Page 63 of Theirs to Take

“We ate dinner back at your place,” he said.

“Right, but I shared my dinner with you and now, I’m hungry again,” Ruby insisted.

“But you told me that you ordered too much food and you wouldn’t eat all of it. I thought that I was just eating what you didn’t want,” he said. God, he looked butthurt that she had lied about not wanting to eat all of the food that she had purchased. She ordered her usual and she usually ate all of it, but she didn’t want to admit that to Luke.

“Fine,” she almost shouted. “I lied. I could have eaten all of it, but I thought that it was a nice thing to do to share with you. I mean, I couldn’t sit and eat my dinner in front of you without offering you some, Luke,” she said.

“Sure, you could have,” he said. “I intruded on your dinner and while sharing half of it with me was kind, I hate that I ate your meal, Ruby,” Luke said.

“It’s not a big deal, Luke,” Ruby insisted. It really wasn’t. There was no way that she would have sat and eaten in front of him, sharing was the only way she would have eaten any of her dinner. “I wanted to share with you, so I did,” she said.

“How about I grab us some take-out on the way to the house, and we can eat when we get there? I don’t want to expose our location, but I can do a drive-thru,” he offered. “Can you wait two hours?”

“To eat, yes,” she agreed. “To pee, no.”

Luke chuckled and nodded. “I’ll find a rest stop here soon and pull off,” he offered.

“Thank you,” she said. “My bladder and I both appreciate that.”

“How about you tell me about yourself while we drive?” he asked. “It might help pass the time some.”

“Sure,” she agreed. “What do you want to know?”

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“I’m originally from New York City,” she admitted. “My parents still live there.”

“Oh,” he said. “I had you pegged as a country girl,” she said. “But New York City is a pretty big deal.”

“Yeah, I guess. When you’re from there, it’s really not. It’s just where I’m from. I never thought about it as a big deal,” she said.

“Why did you move away?” he asked.

“Honestly, because of college,” she said. “I moved to town to go to college and when I finished, I just kind of stuck around. I got my little apartment just after Alex offered me the job as his assistant and I’m happy there.”

“Yeah, it’s a nice little town,” he said. They were just outside of Chicago, and he had to admit, it felt like home.

“How about you?” she asked. “Where are you from?”

“Originally, I’m from Wisconsin, so not too far from here,” he said. “Do you get back home to New York often to see your parents?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “I mean, for holidays and stuff, but I don’t go home very often. I do talk to my mom at least once a week.”

“Any brothers or sisters?” he asked.

“Nope, I’m an only child,” she admitted. “How about you?”

“I am too,” he said. “My parents divorced when I was just a little kid, and well, neither of them remarried. My father passed a few years ago, but my mother still lives in Wisconsin. I go up to see her every chance I get. I’ve tried to get her to move down here with me, but she refuses,” he said.

“I take it that you and your mom are close then,” she said. She always wondered how that would work. She and her mother had a pleasant relationship. Yeah, that’s how she’d describe it, but she wouldn’t call them close. Her mom was great, really, but she never seemed to understand Ruby. She wanted someonemore like her—popular. Her mother was voted biggest flirt in high school, and Ruby had no clue how to even begin to flirt with a guy. Her mom was also prom queen her senior year of high school and Ruby didn’t even bother to go to prom. They were like night and day, and that always made Ruby a little sad, even if her mother never said anything about their differences.

“We are,” he admitted.

“I always wondered what that would be like. My mom and I get along great, but we really have nothing in common. I mean, I don’t think that she really understands me, but I know that she loves me and that’s enough.”

“What wouldn’t she understand?” Luke asked.

“Well, she was popular in high school. Heck, my father was the captain of the football team, and my mother was the head cheerleader. They were the kind and queen of their prom court, and then I came along. I guess she just never saw herself having a kid who was a giant nerd, you know?”

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