Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (3 page)

I picked up the bouquet of roses and inhaled wistfully.
At least one thing was clear—I owed Zach a
huge
apology. I
reached for my phone and brought him up on speed dial. As I
waited for him to pick up, I rehearsed an apology in my head.

“Hello.” Zach sounded even more depressed than he
did when he left Rosewood.

“Oh, Zach—I’m so sorry! Seeing Lucas really shook
me up and passing out sure didn’t help either! Dad and Shelly
still aren’t back yet—if you came back right now….”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea, Ruby. “I’ve
been thinking things over since I left and—”

Oh no!
What did I do?
My heart began to pound
violently. “Zach, you’re not breaking up with me are you? I
can make it up to you—I
promise
!”

“Slow down, Ruby. Of course I’m not breaking up with
you—I love you.
You know that. I just think that we should
slow things down a little.
Your reaction today made me see
that you still have unresolved feelings for Lee. You need to
deal with them before we go any further. I don’t want to feel
like I’m second best.”

My heartbeat slowed down a little but was far from
normal. “You’re not second best, Zach! You never have been
and you never will be!”

His voice softened and I could visualize the emotions
on his face as clearly as if he were sitting beside me. “But
that’s how I felt today.”

I felt truly terrible.
Thinking you were second best
was an awful feeling and I never meant for him to think that
was the case. “If it makes you feel any better, I love
everything—everything you tried to do for me today. More
than anything, I just wish I’d never answered that stupid
door.” I dipped my finger in the chocolate again and rolled it
around on my tongue. Chocolate always made me feel better
but today’s dilemma was
too much even
for its
creamy
richness.

“You know, I thought that, too—at first.
Then
I
realized that if you hadn’t, it just would have prolonged the
inevitable. We would have slept together and then you would
have seen Lucas
tomorrow at school and
had
the same
reaction.” Zach paused for a second. “And I would have felt
even worse than I do now.”

“I’m sorry, Zach. I never meant for any of this to
happen!”

 

“I know you didn’t, but it happened anyway. Now all
we can do is deal with it.”

“I know but I just feel so awful about everything!
At
least let me pay you back for all the things you bought for me
today—I owe you that much!”

“No, I don’t want your money. You’re still worth every
cent I spent—sex or no sex.”

His
words
should
have
made me
feel better but
instead, I felt infinitely worse. Zach was one in a million and I
didn’t deserve him. Honestly, how much more drama could
our love withstand? Could I turn my back on my feelings of
past guilt and go on with Zach as if today never happened? I
wanted to think that I could but I knew that it just wasn’t
possible. I needed to bury my past once and for all if I wanted
a future with him. I had to make friends with Lucas and find
Lee’s family as fast as possible. If he
was
Lee’s twin brother,
he would be eighteen already and able to search for them
without his adoptive parents’ consent. Once we pooled our
information, the search would be quick and easy. Wouldn’t it?

“You’re too good to me—you know that, don’t you?”

 

“There’s no such thing. I just want you to
be
happy…even if it isn’t with me.”

“Zach, don’t say that! Happy
is
with you—and only
you!
All I want from Lucas is to find some answers—and
that’s
all
I want from him.”

“Either way, I want to help you with this, okay? And
not just because I love you and I want you all to myself—
because I definitely do. I want to help you because I want you
to be happy and I don’t think you really will be until you know
the truth.”

What could I say to that?
He loved me enough to
stand by me through this even with the fear that I could want
to be with Lucas in the end. Now
that
was true love.

“Thanks, Zach. I promise I’ll make this as quick as
possible. I’ll find a way to talk to Lucas tomorrow and find
out whether or not he knows he’s adopted.”

“Okay, just be careful—you never know how he’ll
react.”

Zach had plenty of reasons to be protective of me—
he’d saved my life twice already in the last few months. That
was two times more than most people could say in a lifetime.
I really just wanted to tell him to stop worrying about me—
but I didn’t. He would worry either way so I decided to let
him have this one.

“I will, Zach. I promise. And I’ll keep you in the loop
with everything I find out.”

 

“Good, I’m gonna hold you to that.”

The
sound of voices
downstairs
meant that my
parents were home from New York City. “Hey, Dad and Shelly
are home—can I call you back later? I want to see how the
show was.”

“Sure thing, sweetie. I love you.”

 

“I love you, too, Zach.” More than you’ll ever know.

I stood nervously in the entrance hall with them as
they took off their jackets and wet shoes. There was no trace
of the wine or broken glasses but I was afraid their parent
radar would go off anyway. The last thing I needed was to get
into trouble for wine I never got a chance to drink before not
sleeping with my boyfriend. When neither of them seemed to
notice a thing, I calmed down a little and followed them into
the kitchen.

“So how was
The Phantom of the Opera
?” I asked,
trying hard to sound casual as Shelly pulled the bottle of
White Zinfandel out of the refrigerator. I slid my hand behind
my back and crossed my fingers that she wouldn’t notice that
there was less in the bottle than when she last looked at it.

“It was sheer perfection Ruby!” Shelly replied as she
poured a glass without even looking at the bottle. “I wish you
could have come with us!”

“Yeah, me too.” If Zach and I had gone to New York
with them, I would have had one more peaceful day before
meeting Lucas.
And peaceful days were hard to come by for
me lately.

“Did you have visitors today, Ruby?” my dad asked
curiously. “I noticed a set of footprints leading all the way
back from the main road. And several sets of tire tracks.”

Dammit!
I never even thought of the fact that the
snow might give me away.
And since when did Dad start
wearing his Sherlock Holmes hat? When Shelly didn’t notice
anything weird, I thought I was in the clear. Oh well, I had a
legitimate excuse for that tell-tale clue, one that didn’t include
Zach or his “dad would definitely not approve” reason for
being here. “As a matter of fact, yes. I met someone odd
today. I think I met Lee’s twin brother.”

Shelly almost had to kiss another wine glass goodbye.
The
stem
started to slip between
her fingers
but she
recovered it just in time, only spilling a drop or two over the
rim. Her reaction caught me off guard.

“What?”

 

I recounted the story to them leaving out the part
where I fainted and the fact that Zach was with me at the time.

“Did you tell him about Lee—about your suspicions?”
Shelly downed the wine in one gulp and Dad promptly poured
her another glass.

“Not yet—but I plan to talk to him about it tomorrow
to see what he knows.”

“Please be careful—this is a very touchy subject. If he
doesn’t know anything about it, telling him could backfire on
you.
I know how I reacted when I found out that I was
adopted.”

Wait? What? Shelly was
adopted
? How did I never
know this? Oh yeah, that’s right—because I ignored her as
much as possible until this past summer, that’s how.

“You were adopted?
How old were you when you
found out?”

With the second glass of wine gone, Shelly just took
the bottle out of my dad’s hands and raised it to her lips. “I
was sixteen. I’ll never forget that day for as long as I live.
Bethany Morrell was a girl I hated in high school—she was
always so snotty and mean to everyone.
I guess she had a
crush on my boyfriend at the time, Justin Fulkerson. So one
day she started calling me a Garbage Pail Kid—they were
these ugly knockoffs of Cabbage Patch Kids. It didn’t even
bother me until she started telling everyone that I was so
useless that my own mother didn’t even want me. She told
anyone who would listen that I was
born
in
the school
restroom on prom night and thrown out with the trash. So I
called her a liar and told her that I could prove her wrong.”
Another hearty swig of wine.

“She was right, though, wasn’t she?” Wow. For once, I
wasn’t the only one in this house having an emotional day.
Was there a “Misty” in every high school?

“Yep, she was.
I went home and asked my mom to
find me some proof that I wasn’t adopted and that’s when she
and my dad sat me down and told me the truth.
My life as I
knew it ended that day.
It turns out that I
was
found in a
garbage can outside the high school the morning after prom.
Bethany
found out because her uncle was
the cop who
investigated the
incident and
he
knew who
eventually
adopted me. So not only was I not who I thought I was, I had
to swallow my pride and face her the next day knowing that
she was right. My last two years of high school were almost
unbearable.”

Dad pulled his chair over next to hers and put his arm
around her shoulder. “She’s right, Ruby. Adoption is a
serious issue—you can’t just approach him lightly. Are you
sure it’s even a good idea to talk to him about it at all?”

Good idea or not, it was something I needed to do for
my own peace of mind. “Don’t worry, I’ll be delicate.” I
turned to Shelly. “So did you ever search for your biological
parents?”

“I did for a while but eventually I gave up. If the cops
couldn’t find anything back then, I really didn’t stand much of
a chance.
It was tough, but I learned to live without the
answers. I would advise you to do the same. Lee’s at peace
and he would want the same thing for you, Ruby.”

Why
did
everyone
sound
so
ominous
in
their
warnings to leave this alone? Really, what was the worst that
could happen?

3. Breaking the Ice

I was on my way upstairs when I heard a knock at the
door. Sure, I was the closest and should have just answered it
but after what happened earlier, I decided against it and just
kept walking. It was probably just Andy looking for my dad.
Rachel didn’t get out much these days and Zach knew I was
going to call him back so it wouldn’t be for me anyway.
Imagine my shock when fifteen seconds later my dad’s voice
echoed up the steps after me.

“Ruby, you have a visitor.”

My feet froze to the step.
If it was Zach or Rachel at
the door, Dad would have just said so. One other option came
to mind. Could it really be him?

Slowly, I pivoted on the step to take a look.
I was
right. It was Lucas. Though the urge to faint was gone, it was
still a massive shock to my system. Even from such distance,
the similarities were striking.
Same eyes?
Check.
Same
smile? Check. Same skater boy fashion sense? Double check.
His hair even hung down over his right eye in the same casual
way that Lee’s always did.

“Are you coming down or do I have to apologize from
a distance?”

Suddenly, I felt the same way I did the day I met Zach
at the diner.
Like a complete idiot.
I simply had no skills
when I was face to face with boys I was attracted to. Wait.
No. I was
not
attracted to Lucas! I was simply stunned to see
him and not without good cause. That was
all
it was.

I held my chin high in a show of fake confidence and
marched back down the stairs. “Sorry. I just wasn’t expecting
any visitors. You especially.”

Even through my astonishment, I could see the look of
complete disbelief on my dad’s face. His eyes went wide, his
jaw dropped. For lack of a better expression, he looked like
he just saw a ghost. Shelly started walking into the entrance
hall with the bottle of White Zinfandel still in her hand.
I
heard her mutter “Oh dear!” before she raised the bottle to
her mouth and walked back into the kitchen.
Great.
They
were
supposed
to be helping me out here, not making things
more awkward. My support system needed a support system.

“I have no idea why I scared you so bad earlier but I
came back to say I was sorry.” Lucas tossed his head casually
to get the hair out of his eye. Just like Lee always did.

Again, I stood there like a total loser and said nothing.
I simply couldn’t take my eyes off of him.

Awkward pause. “Umm, so I guess I’ll go home now,”
Lucas said with a look of complete and utter confusion on his
face.

Bong. The grandfather clock began to chime the hour
and snapped me back to reality. “Oh!” I exclaimed. “Apology
accepted. Can you stay for a few minutes though? I figured
maybe we could talk for a while, you know, about school or
something.” School or something? Why was I so lame?
Quickly, I added, “Since you’re new in town, that is.”

Lame or not, my response elicited a crooked smile and
a warm response. “Sure. I’d like that.”

So now begged the big question—where was I going
to take him to talk? Even in this house, privacy wasn’t always,
well,
private
. I usually just took my friends to my room but
that felt a little awkward and downright intimate for someone
I’d just met.
No, I couldn’t take him upstairs. The closest
option was the dining room but with Shelly in the kitchen
armed with a bottle of alcohol, that didn’t seem like a wise
choice either.
The closest room in the other direction was
what my dad jokingly called his Man Cave. Nothing could be
less intimate than a pool table and a pair of reclining chairs,
right? Man Cave it was.