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Chapter Twenty-Six

Ruby

Three weeks later

The knock on my office door was tentative—which meant it wasn’t Lauren—and with the phone wedged between my ear and my shoulder, I whirled in my chair and waved whoever it was inside.

“That sounds amazing, Mom. Where do you guys go ashore next?”

“Edinburgh. Did you see my pictures on Facebook? I just uploaded everything from our stops in Scotland and Wales.” She pulled the phone away and said something to my dad in a muffled voice. “Your dad says hi.”

I managed a smile, a headache stemming from the tension I was holding at the base of my neck. “I didn’t see the pictures, no, but I’ll go check. I’ve been staying off the internet as much as possible.”

Social media wasn’t my favorite thing in the world to begin with—I’d had to reset a forgotten password just to be able to follow my parents’ trip—but now my internet was effectively trained to serve me everything about Griffin. I’d seen more gossip-column articles in the last month of my life than in the previous ten years combined. Everything from recaps of his outings in Denver with teammates to the ice cream he was spotted buying at an upscale grocery store near the mansion he’d bought in Cherry Creek—a $2 million home with seven bedrooms, and maybe he was looking to fill it with a family? I clicked out of that one quickly.

I blinked, realizing my mom was still chatting about things they’d seen.

One of our library trustees was in my office doorway, a manila folder in her grip, and I held up my hand to ask her to wait. She nodded.

“Mom, I have to go. Have fun in Edinburgh. Have a beer for me,” I told her.

“I will, honey. You’re taking all your medicine? Working out?”

“Every day,” I promised. “Even started doing some strength training about a month ago.”

“Good! That’s wonderful. Not too much, though?”

“Hard to say. I’ll be so bulked up when you get back home you may not even recognize me.”

She sighed. “All right. I’ll leave you alone. Love you, Ruby.”

I rubbed wearily at my forehead, quietly chastising myself because it was her love that caused her to worry. My mom was probably doing the same thing, reminding herself that when I used humor to deflect, it was because I didn’t really know what else to say. “Love you, too,” I told her quietly.

I hung up and aimed a smile in Carol’s direction. “Sorry about that. How can I help you, Carol? I didn’t expect to see you today.”

She held up the manila folder. “Have something for you. I almost waited until the trustee meeting next week, but I decided you deserved to see it first.”

Carol was a successful real estate agent, and she’d worked in the Welling Springs area for the last fifteen years. The last time we spoke was when she broke the news about losing the land. This time, though, she looked substantially happier.

I stood, holding my hand out for the folder as I moved in front of my desk, a quick whirl of nerves hitting my stomach at the excited glimmer in her eyes. There was nothing written on the folder, and I should have waited until I was seated again before I opened it.

For a long moment, all I could do was stare at the innocuous black ink printed on the pristine white paper.

My breath caught in my throat. “What is this?” I whispered.

Carol didn’t answer.

Tears filled my eyes, and I blinked furiously to clear them. There was a lot of legal jargon on the paper in front of me, but I recognized the outline of the land like I was looking in the mirror. “Carol, this says we own the land ... How ... how is this possible?”

She smiled. “Because we do.”

My hands were tingling, and I blindly sank back onto the surface of my desk, thankful that it was there as my knees gave out. “How?”

She shrugged lightly. “I got a call last week from the developer’s agent. Someone approached them and gave them an offer they couldn’t resist. It took some time for the deal to close, but it’s ours, Ruby.”

Shock had my head spinning, and I laid a hand over my chest, the pounding of my heart mimicking the racing thoughts as they split out into a million directions.

Carol took a seat and pinned me with a mischievous grin. “Someone likes you an awful lot, Ruby Tate.”

My head snapped up. “What makes you say that?”

“They had one stipulation for the transfer of the land,” she said.

“What was it?”

She handed me another paper. It was thick, with another render on it, one that I’d never seen. The weeping willow was there, and in the background was the bench. But in front of it was a drawing of a sign.

Ruby Tate Gardens and Nature Preserve.

“What the fuck?” I breathed.

Carol coughed, patting her chest as she recovered quickly.

I pinched my eyes shut. “Sorry.”

“Quite all right, dear. That’s why I’m showing you now.”

Suspicion took root, coiling up through the dirt and pushing up into the sun, but there was an almost violent urge to rip it out and not let it grow any further.

He wouldn’t. Would he?

Even thinking it made me feel insane. Like my ego had grown ten sizes in the last month. I was still staring at the render long after Carol left and when Lauren wandered into my office. Numbly, I handed her the paper and chewed my bottom lip as I watched her eyes widen until they seemed to take up half her face.

“Ruby,” she said slowly. “Did Griffin King spend millions of dollars to buy a chunk of land because he knew you wanted it?”

I covered my face with both hands. “I don’t know. It feels crazy to even think it.”

“Holy shit, you have a magic hoo-hah, don’t you?”

Face flaming, I smacked her on the arm as she cackled. Kenny walked past my office, his cheeks suspiciously red, and I knew he’d heard her.

“I don’t have a magic hoo-hah,” I hissed. “Stop talking so loud.”

“You did something right,” she said, eyeing me with interest. “You told me it was really good, but I’m getting the distinct feeling that you’re withholding some pertinent information.”

Sitting was no good, not with all the energy crackling through my veins, so I paced my office restlessly while I thought. “There’s no information on the deed about the sale itself, and I could probably do some digging at the city office, but I don’t know if the closing documents are even filed yet.”

She closed the folder and slid it across the surface of my desk. “Epic, Ruby. This is completely epic. I could call Marcus and see if he knows anything.”

“No,” I said instantly. “I don’t want anyone else involved in this. And I didn’t think you were talking to him anymore.”

Lauren sighed airily. “Who was I kidding? I might even be willing to go on a real date with this one. He called me last night and gave me the best phone sex of my life; then he talked to me until I was almost asleep.” Her cheeks were flushed pink, and I found myself smiling at how flustered she seemed. “He’s still a total caveman, but ... he’s all right.”

“I’m happy for you,” I told her. She tried to wave it off, but I gripped her hand and wouldn’t let her look away. “I really am.”

Lauren cleared her throat primly. “Thank you. Not that anything is going to come from it, but ... thank you.” She arched an eyebrow. “I think you should just call Griffin and ask.”

“No way. Because if it’s not him, I look like a code-red-level stalker for assuming that it was.”

“How many other people do you know who could afford this?”

I set my jaw, patently refusing to respond because we both knew what my answer would be.

“He won’t think you’re a stalker,” she replied gently.

“Yes, he will. Think about all the crazy he has to deal with on a regular basis. I saw an article the other day about these twin girls—they’re not even girls, I think they were twenty-two. Hot twenty-two-year-olds. They make like, six figures every month on that website, you know, the fan one.” Lauren bit down on her smile but didn’t interrupt. “They each got a tattoo of Griffin and his brother on their asses because they’re so convinced that they’re destined to marry them.” I shook my head. “There’s no way I’m entering into that particular competition.”

“Okay, fine. Then you figure out if it’s him before you call.”

“How am I going to do that? What if the buyer showed up with a briefcase full of cash and there’s no paper trail for who bought it?”

Lauren stood with a sigh and tapped the folder. “Then it’s a good thing you’re a librarian, huh? If we excel at anything, it’s research.” She paused before disappearing through the door. “And mind-blowing sex, apparently.”

I dropped my head in my hands and sighed, my eyes still locked on the image of that sign. I’d done enough work on my mental health in the last five years to recognize exactly what held me back.

Fear. Absolute mind-numbing, action-paralyzing fear.

If it wasn’t him, I would be disappointed.

And if it was ...

My eyes pinched shut while I played through that. But I couldn’t see a single outcome where we made sense, or where I’d ever want to risk bringing that man—with his big, wonderful, solid, stable, loving heart—into the life that I was destined to live.

But if it was him, then I had to thank him. It was the least I could do.

After a moment, I picked up my phone and called the city offices. “Hey, it’s Ruby. I need you to do me a favor.”