Ashley gazed at her, her lovely features baffled. “Why would you want to pretend you don’t like it? It’s wonderful to love learning!”
Ruby’s chin wobbled. “It was Sierra’s idea. She’s my friend in California. She said if I was bad in class, my dad would have to come to school for a conference. And then he would fall in love with you and you would get married like Sierra’s mom is getting married and then you could be my new mom.”
Okay. This was just about the most horrifying moment of his life. A dead silence greeted Ruby’s stunning declaration and Justin couldn’t think what to do, what to say. He risked a look at Ashley and saw her features had leached of all color. Not a good sign.
He knew he had to step into the terrible silence. “Ruby...” he began, then faltered as he found himself at a loss for words. “People don’t, uh, fall in love like that,” he said after a moment. “You can’t manipulate them into doing what you want just because you want it. Life doesn’t work that way.”
Sometimes it did, though. He had to be crazy, but he suddenly knew he was in serious danger of falling for this soft, sweet woman who loved children and smelled like a dream.
“But Miss Barnes already loves you, Daddy. You just have to fall in love with her.”
“What?” Ashley exclaimed. To his somewhat thunderstruck fascination, all the color soaked back into her cheeks in a hot, relentless tide.
Ruby fidgeted, looking almost as miserable as Ashley. “I heard Miss Weller in the school office talking to you about Daddy a few days after school started. I had a stomachache and went to lie down in the sick-kid place, and I heard her ask if you had met Daddy yet and you said no and Miss Weller asked if you would mention at parent-teacher conference that you had his picture in your locker in school and that you used to write Mrs. Justin Hartford on things.”
Seventeen
HE HEARD A soft sound of distress coming from somewhere in Ashley’s vicinity, but he didn’t dare look at her.
“So then I thought how nice you are,” Ruby went on, “and how I wanted you to be my mom but I didn’t know what to do. I told Sierra when we went to visit them and she thought I should be bad in school. It was really hard and I didn’t want to. But I wanted you to be my mommy really bad, so I did it, anyway. I’m sorry.”
After she finished, there was a long, terrible silence and all Justin could focus on was how much he would have preferred it if Ashley hadn’t known who he was back then. He had a wild, sudden wish that she had met him only the day before.
He wanted her to know only the man he was today, not some image on a screen that had never been real. His chest ached suddenly and he had to fight the urge to rub his hand against it.
Finally, he managed to speak. “That was very wrong of you, Ruby. I’m disappointed that you would be so deceitful. You’ve wasted three weeks of the school year for nothing and now you’re going to be behind all the others in your class.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“I don’t think I’m the one you need to apologize to.”
Her chin quivered but she rose and stood in front of Ashley, who looked close to tears herself. “I’m sorry, Miss Barnes. I do like you and I can be good. I promise.”
Ashley cleared her throat, still not looking at him. “Does this mean you’re going to do better from now on? No more of these...these crazy ideas?”
“I promise. You’ll see. I’ll be the best kid in the whole class! I’ll do all my work on time and I’ll raise my hand and everything.”
“Good. I’m, uh, certainly glad to hear that.” She rose abruptly. “I... Now that we’ve cleared that up, I should go.”
“You don’t have to,” Justin said.
“Yes. I do.”
He couldn’t argue with the vehemence in her voice, and in truth he knew he would be relieved when she was gone. She still didn’t look at him once as he and a now-dejected Ruby walked her to her impractical little car.
“Ruby, I’ll see you Monday in school,” she said, with what sounded like false brightness in her voice. “Thank you again for dinner.”
She climbed into her car, started it and took off down the driveway. He hit the buzzer to open the gates just as she reached them, wondering if it could possibly be only a day since he had found her climbing over them.
As her taillights headed down Cold Creek Road, he held Ruby’s hand and watched them disappear.
How insane. She only blew into his life the day before, but he knew as he watched her drive away that she had left footprints on his heart. He would miss her laughter and her softness and her sweet, infectious smile.
He had to let her go. He had no choice. Anything between them was impossible. Even before he found out she had once been a fan of his movies, he knew he could never do anything about this terrifying tenderness growing inside him.
That didn’t make the regret any less bitter.
Eighteen
SHE WAS GOING to die—just pull her Bug over somewhere along the banks of the Cold Creek, curl up in the front seat and wither away from absolute mortification.
But Miss Barnes already loves you, Daddy. You just have to fall in love with her.
Oh, this was the most awful moment of Ashley’s life. It was bad enough that he should find out from his daughter about the crush she used to have on him. It was far worse that she had to be sitting three feet away from him when he did!
She forced herself to concentrate on
