Page 58 of Theirs to Take

“You know you want to,” she taunted.

“I do,” he admitted, “thanks, Ruby—for everything.”

Ruby

Here, Ruby was thinking that her weekend was going to be boring as hell. Her only real plans were to go grocery shopping and binge watch a few of her favorite shows, but instead, she was sitting next to the hunkiest guy from work, trying to figure out why Luke made her feel like a schoolgirl every time he so much as looked at her.

After the insane story he had just told her, she should run as far, and as fast, as she possibly could from him. But there she sat, giddy that their legs were touching as they sat next to each other on her very small sofa, eating Chinese food. Yeah, she was completely nerding out about this guy and she was sure that sooner or later, she was going to make a complete fool of herself.

“This is really good,” he said, holding up the container of sweet and sour chicken. It was her go-to order when she and Millie got Chinese food and he was right, it didn’t disappoint. She wasn’t lying when she told him that she wouldn’t be able to finish all the food that she had ordered. She never could, but tonight, she was a bundle of nerves and sure that she wouldn’t be able to choke down even a few bites of her dinner while sitting next to the hulk.

“Yeah, it’s my favorite place to order Asian takeout from,” she said. Small talk was never really her forte. In fact, she sucked at it. She usually ended up rambling and saying all the wrong things. Like at work, for example, with her new boss, she was a total blabbermouth who couldn’t even get his name right.

“So, how long have you been with McTavish?” she asked, trying for casual or at the very least, calm.

“Just about a year now,” Luke said. “After I got out of the Navy, I wasn’t really sure what was next for me, but then Rod asked me to come work for him and Alex. I told him no, at first, feeling that he was throwing me a pity hire, but then, I thought—why not? I took the job and haven’t looked back since. I love working over there, but I hate that my trouble might become theirs.”

“How would that happen?” Ruby asked.

“It’s why I showed up at Alex’s office today. I got a threatening note at work, and I was up there to tell him that I was going to take off some time. Whoever left it for me, did so while I was at work. I found it on my windshield in the parking garage, and I hate that this happened at work.”

“I’m betting that Alex told you that it wasn’t your fault that someone left you a nasty note on your windshield at work,” Ruby said.

“Good guess,” Luke said. “That’s exactly what he said to me.”

“Alex is right,” she assured. “You can’t be responsible for what other people do and don’t do on company property.”

“I get that,” Luke said, “I still feel like shit though.”

“What did the note say?” she asked.

“It said that I should leave town now and no one else will have to die,” he paraphrased.

“Who’s died?” she asked.

“You sure that you weren’t eavesdropping in on Alex and my conversation earlier?” he asked.

“Of course, I wouldn’t do that,” she insisted. She felt so flustered and when he laughed, she was sure that she must have turned bright purple from embarrassment.

“I was kidding, honey,” he said. “I know you wouldn’t do something like that. You’re a nice person, Ruby.”

“Thanks,” she said. He had gone from calling her, “Hot” to calling her, “Nice” and she didn’t like it one bit. She wanted to be hot all day, every day. Nice girls finished last. Hell, nice girls didn’t land guys like Luke Tracy. That was just straight facts and even though they sucked, she knew that it was true.

“To answer your question,” he said, “no one’s died. Not recently, anyway.”

“Why would someone want you to leave town?” she asked.

“I’m afraid that I don’t have the answer to that question either. I mean, I don’t know many people in town, so I can’t imagine who’d want for me to leave,” he admitted.

“So, we have two questions to answer to help figure out this mystery—who died and who wants you out of town. I think that if we can answer those questions, we’ll be one step closer to figuring out this mystery,” she said, sounding every bit the nerd.

He took her container of food from her and put it on the coffee table. “You know,” he said, practically pulling her onto his lap. “I always had a thing for Velma in the Scooby-Doo cartoon.”

“Velma?” she whispered. He was so close, all she had to do was lean in just a bit, and their lips would be touching.

“Yeah, when you said all of that about solving the mystery, it made me think of sexy Velma. It made me think about you, Ruby,” he said.

“You think I’m sexy?” she whispered.

---