Page 30 of I Hate You More

Eva pursed her lips and gave the question careful consideration. There were several adjectives Ruby could have supplied her with—annoying, condescending,attractive—but Eva’s eventual response took her by surprise.

“I don’t know. They both seem a little sad.”

“Sad?” Ruby echoed. She had yet to see Caleb do anything but smile and laugh and play, and Spencer… Well. He was Spencer. He was hardly the kind of guy you’d consider the life of the party, but that was what intrigued her. His smile was rare and his laugh even rarer, but when they came, it was like catching a glimpse into his soul. Ruby had seen—and shown—far too many false smiles to feel anything but admiration for someone who refused to play that particular game.

“‘Sad’ is the only way I can think of to describe it. They’ve always been wildly competitive, but something changed about three months ago. Before that, they were always playing in rec sports leagues or hanging out at breweries together—inseparable in every sense of the word. Then Caleb moved in, and it all stopped. Everything. They don’t go anywhere together, and their little competitions aren’t fun anymore. Every time I try to ask one of them about it, they just zip right up.” She made the motion of a zipper cutting through the air. “I tried to convince Maury to see what he can find out, but he refuses to get involved. He says they’ll work it out, but I don’t know. I’ve been friends with Spencer a long time. Something’s not right.”

Ruby had a hard time imagining a Spencer and Caleb who drank casual microbrews together, but she didn’t doubt that Eva knew what she was talking about. After all, she’d seen the evidence with her own two eyes. That whole conversation about dry cleaning had been about something deeper than dirty laundry.

“Well, the good news is, if anyone can shake some sense into those two men, it’s you,” Eva said brightly. “I have every hope that you’ll have things sorted out in no time.”

“Me?” Ruby echoed. “I barely know them. What can I do?”

Eva’s laughter filled the kitchen. “Are you kidding me? With that face and those legs and the way they both look at you?”

Ruby could only shake her head. If there was one thing she’d learned in this life, it was the adages were true.Beauty is only skin deep. It’s what’s on the inside that matters. Pretty is as pretty does.A face and a pair of legs like hers might get her through a lot of doors, but those doors rarely stayed open for long. One look at her mother’s life—and her own—made that abundantly clear. As much as they had to offer on the outside, their insides weren’t anything worth writing home about.

“You have no idea what effect you have when you walk into a room, do you?” Eva asked as though reading her mind. She clucked her tongue. “And I’m not just talking about how beautiful you are, so don’t poker up at me. There’s something about you… I don’t know how to explain it, but you make everyone want to sit up a little straighter.”

Ruby had long ago learned to control her blushing—reddened skin never photographed well under the lights of a stage—but she could feel herself warming all over. “You’re just saying that because I promised to take your kids for a weekend.”

Eva’s laugh rang out like a pinging bell, and she squeezed Ruby’s hand before letting go. “Well, yes—but that’s exactly what I mean. If you really wanted Spencer to say these things for a recording, all you’d have to do is bat your eyes and ask him. He’d do it for you in a hot second.”

This was veering dangerously close to what Caleb had insinuated the other day, but Eva wasn’t done.

“Between you and me, you could probably get a lot more than that out of him, but you won’t, will you? Not the easy way, I mean. You’re going to earn Wheezy a spot just like everyone else—by putting in the time and doing the work.” Her smile deepened. “Spencer hates that about you. I mean, helikesit, obviously, but he also really, really hates it.”

“T minus five minutes!” came a shout from the next room. It was followed by the cheerfully bald-pated head of Eva’s husband popping through the doorway. Maury looked harassed but happy, especially once he caught sight of his wife. “You’d better down the last of that wine fast, my love. They’ve just discovered the box of finger paints we were hiding in the back of the coat closet.”

“Maury, you wretch! I told you to bury them under something heavy.”

“I did, but they’re like heat-seeking missiles. They can’t be stopped.” Maury turned his smile toward Ruby. “Hullo, Ruby. Sorry to cut your chat short, but a deal’s a deal. If I spend any more time with these three, I’m going to lose my hair. What’s left of it, anyway.”

He and Eva were so good-naturedly relaxed about everything that Ruby couldn’t help but return his smile. Someday, she wanted a house like this one. No one under this roof cared about appearances or trophies or how many calories were in that bottle of pinot grigio. They were so busy trying to keep everyone happy—and alive—that they didn’t have time for anything else.

“I’d argue for a few more minutes of girl time, but we should get Ruby out the door as fast as possible.” Eva slid out of her chair and took Ruby’s glass. With a wink, she tipped back the contents. “The longer she spends around the kids, the greater the chance she fakes her own death to get out of our bargain. You won’t believe it, Maury, but she’s offered to take the boys for a weekend. Awholeweekend.”

Maury, who’d been about to drop a kiss on his wife’s forehead, paused in the middle of this comfortably romantic gesture. “What? Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack.”

The speed with which Maury moved belonged to a much younger man. “You must have dozens of things to do. Here, let me help you.” He pulled Ruby’s chair out, yanked her to her feet, and pushed her toward the door—and all without giving the impression of being anything but her best friend. “Drive safe, and don’t forget to look twice at the stop sign at the end of the street. It’s a tricky one.”

Ruby laughingly allowed herself to be thrown out of the house. There was no need for such haste, and she wouldn’t have minded saying goodbye to the boys, but she was still reeling from everything Eva had said about Spencer.

That all Ruby had to do was bat her eyes at him to get her way.

That helikedher.

“Why is she smiling?” Maury asked his wife as the pair of them blockaded the doorway and waved a cheerful farewell. He spoke loud enough for Ruby to hear, which she felt sure was the entire point. “She just promised us forty-eight hours all to ourselves. Doesn’t she know what she’s in for?”

“Not a clue, poor thing. I can hardly wait.”

Chapter 9

“What would you like on your sandwich?”

Eva poked her head into the exam room, where Spencer stood gently prodding the edges of a fatty lump on a dachshund’s abdomen. The dachshund, Jujubee, was prone to such lipomas. Since his body mass dragged so close to the ground, he regularly had to have them removed.