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Ruby immediately shakes her head. “I should get to the store.”

“You have to eat,” Mom says.

“I do, but I wasn’t planning to make your family feed me.”

“You’re not making anyone do anything. I cooked enough for half the county.”

Dad smiles at Mom. “She’s not exaggerating.”

Ruby looks at me like she expects help, so I lean closer. “You’re not getting out of this.”

“You could at least pretend to try.”

“I know my mother.”

Mom is already walking toward the house. “Ruby, come on. You can go to the store afterward.”

Ruby watches her go before turning back to me. “Five minutes.”

“Technically, we were at the shop for less than five.”

“That is not going to save you.”

I grin and follow my family toward the house.

Dinner is loud in the way Hale dinners usually are.

Not chaotic, exactly. Just full. Dad and Conlin argue about a boat motor. Mom keeps putting food on plates nobody asked her to refill. Lachlin checks Jack every thirty seconds even though the baby is asleep in the portable bassinet beside Briar.

Ruby ends up sitting between Briar and me.

At first, I think she’ll stay quiet and let everyone talk around her, but that lasts maybe two minutes.

Briar asks how long she’s been at Black Fern, and Ruby tells her about moving up from San Francisco. Mom asks when she knew she wanted to tattoo professionally, which leads Ruby into a story about drawing on everything she could get her hands on as a kid.

“Walls?” Dad asks.

“Once.”

Mom smiles. “Only once?”

“My mother made the consequences memorable.”

Conlin points his fork at her. “See? That’s where Zander went wrong. Not enough consequences.”

“I had consequences.”

Ruby laughs, and I find myself watching her more than I should.

She fits.

I don’t mean she suddenly looks like she’s been coming to Hale dinners for years. She doesn’t. She’s still new enough that she watches the conversation before jumping in and asks questions when one of us references something she doesn’t know.

But she isn’t trying too hard either.

Conlin doesn’t bother her. Dad’s questions don’t make her retreat. She and Briar fall into an easy conversation about Sloane and the bookstore, and Mom seems genuinely interested when Ruby talks about the kind of business she wants to build at Black Fern.

At one point, Ruby catches me looking at her.