreplaceable. I couldn’t control my emotions and I started to
cry.

“Aw, Ruby, don’t cry, sweetie! It’s okay, you’re okay
now. You know I’ll always be there for you. I wish I could have
gotten there sooner but I’ll never let Lucas hurt you again—I
promise.”

“I’m not crying because of what happened tonight. I’m
crying because I love you and I almost messed that up because I
couldn’t get over my past. But all of that is over now—that’s
my
promise to
you
.”

Zach didn’t say a word. He simply gave my hands a
light squeeze and I hung my head and cried even harder. He
understood me in a way that no one else ever had and no one
else ever possibly could. My prayers were answered—I got the
second chance with him that I wanted so desperately. I would
never let anything come between us again.

As we pulled up to the mansion, I remembered that Dad
still wasn’t so keen on the idea of me and Zach dating. In fact,
he had definitely forbidden it that night he caught us in bed
together. Even once he realized that Zach wasn’t the one who
sent me the lingerie, he still seemed firmly set against us ever
being together again. I wasn’t in the mood for drama so I asked
Zach if he would mind just dropping me off and then calling me
once he got home.

“You do realize that I’m driving your car, right Ruby?”
Zach asked.

“Honestly, I totally wasn’t paying attention. Our cars
are so much alike that when I’m not driving, I automatically
assume that we’re in your Neon. Where
is
your car, by the
way? I didn’t see it when we left the Bantam—not that I was
paying much attention back there, though.”

“Well,” Zach said sadly, “our cars
used
to be so much
alike.
If you could see my car the way it looks now, you
wouldn’t have any problem telling them apart.”

“You wrecked it tonight, didn’t you? Right around 8:47,
right?”

Zach gave me a look of pure shock. “How did you
know?
I mean, I suppose you could have guessed that I
wrecked it based on what I just said to you but there’s no way
that you could possibly know the exact time that it happened!”

“It was really weird. I had Lucas drive me to the cast
party at the country club because I thought you might be there
with Rachel.
For some reason, I took note of the time as we
pulled in. As I got out of the car, this freak wind blew past me
and chilled me down to my very core.
I couldn’t shake the
feeling that something was terribly wrong and Rachel felt it,
too. To be perfectly honest with you, I thought you were dead.”
Cue the tears. This was one night I would rather forget.

“Wow,” he said, shaking his head, “I don’t think your
ability to see ghosts is the only special talent you have—I swear
you’re a little bit psychic, too. I happened to look at the clock in
the car just before I wrecked.
8:47 exactly.
You are one
mysterious woman, Ruby.”

“No, you’re wrong. I’m not psychic. I just think that you
and I have some strange connection that defies explanation.”

“I agree and even if there
was
an explanation, I wouldn’t
want to hear it. We’re a mystery that’s better left unsolved.
Are you ready to go inside now?”

Inside. Not really. I wasn’t looking forward to Dad’s
reaction when he saw me with Zach. Things happened tonight
that I didn’t really want to talk to him or Shelly about. All I
wanted was to find some sort of little cocoon that Zach and I
could curl up in together and never face the world again. He
was the only one that I would ever discuss the details of tonight
with. But that cocoon didn't exist and I would need to face my
parents and the rest of the world sooner or later. With a heavy
sigh, I nodded my head and dried my eyes as best as I could.

As soon as we set foot into the foyer, Dad was on Zach
like a zombie at a Mensa convention. While his face began to
turn an odd shade of red, I tried to prepare a rebuttal for his as
yet still unspoken accusations.
Shockingly, Zach was the first
one to speak.

“Dr. Matthews, may I speak to you in private for a
minute please. I want to talk to you about my relationship with
your daughter.”

Whoa. I certainly didn’t see
that
one coming and by the
look of surprise on his face, neither did my dad. I had no idea
what Zach was planning to say to him but he already had the
upper hand. There wasn’t even a trace of fear on his face and
his leg was firmly planted on the floor without any nervous
fidgeting in sight. Whatever it was, he knew exactly what he
wanted to say.

Shelly popped out of the dining room doorway just in
time to see Zach and Dad disappear down the hallway and into
the Man Cave. “Wait a second—was that Zach?
I should go
check to make sure your dad isn’t breaking the Hippocratic
Oath in there,” she said as she marched across the foyer.

“No—don’t. I don’t know why Zach wanted to talk to
Dad but it must be important. I think it’s something he feels he
needs to do. We should leave them alone,” I said in protest. I
thought about it carefully for a second and then added, “Unless
somebody starts screaming, of course.” Screaming would be
bad, very, very bad.

Nervous about what was potentially unfolding in the
next room, I plopped down on the bottom step of the grand
staircase so that I was close enough to hear the first hint of a
scream from the Man Cave.
The grandfather clock gave a
perfectly timed “BONG” as my butt hit the step. Ten o’clock.
Based on how much had occurred since the last time I looked at
the time in Lucas’s car, I was surprised at how little time had
actually passed. Time was a funny thing. We measured it in
seconds, minutes, and hours because it was the only real way to
keep track of it but the true passage of time was in moments.
Good ones, bad ones—they
had a way
of distorting
your
perception of reality.
Like right now, as I sat there waiting for
Zach
to
emerge—hopefully
in
one
piece—from
his
conversation with my dad.

Shelly sat down beside me and gave me a hug. “You
were wonderful on stage tonight! I have to admit I was a little
scared for you at first because I know how introverted you are.
But let me tell you, after those first few lines you were nothing
short of perfect! You’ve grown up so much since we moved
here. You’ll be heading off to college soon and we’ll barely ever
get to see you. I’m so happy for you yet so sad for me!”

I could see the tears forming in her eyes and I couldn’t
take it.
Tonight was emotional enough as it was for me—I
couldn’t handle any more sadness. “Please, Shelly. I can’t talk
about this tonight. Let’s talk about something good. How’s the
bed and breakfast coming along?
Did you get all of your
business licenses and stuff approved yet?”

“No, Jason and I decided to put all of that on hold for a
few months. We decided not to open until the fall. That way,
we can spend more time with you before you head off to
college.” Despite my efforts to steer clear of any more
emotional distress, Shelly burst into tears and so did I.
We
were a picture perfect tissue commercial just waiting to be
filmed.
While I have to admit that the thought of leaving home
did make me sad, that wasn’t the primary reason for my tears. I
still felt terrible inside for how I must have made Zach feel
when he knew that I couldn’t decide between him and Lucas. I
needed to find a way to reassure him that nothing like that
would ever happen again.

Footsteps in the hallway broke up our little tear fest
and I looked up to find that not only was Zach still in one piece,
he was actually smiling. He held out his hand to help me up and
I gladly took it. What in the world did he say to my dad that left
him so happy?

“Come on, Ruby. You’ve had a long night and I’m going
to tuck you into bed now.”

Okay, now I was worried. He sustained head trauma in
the accident tonight if he thought my dad was going to allow
him anywhere near my bedroom.
Quickly, I scanned his pupils
for any sign of a concussion. Not that I actually knew what I
was looking for or anything, but I figured that serious cerebral
damage would leave some sort of obvious sign. Nope, nothing.
His eyes were still the same wonderful shade of ice blue that
they were on any other day.
But after his suggestion to go
upstairs with me, I was certain they were about to be
black
and
blue.

“Goodnight, Ruby. We’ll all talk in the morning, okay?”
my dad said as he patted Zach on the shoulder.

What? So was my dad in a car accident tonight, too, that
I was unaware of because brain damage wasn’t contagious the
last time I checked.
Seriously, I was starting to wonder if
maybe
I
was the one with some kind of injury because none of
this was normal. It’s like I was living in Bizarro Rosewood now
or something.
Not that that was
a bad
thing, of course.
Whatever the case may be, I decided not to question something
good when it was handed to me and I escaped up the steps to
the attic with Zach at my side.

My overdose of adrenaline wore off almost instantly the
very second I laid eyes on my bed. Sleep was the only thing
that could take away the sting left by my long and tumultuous
day. I escaped into the bathroom long enough to change into
my pj’s then hopped into bed. Zach placed my desk chair
beside my bed, sat down, and took my hand. I was hoping to
fall asleep fast but in the meantime, there were many things to
discuss—starting
with how he
managed to
get
my
dad to
calmly allow him to be sitting next to me at this very moment.