Chapter 10
Leo almost wished he was being traded. He couldn’t believe Violet had asked him to leave last week after he’d given her the sweetest kiss.
Then she’d kissed him right back, and it had been like floating on air.
Why, if they were such good friends, couldn’t she just trust him? What he felt was real, as was everything he’d said. He wanted commitment, friendship, that special something he knew some couples had that ran so deep words weren’t even needed, and Violet was his chance to have that.
He was pretty sure she felt it, too, but was scared. Was it because she’d been burned in the past and thought he would break her heart?
Violet was so incredibly easy to be with, and she helped him reach for things he couldn’t even see on his own. She tested him and improved him just by being herself. How could that not be love? He thought about her all the time, and at the moment he was grumpy, unfocused, and couldn’t sleep.
He was either having a mental breakdown or in love.
Either way, he was going crazy. She’d wanted to sleep on it, but hadn’t called or texted the next day. He’d waited. And waited. Nothing. No word. He was giving her space, but it was so damn hard.
And now he feared he’d given her too much space, because a week had passed. He’d had a string of away games, and when he’d finally seen her in the rink’s tunnels yesterday, she’d waved and then quickly ducked into her locker room.
There was no way she was still feeling vulnerable after a week, which meant she didn’t want to talk about moving from friends to lovers. She was done. Running away from him and not giving him an answer was her answer. It was a polite no thank you.
An answer he really didn’t want to accept.
His frustration and inability to fix things made him want to punch something.
The man she was looking for was right here.
Here.
But he had a plan. Tonight they’d talk, or at least he’d apologize. He was on her turf, one of the bachelors to be auctioned off at the Sweetheart Creek library fundraiser, where he’d help someone with a day of chores.
When he’d signed up, he’d been thinking of Violet. When he’d chosen the shirt for tonight—one she’d told him never to wear when meeting Christine—he’d been thinking of Violet. Now, standing in front of a barn full of women under twinkling lights and Valentine’s Day decorations, he thought of Violet.
But he didn’t see her anywhere, and he’d been here for thirty minutes. Both Daisy-Mae and the local librarian, Karen, had made it sound as though she was a volunteer. But they hadn’t seen her, either. Nobody had.
Which meant the chances were very slim that he was going to be auctioned off to Violet tonight and enjoy a happily ever after.
He supposed, if nothing else, he should be glad he wasn’t alone in this misery. Louis Bellmore was standing beside him. Although instead of looking uncomfortable, he was gazing at a woman in the second row, one with wavy brown hair. She caught his eye and smiled, giving a little wave that said all sorts of things in a message meant for Louis, but understood by plenty.
“Are you gaming the system?” Leo asked, turning to the coach. “Is she your girlfriend? Is she bidding on you tonight?” The woman looked familiar, and he was fairly certain she was one of Violet’s friends. The one with her arch enemy living next door or something like that.
Louis narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me? Are you accusing me of cheating?”
“Rigging the game, actually.”
Louis turned back to the crowd, shoulders straight, fighting a smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, sure. How long have you been dating?”
“It took a while to convince her.”
“So, like, your whole life?”
Louis stared at him for a long moment as though contemplating how much he might be worth in an immediate trade. Leo considered apologizing, but instead squared his own shoulders.
“Mind your own business,” Louis muttered.
So Louis had a love life. How had that happened? That joke he and Violet had made a while back about him being in love hadn’t actually been jokes…
“It’s possible to have a life outside of hockey,” Louis added.
“Huh,” Leo repeated. “Hey, have you seen Violet?”
“Nope.” Louis grinned at the woman in the second row again. The way they were making eyes at each other was almost too much.
“I hope they have barf bags around here,” Leo muttered.
He scanned the crowd again, catching the gaze of Mrs. Fisher, the Longhorn Diner’s waitress. She was old enough to be his mother and was eagerly waiting for things to begin from her seat in the front row. She gave him a little wave and blew a kiss.
Wasn’t she married?
And where was Violet?
From where Violet was sitting, in the tiny hayloft that served as an office in the town’s community events barn, she could see Leo waiting for the bidding to start. The fundraiser had changed since last year. There were no more blind match-ups, so you knew who you were bidding on to take care of chores for you. Smart move, because having Louis and Leo standing around, ready to be bid upon, was setting mouths watering.
Violet had cringed when she’d noticed Leo’s name on the list of bachelors for tonight. He wasn’t going to let her hide from him any longer. And seeing that he was wearing that awful Hawaiian shirt she’d told him was way too bright to be in fashion anywhere on the planet, he was definitely looking for her attention.
Which was fair, and she commended him on using any means possible. She’d been avoiding him since their last kiss, and she held no pride in her general gutlessness. But she was scared.
What if he wasn’t actually offering love?
Or what if he was, and then got traded?
What if she was being a big chicken and was about to lose out on the biggest love of her life?
She inhaled a steadying breath and double-checked her clipboard and bachelor tags, knowing she was putting off going down there and seeing Leo.
She needed to take the risk and say yes to him. She could ask to take things slowly, and find out where he truly was with the idea of love and family.
“Who are you bidding on tonight?” Jenny asked, joining Violet in the loft as she collected the fundraiser’s cash box. She must have caught something in Violet’s expression because she stopped. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She held the clipboard closer to her chest. She planned to take a leap and bid on Leo tonight. However, the idea of putting herself out there made her light-headed, and she didn’t think discussing it would help. “Are you bidding on Dylan?”
Jenny laughed hard. “Dylan?” she gasped. “No way.”
“I thought you two had a little something going on underneath all the fighting.”
Jenny’s cheeks turned pink, but she continued shaking her head. “He’s sweet. Really. But the two of us? I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
Jenny shrugged and waved her free hand. “What about you? Daisy-Mae said you were trying a dating app?”
Violet rolled her eyes. “There are a lot of fish out in the sea and that’s exactly where they’re going to stay.”
Jenny gave an amused snort of understanding. “Glowing recommendation for me to try the app.”
“Truthfully, I haven’t gotten past the chat-online stage with anyone.”
“Slim pickings?”
“I don’t know. I was going to meet a few of them in real life, but I sort of lost the heart for it.” Mostly because Leo had kissed her and asked for a chance.
And anyway, she was certain none of the men she’d met through the app would be as easy to hang out with as he was. They were also unlikely to have that special something that always brought her out of her shell.
She missed Leo. Everything about him from their quick and easy connection to that ridiculous shirt he was wearing tonight.
And he was down there, right now, waiting for her to give him an answer about moving from friends to lovers.
“Good thing I’m happy alone,” Jenny said cheerfully, heading to the top of the stairs.
“No, you’re not,” Violet called after her.
Realizing she couldn’t put off tonight’s tasks any longer, Violet left the loft and moved to the front of the barn where the bachelors were milling about. She waved to Hannah, in the second row, and to Mrs. Fisher, who was sitting in front of her, looking eager. She began organizing the men in the order they’d be auctioned off.
When she got to Leo, with trembling hands, she passed him a tag with his bachelor number.
“Hey, Leo.” She inhaled, trying to play it cool, to calm her shaking voice. She wanted to smile, to give him some sort of signal, but her brain and body were locking down. What if he said no to her? What if she’d read it all wrong? What if he said yes and then broke her heart? “You’ll be up after Louis.”
There was no way she could talk about their kiss and possible future as friends or something more right here, right now. She needed to bid on him, win it, then speak with him in private during their day together. Otherwise she could end up smooching with him right here in front of everyone—and she still didn’t know exactly what he was promising in terms of a relationship and love. She’d hate to make a fool of herself in front of the town a second time.
“Um, nice shirt.” She tried for a dry smile, but was so nervous she couldn’t manage it, so kept moving down the line.
She was about to give Louis his tag when Leo caught her arm.
“I miss you,” he said, his voice low. “And our friendship. You’re avoiding me, and I’m sorry I’ve made things weird between us a second time. Please forgive me.”
There was nothing to forgive. She went to say as much, but he continued, his mouth so close to her ear that his breath sent shivers down her spine. “I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you or made you scared, Violet. Truly sorry.”
Wait. He was sorry?
Was he saying he wanted forgiveness for kissing her, because it hadn’t truly meant anything, and that she’d been right to give them a cooling-off period?
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. We’re friends, right?” she said, her voice catching.
“Friends,” he whispered back.
He released her arm and she met his gaze, planning to laugh off the hurt she felt, turn it all into a big joke that would set them on familiar ground once again. But he had bags under his deep blue eyes and his expression was borderline desperate. Her heart beat faster. They were so close, his lips just a breath away.
He missed her.
She missed him.
She wanted a chance with this man.
This man who was in trade talks, and was apologizing for screwing up by kissing her.
She stepped back, feeling cold with his body heat no longer reaching out to her.
“Good luck in the auction,” she said, her voice barely working.
She spun to give Louis his tag, planning to move down the line as fast as she could, putting more space between herself and Leo and hopefully making it out of the building before she started crying.
But he grabbed her arm again, gently, but firmly. Leo was staring at her with an intense, commanding look that stopped her short. “We are friends, right? Truly? You won’t keep avoiding me?”
She lowered her head, knowing that if they were just friends, she wouldn’t be able to move forward. She’d get stuck right where she was, wishing, hoping, dreaming, crying.
“I want to be friends,” she admitted. She missed him. Desperately. But she also loved him as so much more than a friend.