Page 30 of Crazy Little Thing Called Love
“Ohmigod!” The sight of Ruth Murphy naked was something she’d never be able to scrub from her memory. She looked like a ninety-pound soup chicken, papery skin and bony knees and elbows. Faith had never been more grateful for a night without stars.
“It’s going to rain. We’ll both catch a cold swimming in a freezing lake while the rain hammers at us from the other end,” Faith protested, eyeing the dark clouds gathering on the horizon.
“Nonsense. The rain won’t be here for a while yet. Are you a fraidy cat?”
Faith heard the splash as Ruth jumped into the lake. She wasn’t afraid. Well, maybe a little because it probably wouldn’t be good for her career if she was caught, but she put her fears aside and stripped down. She was going skinny-dipping with a woman who wanted her to love her grandson.
“This water is freezing,” Faith screamed.
“Of course it is. It’s November. Just because we still have the occasional seventy-degree day doesn’t mean the water is going to cooperate,” Ruth called back, seemingly unfazed by the cold. She swam closer to Faith with surprising agility. “Now tell me what your plan is regarding my grandson. I know you have one.”
“Well, since I turned down his proposal, I’ve been…keeping my distance,” Faith admitted, the cold water suddenly less uncomfortable than this conversation. “That’s why I took all these business trips. We haven’t really seen each other in person since that night. He calls into my show every evening, and we talk, but it’s different when there’s a radio audience between us.”
She pushed her wet hair back from her face, staring up at the darkening sky. “It’s like he’s accepted my rejection but isn’t giving up. He’s patient, getting to know me through those calls, sharing little pieces of himself each time. But a part of me has to wonder if he worked this hard with all his other…interests. Now I’m confused because I don’t know if he still wants me that way or if he’s just determined to win what he couldn’t have. The problem is, Ruth, I could fall in love with him if I let myself.”
“There’s no let about it. You either are or you aren’t. And if you weren’t in love with him already, you wouldn’t be worrying so much about all this nonsense. And Jake definitely wouldn’t be spending all this time with you if he just wanted to be your friend. It’s you he wants. My goodness, half of this country is following your relationship with Jake on your show every night. I tune in now just so I can hear him make a fool of himself.”
Ruth was right. Her ratings had skyrocketed since Jake began calling into the show. Things seemed easier, safer, when they talked over the airwaves. He was a good man. A sensitive, caring, patient man. And honorable. It was a bitter pill to swallow that she was running out of excuses to keep him at a distance.
The anticipation of his nightly calls had become both a comfort and a torment. His voice in her ear, the thoughtful questions, the careful steps toward deeper understanding—all without the physical distraction of his presence. She’d found herself listening to the recorded shows afterward, analyzing his tone, searching for hidden meanings. But though there was a sliver of hope somewhere beneath the surface, she knew that there couldn’t be a future for them.
“He’s a man you can be proud of, and I care for him a great deal. But I don’t think I can spend the rest of my life with him, wondering, hoping that his feelings for me are real. My marriage taught me that trust was something to give sparingly, and that giving your whole heart to one person just means it hurts worse when they crush it. There’s not much left of my heart, Ruth.”
“Sounds like your ex-husband was a horse’s behind.”
“He was, but he’s not my ex-husband. I’m a widow.”
The breath Ruth drew in had Faith swimming in that direction, afraid that she was having a heart attack and about to drown. “You didn’t kill him did you?”
Faith stopped swimming and stared at Ruth in shock before she started laughing. “No, I didn’t kill him. I was married to Steve Slater. He was very popular on the racing circuit.”
“I watch the horse races. I have a right fine hand at the windows if I do say so myself. I don’t recall hearing about a Steve Slater though.”
“He was a race car driver. He wrapped his car around a tree in Monte Carlo one night. The roads were slick and he’d had too much to drink. There weren’t very many pieces of him or his mistress left when the car was found. I hadn’t seen him in over a month. He was almost a stranger to me, and I feel guilty because all I felt was relief when he died.”
“Ahh… Guilt is a powerful weapon even when wielded from the grave. Mistakes are meant to be learned from. One thing I’ve learned in my ninety years is that you can’t judge a person by someone else’s mistakes. It doesn’t seem very fair to Jake that you’d try.”
“No, but other than the fact that Jake loves all women too much to abuse them, there seem to be too many similarities for me to be fair at this point.”
“It sounds like you’re determined to grow old alone and miserable. I’ve found that’s something that most people have to work pretty hard at, especially when the love is there. Maybe you deserve a good kick in the pants instead if you can’t see the difference. I thought you showed promise, girl, but I’m not so sure now.”
Faith wasn’t sure what to say. She was embarrassed about bringing up her past and ashamed at the same time with the set down Ruth had just given her. She was about to apologize when she saw the headlights that stopped on the side of the road.
“Ruth, someone’s here. What do we do?”
“Oh, drat. I hope it’s not the police. Jake got quite upset the last time he had to bail me out of jail. He got that little line on his forehead like he does when he’s angry, and he didn’t talk to me for a whole day.”
Faith thought Jake probably had a lot of patience if Ruth pulled stunts like this all the time and he still let her stay at his house. She was lucky he didn’t put her in a loony bin.
“What in the world are y’all doing down there?”
Faith sighed at the familiarity of the voice. They weren’t going to jail after all.
“Don’t talk to us in that tone of voice, young man. I can switch your bottom just as easily now as I did when you were eight years old.”
“Someone needs to switch yours,” he said in response. “You could catch your death in that cold water. Didn’t you learn anything when you were in that hospital a few years ago? Look at Faith’s lips. They’re blue.”
Faith reached up and touched her numb lips, aware of the fact that Jake’s eyes had never left hers. She wanted nothing more than to get out of the freezing water, but reality intruded. She was naked.
