Ruby Red 3 - A Romance for All Time (Complete)

Chapter 3

Sam missed Ali. Was it only a few hours since she left? It felt like days already.

As he rode the elevator up to the Beeton's condo, he tried to shake off the sullen mood he was in.

Watching Ali walk through security and disappear down the corridor leading to the plane, Sam had to remind himself to keep breathing. He felt silly. Ali would be fine.

Hopefully, her father would also be okay. Ali's mother had said it was a stroke when she called asking her daughter to return to California. He was in the hospital and had yet to wake up.

Maybe it was the similarity to his own father's recent heart attack causing the anxiety. It had also been scary at first. The worst part was the not knowing. Seeing his father, lying unconscious in a hospital bed had dredged up memories of watching his brother Thomas's life draining away. But Christopher Harrington had recovered. Mr. Stinson would too.

Mr. Stinson. Sam couldn't even refer to the man by his first name. He'd only met Daniel and Lynn Stinson once. The couple had invited Sam and Ali over for dinner the night before they left town. Wanting to make a good impression, Sam had expected skepticism from the parents of the girl he had convinced to move across the country. Or excitement at meeting someone who loved their daughter.

What Sam got was indifference. Coming from an extended family teeming with passion it had felt more like a business meeting than a goodbye dinner. Four people sitting in a formal dining roomslowly being served courses orchestrated by Ali's mother. Most of the conversation had revolved around the company the Stinson family had owned for generations.

Makers of fine furniture, the Stinson name was well known, if not big. Employing a little over 1000 people, many skilled artisans, they prided themselves on their quality, custom-made and hand-crafted products. Although not an artist herself, Sam saw where Ali's love of design and beautiful things started.

Luckily Sam had done some research beforehand, allowing him to participate in the stoic dinner conversation. The company had a solid reputation, their products held or surpassed their value and were still sought after. Recent economic downturns had however put the enterprise in jeopardy and many financial experts wondered how the Stinson's had weathered the storms.

Later, when Sam asked her about her parent's attitude, she shrugged it off, saying that's how they had always been.

No wonder Ali gravitated towards Abe and Mabel Beeton. The elderly couple were the opposite of her parents. Kind, charismatic and most important of all, protective of his fiancé. Sam had met the couple when he attended the Liberty for All charity ball last year and instantly liked them. Retired and determined to ring every drop out of their golden years, they split their time between a Manhattan condo and a Malibu beach house.

With the weather changing, they had returned from a few months in California to enjoy spring in New York. Ali had been looking forward to this welcome home dinner for weeks.

Knocking on the apartment door, Sam pushed thoughts of Ali's absence away and greeted his new friends with a smile. Married for over 50 years, Sam wondered if they knew they were dressed alike, both decked out in black and royal blue this evening. Mabel's freshly coiffed silver hair defied gravity where as Abe's bald head shone in the hallway light.

Offering his apologies, Sam explained his solo attendance. They were disappointed Ali couldn't be there and expressed concern over her father's health. The couple invited him into their home, accepting the bottle of wine he'd purchased with them in mind.

After a meal filled with good food and laughter, the conversation turned again to Ali.

"Have you met Ali's parents?" Sam had to know.

Mabel gave Abe a sly look. Sam knew the couple was not the kiss and tell type and rarely had a disparaging word for anyone or anything. He decided to prompt them. "I've only met them once. It was an ... odd experience."

Abe's blue eyes softened, looking relieved. Mabel on the other hand screwed up her face like a garbage truck on a hot summer's morning had just passed by. "Odd is a nice way of putting it."

"Mabel," Abe warned.

"What?" She asked." Turning back to Sam, Mabel rolled her eyes.

Sam suppressed a grin. The grandmother was cute when annoyed.

But her voice lacked any trace of levity as she continued. "They never support Ali. Never once came to her charity events. Sometimes I wonder if they even remember they have a daughter."

Mable took a sip of her drink. "It's all business with them. Literally. Once and only once were we invited over to their house. This was shortly after her divorce."

Abe spoke up now. "Ali seemed almost reluctant to ask us. Of course, we were excited to meet the people who raised our little angel."

Mabel huffed. "Raised is too good a word. Fed and clothed would be better."

Abe stared his wife down again. She raised her hands in defeat. Taking his wife's hand, Abe gave it a gentle kiss.

"Anyhow. They were pleasant enough at first. All smiles, showing us around their estate, bragging about a recent cruise. Mabel and I hate cruises. Floating petri dishes." They both fake shivered in unison.  

"But we oohed and aahed appropriately." Abe's face took on a slight scowl. "Just as lunch was about to end, Daniel started spouting the attributes of the family business."

"We thought it was just more bragging." Mabel interrupted, apparently unable to help herself. "But it was a sales pitch."

"What?" Sam wasn't sure he had heard right.

Mabel nodded. "They wanted us to invest in their company. Well, to be more specific, he" Mabel almost spat the word he, "wanted Abe to invest."

"Why Abe?"

Mabel jumped in before her husband could offer a reason. "Um, the man's a chauvinistic pig."

Sam almost spit out his drink. He never expected to hear such harsh words from his friend.

"It's true. He spent the whole time talking to Abe, barely even looked at me."

"Little did he know, Mabel here holds the proverbial purse strings. I don't have a penny to my name. Kept man I am." Abe leaned back with a certain air of satisfaction, proud of his position in life.

"Our poor Ali, sitting there looking so embarrassed. She tried to get her parents to stop, but her mother...well that woman actually told Ali to be quiet, her father was speaking."

"We were stunned." The other man shook his head. "Needless to say we skedaddled out of there as fast as we could."

"Ali apologized for weeks afterwards. I told her you can't control where you come from but you can control where you're going."

Sam frowned. Ali was headed straight into the arms of these people.