“I had to get a calf out of barbed wire, but I think you win.” He stood there for a moment. “Is he going to kill me?”
“If you were in proximity, I have a feeling he might try.”
“Right. Well. Give me the phone.”
“What?”
“I want to talk to your dad.”
“Youdo notwant to talk to my dad.”
“I do.”
She had absolutely no idea what to make of that. She took the phone and handed it to him, unlocking it as she did. “Last call. Good luck.”
She could only stare. Why did this man... Why did he just make no sense to her at all? She had no clue what he was thinking half the time. None at all.
He tapped the bar with her dad’s number in it and waited.
“Hello?”
He put it on speaker.
“This is Wolf Garrett,” he said.
“What?”
“I told Violet I wanted to talk to you. She gave me her phone. She told me that she talked to you today.”
“Yeah,” her dad said. “She did.”
Wolf didn’t know her dad well enough to hear the outright murder in his voice. Violet heard it. Violet knew that if Wolf were in front of her father right now he’d be down for the count and not getting back up anytime soon.
“I just wanted to let you know that I intend to do right by her. Whatever that is. Whatever it looks like,” Wolf said.
There was a long silence. “Look, son, I already know you didn’tdo right by her. That’s the problem. You can see how I have a little bit of an issue accepting that you’re going to do any better moving forward.”
“I agree. Violet is a nice woman. Reports on my niceness are mixed. But I believe in being responsible. And I sure as hell believe in doing the right thing. If she’ll have me, I’d like to marry her.”
“Are you asking permission?”
“No,” Wolf said.
“I suggest you do.”
Wolf shifted. “If it gets to that.”
“You have a lot of balls.”
“Yeah. Well, that’s never been my issue. But I do believe in being up front. So now that she’s told you, I wanted to make sure that I spoke to you.”
“I don’t know whether or not I admire that.”
“You don’t have to decide now,” Wolf said.
“No man wants to accept that his child is grown. But I have to. So. All I can say is this. I myself am in possession of a predug six-foot hole and a very large bag of lime. I will make your ass disappear.”
She was almost sure she saw Wolf’s expression shift to one of...respect. “Noted.”