Home for the Holidays

Wow. That had been exactly what she hadn’t needed—a big, shitty cherry on top of an already shitty day.

She started gathering her tools and was dismayed to see her hands were shaking. She squeezed her hands into fists, willing them to steady. She hadn’t done a single thing wrong. She refused to let him get to her.

When she opened her hands again, the shaking was barely discernible.

Good. That was the way it should be. Back straight, she wheeled her bike into the garage.

JOE PAUSED OUTSIDE Ruby’s bedroom door to take a deep breath and consciously relax his shoulders. His blood was still pounding in his head, but Ruby didn’t deserve his anger. She was just a kid, going with the flow. It wasn’t her fault that Hannah Napier was reckless and irresponsible.

He lifted his hand and rapped on the door.

“Rubes, it’s me,” he called.

She didn’t say anything but he pushed the door open anyway. She was stretched out on her bed, her face buried in her pillow.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you like that,” he said as he crossed to the bed and sat beside her. He laid his hand on her shoulder. He could feel the agitated heat coming off her body. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Hell, he was the one who’d been frightened. Seeing his little girl perched on the bike like that, realizing what Ruby had been up to while he’d been kneading pizza dough in the kitchen … He’d seen red. If Hannah Napier had been a man, for sure he would have grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and shaken her till her teeth rattled. Luckily for her, she’d been protected by her gender. Just. For a few seconds there, it had been a close-run thing.

“What happened wasn’t your fault, okay?” he said. He stroked Ruby’s rigid back. “But I need you to promise that you will never, ever go for a ride on a motorbike again without talking to me, okay?”

Ruby lifted her head and he could see she’d been crying. “No!”

He frowned. “I know they look like a lot of fun, but they’re dangerous, sweetheart. There’s a whole bunch of special equipment you should be wearing before you even think of riding one of those things.”

His voice caught as he imagined what could have happened to her if something had gone wrong. Ruby was so small, so bloody fragile ….

“No, Daddy, you’ve got it all wrong. Hannah didn’t take me for a ride and now you yelled at her and she’ll never let me help her again.”

Joe frowned. “Ruby, I saw you on the bike. I know you’re only trying to protect your new friend—”

“She didn’t take me for a ride! I asked her to but she said no. Then she said I could sit on the bike if I wanted to and she was really nice and lifted me up and held me when I thought I was going to fall,” Ruby said in an urgent rush.

Joe stared at his daughter. Ruby held his gaze unflinchingly, her blue eyes drenched with tears. The tight, uncomfortable feeling in his gut told him his daughter was speaking the truth.

Damn.

He closed his eyes for a long moment as he reviewed his reaction through the filter of this new information. Over-the-top? Just a little.

“Hannah’s going to hate me now,” Ruby said miserably.

Not half as much as she hates me.

“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you, Rubes. You didn’t do anything wrong. I was the one who made the mistake.”

“I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen. I asked and asked Hannah to take me for a ride, but she said you wouldn’t like it. I even said you wouldn’t mind, but she said she thought you would.”

Just in case he didn’t feel enough of a heel already.

“Yeah. The thing was, Rube, I saw you sitting up there, and the bike was running, and it looked like you guys had come back from a spin around the block.”

Dear God, could he sound any more defensive?

Ruby gave him a level look. “You should have listened when I tried to explain.”

“You’re right. I should have. And next time, I promise I will.”

Ruby sniffed loudly, then knuckled her eyes dry. “It’s okay. I forgive you,” she said magnanimously.

“Thank you.”

“But we should go next door right now and apologize to Hannah,” Ruby said. She was already wriggling toward the edge of the bed and she looked at Joe expectantly.

He nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

Even though it was going to make him squirm.

“Oh, I know what we should do!” Ruby grabbed the front of his sweater she was so excited. “We should invite Hannah over for pizza! She won’t be able to stay angry with us if we make her pizza.”

Want to bet?

“It’s a lovely idea, Rubes, but I think we might leave the pizza for another night. Hannah probably doesn’t want to have dinner with us just now.”

“Then we should take her one for her to eat on her own. I’ll make it for her and we’ll take it over together and explain how you got it wrong and how you’re sorry for yelling at her.”

For a moment Joe was tempted to agree to the idea, but he knew that taking Ruby with him was the coward’s way out of the hole he’d dug for himself. There was no way Hannah would give him the verbal smackdown he deserved with his daughter standing beside him.

“I tell you what. Why don’t you make a pizza for Hannah, and I’ll take it over to her on my own and apologize?” he said.

Ruby studied him. “Don’t be embarrassed because you made a mistake, Daddy. You only got upset because you love me. I know that.”

Joe smiled. Maybe he should take his daughter with him, after all. There wasn’t a jury in the land that would convict him with her on his side.

He tugged on one of her pigtails. “How did you get to be so wise?”

Ruby smiled and shrugged. “Just lucky, I guess.”

They went to the kitchen to create a pizza especially for Hannah. Ruby insisted on putting every single topping available on it, since they didn’t know what Hannah liked or didn’t like.

“This way, she can pick off the bits she doesn’t want,” Ruby reasoned. “But if the bits aren’t there in the first place, she can’t put them back on.”

Ben had a bit to say about his sister’s logic, but finally Joe had a pizza in his hand and a speech roughed out in his mind.

He’d apologize straight up, not offer any excuses. And when she let fly at him, he’d take it. The way she’d taken it when he dished it out to her.

He felt like a kid going to the principal’s office as he walked up the front steps to Hannah’s house. Gritting his teeth, he rang the doorbell.

There was a rattle of a door chain being removed, then Mrs. Napier opened the door.