Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
VIOLET
OCTOBER | COLUMBUS, OHIO
“Hey, bestie.”
I groaned into the phone. “I swear, every time you say that, it means something worse than before.”
“No, nothing new. I’m just calling to check on you,” Kitty said. “We haven’t had a chance to talk since Picturegate.”
I poked a chopstick down into the takeout in front of me.
I allowed myself an overpriced food delivery to congratulate myself for going out for a run for four whole days in a row.
I sat on the floor with my food on my coffee table, having at least the dignity to not stain my couch with a greasy sauce.
“I mean, is it obvious that I’m just his fake girlfriend?”
Kitty gasped. “Violet. No. The fake gag?”
I lolled my head onto the couch cushion behind me. “It’s not a gag. I’m going all in on the ruse. I’m sleeping over at Jeanine Sorrento’s tonight so she, Mara, and I can have a girl party. I’m ingratiating myself with the WAGs.”
“Aww, I love that! I miss Jeanine. I wish I could come.”
“I wish you could too. I’m nervous.”
“I never got to know Mara that well, but you’ll be fine. She seemed cool. Jeannie’s great. But stop distracting! Fake dating, Violet? Come on. He’s way too obsessed with you to only want to fake date you.”
I puffed air out of my lips. “Well, okay. Let’s go through pace by pace. He called and said the team needed us to be together publicly. So I said, ‘Oh, like fake dating?’ And eventually, he said yes.”
“Ha! Eventually! See? What does that mean? Did he fight you on it?”
I thought back to that phone call. “Not really, no.”
Several exasperated sighs came from Kitty. “There’s just no way! Y’all are so smoochy cuddly squishy in those pictures!”
“Yeah, well, we didn’t kiss that day,” I said, punctuating my words with another chopstick stab. “I’m a mess anyway. I wouldn’t want to date me either.”
“No, no, no,” Kitty said. “Back up. Didn’t he ask you out and you told him you needed a friend? You friend-zoned him.”
“It’s not friend-zoning. I wanted to be considerate of his feelings.”
Kitty let out a long-labored sigh. “Oh my god. I’m going to strangle you two.”
“Why?” I groaned. “I’m trying to keep him from making a mistake.”
“Have you considered,” she said slowly, “that he doesn’t think it’s a mistake?”
“Well, if he thinks that, he’s wrong.”
“Vi,” she deadpanned.
“Kitty,” I fired back.
“Colton is trying to be considerate of you. You are trying to be considerate of Colt. Because of this, both of you are acting like complete idiots and pretending like this doesn’t end with you pushing a quadruplet stroller full of bouncing little Jonesies.”
I huffed a laugh. “I’m sorry, a what?”
I heard her husband, Guy, in the background. “Don’t tell her that.”
“Tell me what?” I demanded.
Kitty giggled. “Well, she knows now.”
“That was private,” Guy whined.
“It’s still private. I’m just telling the person who it affects.”
“Telling me what? I will not hesitate to come to Los Angeles and beat it out of both of you.”
Kitty panted, feet thumped on stairs, and a door slammed. “Colt was drunk over here one time and said he wanted to get you pregnant with quadruplets.”
A door creaked and Kitty uttered a quiet “uh oh.”
“Okay, Guy found me and I think I’m in trouble and he’s looking at me like I’m dinner. I gotta go. Love you bye! You’ll be fine! Just admit you’re in love! He’s just being an idiot and so are you!”
The call dropped on her squeal.
But I was sitting there, astonished.
Colton wanted to get me pregnant.
Not just pregnant. Super pregnant. Maximum-level pregnant.
But he said that when he was drunk. What’s the phrase? Drunk words are sober thoughts?
I squeezed my eyes shut and forced a breath. It tapped into my deepest desires. To already be married to him. To have his babies. To have little, toddling versions of us wandering around. To be connected to Colt for the rest of my life.
Colt wanted me that badly. It’s almost the ultimate praise. He fell so in love with me way back when that he wanted to continue the human race with me. He wanted me to carry and bear his babies, and a lot of them.
The worst part?
The way a breath-stopping, core-clenching feeling unfolded in my belly.
It was fucking hot.
Jeanine opened her front door with bright eyes and flour all over her shirt. A toddler ran out the door and into the yard, looking like George Washington with how much flour she had on her.
“Hazel!” Mara shouted, rushing down the hallway. “Don’t go out there!”
“I got her,” Jeanine said, pushing past me and gaining on the redheaded toddler, who was giggling her head off. Jeanine wiggled her fingers and hunched down like a monster. “Come here, you. I’m gonna get ya!”
Jeanine scooped the girl up and tipped her upside down off her hip. “Welcome to the madness! We’re making cookies. Come on in.”
She breezed past me into the house and was already back in the kitchen by the time Mara shut the front door behind me. “You still have a chance to back out,” Mara murmured. “It’s seven children and we’re a good four hours from bedtime. It’s even too much for me, and four of them are mine.”
“What’s the phrase? Many hands make light work?” I asked.
“Greyson, do not throw flour,” came Jeanine’s stern voice followed by a wail that certainly sounded performative.
Mara patted my shoulder. “You’re a trooper. You will be rewarded handsomely after we get these kids in bed.”
Jeanine plunked the smallest into a high chair by the counter. From there, it was stair steps of smallest to largest.
“Hi, everybody!” I said with a wave. “I’m Violet.”
Jeanine said, “This is Uncle Colton’s girlfriend.”
The second smallest little girl scowled at me, looking like a carbon copy of Jeanine in a preschooler’s body with luscious raven black hair that came to her shoulders and turquoise eyes.
“Let’s go through the lineup,” Mara said, pointing to each kid in turn. “The little redhead is mine, obviously, Hazel. She’s two and a half. Aspen is six, he’s also mine. Then Harper is six, and Jace is four. They’re both Jack’s and mine.”
“Our oldest here is Greyson,” Jeanine said, ruffling his hair from where she stood behind the kids. The mini Jeanine bared her teeth and snarled at me. “Then Alice there is six, and Bella, honey, you don’t have to growl at Violet.” Jeanine mouthed a “sorry” at me.
“Can I go play videogames?” Greyson whined.
“Why would you want to do that when we’re all having such a wonderful time making cookies?” Jeanine tried, sending him a maniacal smile. Greyson let a reluctant smile slip. “Just settle in wherever, Violet. We can use hands anywhere!”
I rolled up my sleeves and wedged myself between two of the girls. A high-pitched growl came from two seats away from me, Bella still making her distaste for me known.
Her sister, Alice, sighed from between us. “She thinks Colton is her boyfriend. Ow! Mom, Bella pinched me!”
I stifled a laugh. “That’s okay, Bella. Colton told me how special you are.” It was a little white lie, but I had to ingratiate myself somehow. He told me he played with Sorrento’s kids when he went over there, but he was always a little intimidated by Bella.
With good reason. That girl could mean mug, hard.
“Bella,” Jeanine warned after she stuck her tongue out at me. “It’s okay for Colton to date someone his own age.”
I was clearly not winning with Bella. I moved on to the older kids. “Okay. Harper, Aspen, what shapes are you working on?”
The older kids were much more welcoming, and all I had to do was ferry different containers of sprinkles around. I settled in, and I hardly felt the sad pang of wishing for a family of my own. It helped that the kids were older, so it was more of a picture of what to look forward to.
Maybe someday, I’d be surrounded by chaos, and teasing, and giggles.
By the time the last drink of water was administered, every shadow mystery was debunked, and every child was snug in their bed or sleeping bag, Jeanine, Mara, and I convened in the kitchen.
Jeanine headed for the refrigerator for a bottle of white wine and a can of seltzer for Mara. I sat next to Mara at the island.
“Here, I even got you a fancy weed seltzer so you don’t have to waste one of your gummies,” she said, setting the can in front of Mara with a glass of ice.
“Aw, that’s so sweet, J!” Mara said.
“Violet, wine or weed? Or I think Dylan’s got a few beers in the garage.”
“Wine’s great,” I said. “Thank you.”
Jeanine got all our glasses filled and raised hers. “To surviving seven kids under eight.”
We all laughed as we clinked our glasses.
I examined the label as Jeanine set it down. “This is really good. Wendlock Wineries, where’s that?”
“It’s my family’s winery in Temecula. Between LA and San Diego.”
“That’s cool,” I said.
She lifted a shoulder. “It kinda is. Dyl and I are considering taking over when he’s done with hockey and my parents retire.”
Mara stuck her lip out. “You didn’t tell me that. What a perfect retirement that would be.”
Jeanine got a soft smile. “Yeah. It was a good place to grow up. It’ll all depend on when Dylan decides to retire. I don’t think we’re close to done yet.”
“How did he like being captain?” I asked.
Jeanine’s look was wistful. “He loved it. He’s a natural leader. Thrived on it. He struggled finding his footing here after he got it all taken away though. We both did. It was a weird transition.”
Mara turned to me and raised an eyebrow. “How does Colt like being captain?”
“Similar, but I think he’s pretty insecure about it. He’s hard on himself. Always thinks he’s doing it wrong.”
“Come on, Vi. You gotta gas him up!” Mara said with a playful shove to my shoulder.
I blew air out my lips. “I try, but he has to believe it. He’s great at pumping other people up, but he’s always so down on himself.”
Jeanine stuck her lip out. “A sexy picture never hurt anybody. You know. Let him know you’re the captain of his team.”
“If you are,” Mara said, glaring at Jeanine. “It’s not her job to validate him. Violet’s a PhD smarty-pants. She’s busy curing cancer.”
“Well, sure, have your own life. We exist outside these men. I volunteer at the food pantry when the kids are in school. I take ice dancing lessons.”
“Fun!” I said. “I want to try it!”
“I’ll get you the details. They’re about to start a new session. I’d love to have you there too!”
I was excited to tell my therapist that I was trying a new hobby with other people that didn’t involve random orgasms in public parks. How’s that for progress?
“But back to the picture point, everybody needs to know they’re loved and wanted.
If Dyl and I learned anything from our rough patch, it’s that you have to actively advocate for each other, and for yourself.
We got to be bad at both. You have to go out of your way to compliment each other and not just assume they know. ”
Colt was notoriously terrible at advocating for himself, being everyone else’s advocate to his own detriment. “And sexy pictures will fix that?” I asked.
“Not all sexy pictures are created alike,” Mara said. “Sometimes they’re of me. Sometimes they’re potential punishments.”
“Wait, you were serious about dominating him?” I asked, my cheeks warming. I flashed back to ordering Colton around in that hotel room in West Virginia. He’d looked really good crawling after me.
“Hell yeah,” Mara said. “Jack loves it. He loves being a brat then getting to be a good boy again.”
“I’m not as serious about it as Mara, but it’s fun to switch it up once in a while,” Jeanine shrugged. “I threaten Dyl with pegging sometimes just to keep him on his toes. I think he’s secretly curious.”
“They’re all secretly curious, at least a little bit,” Mara said, waving her hand. “They’re all macho men on the ice, and then they can come home and get their guts rearranged by a five-foot-nothing leather mama.”
Jeanine widened her eyes at me and we all cracked up.
“I can’t say it’s not interesting,” I giggled.
“Come on, let’s go to the living room to make sure the kids can’t hear us,” Jeanine said, fanning her face and picking up her glass.
“Okay, maybe that went into some advanced techniques,” Mara said, “but the moral of the story is that sexy pics let them know you want them.”
“That’s true,” I said. “What would they do in the books?”
“If it’s Ice Crew Kiss Cam, she’d wait in the locker room and let him rail her with his name on her back,” Mara said casually.
“Oh, yeah, I loved that part,” Jeanine added.
I covered my ears. “No spoilers! I’m not there yet!”
“Where are you, then?” Mara asked, draping a blanket over herself.
“I’m a physical book girlie, so mine just came in the mail yesterday. I’m like ten chapters in. Colt’s ahead of me.”
Jeanine touched her tongue to her teeth. “How’s Colt liking it?”
“He hasn’t said anything bad.”
“He wouldn’t. He’d be afraid it would hurt your feelings.” She wagged her eyebrows. “But I’d be willing to put money on him liking that jersey part.”
“Looks like we solved your sexy picture conundrum,” Mara said. “Another case closed.”