Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty Seven
"I promise!" Ruby said.
It was Monday morning and she was having breakfast with her parents, both of whom had expressed concern over her recording plans with Liam affecting her school work.
"You really swear?" Charlie asked.
"We want to support you in this," Joey added. "But it can't overtake your school work. You're building up to a really important year next year."
"I know," Ruby groaned. "And I will work just as hard as I usually do."
Charlie raised an eyebrow.
"Harder, even," Ruby corrected herself. "I swear that this music thing is going to be a positive addition to my life. It won't be setting me back in any other area. And you can check on me as much as you like."
Charlie and Joey exchanged glances, deciding they were satisfied.
"Great," Charlie said. "And in case we haven't said it enough, we really are proud of you. We're so happy that you've found a talent and a passion for something."
Ruby smiled at her.
"I think I might want to study music at Uni," she ventured. "What do you guys think?"
"That's a great idea," Joey enthused.
"I'm kind of relieved to have found something I really care about," Ruby admitted. "When I was growing up, all I saw was you wanting to be a cop, no matter what, Charlie. And I always felt a bit lost as to what I wanted to do myself, you know? But I really think this could be the start of something incredible. I mean, I hope it is anyway. I love singing and performing and I really like working with Liam."
She couldn't help but beam at the mere mention of his name.
"We're really happy for you, Ruby," Joey said honestly.
"I think this is the start of something big for all of us," Ruby said. "I'm pursuing music, Charlie's doing really well at work and Joey's about to open a restaurant and run her own business."
She continued to smile.
"I think this is the beginning of the best few years of our lives."
"I'll drink to that!" Joey giggled, proposing a toast with her morning coffee.
The other two were more than happy to join in.
"I'm not convinced that this is the greatest plan in the world," Elijah said doubtfully.
He and Miles had developed a habit of sitting on the beach together in the mornings before they both started work for the day, mostly to lament about Leah.
"If you love her, you've got to fight for her," Miles insisted. "If it's over, you'll know it soon enough and it'll hurt like hell but at least you'll know you tried. And if you do try, who knows what might happen? Who knows what the future could hold?"
Elijah nodded thoughtfully.
"But she already turned down my marriage proposal," he fretted. "And then she broke up with me. Isn't it a bit desperate to beg her to take me back?"
"Sometimes desperate is necessary," Miles replied. "Plus, I have no love life of my own so I have to live vicariously through you. And currently, the entertainment level is poor."
Elijah chuckled and nodded.
"I'll think about it," he said. "Good enough?"
"For now."
"What about Xavier?" Charlie dared.
Ruby paused, her toast halfway to her mouth. She had been rambling about Liam again so the question came rather out of the blue.
"What about him?" she asked cautiously.
"Well, you don't seem to mention him all that much these days," Charlie ventured. "Are things okay between you?"
Ruby shrugged and focussed on her toast.
"I guess," she said without commitment.
Charlie and Joey exchanged yet another glance. They had become rather adept at communicating in silence.
"Problems?" Joey asked.
Ruby sighed, thinking of the big secret she was keeping on Xavier's behalf. They hadn't really spoken all that much since she'd refused to go and play happy families with Hugo and Martha at the farm.
"We're just not very in sync with each other at the moment," she admitted.
"How come?" Charlie asked as casually as she could.
Ruby eyed her curiously. She was sure that her parents knew that she was being less than honest about something. She just wasn't sure how accurate they were about it all.
"We just keep disagreeing and stuff and I'm finding it kind of hard to spend time with him," she admitted. "So, I guess I've been throwing myself into making music with Liam and trying to look after Nicole. Xavier's become kind of hard to be around."
"Is it anything specific or have you just drifted apart?" Joey wondered.
Ruby hesitated. She looked between her parents, searching their eyes. I should tell the truth, she thought to herself. I should be honest. They're my family. They're the most important people in my life. I live in their house, I eat their food, I love them.
"I…" she started.
She involuntarily pictured Xavier's face. He would be utterly heartbroken if he lost his brother a second time and whether they drifted apart or stayed together, she couldn't bear to be the cause of his sorrow.
"Just drifting apart," she said quietly.
It was late morning when Elijah finally gave into his need for coffee and forced himself to enter the Diner. He had been avoiding the place for nearly a week now, ever since Leah had ended their relationship. But whether he was going to follow Miles's advice and fight for her or not, he knew he had to face her sometime. If they were going to coexist in the same small town then he had to stop being a coward.
"Hi," he managed, when he came face to face with her.
"Hi," Leah replied just as awkwardly.
They stared at each other for several long moments.
"How are you?" they asked in unison.
"How was your weekend?" Angelo asked when he found Charlie at the coffee machine in the back room of the police station.
"It was great," Charlie replied without looking at him.
She finished making her drink and turned to head back to her office. Like an eager puppy, Angelo followed her.
"Look, what can I do to make you forgive me?" he begged.
She merely slammed the door in his face. Exasperated, Angelo turned round and saw Watson watching him from the reception desk where she had been talking on the phone.
"What's it going to take?" he wondered.
"Time," Watson said. "And you to stop hitting on her."
Elijah found himself outside the bait shop, having decided that Joey was always a useful person to talk to in times of stress. As a Pastor, he liked to think he was good at solving other people's problems but he was unfortunately terrible at solving his own.
"Hey, Rev," Joey said, waving from behind the till when she spotted her friend.
She finished serving her customer and then offered Elijah her full attention.
"How are you doing?" she asked kindly.
Elijah sighed.
"Not great, to be honest," he admitted. "I was wondering if you were up for giving some advice."
"To you? Always," Joey said sweetly.
He smiled at her, silently wondering if she had ever considered becoming a minister herself. In the short time they had known each other, she had shown herself to be a compassionate, thoughtful, wise and God centred person. He couldn't think of better or more necessary qualities than that.
"Miles has got it into his head that I should try and win Leah back. What do you think?"
"Do you love her?" Joey asked.
He nodded.
"And even without her accepting your proposal, can you see a future with her?"
He nodded again.
"Then go for it," Joey said. "You can't lose anything by trying."
"Except my dignity, maybe," he said unhappily.
"Is pride more important than love?" Joey questioned.
"Definitely not," Elijah confirmed.
"Well, then…"
He nodded eagerly, finally reaching the decision he probably always knew he would come to.
"I'm going to try and win her back," he decided.
"Your crush is so cute," Nicole commented.
It was lunch time and she and Ruby had gone for a walk across the beach. Ruby halted abruptly.
"Excuse me?" she snapped.
Nicole faltered and looked rather panicked.
"N-n-nothing," she said quickly.
Ruby's crush on Liam was so obvious, she'd thought it was acceptable to comment. But obviously she had hit a sore spot.
"What crush?" Ruby demanded angrily.
"Um… well, I just thought that maybe… you know, you might have a crush on Liam or something."
Ruby flushed red, half with embarrassment and half with fury.
"I do not have a crush on Liam Murphy!" she snapped.
"Okay…"
"How dare you say that?" Ruby ranted. "I have a boyfriend! You might know him. Xavier Austen? Ring any bells? How dare you accuse me…? And how dare you patronise me like that?"
"Ruby, I was just…"
"What, so you're so much older and so much cooler that when you liked him, you got to have him?" Ruby continued bitterly. "But if I like him, it's a stupid, school girl crush! Is that right? Is that what you think of me?"
"Ruby, I…" Nicole tried again.
"I can't believe I've sacrificed so much time with Xavier to try and cheer you up when you didn't even deserve it!"
She strode off back to school leaving Nicole feeling utterly helpless and alone.
After work, Joey arrived home by herself. Charlie had a couple more hours left at work and Ruby's room was empty so she supposed she was working on her demo with Liam. Making herself a cup of coffee, she sat on the sofa and flicked through some TV channels but she lacked concentration. She blushed as she found herself smiling, thinking back to the weekend she'd had with Charlie. Their encounter after the party had quite possibly been the best lovemaking she had ever experienced, which was quite a statement considering how amazing sex with Charlie always was anyway. Sighing in contentment, she opened her eyes and spotted Charlie's laptop lying on the side. With an idea in mind, she opened it up and began to search the Internet.
Elijah was nervous as he waited for Leah to open the door. After his conversation with Joey, he had gone to the Diner and arranged to meet her after work. And now was the moment.
"Hi," Leah said a little shyly, letting him into the house.
He followed her into the lounge and they perched, side by side on the edge of the sofa.
"Leah, I need to say something to you," Elijah said seriously. "And I need you to just listen until I'm done. Is that okay?"
She nodded a little uncertainly but didn't pull away when he took both her hands in his.
"I love you so much," he said sincerely, gazing into her eyes. "I never thought it was possible to feel like this about another person. And I know I screwed up."
"You didn't…" Leah began to interrupt.
She stopped, remembering her promise.
"I haven't been in a proper relationship for a long time and this is certainly the best relationship I've ever had," Elijah continued. "And I guess I got so carried away with that that I asked you to marry me. And I didn't mean any harm. All I meant was that I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But I was being selfish because I didn't take into account everything that's led you to this place. You've already been married twice and both times it ended tragically. Of course you're not ready to take that kind of step with a man you haven't even known six months yet."
He took a breath and smiled.
"What I'm saying is that I don't care about getting engaged," he continued. "I don't care what kind of future I have with you, so long as I have one. I was worried about looking desperate by begging you to take me back but you know what? I don't even care. I love you so much and I will do absolutely anything to be yours again. Because you've never stopped being mine."
"Propose to me again," Leah said.
Elijah looked utterly bewildered.
"Sorry?" he said nervously.
"Propose to me again," she requested.
"Um, well I don't have the ring but… but…"
He sank onto one knee.
"Leah, will you marry me?" he asked, terrified that perhaps this was some kind of test and he was about to fail it.
"Yes," Leah said happily. "Yes, I will marry you."
They kissed.
"Someone looks guilty," Charlie remarked, when she arrived home and saw Joey jump and slam the laptop shut.
"I wasn't doing anything," Joey said quickly.
Charlie approached curiously as her girlfriend looked exceptionally flushed. Sitting on the sofa, she opened the laptop. Her eyes widened at the display of sex toys on screen.
"Um… what?" she said, looking questioningly at Joey.
Her girlfriend sank down on the sofa and prepared to explain herself.
"Okay, you know we were talking about… stuff on Saturday night?"
Charlie nodded cautiously.
"Well, I was thinking maybe you might want to get a little more adventurous…"
"More adventurous than Saturday night?" Charlie giggled.
Joey blushed some more.
"We don't have to," she said. "But I thought, maybe you might like… this kind of thing."
She pointed to a strap-on on the screen with a trembling finger.
"What are you meant to do with it?" Charlie wondered.
Joey was a little bemused that it wasn't self-explanatory but she explained the workings of such a toy anyway.
"Wait, is this because you think I'm missing something?" Charlie asked worriedly. "I thought we'd sorted all of that out."
"We have," Joey assured her. "But it doesn't mean we can't experiment if we want to."
Charlie studied the picture thoughtfully.
"I mean, well, I can't actually imagine sex being better than it already is," she said. "But yeah, we could… If you wanted to."
"Do you want to?"
"Yeah," Charlie said, suddenly decisive. "It could be fun. But not because anything is lacking without this kind of thing."
She grinned and kissed Joey.
"The um… the only this is that uh…" Joey faltered.
"What?" Charlie asked.
"I don't think I'd be all that comfortable being on the uh… receiving end of such a thing," Joey admitted awkwardly.
She hurried to explain but Charlie already understood.
"That's fine," she said. "We don't even have to buy one of this strange contraptions if you don't want to…"
"I do want to," Joey assured her. "I think it'll be fun. As long as you want to…"
They both giggled at how shy they were both suddenly feeling. Putting the laptop aside, Joey leant in and kissed her.
"Until we get one," she breathed. "Do you want to keep practising without?"
Needing no further encouragement, Charlie grabbed Joey's hand and dragged her to the bedroom.
At his house, Xavier and Ruby lay side by side in bed, having made love for the first time since they had got back together. It had taken them both by surprise but, secretly fuelled by Nicole's accusations, Ruby had found herself deciding to prove how much she loved her boyfriend. She just hoped that neither of them would regret it.
Next time… Charlie and Joey try to save Martha, Marilyn plays her trick on Colleen and Ruby and Nicole make friends again…
