Catch A Fallen Star
“He what?”
“I guess that’s how he rolls. Whenever he sees pain and suffering, he offers to sign his name on a piece of paper so all the troubles will be forgotten.” Ruby placed a hand over her heart. “He’s such a giver, a true hero. Just think if he used his amazing powers of peacekeeping in the Middle East or North Korea.”
Boone, ego and all, was similar to the other men Ruby had known in her life. They thought they could charm their way out of anything and women should simply be grateful for their existence. They certainly didn’t have to be responsible or deal with the messy parts of life. They never truly cared about anyone’s feelings but their own.
“Are you telling me you didn’t get his autograph?”
Ruby found her friend’s disappointment a tad disturbing. “Holly, are you not hearing me? Perhaps the sarcasm distracted you from what I said. The guy thought giving me his autograph would make up for the fact that my daughter thinks I hate her. That it would make that little girl forget her father is a lying deadbeat. His delusions of grandeur are ridiculous.”
“Cut the guy some slack. He’s used to people knocking each other over to get a look at him,” Holly said in his defense. “Maybe we can get him to agree to do an interview for the paper.”
“We? I have nothing to do with this. I deliver babies, not the news.” Ruby had moved to Grass Lake because Sadie Greenville decided that after sixty years as a midwife it was time to retire. She had offered Ruby her office space and her handful of patients.
Refusing to give up, Holly reminded her, “You do a great job with the column.”
Ruby had also inherited Sadie’s monthly advice column at the Gazette. Ruby was now responsible for enlightening the town on how to be a good parent. She was waiting for someone to call her out as a fraud.
“Not the same thing,” Ruby argued.
Holly folded her hands together and started with those puppy-dog eyes. “Pleeeease. You have a reason to go to the farm. I only need you to see if he’d be willing to sit down with me. You wouldn’t have to do the interview.”
“I go to the farm because my kid is falling apart thanks to the fact that her dad doesn’t care about her.”
“Oh, man.” Sympathy quickly replaced the pleading look in Holly’s eye. “I know things haven’t been easy, but I thought they were getting better since you moved here.”
That was true, but as long as Levi was still in the picture, things would never be okay. His constant indifference was the reason Ruby had agreed to take over for Sadie. She had an excellent reputation, and that meant a viable business for her successor. Once Ruby made enough money to hire a lawyer, she planned to file for full custody and take off to Seattle to be near her older sister.
“Coming here was the best decision I’ve made in a long time.” Ruby tried to smile for her friend’s sake. She didn’t want Holly’s pity.
“Jon and I knew this community was exactly what you needed. And I, selfishly, love having you so close.”
It had been Holly who had convinced her to come to Grass Lake. Sadie had delivered Holly’s boys and wrote the parenting column for the Gazette, so when Holly found out she wanted to turn everything over to another midwife, she suggested Ruby. Holly even rented her mother-in-law’s house to Ruby dirt cheap.
Friends like Holly came along once in a lifetime.
“I don’t know about an interview, but I bet I can get Boone Williams’s autograph when I go back to pick up Violet.”
Holly grinned from ear to ear. “I’ll take it. But maybe slip in that I’d love to do an interview. My sister will be absolutely Wicked-Witch-green with envy if I tell her I’m going to sit down with Boone Williams.”
Holly’s sister wouldn’t envy her at all if they both knew what Boone was really like, but Ruby would try to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he wasn’t good with first impressions.
* * *
JESSE AND VIOLET were leading one of the horses around the paddock when Ruby returned to Helping Hooves. She noticed the content smile on her daughter’s face as she spoke with her social worker.
Ruby’s heart ached the way it always did when she thought about how Violet would feel if she had a father who actually participated in his daughter’s life. It was so depressing; she couldn’t dwell in that thought for too long.
Slamming the car door shut garnered the attention of both of them. Violet’s smile quickly disappeared, and Ruby’s heart took another stomping.
Someday she’ll like me.
Teenagers weren’t supposed to like their parents, and parents weren’t supposed to be their teens’ friends. In a few years, her daughter would thank her for being a parent and not a friend. Ruby had been given all that advice and then some as Violet approached this wretched age. It didn’t always ease the pain of her daughter’s constant rejection, though.
“Why do you always have to show up so early?” Violet complained. “I still have to clean Sassy up before I can go.”
Ruby took a deep breath and reminded herself not to be offended by her daughter’s tone. “I can wait. No worries.”
“Why don’t you let your mom know what you accomplished today?” Jesse prompted.
There was a small glimmer of pride in Violet’s eyes. “I got Sassy to perform a flying lead change.”
“Really?” Ruby tried to show the right amount of enthusiasm. Violet hated too much and resented too little. “That’s awesome.”
“Do you even know what that means, Mom?”
Ruby had no idea, since she had little to no experience with horses, but she wasn’t about to admit it. “Yeah, of course.”
Violet seemed unconvinced. Jesse saved the day. “Violet’s doing a great job of getting Sassy to change her lead legs. I think the two of them are going to do really well at the horse show in a couple of weeks. Do you want to join us in the tack room, Ruby?”
The look on Violet’s face made it clear she did not want her mother to come with them. The last thing Ruby needed was to agitate her bear of a daughter.
“I need to touch base with Dean about something,” Ruby said, throwing a thumb over her shoulder. “But I’ll meet you in there in a few minutes.”
Violet’s visible relief was yet another punch in the stomach.
“All right, we’ll chat when you get back,” Jesse said.
Ruby headed toward the main house. She’d probably have to go through Dean to land Holly an interview with Boone Williams. He ran his record company from somewhere on the property.
As she climbed the porch steps, the sound of someone screaming bloody murder made her pause. Someone was not happy and was letting the heavens know about it. Fearing someone was hurt, she followed the porch around to see what was wrong.
Boone stood in the yard and was doing his best impression of a woman in the throes of childbirth. He puffed his chest out and let his head fall back as he roared at the sky. He took a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders. When he opened his eyes, his gaze fell squarely on Ruby.
Feeling as if she had been caught snooping instead of doing a welfare check, she took a step back and tripped over a rocking chair that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Ruby fell on her behind and felt a sharp pain in her wrist as she attempted to break her fall.
Those stormy blue eyes that had blown her over were now glaring at her through the slats of the porch railing. He somehow managed to look angrier than he had a moment ago.
“Unbelievable,” he growled.
CHAPTER THREE
BOONE WAS NEVER truly alone. Lonely, yes. Alone, never. There were always plenty of people around. Some of them had a job to do. Most wanted something from him. He hadn’t figured out where this redheaded mystery fit in.
“Did you hurt yourself?” he asked even though the grimace on her face told him she had.
She inspected her wrist, wincing as she rolled it around. “Yes.”
“Good.” Boone headed back toward his trailer. That was what she got for spying on him.
“Good?” she shouted from the porch.
This was exactly the kind of thing Boone was trying to avoid by coming to this place. He hated all the prying eyes and straining ears back in Nashville. Everyone wanted in his business.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve, you know that?” The nosy redhead wasn’t finished interrupting his scream therapy.
Boone stopped and turned as she came barreling after him. He really shouldn’t have been mad. It wasn’t like the therapy he was testing out helped ease any of the frustration he felt. He was beginning to think every doctor/psychologist/psychiatrist/social worker he’d seen in the past few years was a quack.
That didn’t mean he’d cut this intruder any slack, though. “I have a lot of nerve? You’re the one snooping around,” he accused her.
Her face was flushed as she held her injured wrist against her chest. “Snooping? You sounded like you were being murdered! Excuse me for caring enough to make sure you weren’t dying.”
“Nobody’s dying. Even you and your poor little wrist will live.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You should really get those issues checked out. Whatever your problem is, it’s bad.”
This woman sure was something. “The only problem I have is that you seem to think I owe you something because you tripped over your own two feet.”
“I tripped over a rocking chair, thank you very much.” She smoothed her hair and tugged on the hem of her shirt. There was a bit of insecurity under all that tough talk. “Next time I hear you screaming, I’ll be sure to let whatever’s eating you have at it.”
“Perfect,” he replied, hating himself for noticing the cute way her eyebrow was cocked. Fine, she was attractive, but he was not interested.
She stared hard at him before spinning on her heel and taking off. Boone sighed with relief, but she stopped and came back at him. She apparently was never going to leave him alone.
“You know, I have a friend who works for the Grass Lake Gazette, and I almost feel like it’s my duty to tell her to warn the good people of this town to steer clear of Helping Hooves so they don’t find out the almighty Boone Williams is an enormous jerk.”
“So you do recognize me.” He knew it. She had almost fooled him earlier in the barn. Then the rest of what she’d said settled in. “Wait, who works for the paper?” It figured she was also in cahoots with one of his least favorite groups of people—the press.
Instead of answering, she stormed off. He followed her for no good reason other than that she had made him lose his mind.
“I’m here to get away from the media,” he said, trying his best to catch her. “I don’t need anyone publishing anything about me.”
She was not only irritating but also incredibly fast. She made it to the barn before he could reach her.
“Did you hear me?” When he touched her arm, she whipped around and swatted at him.
“We have this thing called freedom of the press here in this country. Journalists can write about anything they want.”
“I know they can. I got people writing baloney about me every day.”
“Well, maybe you should think before you act and people wouldn’t have so many salacious things to write.”
Boone felt his temperature rise. “You know nothing about me.”
“Oh my gosh, Mom! Stop making a scene.” The woman’s daughter stood outside one of the stalls with her hands on her hips, staring them both down.
“Stay out of this, Violet.”
“Stay out of this, kid,” Boone said at the same time.
“Don’t tell my daughter what to do,” the woman snapped.
She confounded him. “We said the exact same thing.”
Thankfully she looked a bit chagrined. “Just don’t talk to her.”
“I don’t want to talk to either of you. I want you to leave me alone. Is that really too much to ask?”
She softened for a moment. Maybe it was because her daughter was watching. Maybe she’d finally realized she was being completely unreasonable. “No, it’s not. I’ll leave you alone and you leave me and my daughter alone and I think we’ll both be happy.”
“Absolutely.” Boone could not agree more. Alone. That was all he wanted to be.
* * *
AFTER THE DISASTER of day one on the farm, Boone hid out in his trailer most of the next two days. This seemed to bug Dean, who was determined to get Boone out and about. It had started with a simple dinner invitation that Boone had quickly refused. Next up, Dean had encouraged some time with the horses...and Jesse, the resident shrink. That wasn’t happening.
Boone knew what Dean was up to. He thought that if Boone talked to this Jesse guy, he’d step into the studio and record a platinum single. Music didn’t work like that. At least not good music.
By Tuesday afternoon, Boone was sick of the trailer and annoyed with himself for being curious if and when the spunky redhead might return with her daughter. It wasn’t like him to be preoccupied with anything other than when he was getting his next drink. Maybe it was his sobriety that had changed things, but it sure felt like the fire in that woman’s eyes had consumed him.
Maybe his problem was starvation. When Dean had said his fiancée had stocked the kitchen with some basics, he’d meant the bare minimum to keep a person alive: some bread, peanut butter and jelly, a half gallon of milk, a box of macaroni and cheese, gummy bears and a bag of barbecue potato chips. Dean had obviously shared a list of Boone’s tour hospitality requests with Faith. These might have been all his favorite comfort foods, but Boone needed something a bit more substantial.
“I want to go to town and buy some groceries,” he said when Dean stopped by to extend another dinner invitation.
“Great!” Dean’s eyes lit up. “Let’s go. I can show you around and we can check out Main Street.”
“I don’t need a tour guide. I need a car.”
“We can take Faith’s truck.”
“You’re not understanding me. If I go into town with you, I can’t get in and out unnoticed. I want to get groceries, not do a meet and greet with everyone on Main Street.”
Dean didn’t seem too keen on this plan, but Boone wasn’t going to do this any other way. Dean mulled it over for a minute and then offered to go get the keys.
Luckily there weren’t enough streets in this small town for Boone to get lost. He found the local grocery store and filled his cart with all the things that made his stomach growl. With the bill of his baseball cap pulled down, he managed to avoid eye contact with the other shoppers until a familiar voice caught his attention.
“Oh my gosh, you are so annoying.”
“You’re trying to chicken out. I knew you would.”
“I’m not chickening out of anything.”
Boone lifted his head and his gaze fell directly on the queen of teenage angst. He glanced around to make sure the girl’s mother wasn’t nearby. Ruby was the last person he wanted to bump into during this little excursion. He made a quick detour down the last aisle before Violet spotted him.
He hoped the kid was here with only her friend and not her mother. Just the thought of Ruby made his blood boil. It bugged him that this woman had so easily gotten under his skin. It shouldn’t matter that she was pretty and petite, just his type. Or that she had the face of an angel. She was the devil in disguise, threatening to send the press after him. He began to contemplate the idea of taking Dean’s truck and driving home to Nashville.
“Could you help me?” a dark-haired woman asked him. She immediately reminded Boone of his nana. She was well put-together and small in stature. Her bright red lipstick was meticulously applied. “For some reason they put my husband’s favorite bottle of wine on the highest shelf.”
Boone realized in that moment that he had landed himself in the aisle with nothing but beer and wine. His stomach growled louder than it had the entire shopping trip, and his mouth felt drier than a desert. There was only one thing that could quench this particular thirst.
He could smell it now—the hoppy beer and the fruity notes in the merlots. He could almost feel the bubbles of the champagne on his tongue. Given his physical reaction, it was amazing his body hadn’t led him to this aisle the second he set foot in the store. It was either fate testing his sobriety or the devil begging him to give it up.
“Are you all right?” the woman asked, giving him a peculiar look.
Boone snapped out of his daze. Embarrassed, he shook his head. “Which one?” His voice was rough, like he hadn’t spoken in years.
“That one right there.” She pointed.
With shaky hands, Boone reached up and grabbed the bottle that had eluded the poor woman. He knew how it felt to have what you wanted most just out of reach.
“Thank you,” the woman said, waiting patiently for him to hand it over.
Boone couldn’t turn it over just yet. He wanted to feel the glass in his hands, take in the weight of the liquid held inside. What he wouldn’t give to open it up and take one tiny sip. He could handle one sip. That wouldn’t really be cheating. One sip wouldn’t get him drunk.
“My husband swears he needs one drink a night to fall asleep. I think that’s just an excuse to have one drink a night.”
Boone would never stop at a sip. He wouldn’t stop at one drink. He’d finish the whole bottle and start on another before he knew what hit him. He handed the wine to the woman and, without a word, pushed his cart out of the aisle and as far away from temptation as possible.
He was still trying to control his thoughts while he waited in the checkout line. The young woman in front of him had a handful of coupons and was taking her sweet time sorting through them to find the ones she could apply to her purchase.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Violet and her friend hanging around the display of lighters near one of the empty checkout lanes. They seemed quite interested in what the employees were doing and where they were looking. Violet put a lighter in her pocket and started for the door. Boone noticed that the guy by customer service who was almost certainly the store manager saw the same thing. He could only imagine how much trouble the kid would get into with a mother like Ruby. He deserted his cart and got to Violet right before the manager confronted her.
He threw an arm over her shoulders and turned her back toward the checkout. “There you are, kiddo. I thought I lost you.”
Violet turned white as a ghost. “What are you doing?”
“Saving your butt,” he whispered. “Wanna hand over that lighter you were trying to lift so that Mr. Manager over there doesn’t call the police or, worse, your mom?”
Violet glanced over her shoulder at the man who was glaring in their direction.
“He didn’t see anything,” she argued weakly.
“You want to risk it?” Boone lifted his arm and motioned for her to head back toward the exit.
Violet thought about it for less than a second and dug the lighter out of her pocket. She set it in Boone’s waiting palm. “Whatever,” she mumbled.
“What was that?” He cupped his ear with his hand. “Thank you? Is that what I heard? Thank you for saving me?”
“Thank you for embarrassing me in front of my friend. How about that?”
The other girl was long gone. She must have figured Violet was caught and didn’t want to go down with a sinking ship. “You need better friends, kid.”
“Maybe you can come to school with me and offer to sign things for everybody. I bet that will make me super popular.”
“Why am I helping you again?”
“Beats me,” Violet said with a shrug.
Coupon Lady finally finished checking out, and the clerk welcomed Boone to Valu-Save. Her wide-rimmed glasses looked like they were straight out of the 1980s.
“We decided we don’t need this,” he said, handing the clerk the lighter.
“Oh, wow. Thanks for nothing,” Violet grumbled.
“I can’t think of one thing you’d need that for that doesn’t end with you getting in even more trouble. You’ll definitely thank me for that later.”
“Oh my gosh, you sound exactly like my mother.”
There was little chance that was a good thing. Not to mention he had absolutely nothing in common with that woman other than their mutual desire to have nothing to do with one another. “Speaking of your mother, let’s keep this little rescue mission to ourselves, okay?”
Violet covered her heart with her hand and gasped like a world-class actress. “You want me to lie to my mother?”
The clerk glanced up at them, causing her to ring one item up twice. She looked away and corrected her error.
“I would never ask you to lie to your mother,” Boone said through gritted teeth. “All I’m saying is that not telling her every detail of your day is probably pretty normal for you. This should perhaps be one of those things you keep to yourself.”
“Boy, you really better start talking to Jesse. You are in worse shape than I am.”
She had no idea.
CHAPTER FOUR
“I THOUGHT YOU were hanging out with Stacy,” Ruby said from her spot at the dining room table as Violet charged through the front door and took the stairs two at a time. There was no reply except the slamming of her bedroom door.
“One of these days I am going to take that door off its hinges!” She meant it this time. Ruby didn’t care what Jesse had said about Violet needing privacy. If she couldn’t treat their house with respect, then she would have to suffer the consequences.
Ruby stood and stretched her arms above her head. She’d spent the past hour organizing her schedule for the coming weeks. There were two women in Wilcox County due to give birth in the next month with Ruby’s assistance. She had to make sure she was ready when those calls came in.
The sound of angry girl music filtered downstairs. Jesse’s voice in Ruby’s head told her to go check on Violet, to offer an ear and not a lecture. She took a deep breath and headed upstairs. She knocked on the door but got no answer.
“Vi, can I come in?” She tried turning the knob before getting the okay, but the door was locked. “What did I say about locking the door? Open it. Now.”
An increase in the music’s volume was Violet’s only response. Ruby inhaled deeply, trying to rein in her emotions. Jesse had once reminded her that when she lost her cool, it gave Violet an excuse to lose hers.
“I will leave you alone, but I need you to unlock the door and respect my rules.”
Ruby waited until she heard the soft click of the lock releasing. She resisted the temptation to push the door open, pressing her ear to the door instead. She hoped for an invitation to come in, imagined sitting on Violet’s bed and hearing all about what had happened to make her so upset.
“You can go away now,” Violet said from the other side.
Ruby straightened and bit her lip. It didn’t matter if there was a door or not. Violet wasn’t going to let her in.
“I’m going to start dinner. And you will be eating,” she said before Violet could protest that she wasn’t hungry.
Their dinner options were limited. Ruby had neglected certain chores this week, like grocery shopping. Cooking had never been one of her strengths, and living in Nashville had given her plenty of good reasons to eat out. There were several restaurants in the city Ruby missed like dear friends.
She scavenged some ham that still smelled edible and some cheese from the deli drawer. With any luck there would be four slices left of the bread she bought a week ago. If Violet gave her any grief, Ruby would serve her the heel.
While the frying pan heated up, Ruby found one apple in the refrigerator and half a can of Pringles in the pantry. Ruby’s mother had always been a stickler about serving a proper dinner, which consisted of a meat/protein, a starch, a vegetable and a fruit. Everyone was expected to eat everything, no exceptions. It didn’t matter that Ruby hated brussels sprouts or that her sister gagged whenever a banana was near.
Violet had never known such horror. Too bad she didn’t appreciate how cool her mom was.