Chapter 25
twenty-five
. . .
Rowan
Iwatch from the front porch as Violet’s car pulls out of the driveway. Her scent lingers in the air, sweet and soft and so fucking Violet. The warmth she left behind is already cooling, and all I can hear in my head is, apple usually doesn’t fall far from the tree, son.
It shouldn’t matter at this point. I’m not him. I’ve spent my whole damn life making sure of that. No bottle. No broken promises. Just distance and enough discipline to keep the worst of it buried.
But David Larkin didn’t even flinch when he said it. Just looked me dead in the eye like he already knew I’d disappoint his daughter. He’s already written the ending and is just waiting for me to prove him right.
The part that kills me is that there’s a version of me, the younger one, the one that left her without a word, that did prove him right.
I drop down onto the couch, elbows on my knees, palms pressed together. My heart’s kicking around in my ribs, trying to get out and chase after the woman who just left.
I haven’t felt like this since I was a teenager, fists clenched in my room while my old man drank himself stupid in the next one over.
Back then, I didn’t know how to fix anything.
Walking away was easier than waiting around to be the disappointment everyone expected. What if that part of me is still there?
The runner. The coward.
My throat burns, my hands itching with the familiar urge to act, to smash something, to run.
Do anything but sit here with the reality that maybe David Larkin isn’t wrong.
Maybe no matter how many years have passed, no matter how many promises I make to myself, I’m still wired for wreckage.
For a second, the idea that I’m not built for more than this seems so real.
I should let her go before I mess it up all over again.
But then I see her face in my mind, the way she smiled at me over her coffee, like the world could burn down around us and she’d still find something good to hold onto.
I bury my head in my hands, exhaling a breath that’s been stuck in my chest for years. I’m not my father, and I’m not that scared kid anymore, either.
If I’m going to be the man she deserves, I’m going to have to earn it. Every day. Every goddamn minute. Violet Larkin isn’t the kind of girl you break twice and live to tell about it. I already got off easy the first time.
I’m not working right now, which doesn’t help the perception. The jobs I’ve taken and the money I’ve invested have put me in a spot where I can live comfortably for a while, but I always intended on finding work after I bought this place. It’s probably time to do that.
I dig out my phone and scroll through my list of contacts.
I click on my cousin, Cain. He knows some folks who run a private security firm that specializes in overseas contracts and corporate protection.
It’d mean long hours. Travel. Commitment.
But it’s something that would prove I’m not just a guy in the past.
The phone rings twice.
“Cain,” he answers.
I draw a breath. “It’s Wolfe.”
He pauses. “Holy shit. I thought you fell off the map.”
“Trying to climb back on,” I say. “You still know that guy who runs private security?”
“Yeah. You looking to stay stateside or go private client again?”
“I’ll go where I’m needed.”
I stare out at the edge of the yard where the weeds have started creeping past the fence line, and I think about everything I’ve built since I came back. It’s not much—just a roof that doesn’t leak, a truck that runs, a bed that smells like her shampoo. It’s still more than I ever had growing up.
And now, I’ve got her.
Christ, it’d be so easy to stay in this bubble. To keep sleeping in late with her limbs wrapped around mine, stealing kisses over coffee, pretending the world doesn’t expect more from me than just being here.
Unfortunately, I know better.
This weight of wanting to be enough doesn’t go away just because she looks at me like I already am. That stubborn belief in me is exactly why I need to do this.
I need to be someone Violet can count on, even if it means doing the one thing I swore I never would again.
Leaving.
Only this time, it’s not about running. It’s about building something solid enough that I don’t come back empty-handed. It’s about becoming the man who stays, even when he’s gone for a while.