The beast responded with a resoundingno. “I like being alone.”
“You’re alone too much.”
“Define that. I think that I need time alone. I’m used to it.”
Sawyer’s expression became far too serious. And given that his brother was serious by nature, that it could get even more so was saying something. “Wolf, you manage to be alone in rooms full of people. It’s your superpower. But it’s not a particularly great one.”
“We’re different people, Sawyer. We don’t need the same things.”
“Going back to Breanna, I think that suggests we do need the same things. I thought I didn’t need that. I thought I didn’t need to be in love. You think you had it. And that’s it. But you had a lot of life to live in the meantime, and...”
Wolf cut him off.
“And I know enough to know what I’m not doing again. Thanks, though.”
He stared off into the horizon and took a breath. Then he brought the axe down on the next log.
“That’s fine,” Sawyer said. “Don’t listen to your brother who successfully fixed his life.”
“We both knowEvelynfixed your life.”
He chuckled. “Yeah. I guess so.”
When Wolf went home that night, the house was empty and dark. And it felt empty and dark. There were leftovers in the fridge, though, which was all Violet. Because without her, there wouldn’t have been anything. He heated them up, and sat on the couch in front of the tree. Did she want him to go to Copper Ridge?
He ate his burger and leftover oven fries and tried to find the same sort of relaxation he usually felt when he was in his house by himself. It was how he had lived for a long damned time. And he should like it. But the house felt empty and his bed felt empty. And he was irritated at Sawyer for introducing the idea that maybe staying here wasn’t the best idea.
You’re good at being alone in a room full of people.
Yeah. He was. That was true. But the fact that he felt alone so profoundly right now...
He didn’t do alone when Violet was here. Not in the same way. She demanded more engagement from him. She demanded more of him...in general.
He plugged in the damned Christmas tree. Because the room seemed dark without it on. But then he discovered the Christmas lights didn’t really help.
It was too dark without Violet here. That was the bottom line.
And when he went to bed, it was too empty.
VIOLETANDCLARAmade light conversation in the car the whole way back to town, and Violet made it her mission to point out each and every decoration on the main street of Copper Ridge as they drove to the Donnelly ranch. Because she was trying very much not to turn all of this into conversations about her love life. “Want to head out around one?”
“Sure,” she said. Clara dropped her at the front of her house and then drove off. Probably thinking it best to give her a little bit of time alone with her parents.
Her car was there, in front of the barn, just as Clara had promised it would be.
She felt so oddly relieved. There was something so familiar about it, and she had been awash in unfamiliarity for a long time.
She hitched her toiletry bag up her arm and walked to the front of the house. The door swung open before she could knock.
“Oh, my gosh,” Alison said, pulling her in for a hug. “You’rehere.”
“Who’s at the bakery?” Violet asked.
“I hired a woman who had some previous experience. It’s fine.”
“Oh.”
So apparently, they could get along without her. And Alison wasn’t mad.