AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ruby halts. “She’ll be fine,” she assures her again, nicely. Well, nice for Ruby.
They stare at each other a moment, and then Ruby’s gaze moves past her to Magnolia. Something knowing and pointed plays inside them—a telepathic language only a mother and daughter can hear.
“I don’t mind helping with Scarlett,” Farrah finally says.
“I know,” Magnolia says with a touch to her shoulder. “I just need you to help me a moment, please.”
Farrah releases an almost-silent sigh, her arm loosening from mine, but she slaps on a rehearsed smile before she turns to face her. She knows it’s a battle she won’t win. And my gut tells me why: Any minute now the butlers will be returning with Harris and Nanna, and for whatever absurd reason, they don’t want her around him.
She’s a better woman than me; I don’t think I’d give in so easily. Then again, I haven’t witnessed any of their other exchanges on the topic. Or know much about their relationship at all. But I do know the poor thing was reduced to sneaking in today. She knows she’s better off going around them than through them.
“Thanks, Farrah,” I say, cutting through the awkwardness. I give her a ghost of a smile. “We’ll connect later.”
She nods reluctantly. She was so close to getting in to see him.
And then we part ways.
When Ruby has me safely pulled inside the house and away from concerned and curious eyes, she releases her hold and runs her hands through her sleek hair. “For fuck’s sake,” she barks to no one in particular. And then she sighs, as if emptying all her frustration into the space around us. And I know it has more to do with the Harris thing than me. At least…I’m assuming. But it still makes me flinch.
The butlers stand by, waiting on pins and needles.
She takes my good arm, her touch rougher this time, and pulls me to the kitchen island.
“Turn the lights up, Frederick,” she says, unwrapping my injured arm and lays it flat against the countertop. It feels cold against my skin, chills racing up my arm, and I cringe as the injured skin tightens.
“Yeah, you cut it up good,” she says.
Joannacut it up good.
A pair of urgent footsteps tromp through the room next to us, and the kitchen door flings open. Jake.
His expression is ten shades of bewildered. “What the hell happened with Dad?” His eyes then draw down to my bloodied arm, and the confusion in his features morphs to horror.
“She fell,” Ruby offers.
“Tripped,” I correct.
“Tripped?” he says, rushing over. He hovers beside me. “How did you—”
“Joanna.”
His eyebrows draw together. “Joanna?” He looks to Ruby for insight.
She shrugs. “She stuck her foot out, I guess, when Scarlett walked by. Farrah saw it.”
He looks to my arm again.
“She’ll live,” she continues, then wraps it back up. “But you need to take her to urgent care.”
It takes him a second to process. “Urgent care?”
She gives him a did I stutter? look. “Yeah. Urgent care. They’ll need to clean it and stitch it up.”
His features contort with confusion. “Seriously?”
I shift on my feet, looking between the two of them. Why is that a strange suggestion? What am I missing? She is the professional…
She defensively gestures to my wrapped-up arm, then to the back door. “Yes, seriously. I have a party to wrap up.”
