Chapter Eleven
Violet
“I promise things won’t always be this hard,” Cash says, squeezing my thigh as we pull into the driveway, my dad’s bright headlights right behind us.
I can’t decide if he followed us here because he wants to help or because he wants to continue berating us for our choices.
I’m guessing it’s the latter, but I’m not having it tonight.
I get I’ve wronged him and he’s angry, but I feel slightly responsible for all the distractions.
I need to help make this night easier for Cash, not harder.
“Look at me,” Cash groans, hair still heavy and wet from the rain. “You’re going in the house.”
“No! This is my fault and you’re the most responsible guy ever. If I weren’t distracting you all day, you’d have had the animals moved, you’d still be at the distillery party, you wouldn’t be dealing with my father, and everything would be fine.”
“Everything would not be fine. I would be miserable, alone, and I wouldn’t be climbing into bed with you tonight.” He squeezes my thigh one last time, his voice deep and serious as he says, “Go inside.”
A knock on the side of the window interrupts our conversation. It’s my father, his graying hair wet and dripping, his jaw locked, his eyes set, and his shoulders squared. He looks like a serial killer from one of those cheesy, low budget horror movies.
Cash doesn’t flinch. He quickly opens his door and stares at our potential killer. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to help.”
I’m not sure if I trust the sentiment or not. He’s not the most forgiving man in the world. Heck, he still brings up the time that the church ran out of communion mid-mass. If there was ever a time to forgive, that was it.
“Violet,” Cash says, leaning into my head for a long kiss, “we’re fine. Go inside please. I want to know you’re safe. It can be dangerous down there in the rain. Use your risk analyst brain. You know this.”
“Exactly, and that’s why I want to help. You’re going to get hurt. It’s wet, slippery, there’s still active lightning, and—”
“Your dad is here to help me.” He squeezes his big hand over mine, warm and rough. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
Considering my dad has moved the animals with Cash many times before, I know he’ll be better help than me, but still… I check for any weapons behind my dad’s back as I climb the porch steps up into the house. After what he heard tonight, I wouldn’t put anything past him.
Bella opens the door before I officially reach it, her eyes wide as she says, “Why am I getting the feeling that everything just went sideways tonight?”
“Because it did,” I say, stripping my wet clothes off at the door. “Andrew blew everything up at the party.”
She brushes her long blonde hair back. “What do you mean?”
I drag in a heavy breath. “I mean, he told everyone that he saw Cash and I fucking in the supply room, and that he ran into us in the general store in town today.” I shake my head as I pick up the soaking dress. “It’s a mess.”
“Damn!” Bella grins and twists her blonde hair to the side. “I’m impressed. Y’all are like monkeys.”
“It’s certainly wild.” I swallow back a smile. “Now, I just have to hope my father doesn’t murder him.”
“Nah. Your dad is a good man. He might punch him a few times, but I suppose that’s warranted given the situation,” Bella says as she grabs a towel from the hall closet and runs it back to me.
“Either way, I think we need to eat something. I suddenly need cookies, like immediately.”
She hands me a plate of warm, gooey, chocolaty goodness as I wrap the towel around me tight.
I should run upstairs and take a hot shower, but shoving cookies in my mouth takes top priority.
“They came out of the oven a couple of hours ago. The kids and I made them. They told me you named them the best taste testers ever.”
I grin and take one from the plate, the towel wrapped around my waist as I stare out the kitchen window. I can’t see much in the dark, but the light from the trucks sort of illuminates their faces, and I swear it looks like they’re talking.
What would they be talking about? What is there to say?
I can’t imagine it’s good.
Maybe they’re just debating where they’ll take the horses.
I should’ve been inquisitive about that on the way home, but my heart was in my throat, and my stomach was somewhere on the floor of his truck, so it was hard to make conversation about anything not directly involving all the people that now know I was taking it in the ass in the distillery stock room.
What the hell has gotten into me?
I saved my virginity for twenty-six years. I’m modest. I’m discreet. At least I thought I was until… Cash.
With him, my entire body is buzzing. With him, I’m alive in a way I didn’t think was possible.
“I need a distraction before I spend way too much energy imagining what they’re saying.” I grab another cookie. “What’s up with you? I know you have something going on. I could hear it in your voice earlier.”
Bella drags in a heavy sigh and lets it out slowly. “You mean how I’m sort of… accidentally stalking my sister’s ex?”
My mouth drops open like a judgy, little whore who isn’t doing something very similar. “What? I thought he moved out of town after they broke up. Something about a construction company and needing space.”
“Yeah, well… he’s back temporarily, with a few guys from his construction crew. I guess they’re going to renovate some houses on the west side of the lake.”
My brows narrow as I grab milk from the fridge. “I thought your sister wanted the lake houses? They bought them together, right?”
She shrugs. “He offered her double what her payout would have been, and she took it. Now she has me going over there to see what he’s doing to the place, but,” a slow sigh escapes her, “you should see this man. I don’t remember him being this handsome.”
“Yes, you do!” I laugh. “You most certainly told me you thought he was hot back in the day.”
“No, I didn’t.” She rolls her eyes and grabs a cookie for herself.
“Well,” I open the cupboard for a glass, “should I give you the same advice you gave me?”
“This is different.” Bella bites into the cookie, crumbs falling on her ample chest.
“How so?”
She grins as though the response is going to be ridiculous. “I’m a much better person,” she laughs. “This man was engaged to my sister, and I’m spying on him… for her. I can’t be a double agent. Double agents are the worst.”
I shake my head with a smirk as the back door creaks open, Cash and my father laughing as they walk in.
Laughing?
I glance toward Bella and she squeezes my hand. “Maybe they worked things out. Men are like that,” she says, her voice low as she grabs the plate of cookies off the counter. “I’m going upstairs. Good luck.”
“Hey,” I whisper, grabbing another cookie from the plate, “sometimes a spy crosses lines because she realizes they were drawn in the wrong place.”
“Umm… no,” she laughs. “I’m a better person than you, remember?”
I roll my eyes and shake my head playfully. I love that we can be like this with each other.
“You have the right idea in that towel,” Cash says, leaning in for a hug, the scent of damp earth on his skin.
Oh God. I glance down at the towel I’m still wrapped up in, my face turning a shade of crimson. I have no idea how long Bella and I were talking for, but it didn’t seem that long.
“It’s coming down hard, and the creek is rising, but we got the horses over to the neighbor’s house before any flooding hit the pasture.” Cash kisses my head casually as though we’re an old married couple and my father isn’t his best friend.
“Rain’s supposed to stop tomorrow. You guys might miss the worst of it,” my father adds, dripping water onto the hardwood floor.
Maybe they both fell and hit their heads, or got struck by lightning and they don’t know what’s going on anymore. At this point I’d believe they ate the mushrooms out by the barn and they’re on one of those spirit journeys.
“I gotta get out of these wet clothes.” Cash kisses me again and I hand him a cookie before he kicks off his boots and shuffles through the house, dripping water everywhere.
He’s way too relaxed. Clearly, they ate some bad mushrooms.
Dad brushes the rain off his forehead and stares toward me as a puddle forms at his feet.
“Do you want me to get you some clothes? I’m sure Cash has something.”
“Nah,” he says, glancing at me again. “I just came in to apologize. It’s weird to see you two together, but we had a talk, and… I can see he cares about you. Honestly, that’s all I really want at the end of the day. You’d have a good life here. Plus, I like that he bought you the camera.”
I wrinkle my brows. “I’m pretty sure you think photography is stupid.”
He drags in a deep breath as he pushes more water off his forehead.
“I don’t know, Violet. Since you and your sister were children, I wanted to set you both up for a life with as few complications as possible.
But as you girls became women, I realized how little that mattered.
Turns out you’ll make up your own minds.
” He smiles as he says, “Although, your mom is going to be shocked when I tell her what happened tonight. I’d wager if you came home a few days a week to help her reorganize the spice cabinet, she’d get over it. ”
“No deal.” I grin. “That’s a step too far.”
My dad lands his hand on the doorknob. “Sorry, but it’s a mandatory part of the negotiation. And honey… if Cash ever lets you down, I’ll hit him over the head with a shovel and bury him in the backyard.”
He gives me a wink then heads back out into the rain, leaving me in the doorway of the little farmhouse with a sense of peace I’m not sure I’ve ever had.
I used to spend my life thinking everything was dangerous. Creaky old barns, rusted tractors, letting the kids play in the pasture, storms rolling in, floods, even letting someone close enough to matter.
Now I know all those things are what makes life whole.
Sex in a barn with needy rafters. Covering my face to run from a nosey cashier.
Getting bent over a whiskey barrel in the storage room with a distillery full of people.
Heck, even candy for breakfast. To some, they may be wrong, extreme even, but I have a feeling that when I’m old and gray, these little moments of love and chaos are what I’ll remember the most.