Page 30 of Save Me (Maxton Hall #1)

Ruby

Ember and I spend the whole of Saturday in our pajamas.

Mum and Dad are out with friends, so we take advantage of having the kitchen to ourselves to bake chocolate chip cookies.

We’re in the middle of making sure the bowl is properly cleaned out when the doorbell rings.

Both of us jump and stare at each other.

Then I tap the side of my nose as fast as lightning.

Ember groans as she realizes her defeat and trots off toward the door.

A moment later, I hear a gruff, familiar voice. “Hi, are you Ember? I’m Lin. Where’s your sister? I need to speak to her!”

Before I’ve had time to blink, Lin’s standing in front of me, holding out her phone. “Say that’s not actually you.”

For a while, I can only stare at her. It’s the first time Lin’s been in our house.

Until now, she’s only picked me up a few times, and has always waited in the car.

Having her here ought to make me nervous.

After all, she goes to Maxton Hall too, and so she’s a part of my life that I want to keep as far as possible from my family.

But the longer I see her standing in our kitchen, the more I realize that the opposite is true.

I’m glad she came. Our argument the other day showed me that we could have a real friendship that goes beyond school.

Maybe it’s time to be brave and open up a little.

I deliberately pop the spatula into my mouth again so as not to have to answer. Unimpressed, Lin comes a few steps closer until she’s right in front of me, holding her phone so close to my nose that I have to lean back before I can make anything out in the dark photo.

It’s of James from behind, and he’s carrying someone who has her arms wrapped tight around his neck and her face buried in his throat. You can’t recognize me, but I still blush hotly. I wonder exactly how many other photos there are of that moment. And exactly who’s seen them all.

“Ruby?” Lin asks, her tone suddenly a bit less harsh. “What happened yesterday?”

“I went to Cyril’s party,” I say at last. “Like I told you.”

“Yes, you did. What I want to know is what’s happening here .”

“What’s happening where?” asks Ember, snatching the phone from Lin’s hand. Her mouth drops open as she stares at the photo. “Is that really you?”

“Yes,” I admit, gulping hard. Spending today with Ember was meant to take my mind off things. I wanted to suppress the thoughts of last night and stop my head from whirling. What happened yesterday…Even I don’t know what that was. Let alone how to put it into words or to deal with it.

“Tell me right now what happened yesterday,” my sister demands, in an I’m-not-taking-no-for-an-answer voice that she definitely gets from Mum.

I lean down to the oven again to check on the cookies. Sadly, they’re not ready yet and can’t protect me from Lin and Ember or their questioning looks. I sigh quietly, drop the scraper back in the bowl, and nod toward the dining room. Once we’ve sat down, I start talking.

By the end of my story, they have very different expressions on their faces. Lin looks mainly skeptical. Ember, by contrast, has rested her chin on her hand and is smiling dreamily at me.

“This Beaufort boy sounds lovely,” she sighs.

“He is not!” Lin exclaims in disbelief. “There’s no way the bloke you were just talking about is James Beaufort.”

All I can do is shrug my shoulders. Looking back at it now, it feels unreal that he actually went so far as to protect me from his friends, but…he did. More than that. He took care of me. Got me dressed while acting like a gentleman. He held my hand when I told him about Dad.

Last night has changed things between us.

I can feel it distinctly. My whole body tingles when I think about the way he looked at me and the touch of his fingers on my bare skin.

The time my body shivered, and James thought I was still cold—which very much wasn’t the case.

The way he held me as if I was made of thin, fragile glass.

“That’s exactly what I meant when I told you to be careful,” Lin says, shaking her head and bringing me back to the present.

“I know,” I mumble. I wish I could forget the way it felt when I went under the water.

“I can’t believe Cyril did that,” she continues. “When I see him, I’ll wring his neck.”

She looks so stunned and disappointed that, yet again, I wonder if Cyril is more to her than just a classmate.

Whether there was something between them, and if so, what happened.

She’s always shut down when the subject of her love life has come up.

Maybe now is a good time to try again, cautiously—after all, I just opened up to her.

But Ember’s next words break off my train of thought.

“Lucky James was there.” Her eyes look as though they’re about to turn into little red hearts. “I can’t believe he actually carried you out of that party. In his arms! ”

Me either. Especially when I think how cold and arrogant he was to me at the start.

I can’t reconcile that version of him with the James who wrapped me up in heaps of towels and stroked my back until I stopped shaking.

The James who messes with my head and haunted my dreams last night, with his warm hands on my bare skin.

Not good. Not good. Not. Good.

“If I didn’t have photographic proof, I wouldn’t believe it,” Lin says, staring back at the picture. “How can a guy be such an arsehole most of the time and then act like a knight in shining armor?”

“Seems like he realized that Cyril crossed the line with Ruby and stepped in. Which shows that he has a good heart,” Ember declares. She looks at me, and suddenly, something in her face changes. “Uh-oh.”

Lin looks up. “What?” When she sets eyes on me, she groans. “Ruby!”

Evidently, my emotional chaos is right there on my face. “I don’t know either, OK?” I say. “I can’t stand him, but…” I break off with a helpless shrug.

For a moment, Ember looks like she wants to say something more, but then she suddenly stands up. “We should check on the cookies.”

The three of us walk into the kitchen, which now smells delicious.

As Ember and I get the cookies out of the oven, Lin arranges them symmetrically on a large plate.

We then take them into the living room, and she digs me abruptly in the ribs.

“It’s OK to be attracted to someone even when you know they’re an idiot. ”

I’d love to ask her if she’s speaking from experience. But Lin is so cagey about her personal life that I chicken out and just ask: “Do you think?”

She nods.

Of their own accord, my thoughts turn back to James. The back of my hand gets pins and needles where he was stroking it, and, at the memory of him getting undressed in front of me, a sensation of heat wells up in my belly.

“I still can’t believe it though. It had to be Beaufort. King of the bloody school,” Lin murmurs, dropping onto the sofa.

“Even I don’t know how it happened,” I admit, reaching for a cookie. It’s way too hot still, but I take a huge bite anyway, so as not to have to say anything more.

“If he really looked after you that well, then he’s all right by me,” Ember concedes, snapping up a cookie of her own. Then she puts her feet up on the coffee table, ankles crossed. “So, what are you going to do now? Have you two spoken since yesterday?”

I shake my head. “My only plan for today was to chill with my sister.”

Ember sits bolt upright, like a meerkat. “You have to text him!”

I shake my head, looking from her to Lin. “There’s nothing there, girls. We’re just…friends.” It sounds weird to call James a friend, but it’s the best I can do at the moment.

“Obviously. Message him now,” Lin insists, and I pull my phone from my jeans pocket with a sigh.

I briefly wonder what to say and then settle on the basics.

Thanks. RJB

Having sent the message, I shove my phone into the crack between the sofa cushions so as not to have to look at it.

“What did you say?” asks Ember.

“Just thank you.”

Lin wrinkles her nose and finally reaches for a cookie.

She breaks it in four and takes one of the quarters.

It’s rare for her to let herself have anything sweet.

Lin is mega strict about healthy eating, which means she basically bans herself anything tasty.

I find that a shame but haven’t yet succeeded in convincing her that life is way more fun with chocolate in it.

My phone buzzes. It’s a serious effort of will not to grab it at once. It would be embarrassing to look that keen in front of Lin and Ember.

Luckily, they can’t hear how hard my heart is thumping as I eventually unlock the screen and read the message.

You never did tell me what the J stands for. JMB

I answer right away.

Guess. RJB

James. JMB

Pretty egocentric, don’t you think? RJB

Jenna. JMB

Nope. RJB

Jemima. JMB

I’m kind of impressed you only needed 3 guesses. RJB

Then he doesn’t answer for a while. I stare at the dark screen, aware of Ember and Lin watching me expectantly. But I don’t know myself exactly what I’m waiting for until my phone buzzes again a few minutes later.

Are you feeling better?

No initials. Not joking now. My throat suddenly feels very dry.

I don’t want to remember yesterday, don’t want to think about the water or the fact that I had hysterics in front of loads of people from school and made a total fool of myself.

And I really don’t want to think about Monday and what I might be in for then.

I’m scared of Monday. There are photos of us.

Lin and Ember start chatting about stuff that’s nothing to do with James or yesterday’s party, and Ember switches on the TV. She pulls out a DVD from the cupboard and slots it into the machine.

I’m grateful to them for giving me a bit of space, especially when I read James’s next text.

Don’t stress. All you can see in the pic is my wet back.

I hold my breath. Can I take that at face value, or is he flirting with me indirectly? I haven’t the faintest idea. I only know that I want to stay on an equal footing with him.

Well, that’s one good part of the photo for me.

I have to wait a long time for him to reply. So long that I’m regretting having typed those words. We’re halfway through the film before my phone next buzzes.

Ruby Bell, are you trying to flirt with me?

A smile spreads over my face. I hide it beneath the collar of my PJ top. Then I switch off my phone and do my best to focus my entire attention on the film.