VIOLETSPENTTHEday baking bread. She had decided that she would go to his family’s house tonight to meet them, after all. But she would be coming with bread.
She stuck her finger into the ball of dough that had been sitting on top of the fridge for the past couple of hours, and tried to gauge whether or not it was proofed enough. It seemed good. Her phone started to buzz on the counter, and she looked at it from the chair she was standing on, and carefully got down. Wolf would probably growl at her. But then, when was Wolf not growling?
She answered the phone. “Hello?”
“Are you going to explain what the hell is going on?”
Great.It was her dad.
“Hi, Dad,” she said.
“Clara said something about you taking off for the holidays?” He tried to keep his tone neutral but she could hear concern and deep suspicion in his words.
He was not neutral. Not at all.
“Yeah, I... It’s just...” There was no way to play this off. “I wanted to go stay with a friend. At a ranch?”
“It’s him, isn’t it?” Her stepmother’s voice came over loud and clear.
“Alison,”Violet said, her tone filled with irritation.
“You went off with that guy,” she said.
“I didn’t... I didn’t go off with him. I...”
“Where are you?” Cain asked.
“Dad,”Violet said. “I’m not seventeen. I am not drunk at a barn party, and I don’t need you to storm in and rescue me. I made a decision. Iammakinga decision.”
“What decision are you making, exactly? To blow your family off to go stay with some... I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kick his ass.”
Her dad didn’t even know she was pregnant and he was already threatening ass kickings. Great.
“I needed some time... It’s not... It’s not like that. I’m notwithhim.” Except that she kind of was. But she wasn’t actively sleeping with him. So there was that.
“You’re notwithhim?” her dad said, his voice deadpan. “I don’t believe that, Violet.”
“I’m twenty-two,” she said.
“Oh, I’m well aware,” her father said. “But this is out of character. And that’s what worries me. It is not like you to take off without talking to us. It is not like you to blow off the holiday. What about the bakery?”
Guilt lashed at her. She hadn’t even thought about the bakery. How had she managed to overlook that?
“I’m so sorry,” Violet said. “I just... I handled everything with the bed-and-breakfast...” Wolf had. She hadn’t even done it. She had been a coward. A coward who was absolutely and completely invested in her own misery. “I haven’t felt very well over the last couple weeks and I...”
“Tell me what’s going on,” her dad said. “I need you to tell me what’s going on. Even if you aren’t lying, you’re leaving things out, and I can tell. This isn’t like you, Violet.”
“I am telling you what’s going on,” Violet said, feeling angry with herself, because she didn’t know how to talk to her dad when she knew she was going to disappoint him. “As best as I can. I don’t want you to be angry with me. I really need you to not be angry with me.”
“I can’t guarantee that,” he said. “Because I don’t know if you’re going to tell me that you went off to start a meth lab or you had some kind of a nervous breakdown. One of those things is going to make me angry.”
“It’s not a meth lab. And it’s not a nervous breakdown. But there are so many people in our house. So many Donnellys. Everywhere. And I love you. But there are some things going on, and I need to sort it all out for myself. I just have to. I have to try and figure this out on my own. Because if I don’t, then...”
“Tell me,” he said. “Otherwise I’m going to call the police.”
“And tell them what? That your twenty-two-year-old daughter who is perfectly fine went somewhere of her own free will?”
“I will still call them,” he growled.