26. Violet
Chapter 26
Violet
“Baaaaa.” My new friend speaks to me as I pet her head. Dustin has been holding out on me this whole time. They have goats on the farm. And they are adorable. They are the perfect distraction. It’s exactly what I needed today. I was planning on spending the rest of the day in bed, rather than trying to do anything productive. After we spent the morning fishing he took me to the Rhett Family Farm. We rode around in the side-by-side while he gave me a tour of everything. First, we stopped by the barn to see some calves. They were adorable and he had to practically drag me out of there, promising that I can stop by anytime I want. Then we rode around the fields taking in the beautiful scenery, while checking all of the fences since his grandpa had a list of things for him to do. And now we're at our last stop for the day in the goat barn.
“So, what do you do with the goat’s milk?” I ask while petting my favorite one some more. Her name is Little Miss. She is a beautiful black, brown, and white Nigerian Dwarf goat. Her fur is soft and smooth to the touch, she’s extremely docile.
“Gram uses the milk to make cheeses, soap, lotions, and even dehydrates some too. She begged my grandpa to get some goats for years and he finally caved. Even though he takes care of them. She uses all of the milk and makes things for us. It’s more of a hobby for them at the moment.” He scoops some pellets and drops them into a trough. “Little Miss has been producing milk for about half a year after kidding. But we have to make sure that she’s milked regularly. So that she keeps producing.”
“She doesn’t sell anything that she makes?”
“No, she just trades it for eggs and gives it out around town. But I’m thinking about breeding some more goats and producing larger batches of milk so that we can expand the farm's business. Maybe I could start selling it at Valley Harvest. They already offer local honey, milk, and syrup. I think the goat cheeses would do well.”
“That’s such a good idea! You’d have me as a customer. I love goat cheese. Also, I need some of this soap and lotion as soon as possible.”
“I’m sure Gram will send you home with a bag of goodies after dinner tonight.”
That’s news to me. I didn’t know I was joining them for dinner. I was not expecting to stay. I really don’t want to step in on their family dinner. But I haven’t had a home cooked meal that wasn’t of my own making in years so the idea is very tempting. “Are you sure I can join? I don’t want to be a bother.”
Looking agitated at my indecision he says, “You are not a bother at all, my gram will be giddy at the prospect of a girl at dinner. Believe me, she will be trying to add you to the family by the end of the night. Anyways, she always makes enough food to feed an army. I called her earlier to let her know you’d be joining us. Hoping you would say yes.”
I would love that. I’ve been missing being part of a family for so long.
“You didn’t exactly ask me, you just proclaimed I was going.” I shrug my arms across my chest. I smirk, knowing I would have gone either way.
“I didn’t want to give you the chance to say no—” He shrugs. “You promised me that favor and I’m cashing in on it tonight.”
Oh no.
It’s five fifty-five and Dustin told me if we aren’t sitting at his grandma’s dinner table at exactly six sharp she will not be happy with us. She’s old-fashioned when it comes to traditions. Dinner has to be religiously on time every night. If you’re late your food will be cold and there is no reheating it. He doesn’t dare show up late when he can help it.
The farmhouse is stunning inside. We enter through the back door straight into a mudroom. The small room houses a washer, dryer, laundry sink, and shoe rack. We scrub our hands and set our boots on the rack. Spending the majority of the day with the goats and cows in the pasture, we wouldn’t dare step foot in the house with them on. The interior is exactly what I’d pictured it would look like, decorated with crisp white walls, warm hardwood floors, antique cuckoo clocks, and scenery paintings. The mudroom leads straight to a dining room with a large oak table, set for four people. The decorating style is inviting and homey.
A woman walks out from the entryway; I assume she’s his grandmother. Her long gray hair is tied up on top of her head, a floral apron is wrapped around her waist tied into a neat bow at the front. She beams a wide smile, and I instantly feel at ease in her company. Her presence exudes warmth.
“Gram. This is Violet. Violet, this is Gram,” Dustin introduces us.
She wipes her floured hands across the sides of her apron. The dust floats through the air in a cloud. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, honey. I don’t know why we haven’t crossed paths before,” She pulls me into a tight embrace. The pleasant fragrance of parsley, spices, and a hint of rose fill my nostrils. She pinches my cheeks. “Oh honey you are so pretty.”
“Thank you.” I blush. “It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Rhett.” It takes all of my restraint not to rub my sore cheeks. What is it with grandmas and squeezing cheeks? It’s painful; they have an iron grip!
“Oh dear, please call me Gram. Anyways, I will be your Gram soon, I hope.” She winks at Dustin.
I thought I was blushing before.
I was wrong.
Now my face is a thousand shades of red. I sneak a glance at Dustin. His eyebrows shoot up. He gives me a, I told you she’d say that look. I try to stifle a giggle, but cough into my arm instead to cover it up. I never was good at holding in a laugh.
“Please Gram. You’re going to scare her away,” Dustin chastises her.
“Oh dear, if she’s here with you right now there isn’t much more I could do. You don’t need my help in that department. You would have scared her away already.” She shrugs as I snort, covering my face again.
Dustin stares at his grandmother, giving her the stink eye, and grunts a reply, “Way to boost my ego.”
“Your ego is big enough for all of us.” Gram claps her still-floured hands. “Okay, pleasantries over. Let’s eat youngins. I hope you like chicken and dumplings. Because that’s what we’re having.”
My stomach grumbles so loudly. It sounds like thunder booming in the room. I grin sheepishly and look away. Embarrassed by my lack of control when it comes to my appetite. Gram chuckles, seemingly approving of my hunger.
“Where’s Grandpa? He’s late.” Dustin questions her. Dustin pulls out my chair for me and sits to my left. Gram takes a seat across from me.
“He’ll be here any second. I sent him into the canning closet to grab us a jar of my homemade applesauce.” She checks the watch on her wrist. “He’s not late anyway, one more minute until six.” I make a mental note to never be late if I’m invited again. He definitely wasn’t exaggerating about that.
“What did I miss?” His grandpa walks in, taking a seat next to Gram. “Hi Miss Violet, nice to see you again.” He beams a tender smile in my direction.
“Nice to see you again, Mr. Rhett,” I say.
“We’ve been over this. Please call me George. Or better yet, Grandpa. Whatever you prefer.”
They are really trying hard to bring me into the family and I can’t complain. Being alone for these past two years has been really hard on me. Darcy kept me company for so many years after I lost my parents, always making sure I had a warm meal and time to spend with her each day. She was like a stunning rainbow after a storm. The sunshine after rain, bringing so much warmth and hope into my life. She cared for me when I didn’t want to do it for myself anymore. I had no motivation, no will to continue. She pushed me to live my life. To find a small piece of something to look forward to every day.
“Don’t let anything steal your joy,” was what she’d always say. She was right. Each day got a little bit easier with the grief I held. Then she moved into the retirement home, and it felt like my world was ending all over again. Even though I still visit, it's not the same as living with her.
It feels surreal to be sitting at a dinner table within a family setting. “Dig in,” Gram says. “You all need to put some more meat on your bones.”
I giggle. Dustin makes eyes at her again and I can tell he’s uncomfortable. It looks like he's afraid they may do something to embarrass him. I wish I could tell him there’s nothing they could do or say to ruin this dinner. I’m just grateful to be within their company.
We fill our plates with helpings of chicken and dumplings. It’s the most delicious meal I have ever eaten. The conversations are mostly between George and Dustin. They’ve been discussing the work they have planned for tomorrow: checking fences, putting out some hay for the cows, and the prospect of breeding more goats for more milk. A lot of the conversation I have a hard time following. I nod in agreement at all the right times and eat the yummy grub.
“Violet, how are you and Dustin doing in the competitions? Has he been treating you right?” Gram asks me, turning the conversation.
Dustin's hand slightly grazes mine under the table and the connection startles me with a fuzzy feeling, sending electric bolts through my tingling fingers. I say, “They’ve been—eventful? We fell in a bunch of mud during the treasure hunt. Dustin coaxed a chicken over the finish line to get first place on the first week by complimenting her.” I chuckle. “He’s been treating me well. I have no complaints. Quite the gentleman saving me from falling multiple times and constantly helping me back up from my clumsiness. You raised him right.”
“That’s good to hear. You promise to let me know if he gets out of line?”
“Yes ma'am,” I say.
“Great, I’ll grab the apple pie. George, can you help me with the serving plates?” They both scurry off into the kitchen.
“Thanks for that. I wouldn’t have gotten dessert for a month if you would have said one bad thing about me. I know I was a little grumpy with you at first.”
“There isn’t really anything I can say that’s bad.” In all honesty he’s been nothing but kind to me since we’ve become friends. It may be true that I thought he was rude when we first met. But today I saw another side of him. A softer one that he hides from the outside world. He’s saved me from having a miserable, lonely day spent grieving. He turned it around and now I can say today was the first time since the accident that I have been truly happy on the anniversary. And I think my parents are smiling as they watch me really start to live again.
We finished up dessert, and the pie was just as good as the one Dustin shared with me a week ago. I insisted on helping with the dishes. Dustin scurried off scratching his nose—it’s part of the signal we came up with. While his grandpa sits in the living room flicking through the channels, my job is to keep them both occupied for the next thirty or so minutes so that he can set up the antenna on the roof.
This better work. Or else I am never going to live this down.
I’m drying the dishes as Gram scrubs them in the sink. She hands me a plate to dry. I swipe a towel across the smooth surface as we continue to talk.
“Thank you,” she says over the running water.
“What for?”
“For bringing the old Dustin back again. I haven’t seen him this happy for a long time.”
“I didn’t do anything.” At least I don’t think I did.
“You did do something. Even if you don’t realize it. There’s something different about him. He looks so happy. I don’t think I’ve seen him truly smile like this in years. Every year when we came to see him for the holidays, he was a shell of himself.” She hands me another plate. “Dustin used to come here every summer to help on the farm. He would spend every day working on things with George. Building that A-frame he's living in now, bailing hay, learning how to take care of the animals. But as soon as he had to go back home, he would change, his smile would fade. I think this place gives him hope for his future. I think you give him hope. He won’t ever admit this, but he secretly loves it here.”
The prospect of Dustin staying here warms my heart. I don’t want him to leave.
I smile at Gram. “I think so too.”
A drilling sound comes from the roof, and I know it’s my cue. I really hate to do this, especially to these beautiful ceramic plates. If these were passed down from generations Dustin is going to be sorry, but it was the only way we could distract them from what he was doing.
“What was that?” His grandpa yells from the living room.
I toss the plate when she isn’t looking and it shatters into a million pieces. “I’m so sorry!”
This plan is actually genius. With how clumsy I am all of the time, it could be believable that I would break something.
“It’s okay honey it’s just a plate, no harm done. Let me help you clean that up.”
We clean up the pieces and toss them into the trash. I look up to the kitchen window and a cord is swinging back and forth.
We are so caught.
His grandma looks up from the dishes and it’s gone. “What’s wrong honey? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“No! I just feel really bad about your plate.” That’s true, I do, but I’m so glad she didn’t see that cord.
After cleaning up the mess and finishing up the rest of the dishes Dustin comes strolling in with a grin on his face. “It was a success,” he whispers.
“No, it wasn’t” I mumble under my breath.
“What was a success?” his grandma asks.
“Oh, I was able to build Violet a wooden sign for her shop in the garage, you probably heard me drilling it.”
“That’s what that noise was! I thought I was hearing things,” his grandpa says over the chatter of the game in the background. Dustin looks at me with pleading eyes.
My lips are sealed.
“That’s so sweet of you! Can I see it?”
“Could we show you another time? I'm feeling really tired,” I say quickly because I know damn well there isn’t a sign anywhere. And once the cat is out of the bag neither of them are going to be happy with Dustin or me.
“Of course, honey, I’ll let you two love birds go for the night.”
I smile sheepishly as Dustin’s gaze meets mine. Gram’s beaming with a huge grin as we say goodbye. She even invites me over for dinner whenever I want. The thought almost brings me to tears. Dustin walks me to his house. Once we are far enough from his grandparents’ house I say, “You are ridiculous, you know that right?”
“Why, what did I do?” His eyebrows shoot up.
“Don’t look so innocent. You made me break a dish. A plate that has been in your family for generations. It’s over a hundred years old. I felt so bad. And she almost saw the cord swinging by the window for five minutes.”
“Shit. Was she upset?”
“No, she didn’t mind at all. Apparently, she's broken a couple over the years.”
“I’m sorry I put you in that position, but now if they never need anything they can call someone.”
“That’s true. At least one good thing came out of breaking that and giving me heart palpitations.” I chuckle. He grins back.
“Can I take you somewhere?” Dustin asks, looking shy for the first time.
“Yes. I don’t have anywhere to be,” I say.
“I thought you were tired.”
“You know I was just trying to save you.”
We stop at his house, and he starts up his Grandpa's truck. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
He comes out the door a few minutes later holding a huge bag and throws it into the back with a thud. Dustin climbs in the driver's seat and starts to head to a dirt road at the beginning of the pasture. He gets out to open a large gate and closes it once we pull through.
“Are you going to murder me and shove me in that bag back there?”
“No!” he shouts. “I’m trying to do something nice but failing miserably. Just entertain me?” I nod, pulling my hair out of the ponytail and letting it fall over my shoulders.
He parks the truck in the middle of the field. A picturesque sky meets the green grass. Trees scatter around like little dots in the distance. The hillside slopes around the valley we are parked in. There aren't any buildings or lights in sight.
He unzips the bag and pulls out two huge comforters and pillows and sets them up in the back of the truck. He pulls out two old-fashioned battery powered lanterns, arranging everything up nice and cozy for us to lay down in. I watch him in awe.
No one has ever done anything like this for me. I feel like I’m living a scene out of a movie .
We lay down next to each other on our backs and stare at the sky. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever dreamt of. Pastel pinks, light blues, and white wisps paint it like a canvas. Each stroke is intentional. Making for the most jaw-dropping sunset. The peaceful sounds of birds singing and cows mooing echo in the distance. It’s as if the sound is pure nature. My breath hitches in awe. The view from town is similar, but nothing compares to the sight of nothing else but us. I rack my brain for the right words to describe it. But nothing comes to mind, so I settle with the one thing I can think of: “This is—wow—beautiful.”
“I used to think that too, but things have changed,” he says, staring up at the sky.
“What changed?” I wonder out loud.
“You.” He turns his head to the side to look at me. “ You are more beautiful than the sunset. More so than all of the stars in the sky.” I look into his blue eyes; they are filled with sincerity. It’s then I believe his words. It shocks me to my core. He stares at my lips and back into my heady gaze. It’s just like the time we lay in the mud. But this time there isn’t cold rain pelting us, or mud caked all over me. This time I know what I want.
I press my lips against his hesitantly. Bursts of fireworks explode in my stomach at the connection. At first, the mere touch is hesitant and gentle. Instantly soft yet captivating. It sends a shiver down my spine. All thoughts are a blur. He traces his fingers over my jaw and strands of unruly hair out of my closed eyes. I smile against his touch. Dustin’s lips are inviting, smooth, mesmerizing. I want to savor this moment forever. I know that it won’t ever be enough. Inevitably one of us will have to break away. The trees, sky, and soon reality too fade into the background as the kiss deepens. I never knew it could feel like this. I’ve only kissed a few other guys, but nothing ever felt this exceptional.
I put my fingers through his hair and with my other hand I hold his cheek, feeling the stubble on his face. It’s scratchy against my touch. I let go suddenly because I have to get something off my chest.
“Are we still friends? Because friends don’t normally kiss,” I say in all seriousness. Unless they’re friends with benefits. But I don’t want us to be like that.
“Yes, we’ll always be friends, but that's what I wanted to talk to you about.”
My heart drops to my stomach.
Does he want to end this so-called friendship and be done with me? Have I scared him off? Did I do something wrong?
The doubts run through my mind. I’ve ruined so many things in my life before. I’m not ready to lose this one good thing that's just within my grasp.
Dustin tilts my head up and his gaze meets mine. “I don’t want to be just anything anymore. We were just enemies. Maybe we could have been considered rivals at one point. Who am I kidding—we were never enemies. We were just acquaintances, just friends. I want more, so much more.”
My eyes fill with unshed tears. “So what do you want to be?”
“Well, you could start off with being my girlfriend.”
My heart races a mile a minute. Ready to beat directly out of my chest. I have never felt this way about a man before. Passion filled visceral feelings. It’s terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. My decision is clear. “I’d love that.”
He hugs me tighter as the sky slowly transitions from indigo to black. The stars sparsely spread across the darkness, peeking out from the pitch-black sky. A chill fills the air, but I’m not cold. I feel so warm and safe in his arms. I don’t ever want to leave his embrace.