Authors: Brenda Minton
Ruthie cleared her throat. “Is that how you met Pop? When he went to Korea?” He'd never talked much about his time over there, and other than a short study of the war in a history class, Ruthie knew little about what he must have experienced. The episodes of
M.A.S.H.
reruns she'd watched on television gave her the impression Pop must have gone to Tokyo for the occasional weekend leave, but since neither of them had ever answered her questions, she was left to imagine a delightfully romantic love-at-first-sight kind of meeting.
Sobo looked away, leaving Ruthie to continue imagining how the pair came to be together. “War changed Gray.” She lightly touched two fingers to her swollen leg, letting Ruthie know the pain remained. “He's not the same now. To you. To us.”
Ruthie didn't want to talk about this. Didn't want to be reminded of all she'd lost. Of the eager, energetic man who'd left to do his duty and returned with the light in his eyes now hidden behind dark memories that he refused to share.
Sobo must have noticed Ruthie's concern. “He will be back. He will find peace again. He will look at you and smile.” The elderly woman leaned on her elbows and pushed herself up in bed, as if she would muscle her way through her grandson's difficulty just as she was trying to muscle her way through her own physical recovery. “I know, because I pray. I pray you will someday be my granddaughter-by-law.”
Ruthie's heart tightened at the familiar misspeak of the term
granddaughter-in-law.
When she had come to live with the Bristows, they had immediately started referring to her as their honorary granddaughter. Soon after she and Gray had become engaged, Sobo delightfully claimed her as a “granddaughter by love,” an affectionate acknowledgment that even though she and Gray weren't yet legally joined, her union in the family was officially sealed by love.
“God listens to prayers,” Sobo said. “And He will answer.”
Ruthie had no doubt about that. She just wished she knew when and what the answer might be.
Chapter Five
G
ray was still pushing furniture out of the way in the reception area when Ruthie propped her bicycle in the common hallway and opened the door to his suite of offices. He took a deep breath and reminded himself to focus on the goal for the next couple of hours...to teach Ruthie and her friends self-protection, all the while trying to protect his heart from her. Or, more important, keep her at a safe arm's length.
He kept his eyes on the chairs that he pushed against the wall, but his peripheral vision traitorously afforded him a view of her removing her bicycle helmet, releasing her reddish-brown hair to tumble to her slim shoulders. She popped a pair of white earbuds out of her ears, tucked them into the helmet and set everything on a table near the door. Then she turned slowly in place, apparently taking in the size of the room, the decor, its sole other inhabitant...whatever it is women do when they size up a place.
Why had he invited her here? Why had he opened the door to his inner sanctum? He turned his back to her and shoved the coffee table against the wall. Maybe if he pretended she wasn't there, she'd disappear. Better yet, maybe the urge to take her in his arms and kiss away four lonely years would disappear. Sure, he'd broken up with her and dated other people, as he was certain she must have done, but he'd always subconsciously compared them to Ruthie. No matter how nice or pretty or nonreligious those women were, they never quite measured up to the standard set by his first real love.
Human will was only so strong, and he turned toward the woman who'd been a source of pleasure and pain over the years.
“Nice lair.” She bent and removed a rubber band from the ankle of her yoga pants.
Okay, he was only human. He gave her his full attention, then wished he hadn't. She hadn't changed much since she had first come to live with his grandparents. Still slim, but now more womanly in her appearance, she moved in quick and easyâeven cheerfulâmovements. To his immense regret, she still made him want to take her under his arm and protect her from the sources of all pain in the world, including himself.
He cleared the knot of tension from his throat. “Where are the others?”
Ruthie straightened and caught him watching her, but did not blush as she might have in the past. She just seemed both pleased and matter-of-fact, as if his attention was a foregone conclusion. It was the same confidence he'd seen in her whenever she prayed for something and then received the result she'd asked for.
“They went to pick up Daisy. I had to finish some work at the shop, so I told them to go ahead and I would meet them here. They should arrive soon.” She smiled and swept her glance around the room once more. “You must be doing well to have such a nice office. I'm glad for you.”
On the one hand, he was glad they had this time to themselves. On the other, he wished the others would hurry and get here so their presence could dilute the thick tension in the room.
“It's not all mine,” he said. “I share the receptionist, meeting rooms and storage area with a lawyer.” He didn't bother to mention that he was already outgrowing the space and would need to look elsewhere when the lease expired. “Come on. I'll give you a quick tour while we wait for the others to show up.”
It shouldn't have mattered, but he wanted to impress her. Wanted to know she approved of all he had achieved. Of all he had become.
He stopped himself on that last one. She might approve of the signs of business success he showed her, but if he himself didn't approve of the kind of man he had become, how could she? He shook off the uneasy feeling and steered the conversation to something he was only slightly more comfortable talking about.
“I called the antique-car clubs in Richmond and even spread out to all the ones I could find in Virginia.”
She'd been casing the perimeter of his office, trailing a finger over the books in the case, lingering especially over one title.
Security Management: How to Identify Vulnerabilities.
She looked back at him and smiled, a hint of knowing tugging at her lips.
“Unfortunately, none of their members has a '61 Mazda Coupe.”
Ruthie frowned, but even that didn't dim the prettiness of her features. Didn't make him want to kiss her any less. She moved to the window and glanced down at the street. Then she dropped her hand to the framed photograph on the sill.
“But one club was aware of the car.”
Good! Look away from the photo.
“Said they'd seen it on West Franklin Street, near the Maury monument.”
She nodded and turned her attention back to the picture. “Maybe we can drive around and look to see if it's parked on the street. Then knock on the neighboring doors until we find the owner and ask to buy the doll back.”
“I hate to burst your bubble, but a car like that is not likely to be parked on the street. It's probably in a garage.” And right now he wished that picture were hidden away in that garage.
He moved closer to take it from her hands but got distracted by the wispy waves of her hair.
“I've always loved this picture,” she said, holding it up for him to see. “Sobo and Pop were so happy to have the entire family together.”
They were happy because their whole brood had been gathered together at the same time, a near impossibility given his father's and uncle's crazy work schedules at that time. He and his sister, their parents and his aunt and uncle and their three kids all smiled at the camera. And, of course, Ruthie. Her smile was the biggest. And prettiest. The photo was taken about a year after she had come to live with his grandparents. Shortly before their first date. Sobo had arranged everyone on the broad front-porch steps, then enlisted a passerby to seal the image of all of them in a photograph. He and Ruthie had stood on opposite sides of the stairs, but the camera's flash had caught the glimmer of awareness toward each other in their eyes.
He reached for the photo and set it back in its place on the windowsill, hoping to end this conversation before she gave too much thought to why he'd chosen to display this particular picture. “The others should be getting here sooâ”
“Oh, look, they just drove up.” Ruthie spun away from the window to launch herself across the room but smacked into his chest instead.
He grabbed her arms, righted her and summoned his military training to try to calm the rapid pounding of his heart. She looked as nervous as he felt, and he wondered if she was reacting to him or to the fact that her friends would be left standing on the front stoop if they didn't get out there soon and unlock the front door. A twinge of pride made him wish for the former, but common sense dictated it would be better for both of them if she hadn't been foolish enough to let her heart stay stuck in the past.
Foolish like him.
He set his jaw and stepped away from the windowâaway from the woman at the windowâand marched back to the reception area to let in the four laughing women, all but one dressed in exercise clothes. Daisy wore jeans.
He could feel Ruthie's presence behind him as he directed the latecomers inside.
“What?” Savannah's gaze shot past him to Ruthie. “Did we interrupt something?”
It was anyone's guess what she must have seen on Ruthie's face, but he decided now would be a good time to direct their attention to the purpose of this gathering. “We were just waiting for everyone to arrive so we could get started.”
Even to his own ears, his words sounded gruff and unwelcoming. Daisy widened her eyes and took two tentative steps back, letting the others serve as her buffer. Great. Now he'd gone and intimidated the kid.
Paisley, on the other hand, was not the least bit put out by his tone. She waltzed over to the chairs lined up around the wall and flung her purse onto one of them. “We invited ourselves over to Nikki's for a movie and sleepover tonight,” she announced. “Ruthie, there's an extra sleeping bag for you. We're going to watch
Casablanca
because Daisy has never seen it. Do you two want to join us for the movie?”
He answered quickly. Maybe a little too quickly. “No!”
Ruthie's voice blended with his, but she was polite enough to add a thank-you after her no and explained that she had paperwork to finish.
The last thing he needed was to watch a romantic movie with her in the same room and all her friends shooting speculative glances at them. All he wanted to do was find Sobo's doll, give Ruthie some personal-safety skills and keep a polite distance from her at family gatherings.
He needed to get rolling with this self-defense lesson. The sooner they got started, the sooner it would end. And then they could go back to living their mostly separate lives.
He moved to the door, pushed it closed and turned the lock.
* * *
Ruthie moved to the middle of the floor, behind Savannah, Paisley and Nikki. She stood in the back row with Daisy, and they exchanged encouraging glances. Each wanted something from Gray. Daisy wanted to learn how to make it safely on the street until she was able to get her and her father into some decent housing. And if affordable precluded decent, she'd need the skills in her future home, as well. Ruthie just wanted Gray's love. For herself and for the God he used to know.
She gave herself a mental kick for allowing herself to jump back on that train of thought. Sure, he had that picture of herâof the whole family, actually, but she was quite visible in itâon his windowsill. That didn't necessarily mean anything. Not by itself, it didn't. But paired with his noticeable agitation when she had picked it up, she'd venture a guess that he still harbored a minuscule ember, maybe even a tiny flame, for her.
Even so, she reminded herself, if God wanted them togetherâand she believed He didâHe would allow it to happen. In the meantime, she would be wise not to rush God's timing. Instead, she would accept opportunities such as this self-defense class to spend time with Gray while God worked on softening his heart. Not to mention using proximity and that fragrance he used to like to snag his full attention.
She tried to pay attention while Gray went over the handouts. She mentally mapped out the route by which she sometimes rode her bicycle to work and contemplated whether she should detour around a particular shady block with the spooky overhanging tree limbs and unkempt yards. Considered the height of the bushes in front of their house and wondered if they were tall enough and thick enough to hide an aggressor. And decided she
should
get a pepper-spray keychain for those rare occasions when she opened or closed the shops by herself.
By now Gray had finished going over the written materials and moved on to the block, evade and escape demonstrations. “I'll be the attacker. Who wants to go first?”
The front row moved back as one, putting Ruthie and Daisy at point.
Gray stared for a long moment at Ruthie, and she thought for sure he was going to pull her out to the middle of the floor. Her heart fluttered crazily at the thought of him wrapping his arms around her in a mock capture, and she doubted her body would obey when she told it to block, evade and escape his warm, strong clutches.
He jerked his gaze away from her, leading her to wonder if he'd somehow read her mind. Maybe he worried she would attack
him.
“You,” he said, pointing to Daisy. “Let's show 'em how it's done.”
The teen hesitated and looked to Ruthie for guidance. Daisy wasn't normally a timid girl, but in this case, Gray's large size and drill-sergeant demeanor seemed to overwhelm her. Considering his earlier lapse in Southern hospitality, it was no wonder the girl found him overpowering.
Gray eased back, apparently having come to the same conclusion. Bypassing Ruthie, he beckoned Paisley, the smallest of the five females, to step forward. “You two will be partners.” A smart move, considering Daisy's uncharacteristic show of nervousness.
The circle widened, and he coached the pair through the exercise. “Paisley, you'll be the attacker, so come right here behind Daisy andâ”
“I'd rather not.” Paisley backed away, palms out. Her fingers trembled ever so slightly.
Gray scowled, obviously trying to get his head around her reluctance to play the role, then softened. “Okay, you'll be the victim. Just stand here andâ”
Paisley shook her head and sidestepped his guiding hand. She looked to Savannah, concern marring her delicate features. “Perhaps I shouldn't have come. This was a mistake.”
“Come on. It'll be fine,” Savannah urged. “We all need this training.” She stressed the word
all
as if to remind Paisley that she needed it even more than the others.
Now Gray was confused. And Ruthie was almost as in the dark as he was about why her friend had developed a sudden reluctance to participate in learning the techniques they'd come here for. All she knew was that something had happened in Paisley's past, before she came as a young college student to the U.S. Something she didn't talk about.
Gray rubbed the palm of his hand over his jaw while he seemed to ponder how to handle this unexpected resistance. “It's hard to teach a hands-on demonstration without going hands-on,” he said at last.
Savannah stepped forward to take Paisley's place and shooed her friend to join the other observers. “She has her reasons. Show me what to do.”
With Paisley watching from the sidelines, Gray showed them how to walk and scan their surroundings for potential predators in a way that exuded confidence rather than fear. By the time the one-man demonstration ended, Paisley seemed to have gotten over her aversion to the exercise, and she and Nikki paired up to practice with each other. Then Savannah and Daisy chose each other as partners, leaving Ruthie to act out the scenario with Gray.
Was it her imagination, or did his Adam's apple bob when he realized he'd be paired with her? Ruthie involuntarily mimicked the action, swallowed hard and, following his instruction, aimed the heel of her left hand toward his nose.