Page 85 of Freeing Ruby

“Anything. Just name it.”

She grins. “Hold on. You might want to wait until you hear my idea before you agree to it.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“Well, I was wondering what you might think about staying on with me indefinitely—in a security capacity, of course. Like Jason does for Layla. When I inherit my trust fund, I’ll certainly be able to afford it.”

I chuckle. “You could afford an entire army of protectors.”

She smiles, displaying dimples. “I don’t need a whole army. I think one will be plenty—as long as he’s the right one.”

“Oh? Do you have someone in mind?”

“I do.” She leans forward and presses a light kiss to my lips. “Will you stay?”

I nod, feeling a bit choked up. “I’ll gladly stay as long as you need me.” Or forever, if you just say the word.

* * *

The rest of the week passes pretty quietly. Ruby makes arrangements for a paternity test at a local DNA laboratory. Edward goes in to give a DNA sample, and a visiting nurse comes to the apartment to get Ruby’s DNA. They say they’ll have the results in two to three days. Ruby’s excited, but she’s also a bit nervous.

“What if it comes back negative?” she asks me.

“Let’s just wait and see what the results are. You’ll know for sure very soon.”

Ruby finishes up several customer commissions and packages them up for shipping.

I offer to take them down to the mailroom for her. “Would you like to come downstairs with me to check out the mailroom?”

Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head. “No, that’s okay.”

“All right. I just thought I’d ask.”

Later that afternoon, I pop into the art studio to ask if she’s ready for some lunch. I glance down at the new painting she’s working on and recognize my grandmother’s tiny Chihuahua, Sugar. The little cream puff in the painting looks exactly like the real thing.

“That’s incredible,” I say. I shake my head in disbelief. “How do you do that? I can’t even draw stick people.”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I see the image in my head and my hand recreates it on canvas.”

“Mi abuelita is going to love it. Her birthday is in a couple of weeks. Is it okay if I invite her over once it’s done, so we can give it to her together?”

Ruby hesitates only a moment before she says, “Yes. I’d love to meet her.”

* * *

Two days after both Ruby’s and Edward’s DNA were submitted to the lab, Ruby receives an e-mail with the results.

“Miguel!”

I’m in the kitchen making our lunch when I hear her call my name. I head to the art studio, where I find her sitting at her desk looking at her computer screen. “What is it?”

“I have an e-mail from the DNA lab.”

“Have you opened it?”

She shakes her head. “No, I’m too nervous.” She rolls her desk chair back a couple of feet from her desk. “You read it.”

I stand behind her chair and gaze down at her monitor. “Are you sure?”

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