And now, things were dragging.
Thankfully, Henrik had returned from his trip to Canada. When he had said up north, she hadn’t expected a different country. She was thinking New York... maybe Ohio.
Freaking Canada?
But he had returned to both her and her bed after just a few days, muttering something about bears. Whatever. She didn’t care. Just so long as he was back, and not leaving again.
The waiting, though, seemed to have paused everything between them. Because, what was the point in trying to tempt fate when soon, they could have the real thing. More than once, she had asked, had offered, to touch him through his pants. And every time, he brushed off the thought.
After all, they wanted more. She wanted more. She did. Just...
He was so close. So masculine. The scent of his soap filled her apartment. The roughness of his voice in the morning rocked her to her core. The gentle giant he had always been was now showing her care in everything from making breakfast together to him bringing her tea while she worked on clients...
It was driving her crazy, and they were on like... day three of sharing a bed, after his return.
Ugh. She just... needed to finish up all of the pieces she had already started, catch clients to try and figure out future schedules, and then...
Ugh. It was a good thing the holidays were so close, because she could blame it on that. Did she want to return to her tattoo shop? Of course. Yeah. Sure. Only...
There was no telling what the hell the boundary line was going to do once she entered.
Whatever spells her mother had twisted as they departed Garoureve... she had to undo them before she would be leaving again, most likely.
If she even could undo them.
But first, she needed to console Sam, who was a crying fucking mess over absolute nothing.
“I just… You can’t leave me, Vi! I have this guy thing, and—“
“When did we become the sort of women who worry about men?” Violet asked as she continued pulling out supplies. They were on the fourth of five sessions for Sam’s most recent tattoo, which they would have to try and wrap up before she headed out of town. “And you’re crying about one? Sam, the dick couldn’t possibly be that good.”
“It was good. I swear, he makes me think I could actually do commitment. We talked about it! I said we would do it! We would be, you know, a serious relationship, and then he just… leaves!”
“Did he tell you he was leaving?” Violet asked as she moved to the sink to wash her hands. “I mean… have you stopped by his house? Did he just ghost you? Stop answering your calls?”
“It’s… I mean, sort of, but he doesn’t really have good phone service. It’s kind of weird.”
“Weird like he’s not connected to technology or weird like he might have multiple phones?”
“Weird like he had a phone he didn’t understand how to work,” Sam explained, dabbing at her eyes as she spoke. “And, I don’t know. Sometimes he says things that don’t make sense. Like… he’d never heard of online gaming before. He’s good at like… old games. I figured he was just into vintage things, but—“
“Your definition of weird and my definition of weird are very different.”
Sam rolled her eyes again but huffed without adding on much more. Great, so now it was getting awkward.
“Listen, I’m not going anywhere permanently. I’m just going to visit my family. It’s important that Henrik and I go together.”
“You visit family for a weekend, babe. Maybe like... a four day holiday? But a month? And you’re not even sure you’ll be back in the end.”
“Sam...”
“I just... You’re not even telling me where you’re going.”
Yeah, that was something Violet had been avoiding, because if she put an actual name on it, then Sam would try to look it up, and that would be impossible. Oh, the glories of living in a place that didn’t exist to most humans.
“It’s in western Tennessee, sort of.” Although sometimes the town appeared more in the Kentucky area. It was influenced by the lines running under the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, so... “Literally so small there isn’t even a stop sign. We haven’t been back since we left, basically, and no one there seems to be able to answer the phone.”
Also known as... it likely meant there was no witch in residence, otherwise, they would pick up the house phone when she tried to call.