skin, the sweet, sated euphoria we both bathed in after spending the entire evening making love told me it was far, far from a dream.
It was the best reality I’d ever existed in.
I sighed, wrapping her in my arms tightly before pressing a kiss to her hair. She squeezed back, and after a moment of silence, she chuckled.
I felt the vibration of it through my chest, and I smirked, cocking one brow as I looked down at her mess of red hair. “What’s so funny, Legs?”
She shook her head. “Just thinking about the look on Pastor Morris’s face when you scooped me up and high-tailed me out of the church.”
A short exhale of a laugh hit my chest. “I think he might need therapy after today.”
“I think the whole town might.”
“Any regrets?”
She leaned up on one elbow, then, resting her other arm over my chest as she faced me with bent brows. “Not a single one. You?”
I pressed my lips together. “Come on, now.”
Ruby Grace smiled, leaning her cheek down on top of where her hand rested. Her golden eyes searched mine before they trailed over every inch of my face, like she was about to paint it, or like she was memorizing every detail.
“I feel like there’s so much to talk about, but I don’t know where to start.”
I twirled her hair around my knuckle, letting one strand fall before I picked up the next. “Why don’t you start with the first thing on your mind.”
“How did you find out about the real reason I left that night we were here?”
“Oh, that’s easy. Betty.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, I know that — at least, now I do. But I don’t understand how, or when.”
“She wrote me a letter,” I explained. “Slipped it under my screen door while I was at work.”
“How in the world did she get away from the nursing home… and did she walk to your house? How did she even know where you live?”
“She said something about having a little helper,” I offered.
Recognition lit up in her eyes, then. “Annie.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Anyway, she — or they — left it the night before the wedding. Otherwise, I would have come a lot sooner.”
“Why do I have a feeling she did that on purpose,” Ruby Grace said, smirking as she shook her head. “That woman lives for the movie-like drama.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, well, she got some today.”
“That she did.” Ruby Grace was still smiling, but it slipped as another moment passed between us, her fingers trailing up and down my chest. “I wish I could tell you all the hell I’ve been through these past three weeks, from the moment my mother told me about my father’s debt. I know it probably doesn’t make any sense to you, but… I felt this obligation to my family, to my father. I couldn’t abandon them, couldn’t walk out on them when it seemed I was the only way we could save our home, our possessions, our reputation, our… everything.” She sighed. “I feel foolish saying it out loud, but, it’s who I’ve always been. It’s the way I was raised.”
“Hey,” I said, tapping her chin until she looked at me. “I understand. I promise, I really do.”
“How can you, when I don’t even understand myself?”
“That’s easy,” I offered with a shrug. “I would have done the same for my family.”
Her brows rose. “You would have?”
“I understand that family tie. Blood is thicker than anything. And no matter what knucklehead in my family gets in trouble, we all rally behind them to make it okay again. There is no judgment, no pointed fingers — only love and understanding and, like you demonstrated, sacrifice.”
She smiled. “I’m thankful you understand… but I think you and I both know what my parents did goes a little past what’s acceptable.”
I swallowed. “Yeah… it does.” I paused, heart stopping on my next question. “Do you think you could have really gone through with it? Marrying him?”
“No,” she answered immediately. “I thought I could. I had the decision made, solidified, and I was walking to the grave of what I thought my life could be as I walked down that aisle. But when I saw you… I knew I couldn’t. I knew there was no path I could take that didn’t lead to you in the end.” Ruby Grace bit her lip. “And, honestly, I knew even before I saw you. I was walking down that aisle in a fog, trying to figure out what to