Ruby drives Nate to the airport when he decides to leave his father to live with his mother. Later, Ruby finds out that Nate has run away, but finds him in an apartment room that she and Nate had visited while she was tagging along with him on his job. One day, Cora and Jamie inform Ruby that the police had found her mother unconscious in a hotel room and sent her to a rehabilitation center. Nate is defensive about this, and that leads to them fighting and breaking up. Throughout the story Ruby becomes suspicious about Nate's father, and eventually learns that he abuses Nate. Harriet struggles with a conflict of her own: Because of her independence, she is reluctant to form a relationship with Reggie, who owns the kiosk next to her. Harriet's business booms after a line of key-shaped pendants, inspired by Ruby's necklace, becomes an instant hit. One of Nate's clients, a high-strung woman named Harriet, offers Ruby a job at her jewelry store in the mall. Having seen resemblances between herself and her mother that night, Ruby becomes determined to change her ways. Ruby comes home to a furious Jamie, who accuses her for being ungrateful to him and her sister. Ruby feels overwhelmed with all this, so she skips school to take alcohol and drugs, and later finds herself in Nate's car when he picks her up. Over the span of the story, Ruby slowly becomes closer to Nate.Īs Ruby adjusts to her new life, she learns Cora had not been avoiding her in fact, Cora had been trying to rescue Ruby from their mother but had always been stopped. Nate Cross, Jamie and Cora's next-door neighbor, covers for her. After learning she will be transferring to a new high school, Ruby attempts to run away but is found out. Ruby is upset about this arrangement and continues to wear the key to her old home on a chain around her neck. It was published by Viking's Children's Books in 2008.Īfter her drug and alcohol addicted mother abandons her, child services forces 17-year-old Ruby Cooper to move in with her sister, Cora, who had left for college when Ruby was young. Lock and Key is a novel written by author Sarah Dessen.

Lock and key sarah dessen summary