“Then you can support me by not talking about it. And getting me mashed potatoes, because the cheese is going to make me throw up.”
Clara scampered off and returned with a plate full of mashed potatoes, and she ended up having a Thanksgiving that looked a lot like Clara’s.
Beige.
And when she drove past the grocery store that night, and saw that it was open, she considered stopping and getting a pregnancy test, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. So she went back home, and went to sleep instead.
The next day, she drove to the store and sat in the parking lot with her hands gripping the steering wheel for a full twenty minutes before she went back home, empty-handed and completely gutless. Two days later, she fell asleep on the couch in the middle of the living room, and nearly missed guests at check-in. Sadie ended up waking her up, coming in like a tornado, and Violet had never been so embarrassed. Not only had she been napping in the middle of the day, she had also shirked her duties, and she could only apologize to Sadie profusely, who had been almost weirdly sympathetic.
“Can I get you something to eat?” Sadie asked.
“No,” she said. “I don’t feel very well.”
“Honey,” Sadie said. “If you’re sick, just let me know. I can always take a few days over here.”
“No,” Violet said. “It’s not that. It’s not... I’m fine. I didn’t realize...”
When Sadie came by the next morning Violet was dragging around, and had to run out of the kitchen into the bathroom. When she returned, Sadie was staring at her.
“Violet... Is there something you want to talk to me about?”
Violet smiled, and shook her head. “No. I just...can’t shake this stomach bug.”
“I see,” Sadie said.
Violet went back to the grocery store. But she went home without going inside again.
WOLFWASINa foul mood, and he had been for the past month. And it was not going unnoticed by his siblings, or by Hunter McCloud, who was making a nuisance of himself by hanging out, as always.
“Shut up,” Wolf said as Hunter commented yet again on what an asshole Wolf was. “You’re not exactly a prize turkey yourself, McCloud.”
“Yeah, but at least I’m charming. You’re a straight up dick.”
Yeah, well. He knew that was true. He’d been...well, shit, he’d been having feelings. He didn’t like it. He felt like some little betadouche asshole.
Feelingsmight be too strong of a word.
He missed Violet’s body.
He was pissed with himself for having told her to go off and screw another guy.
He was enraged he’d made her cry.
He couldn’t do anything about any of it, and he hated that.
“Just settling back into being in your charming presence every day. Maybe I preferred the other ranch,” he bit out.
“If you did...maybe you should go back for a while,” Sawyer said, unbothered as he usually was these days, which was just annoying.
Wolf missedViolet. Not just her body. That was the problem. The undeniable, unacceptable problem. She was supposed to just be a fling. He was an expert at flings. So damn good at them that it was never a concern. Never an issue. And yet, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Couldn’t stop dreaming about her. He had gone over to the bar and tried to find himself a hookup; he didn’t want to do that. His own damned words haunted him. That it was a dumbass thing to do to sleep with somebody when you wanted someone else.
Well, what he wanted, always and forever, was Breanna. He couldn’t have her. So... So there. Except, he could hardly picture her, because all he could see was Violet. And that just pissed him off.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of pounding horse hooves, and he looked over to see Elsie, flying across the field with dirt clumps going up behind her horse’s hooves. By the time she got to them, she was breathless. “Wolf Garrett,” she said, her voice coming out like an epithet.
“Yes?”
“I just got off the phone with Sadie.”