Page 191 of Show Me

“Maybe.” What if she’s not coming back? I pinch the bridge of my nose. Jesus. Today is a fucking shitshow.

“Women tend to leave when men do that.”

“Not helpful.”

He shrugs once. “Just an observation.”

I glance back toward Ruby’s empty desk. The silence sitting there feels wrong. Too final. “Did she say anything else?”

“No.” Then his voice turns calmer. “She looked tired.” Dad watches me for another second. “Sometimes when somebody walks away, it’s because they’re too worn out to keep having the same argument.”

I frown. “We didn’t argue.”

“That almost sounds worse.” I exhale sharply at his words and turn toward the door. “Where you going?”

“To find Ruby.”

Dad grunts. “You might want to figure out what you want before you go chasing after her.”

I don’t bother to respond on my way out the door.

By the time I get home, my pulse is pounding so hard that each beat feels like an icepick stabbing into my brain. Her car isn’t in the driveway.

Ben looks up from the couch the second I walk in. “Hey.”

“Where’s Ruby?”

His lips press together before he licks them. “She came by earlier. Grabbed her stuff.”

Something heavy drops straight through my stomach. “All of it?”

“Pretty much.” He lifts a shoulder. “As far as I could tell anyway. She took the pig with her.”

I curse under my breath.

Ben leans forward. “You two have a fight?”

“Something like that.”

He studies my face for a long moment. “You might want to fix that.”

“That’s the plan.”

Except, I have no idea how I’m going to do that. Because Ruby didn’t yell. Didn’t accuse me. Didn’t demand anything. She pulled away. And that scares me worse. I’m back in the truck less than two minutes later.

*****

When I pull into the driveway next to her car, my teeth grind together. She came back here. Alone. After everything.

A few seconds later the door opens. Ruby stands there in leggings and one of her oversized hoodies, Squirt posted by her feet. She looks calm. Too calm. And I hate that look more than I’ve hated anything in a long time.

“Hey,” she says.

“Hey.”

Neither of us moves at first. Then she steps back to let me inside. The house feels colder than it did the last time we were there. Or maybe that’s just me.

Ruby leans against the kitchen counter while I stand there trying to figure out where even to start.