Hearts Divided (Cedar Cove #5.5)(21)

Paul stood with Ruth at the railing as the ferry glided through the relatively smooth waters of Puget Sound. The rain had stopped, and although the sky remained cloudy and gray, the air was fresh with only the slightest hint of brine.

“Every story I hear leaves me amazed that this incredible woman is my grandmother,” Ruth said fervently, grateful that Paul was beside her.

“I know. I’m overwhelmed, and I just met her.”

They exchanged tentative smiles, and then they both sighed in appreciation, Ruth thought, of everything Helen Shelton had been and done.

“I wish I’d known my grandfather,” she said. “He seems to have been the one who gave my grandmother a reason to live. He loved her and she loved him.” Ruth knew that from every word her grandmother and her dad had said about Sam Shelton.

“How old were you when he died?” Paul asked.

“Two or so.” She turned so she could look directly at Paul. “When I saw my grandmother in her bedroom, she said he was with a group of soldiers who freed the inmates in the concentration camp.”

“She was in a concentration camp?”

Ruth nodded. “She was there at least a couple of years.”

Paul frowned, obviously upset.

“I can’t bear to think what her life was like in one of those obscene places,” Ruth said.

“It would’ve been grim. You’re right—they were obscene. Places of death.”

Ruth didn’t welcome the reminder. “I’m so glad you’ve been with me on these visits,” she told him. Paul’s presence helped her assimilate the details her grandmother had shared. He’d given her a feeling of comfort and companionship as they’d listened to these painful wartime experiences. Ruth genuinely believed there was something about Paul that had led Helen to divulge her secrets.

After the ferry docked, Paul and Ruth walked along the Seattle waterfront, where they ate clam chowder, followed by fish and chips, for dinner. Their mood was somber, and yet, strangely, Ruth felt a sense of peace.

The next day, after her classes, she hurried back to her rental house and ran into Lynn. As much as possible, Ruth had avoided her roommate. Her relationship with Lynn had been awkward ever since the argument over Clay. Lynn’s lie, which she’d told in an effort to keep Ruth from meeting Paul, hadn’t helped.

Lynn was coming out just as Ruth leaped up the porch steps. Her roommate hesitated.

Ruth did, too. She’d never said anything to Lynn about her intentional mix-up that first night she was meeting Paul. Her classes would be over at the end of May and she was more than ready to move out.

“Hi,” Lynn offered uncertainly.

Ruth’s pace slowed as she waited, half expecting Lynn to make some derogatory remark about Paul. Because Ruth had been with him so often lately, she’d had very little contact with her roommate.

“Are you seeing Paul again?”

The question lacked the scornful tone she’d used when referring to him previously. She seemed more prompted by simple curiosity than anything else.

“We’re meeting some friends of his later. Why?” Ruth couldn’t help being suspicious. If he’d phoned with a change of plan, she needed to know about it. She knew from experience that Lynn couldn’t be trusted to relay the message.

Lynn shrugged. “No reason.”

“Is there something you aren’t telling me?” Ruth’s voice was calm.

Her roommate had the grace to blush. “He didn’t call, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Like I could believe you.”

“You can—okay, maybe what I did that night was pretty stupid.”

“Maybe?” Ruth echoed.

“All right, it was. I was upset because of Clay.” She didn’t meet Ruth’s eyes. “I thought Clay was really hot and you dumped him for soldier boy, and I thought that was just wrong.”

“I don’t need you to decide who I’m allowed to date.” Ruth couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice. What Lynn had tried to do still rankled. If her cell phone battery hadn’t been low, she and Paul might have missed each other completely. That thought sent chills down her spine.

Lynn released a long sigh. “I’ll admit it—you were right about Clay.”

“How so?”

“He’s…he’s stuck on himself.”

Ruth suspected that meant he wasn’t interested in Lynn.

“I…I like Paul,” her roommate confessed.

Ruth wasn’t even aware that Lynn had met him and said so.

“He stopped by one afternoon when he thought you were back from classes, only you weren’t and I was here. We talked for a bit. Then he left to look for you at the library.”

Funny that neither had mentioned the incident earlier. “I had the impression you were dead set against him.”

“Not him,” Lynn said. “I’m against the war in Iraq…. I thought you were, too.”

“I don’t like war of any kind. This war or any war. Still, the United States is involved in the Middle East, and no matter what, it’s our young men and women who are fighting there. Politics aside, I want to support our troops.”

“I know.” Lynn suddenly seemed to find something absolutely mesmerizing about her shoes.