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In the afternoon, Grandad liked to sit on the bench overlooking the lake. I figured that’s most likely where he’d be since it was his last day there.
“He sure is,” she confirmed, her grin still in place. “He’s ready to blow this popsicle stand.”
“I bet.”
Harper skipped in front of me down the hallway that led to the outdoor courtyard area. I inhaled slowly, trying to clear my head from the Ruby fog. When I did, the fresh floral aroma that was uniquely Ruby drifted up my nose. Her scent was still lingering on my olfactory nerves. I had no clue how long her ghost scent would linger.
All morning, I’d been catching whiffs of her essence. When I got dressed after my shower, I smelled her in my room. I smelled her in the truck when I climbed in to go pick up Harper. And now, as I walked down the hallway I smelled her. The room and truck were understandable since she’d been in both places recently. Maybe she’d been here, too, to say goodbye to Miss Dottie.
No sooner had that thought crossed my mind than I heard what sounded exactly like Ruby’s voice coming from Miss Dottie’s room. Was my mind playing tricks on me? Could all these sensory triggers be in my head? Was I imagining them like a phantom limb?
“Grandad!” Harper called out as she opened the glass door and ran full steam ahead to where Grandad was seated on the bench.
I watched as the two embraced, but I didn’t join them. I couldn’t. I listened in the doorway; my feet were cemented to the tiled floor.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Ruby sniffed as she spoke.
It was her. I hadn’t been imagining it.
“I don’t have a job, my car isn’t starting, I have no money, and I can’t stay in the trailer with the newlyweds.”
“Kane.” When I heard my name, I turned and saw Emilio standing in the doorway of his office. “I have some papers for you to sign and his discharge info to go over.”
I nodded and headed down the hallway, my heart pounding a thousand miles a minute. She was still in town—she hadn’t left—and she needed a job and a place to stay—two things that I could offer her.
Maybe today wasn’t so bad after all.
15
RUBY
“If it has tires or testicles, it’s gonna give you trouble.” ~ Miss Dottie
Miss Dottie handed me a tissue as I wiped the tears that had fallen down my face with the back of my hand. I hadn’t meant to start crying when I told Miss Dottie what was going on with me, but they had just flowed out. I blew my nose and tried to regain my composure.
“So that means you’re going to be in town for a while?” Miss Dottie asked hopefully.
I sighed. “I don’t know.”
I’d just poured my heart out to her, told her I felt like a complete failure and that I had no clue what I should do. I’d made it clear that, for all intents and purposes, I was stranded in Wishing Well with no job, no place to stay, and no plan. Yet, the sole piece of information she’d taken from the conversation was that I was going to be in town for a while… and she was happy about it.
Maybe she wasn’t the best person to talk to about this. But it’s not like I had a ton of options. Remi was my person; he was the one to whom I went for everything. He was so much more than a brother to me; he was my best friend.
He also worried. A lot. Since my life had fallen apart, Remi’s worry-o-meter had been working overtime. Remi tried to cancel a highly competitive four-week training in Montana that he’d applied for three years earlier and was one of six out of over a thousand applicants accepted because he would be unreachable due to the nature of the training. I had to basically blackmail him into going, saying that if he didn’t, I wouldn’t ever tell him if anything was wrong again.
Even though he was home from Montana now and I could call him, I didn’t want to bother him. He was smack dab in the middle of the busiest time of year for his job, fire season. As a hotshot, he couldn’t be distracted; the stakes were life and death. There was no way I was going to burden him with my issues.
This was my life. I needed to figure it out on my own.
I sat talking to Miss Dottie for another hour. She was mostly just filling me in on the gossip at the senior home. Apparently, Mr. Fisher was seen sneaking out of Mrs. Carson’s room in the early hours of the morning and wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, which was only scandalous because he’d been spotted going to her room the evening before in slacks and a button-down shirt.
Harriet McIntosh was not speaking to Millie Corbin over claims Millie had been flirty with Wilbur Jones, who, according to Dottie, had the distinction of being Sunset Acres Senior Home’s resident Casanova.
There were rumors that June Crawford had been cheating on game nights. Something about bribing the bingo caller and questions about whether her ‘winning’ cards were legit or not.
Morgana Walters was stepping out on her husband Carmine with his brother Alvin, who also lived at Sunset Acres.
I’d thought the town gossip was bad enough, but the senior home was even worse. They were living in a soap opera.
