Hotel Ruby Read Online Free PDF

take it. She said she had a shawl in her room.” The door slams behind us, rattling the frame. Daniel and I both glance down the hall at the other rooms, the silence so ominous it automatically makes my shoulders tense. “Uh . . .” Daniel pauses, seeming to sense the same thing, and then continues. “And then she took my hand and led me through the halls. God, it felt like we walked for hours.”
    When we get to the elevator, Daniel reaches past me to push the button a bunch of times. Although his stories are rarely this bizarre, the last few months there’d been a rush of desperate girls. Ones who needed him, when really he was the one in need.
    â€œThen where’d you go?” I ask. The elevator doors open and we step inside. Daniel pushes the lobby button, and I glance in the mirror and smooth down the flyaway strands of hair from my part. I should have grabbed a ponytail holder. What if I bump into Elias?
    â€œWe didn’t go anywhere,” Daniel says, leaning against the shiny gold railing. “That’s the thing—we just walked the hallways all night.”
    â€œMorning,” Icorrect, and then apologize when he gives me the Don’t be a know-it-all look.
    â€œThen we were at her door and she asked if I would come in.”
    â€œStop there,” I warn, holding up my finger. I’m grateful when the elevator doors open to the lobby. There are guests milling about, chatting and alive. The creepiness of the thirteenth floor fades, and I’m once again amazed by the beauty of the Hotel Ruby. Daniel and I start toward the busy restaurant, and Daniel waves when he sees our father already waiting at a table.
    â€œRelax,” my brother tells me when we take our seats next to my father. “Nothing happened. I know how to play hard to get.”
    I laugh, and my father raises his eyebrows. “Do I want to know about this conversation?” he asks. I turn to him, shocked by how awake he sounds. The dark circles that have become constants since my mother’s death have faded.
    â€œDaniel met a girl,” I say, gauging his reaction. Mostly to see if my father will just brush us off like usual. Hum a noncommittal reply.
    â€œSurprising,” he responds sarcastically, and then smiles. It just about knocks me off my chair. Daniel and I exchange a glance, and then we both turn back to our father to make sure we aren’t imagining this. He’s . . . Dad. “What’s her name?” he asks.
    Daniel’s eyes light up like a little kid, and it breaks myheart how much he wants our father’s attention. “Catherine,” my brother says. “I didn’t catch her last name.”
    My stomach clenches. “Catherine?” I repeat. Daniel nods and then begins to reshare the story with our father. I take a sip from the glass of water on the table, knowing exactly who he’s talking about. She is the girl who came up to Elias. She was rude and threatening, and Elias called her a psychopath.
    So of course my brother had to go and hook up with her.
    I have two options, really. I can tell Daniel she sucks and to stay away, or I can keep my mouth shut. What would my mother do? I think back to the bits of conversations she and Daniel shared. She’d make a joke, but in her jokes would be some truth. Some hidden advice that my brother swallowed down because it came with a spoonful of sugar. Then again, we’re leaving today. It probably doesn’t matter.
    â€œTell Dad the part where she looks like a killer porcelain doll,” I say, making my brother laugh. He doesn’t realize that I mean it kind of literally. Daniel continues the story, sparing us none of the details, including the fact that her hair smelled like peaches. I’m thankfully distracted when the server comes up to take our food order.
    â€œI ordered you a coffee,” my father says, pointing at the cup in front of me. There’s