‘Oh, Violet.’
‘Bit unlucky, right?’ She swallowed hard. ‘But then, super-lucky at the same time, because we caught it early and there was aggressive treatment and a good prognosis.’
‘But there was a rough time to go through with that aggressive treatment.’
Yeah, ithadbeen rough. ‘I dropped out of school.’ She nodded. ‘I didn’t go to my school ball or anything, and that was okay, because I was so, so tired and I felt...’ She flushed. She’d felt unattractive—losing her hair, then the impact of the steroids later on.
‘When I was finally improving, my family wanted me to relax, not worry and just take my time. They didn’t want me to go to uni. They wanted me to stay at home for ever, where they could keep me safe. Mum wanted to make everything so perfect for me. Especially Christmas. But it can’t be perfect, you know? And, honestly, I just wanted to travel. I wanted to be free. I wanted to have someadventure, have some fun now I was finally well enough to.’
‘So you should. Life’s for living.’
‘Right.’ She flashed him a grateful smile for understanding. ‘I did a tourism paper at the polytechnic. Then got a guide job down the road—just part-time. I did another paper, and tried to get my family used to the idea, because I didn’t want to hurt them. I know they love me. I know they just want to protect me. And I slowly saved up enough money to buy my ticket overseas.’
‘But they still didn’t want you to go?’
Violet’s heart ached. He was too astute.
‘I couldn’t wait,’ she said huskily. ‘I didn’t want to struggle through another family Christmas.’
‘You really don’t like Christmas?’ He frowned. ‘You were wearing Christmas pyjamas last night.’
‘I told you, they were on sale.’ She gazed up at him. ‘Christmas is the worst, right? There’s such expectation, always making everything perfect. It sounds so spoiled of me—not to appreciate that they would go to such lengths. But it was stifling. It didn’t matter to me. I wanted to relax and just enjoy being with them and having some fun. Instead there was this underlying, fraught element. Mum was so afraid all of the time.’
She sighed. ‘They want nothing but the best for me—to protect me. And they did. I don’t mean to make them sound awful or for me to sound ungrateful. They’re wonderful. They love me and I do love them.’
‘It’s okay if things aren’t perfect, Violet—if you struggle with them. It doesn’t make you a bad daughter to have a moan or to regret the way some things were. It makes you human. Everyone has issues with family.’
‘Even you?’
‘Yeah, well, I don’t have family. I guess that’s an issue in itself.’
Violet looked up at him, but he turned to focus on something beyond the lake.
‘You’re used to being alone,’ she said.
‘Yeah.’ He nodded. ‘I guess I’m not quite sure how to cope with the unexpected family we now find ourselves with.’
She wasn’t sure either. And the irony of it... Embarrassment slithered across her skin but she told him anyway. ‘It’s the family joke that I’ll need to marry well because I’m not going to have some massive money-making career like them. But that it won’t matter because I’ll have some guy to “look after me”. Because I bring out everyone’s protective instincts because I’m small and a bit stupid.’ She watched the tension enter Roman’s stance as she spoke and then shrugged. ‘Yeah, they’re going love you. They’re going to think you’re just the best thing ever!’
‘But you don’t,’ he said. ‘You’re worried I’m going to stop you from doing all the things you want.’
For sure, the man was too smart.
‘That’s not what I want to do, Violet.’ He studied her and that frown of his returned. ‘Why did you tell me about the cancer that night? Didn’t you think it might scare me off completely? Or make me all over-protective? That I’d treat you like you’re more fragile because of it?’
‘But you didn’t,’ she said softly. ‘I knew you were decent at heart, but to be honest you’re also kind of ruthless. You were anonymous and bold. My past didn’t matter to you. It wasn’t going to stop you from...’
‘Taking what I wanted,’ he said huskily.
‘Taking what I was offering. And giving me what you could. Which is all I wanted.’ She faced him, unable to stop herself admitting the deep truth. ‘I wanted to be able to behonestwith someone—especially someone I was literally going to open up to. If you’d handled it differently, I would have stopped. But you didn’t just accept it, you toldmesomething too, and then neither of those things mattered to what was real right then in that moment. But they did make itmoresomehow. I didn’t want to hide anything. I wanted just to be me. And you let me.’
And she was still grateful to him for that. ‘I want to be able to tell the truth about how I’m feeling without someone immediately taking drastic steps to try tofixit. Sometimes you just want someone to listen, you know? Just to be there and listen and keep you company while it all washes through.’
‘Right.’ He breathed out, a gust of tension escaping him. ‘Okay.’
‘So maybe we could keep being that honest?’ she suggested.
He regarded her steadily. ‘Sure. I’ll try.’ He hesitated before reaching out and toying with a strand of her hair. ‘And your health now?’