Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Violet
My brother leaned against the island counter in my parents’ house. I’d called him to come over, figuring I might as well rip the bandage off to as many people as possible. Mom and Dad were at the breakfast table with me. They each cupped their hands around a mug of coffee. Decaf. It was evening. I’d slept in and took another two hours to get out of bed. A phone call from the refinery about the interview had fully roused me. I had a future to figure out.
Ripping the bandage off was easier than a game of telephone. I’d had to wait for Alder to get off work. I invited him over and initiated a group call with my siblings. Either karma really wanted me to suffer, or luck was on my side. They all had answered.
I told the story of the last four months as emotionlessly as possible, leaving out the specifics of my falling out with Evander. I didn’t want them to hate him. Leaving out the fight about when he learned about the trust, I just said he’d had terrible experiences in the past with women trying to take advantage of him, and he’s cautious and waiting for paternity.
My heart ached, but I’d had a six-hour drive to purge any tears that gathered. After a full night of sleep, the hurt lingered, heavy and smothering, but I could distance myself enough to tell them everything.
“So, yeah,” I finished. “That’s where I’m at.”
Alder’s scowl was deeper than normal, and it matched the one Dad wore. Mom hid her astonishment well. Only her eyes had widened, and in the depths, happiness mingled with the concern.
“Oh. My. God,” Clover said, her voice soaked in disbelief.
“I can’t believe it!” Poppy screeched. “Violet! You’re closer to home, and I get to be an aunt again! This is amazing.”
“And we don’t have to deal with Vasectomy Willis,” Jasper said.
I might regret telling them about Evander’s name for my ex, but it wouldn’t be today. Their support overwhelmed me. It was exactly what I needed after yesterday.
“Are you really moving to Coal Haven?” Excitement lined Lily’s voice.
I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “I loved Coal Haven while I was staying there, and I wanted to work in the oil and gas industry when I went to college. Now I finally get to.” The phone call had been to offer me the position.
“That’ll be amazing!” she squealed. “I love my in-laws, but I miss all of you. The kids miss you, and with two of us here, the others are going to have to visit more. ”
Alder lifted a brow.
“You gonna be like Grandma and try to get us all to move there?” Jasper asked with a laugh.
“I don’t have to be,” Lily countered. “Grandma’s still trying to work her miracles through her trust.”
“It won’t be through that stupid house.” With the beautiful property, the acres of pumpkins, and the two barn cats who cuddled me every morning. “I’ll find my own place to live.”
“Eliot and I are here when you’re ready to move. Just give me a call.” My nephew Kellan cried in the background. “I gotta go. Keep me up to date.”
She hung up, and one by one, all my other siblings disconnected. That wasn’t so bad.
“How far along?” Alder asked.
“Three and a half months.” My stomach twisted, but I didn’t have any food to heave up. I had yet to find a more permanent place than a vacation rental.
“And you’re moving to Coal Haven?” he asked woodenly.
Yep. “I’ll be Daisy’s coworker.”
A muscle in his jaw popped, and he shifted his gaze to the floor.
“So it was fortuitous I came back. I can check out of the rental.” I had so many things to do in two weeks, but the big move out of California was done. The rest would be shifting my items to another place. Finding furniture. Preparing a nursery.
My stomach acid churned.
“Are you really letting the property go?” Mom asked. Sadness touched the lines around her eyes. She liked having me in town. We had lunch. She’d come to visit. Now I was leaving again. This time with a grandkid on the way.
“Yes. I don’t care what Aunt Linda does with it. I’m tired of games.” I was just tired. Already, I was ready for another nap. “I’m done playing by someone else’s rules. I’m finding a house I like.” If I could afford it. “And I’m doing a job I want. I’m raising this kid on my own terms.”
“What about Evander?” Dad asked, his eyes flashing on Evander’s name.
“I don’t think he’ll be involved that much.” I clenched my stomach to fight the urge to cry.
“What if he accepts that he’s a father and wants to be involved?” Mom asked gently.
I inhaled a shuddering breath. The longer the day went, the more I fought tears. Yesterday afternoon, I would’ve been thrilled if he were invested in our baby. I’d have filled my head with fantasies like I had for the last seven years. Today I knew better. If he wanted to be involved, it would be for the child. Not me. “Then I’ll have a home base and he can decide what to do around that.”
Mom took a long sip of her coffee. She exchanged a discreet glance with Dad.
“What?” I snapped.
“Nothing.” Mom sighed and held her mug like it was the middle of winter and the power was out. “I just hope it’s that simple. People can make trouble, and the Barrons have the money to do it.”
“He’s not Cameron’s kid.”
Dad snorted. “Thank goodness for that.” He wiped a hand down his face. “Although I heard his own kids gave him plenty of trouble. But no, sweetheart, we’re just worried. We don’t know Evander. Is he volatile? Will he get obsessive? Would he use the kid as a way to control you?”
No, no, and no. For a man I’d known all of two weeks and that one night, I was stubbornly confident in my answers. “I think he’s an honorable man who’s afraid of getting hurt again.”
Mom reclined in her chair and regarded me. “You don’t think he’ll cause drama?”
“I don’t think he wants to deal with me that much.”
Disappointment filled her eyes. Dad nodded. Yeah. My answer had been bleak.
“You should stay here,” Alder said. “In Billings. You’ll have more family, and you can get more help.”
“She won’t,” Mom replied before I could tell him no. “She’s made up her mind.”
I nodded, grateful they weren’t going to hound me about my decisions. “Billings doesn’t feel right. I really liked Coal Haven, and it’s small. Easier. Lily and Eliot are nearby. My son or daughter will have cousins almost next door.”
“A baby,” Mom said, delight in her voice. She gave Dad a fond look. “Our grandkid count is really starting to rise.”
For the first time since the first pregnancy test, anticipation tingled in my belly. I was having a baby, and my parents were excited. I might be an adult, but I didn’t want to travel this path alone.
“When are you moving?” Alder asked.
“I told them I could start in two weeks. I’ll find a rental this week and hopefully move the weekend before I begin.”
“I wish you would’ve told us earlier,” Dad said, “but hopefully this Evander will realize how considerate it was for you to make sure he was the first to know.”
I nodded even though considerate was the last way Evander would describe me. At least he’d only have five and a half more months to endure running across me in town. Then I was sure he’d be gone and out of my life.
Evander
“…cannot be excluded as the biological father…”
I read the line for the hundredth time.
I was going to be a dad.
Violet was pregnant with my kid.
She’d vomited on my porch, but the pregnancy hadn’t resonated as real to me. She wasn’t obviously showing.
I brushed both hands over my scalp. Dammit.
I was going to be a dad.
I exhaled a heavy breath.
How badly did I fuck up?
She’d lied. Sort of.
She’d manipulated. Sort of.
Then she’d taken it back. Had that been a ruse? A way to win me over because she thought she had time to do just that?
Did she think I’d put on a ring on it and say I do before the lease was up ?
I put my elbows on the table and buried my face in my hands. Confusion fogged my brain.
Was I wrong?
I had been before, only in the opposite way. Was Violet like Kandi?
I wasn’t the same naive private I’d been when I was twenty.
What if I was wrong?
Except for when you make me feel like crap.
When did I become that guy?
I pressed both palms against my eyes. My head fucking hurt.
Now all I had was her number. She lived six hours away in some vacation rental. Her family was close, so there was that.
I closed the lid of my laptop with a snap and pushed it across the table. Meowing from outside caught my attention. I went out. Humidity and heat swarmed around me, along with a few mosquitoes. I batted a few off and found the problem. Flo had scaled up the post of the porch to the top. Her eyes were wide, and she looked side to side, her little tail whipping back and forth. Poly stared at her from the bottom.
“You stuck?” I had to rise to my toes to reach her, but I clamped my hand around her squirmy body and lifted her down.
She didn’t fight to get away. The kittens were as tame as could be after getting cuddles from Violet for the last two weeks. Longing hit me hard as I held the kittens the way she used to.
I curled Flo into my chest and went to the steps. I sat on the top step and scratched Flo’s ears. Little claws pricked into the side of my leg. Poly crawled onto my lap .
The pounding in my temples eased. I didn’t know how long I stayed with the cats, but soon the sound of an engine cut through the day. Mom’s beige SUV came into view. I hugged Flo to me harder. I hadn’t heard from my parents since the failed meal. She still thought Violet and I were seeing each other. I thought I had time before I had to break the news to Mom that Violet and I had gone our separate ways.
Mom would likely think it was my fault. She’d be right.
Mom looped around by the garage and parked in the driveway, facing out. She got out and gave a tentative smile.
“Hey, Mom.”
Relief filled her features. “Evander.”
Had she been worried I’d tell her to fuck off? What a fucking son I was. No wonder Dad wished Derek was the one still around. He’d have made Mom happy. I started to rise, but she waved me to sit.
“I’ve been inside all day. I need some fresh air.”
“It’s muggy.”
She smiled, the lines around her eyes deeper than ever, almost giving her a sad look. “I’m sure you’ve been through worse.”
“Benning can get brutally humid.” Fort Benning, or whatever its new name was, had been my home for six years total, three years each time.
She looked past me like she was trying to see into the house. “Is Violet around?”
“She returned to Billings.” The words were thick.
Mom must’ve read something in my tone. Her face fell, and she nodded.
Fuck me. Was she blaming herself? About the argument or how she’d raised a son who drove every single woman away?
I could leave it at that. Mom wouldn’t pry. But words clogged my throat. “There’s more to our story—or lack of one.”
Mom tipped her head. I caught the glint of surprise that I’d elaborated as much as I had.
“She’s pregnant. It’s mine.”
Mom’s mouth fell open. A choked sound came from her. She blinked, and I caught sheer happiness. She blinked again. Dismay. Another blink. Confusion. She oscillated through a series of emotions. I knew the feeling.
“I…” I put Flo down, but she climbed right back up my cargo pants and batted at her sister. “Remember Kandi?”
Her mouth tightened. “That girl. Yes.”
“She fucked me up, Mom.” She didn’t flinch at my language, so I continued. Mom had always given me space when I least expected it. “I’ve made sure to protect myself. I was right to. Over and over. It was like I was a magnet for them.”
Mom’s gaze went soft. “You started to think all girls were like Kandi.”
I ground my teeth together and nodded. What if they hadn’t been? What if I had assumed the worst and chased good people away? “I’m not proud of it—and I don’t know that Violet’s not like Kandi.” Comparing the two made me want to retch. Violet was nothing like her.
“But she could be?” At my lack of an answer, Mom nodded. “I see. You ran her off.”
“After I made her stick around to take a paternity test that I oversaw.” I could leave Coal Haven, but I was still a Barron .
“You got the results? It’s yours?”
Hearing the words out loud didn’t calm the turmoil inside me. “She lied.”
“About the baby?”
“No. Maybe?” I explained what I’d pieced together from what Linda said about a trust and that Violet has to marry to get this property. And I had thought my grandpa had been manipulative. At least I had known. Violet and her siblings had been taken by surprise. “I guess she can’t live here unless she’s married.”
“So you thought she was baiting you?”
“She might’ve been,” I said stubbornly. I had no proof. Violet hadn’t acted like a leech.
Mom’s shrug was casual. “Possible.”
“Why are you so quick to give her the benefit of the doubt?” I was her son, but she wasn’t raging about Violet. She’d had choice words to say about Kandi. One of the few times I’d heard Mom call someone a name.
Mom pressed her palms together. “Well…I’ve known women who manipulate, and they usually have more edges than Violet.”
I snorted. “And their last name is Barron?”
Her chuckle was soft. “That’s not so much the case anymore, but yes. For much of my married life, it was. Likewise, I’ve known my fair share of Barron men who lash out because they’ve been deeply hurt. They aren’t quick to forgive or forget.”
Touché. “I’ve been right not to.”
“Until you’re wrong.”
I dropped my chin. Mom wasn’t this forward, but she was when it came to Violet. Discomfort scratched over my skin. I’d rather move on to a different topic. “Why’d you come? Is there something you need?”
“I wanted to see my son. Surprising you seems the best tactic.”
I coughed out a laugh again. She wasn’t giving up on me. That made her the only one. “You know how Dad and I are.”
“I know.” Poly hopped down the stairs and toddled to Mom’s sandaled feet. Mom smiled and picked her up. “I guess I’m just tired of walking on eggshells because of how others in this family behave.” She snuggled the kitten close to her face. “I miss my son. I only have one left, and I’d like to talk to him while we’re in the same zip code.”
My heartburn flared. “I don’t have much to say. I never wanted to worry you.”
“I’d be worried anyway.” She set the kitten down, and Flo bounded toward her, nearly face-planting off the first stair. “I have a casserole in the car. Would you like it?”
She hadn’t said much, but she’d said a lot. She wanted to see me while she could.
“Yeah,” I said gruffly. “You eat yet?”
Her smile was pleased. “I have not. I wasn’t looking forward to leftovers. I still make too much food for just the two of us. Then I make way too much when we have company, like the last time Liam and the kids were over…” Her smile flickered.
I didn’t hate Liam. He’d been there when I hadn’t. He’d been there for my sister-in-law who was now his wife. He’d been there for my parents when I’d gone farther away. He’d been hurt by a lot of people, and he was still a stand-up guy.
I hadn’t been sure how I felt about him, but when I searched myself…I was curious. I was tired of being on the outside. “Why don’t you tell me about it inside?”
I got up and went to the door .
“Evander.” When I stopped, she hesitated. Was she afraid I wouldn’t let her in after what she had to say? “What Kandi did to you was deplorable. But the real shame would be if it ruined something wonderful. You’re going to be a dad.” Hearing those words spoken by someone other than me or Violet was a slam to the chest. “I don’t know Violet, but she really seemed…like the entire package. I hope you two can work something out. Not for me, an excited grandma, but for you.”
Defeat swelled in my chest. I might have ruined that.
No. Not me. Violet was the one who hadn’t been transparent. I was clear as fuck. The righteousness that had raged right before she left was gone. Diminished. “Yeah. We’ll see about that.”