"But enough about me." Ruth turns to me with a smile that immediately puts me on alert. "I've been wondering. You've met a girl, haven't you?"
It may sound like a good thing, but I find it inconvenient.
How intuitive she is.
"I haven't."
Because technically, she...isn't a girl. She's a woman. And most importantly of all, she belongs to someone else.
Ruth doesn't push. Her gaze drifts to the window.
Chimney pulls up the long drive to the estate not long after.
We pass the gate and the gardens. Then the manor on our left. The windows are lit on the ground floor and on the second, all the rooms a full-time staff is paid to keep ready for someone who hasn't lived there in years.
I look at it as we drive past.
I always look at it as we drive past.
The cottage is on the far side of the grounds. Smaller. Closer to the trees. Ruth had it built when my father died and she didn't want the manor anymore.
Chimney brings the limo to a stop and gets out to open her door before I can.
"Stay, sir. I've got her."
But I'm already getting out.
I take her arm because she's still favouring the hip and the gravel is uneven, and I walk her to her own front door.
We reach the threshold.
She turns to look at me.
"You've been with me for a week. That's too long apart when I suspect you and the girl have just met."
I open my mouth.
"Go to her, son." She pats my cheek. "Life is short."
The hand at my cheek is thinner than I remembered.
She's inside before I can answer.
I turn back toward the limo. The manor is still lit on my left. I watch it until Chimney closes my door.
Three words.
Just three simple words. And yet I find myself thinking back to them again and again on the flight back to New York.
The moment Ruth said them, something walked over my grave.
Now, in the cabin, the feeling hasn't left.
The whisky on the table beside me has been there since takeoff. The same drink, the same crystal, the same steward who knew not to ask. I haven't reached for it once in the last six hours, the same way I didn't reach for it on the way over.
I'm still wearing the shirt.
I'm racing time.