“Yes. But... As much as I hated leaving Texas, I...needed the change.”
She became very conscious of the lingering twang in her voice when she said the name of her home state. She did miss it sometimes. But mostly, Copper Ridge was her home.
“What happened to your mother?”
The question was bold, blandly spoken.
“She left,” she said, returning boldness with boldness.
“Hmm,” he said. “So did mine. Sucks when they do that.”
She hadn’t expected that.
“She did?”
“Yeah,” he said. “That left just us and our dad. But she wasn’t the only woman to leave my dad. Sawyer and Elsie are my half siblings. My dad had a pattern.”
“Oh,” Violet said. “Well. My dad just got left the once.”
“That means the problem was likely her. In our case...the problem was...everybody.”
“Oh.”
“And the Garrett curse.”
She leaned in, her hands wrapped around the mug, the warm liquid inside warming her. “What’s the Garrett curse?”
“For generations no women stayed at Garrett’s Watch. That’s the ranch that I have with my siblings. Not until my grandmother. My grandmother was not my grandmother by blood. My actual grandmother ran off. Just like all the others. But then my grandpa married a woman that he ordered by mail.”
“No kidding,” Violet said.
“Yep. And they stayed married. That’s how my brother got it in his mind to get himself a mail-order bride.”
“You’re making that up,” Violet said, smiling. “There’s no way.”
“No,” Wolf said, a grin stretching across his handsome face. “It’s absolutely true. And I have to tell you, they’re so happy it’s almost nauseating.”
“Well, good for them.”
“It is.”
He looked at her, and she felt the burn of those dark eyes all the way down to the pit of her stomach. And it was absurd. It was four thirty in the morning. And she was staring down this guy like he was a dinner date. While she had coffee, and he ate the breakfast she just made. And he probably would think she was crazy if he had any idea what she was thinking.
“I better head out.” He put his hat on his head, tipped it, and her stomach flipped. “I’ll see you later, Miss Donnelly.”
And as he walked out of the dining room, she would be damned if she didn’t just sit there and stare at his ass.
He was the best-looking man she had ever seen.
She was still thinking about it when she went into the bakery later that morning.
“You seem distracted.”
She looked at Alison. Her stepmother was looking at her with a curious gaze. Alison was only about fourteen years older than Violet, so as the years had stretched on, the gap between them had shrunk. She was definitely a mother figure to Violet, but she also had an easy time confiding in her, too.
The problem was she was also an open valve to Violet’s dad. Which Violet could understand was all about them having healthy communication, and she was glad for it and everything, but she didn’t really need her dad to know everything about her life.
Not that there was much to know.