Chapter 31 Violet #2
She raises one eyebrow, looking me up and down quickly. I can see her visually dismissing me in my flour covered apron. “Right. Because they’re your boyfriends and they wouldn’t do that,” she says, but it’s dripping with… something. Something that makes irritation prickle inside me.
“Right. Anyway, what’s up? Wedding stuff going okay?” Maybe if I can steer the conversation to where I know she wants it, she’ll ease up and leave me alone.
Isabelle smiles, leaning against the fridge casually. “Everything is going according to plan for once. But I’m not here to talk about the wedding right now.”
“You’re… not?”
“Do you think that’s all I want to talk about, Violet?”
I shrug a shoulder, going back to shaping out my dough before the butter gets too warm. “No, but I mean… it’s a big thing, so it makes sense to talk about it a lot. There are a lot of moving pieces, and I know you guys are putting together something special.”
That seems to appease her, and she nods along. “We are. But no, I’m here to see you, actually. I feel like we haven’t talked in a long time.”
“Talked about what?”
“Your life. I’ve been so busy, I feel like I’ve missed so much.”
“There’s not that much going on with me,” I tell her.
She makes a scoffing noise. “Violet, you have three boyfriends from out of nowhere. Clearly we all missed something.”
Right. Of course. Of course it’s about the three of them and not about how things are going at the bakery or anything else to do with me.
My relationship status is all anyone in my family cares to think about when it comes to me.
I guess it’s a step up from them focusing on my weight, but it’s still annoying.
“I didn’t tell anyone,” I say. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Still, I feel like a bad sister for not knowing the finer details of how you managed to get all three of them. So… spill.”
“There’s not that much to say,” I insist, keeping my eyes on the counter as I shape the scones. “It sort of just… happened. I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I want you to say more than that,” Isabelle replies, sounding impatient. “These things don’t ‘just happen’ without there being some lead up. Especially with three guys all at once. Was it all at once or did you get one and then the other and then other?”
“I…” I cover my moment of not knowing what to say by pulling out a sheet tray so I can start putting the scones that are ready to cool down on it. “It happened so fast, you know?”
The thing is, I know my sister. She’s not going to leave this alone, so I have to say something.
I take a breath and start talking. “I had reached out to Rhett first because I hadn’t seen him in a while, but I didn’t get a response from him.
He doesn’t really do social media all that often, so he didn’t see it.
Then I saw an article about Lennox’s company online and it made me want to check in and see how things were going.
He answered, and we chatted back and forth for a while.
I asked him how Sawyer and Rhett were doing, and he told me that they weren’t really on the best terms lately, so I had to reach out to them individually. ”
“They did seem chilly toward each other at dinner,” Isabelle admits. “They haven’t been speaking?”
“Not really.”
“But they were fine with all dating the same woman? Doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that would work out if they were in the middle of some kind of rivalry.”
“It’s not about rivalry,” I tell her. “You know their mom died, right?”
“Yeah, and?”
“And it fucked things up between them for a while. It’s their business, so I won’t go into it.”
“Whatever. It still doesn’t explain how they’re just okay all dating you. Or how you got all three of them on the hook in the first place.”
It hits me then that Isabelle isn’t asking me this stuff because she wants to know.
She’s not even asking because she’s salty that all the attention isn’t on her for once.
She’s asking because she doesn’t believe it’s real.
She’s trying to poke holes in the story so she can be the sister with the most successful and interesting relationship again.
And that’s so like her. She can’t just let me be happy. Isabelle has to come and try to prove that there’s no way I have what I say I have because in her mind, she can’t imagine a world where this kind of thing happens to me.
The worst part is that she’s right. It’s not like any of this was real to start with, and even though the four of us have taken a big step, that doesn’t make it all real.
But I have to tell her something, or it all blows up in my face.
“They all knew I was talking to all of them,” I tell her. “I made sure of that, so there wouldn’t be any issues. And it was all just friendly catching up at first, so it wasn’t a big deal. They asked about the bakery, and I told them about what was going on in my life.”
“And when did it go from being friendly to being more than that?” she asks.
I shrug. “It’s hard to say. Like with Sawyer, he’s always been flirty, you know?
Even when we were just catching up, he’d have all these little cute jokes where he was teasing me.
He asked for pictures of me in my apron, and I sent them, and he told me I was adorable, but I didn’t know what to make of it at first.”
Isabelle has a look on her face like she can’t believe anyone would think I look adorable in an apron, but she doesn’t say anything.
“I think at one point I asked him if he was serious about thinking I looked cute, and he said he was. He said he would take me out and prove it if he were closer, and that’s when I realized maybe he was serious.”
“Okay, but the other two weren’t like that, right?”
“Right. It was definitely more subtle with Rhett. He’s always been kind of intense in a quiet way, and he basically had to tell me he was interested for me to pick up on it.
He mentioned something about me visiting his cabin, and I told him I wouldn’t want to impose, and he basically said I was one of the only people he wanted there. That clued me in pretty quickly.”
The lies flow off my tongue easier than I thought they would. It helps that I talked to the guys before about what our story was, but we didn’t go into too many details, so I’m trying to keep it vague enough that it fits their personalities, without setting off Isabelle’s radar for lying.
She goes to ask another question, but the front door swings open again, letting in cold air and the sound of the guys bickering.
It sounds playful at least, mostly Rhett giving Sawyer shit for being useless on the ladder.
“I’m sorry I’m not some mountain man used to climbing trees with my bare hands and a knife between my teeth, Rhett. I managed. At least my strands weren’t crooked as hell.”
“Mine weren’t either,” Rhett replies. “You just don’t know what you’re looking at.”
The three of them spill into the kitchen, and smile at me in turn. I smile back, heart pounding because I know what comes next.
Isabelle pushes away from the fridge and comes over to greet them. She’s all warmth and brightness, leaning into them and teasing them about having to do my dirty work.
“It’s not dirty work,” Lennox says. “We wanted to make sure Violet got to have a nice Christmas this year, and that means decorations. She loves Christmas, so it was the least we could do.”
“Yeah,” Sawyer adds. “Since she usually doesn’t have any help with all the stuff she has going on. We were happy to do it.”
That is definitely pointed, and I hide a smile behind going to put the scones in the oven.
“Sorry,” I tell them. “I got distracted by Isabelle wanting to chat. They’ll only need like twenty minutes or so.”
“No big deal,” Rhett says. “We’re happy to wait.”
“While we’re all waiting,” Isabelle breaks in. “Vi and I were just chatting about how you all met.”
Lennox gives her a confused look. “You know how we met. We’re all from Sweetwater Lake too.”
She looks a bit nonplussed for a moment, then plasters her smile back on. “I know, but I mean how this all happened.” She waves her hand between the four of us. “We were all so surprised that all three of you would want to date her.”
“Why?” Sawyer asks.
“Why what?”
“Why were you all so surprised?”
Isabelle blinks at him, like she doesn’t understand the question, and he just looks back at her, waiting for her answer.
“It just… seems out of character for Violet,” she finally says. “So I was wondering how it all came about. Like, which one of you went for her first?”
“I did,” Sawyer replies smoothly. He glances at me, and I give him a subtle nod.
“Not that she knew I was trying to hit on her for most of the time we were talking. But I’m like that, I guess.
I see a beautiful woman and the flirting comes out.
I meant it with Violet though, and she was so flustered once she realized I wasn’t calling her little apron cute because I had some kind of apron fetish or something. ”
“It’s a cute apron!” I chime in. “And I had no idea why you would be flirting with me.”
“Because I have eyes, Peaches. And when I want something, I go for it.”
“After not talking for years?” Isabelle asks.
Sawyer shrugs. “It’s not like we were strangers. We just picked up where we left off for the most part. Things have changed, but not that much, so it wasn’t hard.”
My heart races. Sawyer’s good at this, and I’m relieved he backed me up, but I know Isabelle isn’t going to be satisfied until she’s heard from all of them.
“Who reached out first?” she wants to know.
“Violet did,” all three of them answer at the same time.
“She reached out to me first,” Rhett replies. “But I check my messages once a month or less, so I missed it.”
“I had to tell her what I knew about how the others were doing,” Lennox fills in.
“Like I said,” I tell my sister. “I read that article about Lennox’s company and that made me try again to get in contact with them.”