“It’s true. You went against everything this family threw at you to become the person you were meant to be. I couldn’t be prouder of you, sweetheart. I’m so proud of your business and the success you’ve found with it. I’m proud of the way you’ve found love and made it your own. You’re a beautiful woman, Violet. Your mother and I love you. Thank you for giving us the chance to be better for you.”
Violet pushed her chair back and hurried over to her parents, hugging them both. She spoke quietly to both of them, making their moment private.
I gritted my teeth and focused on my breathing. So far, I was keeping it together. I looked over at Adam and saw him sniff once. Jayden was sitting perfectly still, but I could see a single tear slowly rolling down his cheek. He ignored it like it wasn’t happening. I thought we were okay when Violet sat back down. Then Pat went and fucked everything up.
“Also: Jayden, Adam, and Ian. You young men have given me the best gift. You gave Violet the solid ground to build up her confidence. You gave me my daughter back. Thank you for that.”
I groaned as tears filled my eyes. “Damn it, Pat.”
Jayden grabbed his napkin and pressed it into his eyes. “No one look at me.”
Adam sniffed twice more and cleared his throat. “What my best friends are trying to say is thank you, and that we beg to differ as to who got the best gift. We know how lucky we are to have Violet.”
Violet giggled, and then snorted when I shot her a glare. She reached up and ran her thumb under my eye, dragging away a tear. “You guys love me too much. It just leaks out of you.”
Jayden groaned even louder. “Stop it.”
I could hear Pat and Debbie laughing. Anthony seemed to be having a great time, too. “This is a family of bullies.”
Violet tried to stop giggling, but it was useless. I mentally started preparing an appropriate way to get back at her when we got home that night. She was going to feel so bad for laughing at us when she realized why we were so emotional in those moments.
“Can we eat now?” That was Sue, still bitter and bitchy.
Adam shot her an uncharacteristically dirty look. “No,Sue, youcan’teat now. Just relax.”
I choked on a laugh. I stillreallydisliked most of Violet’s aunts. They were about to become even more of a problem, though: the in-law kind.
Pat raised his voice again. “Violet, you found yourself three really good men. Respectful, too. And surprisingly traditional.”
Violet looked between the three of us and frowned. “Traditional?”
Jayden tossed his napkin down and stood up. “Traditional as hell, Angel.”
Adam and I stood up, and the three of us stood in front of our woman’s whole family. Jayden pulled Violet out of her chair and then stepped back in line with us. Her eyes went wide as she looked at each of us. The sound of Rose sobbing grew louder, but it was a nice cover for the moment any of us lost it.
“From the moment I met you, I knew I wanted to spend my life with you, Angel. You walked into my life and turned it upside down. With one smile, I was yours.” Jayden cleared his throat. “You ran, but I know now that life had its design already. You needed to meet Adam and Ian. You needed to find us and bring us together in a way that only you could.”
Epilogue 3
***Adam***
Itookadeepbreath before I began. “Do you remember the day we sat together at that coffee shop all those years ago? The one with the theme, so it was always swamped with people?”
Violet nodded, tears in her eyes. “You hated it.”
“I did. I hate a lot of things. Small talk. Crowds. Being social. That day, though, I sat there staring at you, making small talk, and I knew that I would sit in that coffee shop every single day for the rest of my life, making small talk, having people bump into me, if it meant I could see you and hear your voice. It’s always been like that with you. You make the bad things good and the good things sparkle, little rabbit.” I wiped a stray tear away and smiled. “I want small talk with you now. When you come in from work, I want to ask you what you had for lunch. I want to spend the rest of my life asking you how your day went. I want to tell you how mine went.”
Ian looked up from his boots and shook his head. “I had my opinion on things before I met you. I saw my parents’ marriage. At work, I see marriages crumble daily. I thought marriage was for suckers. Then you strolled into my life and made all that shit fade away. On our second date, I kissed you. You asked me if there’d been something wrong on our first date, and why I’d waited so long. You were so impatient that you were giving me shit even while I was trying to kiss you.
“On our third date, you told me that my apartment was messy.” He laughed. “I kept thinking that I was crazy for calling you and practically begging you to go out with me again. You were a pain in the ass, but I was lost that first night, and I think you knew it. It scared you. You’d already run from two good men. You gave me hell for a month. Everything I did was just slightly off. Still, I couldn’t walk away.”
Violet took the tissue Anthony handed her and blew her nose. “I was terrible. It was so hard to be a brat to you. But then you yelled at me.”
Ian held up his hands and smiled at Pat. “It’s not what you think. Violet nearly got herself killed by walking into the street without looking. I grabbed her and shouted, just a little bit, about how much she’d scared me. It was like a switch flipped. All the prickly behavior was gone instantly.”
“You saved me, and you didn’t focus on how dumb I’d been. You just told me how I’d made you feel.” Her lip wobbled. “I couldn’t pretend any longer.”
“It never occurred to me that I could walk away. Not once in the entirety of knowing you. It was never a choice. Not when you pretended to be a brat. Not when you ran away. Not when you came back, and I understood I’d never have you alone. Loving you is just a part of me, baby. It overshadowed everything I thought, and it grew into this thing that makes me fucking cry in front of people and makes me save every note you leave me.” Ian smiled like his entire world revolved around her. “You’ve had me from the very beginning.”