She recognized me. Violet had kept a picture of me where she could find it. Would I have thought she wouldn’t have, though? Thought she would have purged all evidence of me away?
I knew her better than that, didn’t I?
Daisy clung to her hand, swinging around at Violet’s side, canting so far toward me that Violet had to hold her so she didn’t face-plant onto the floor.
“What’s your name?” she asked, her eyes narrowing with keen curiosity. “I asks before but Mommy told me she would tell me when I got big.”
She looked up at Violet. “I’m big now, right? I turned five and now I’m almost all the way to six.”
The last she directed at me, lifting her hand to show me the evidence with her fingers. Only it was the hand that was holding the cookie. It dropped to the floor and shattered into a million pieces.
Violet looked like she was going to do the same.
Fall apart.
Crumble right there.
I just wished I was strong enough to catch her. Hold all those pieces the way I was meant to do.
“Oops. Sorry,” the little thing said, her hand going to her mouth, her chubby fingers splaying over her lips to hide her embarrassment.
Violet’s throat trembled and those magnetic eyes filled with moisture. She glanced down at the child. “You’re right. You are big. This is Richard, Daisy.” Her voice trembled when she said it.
The little girl tugged her hand from Violet’s and shoved it toward me. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Richard.”
Hand shaking like a bitch, I took it. Felt the warmth. Grief crushed me by the throat. Felt like I was pinned to a wall and being choked out. “It’s nice to meet you, Daisy. You have a very pretty name.”
A smile split her face. “My papa named me, just like he did my mommy.” She leaned forward farther, dropping her voice like it was a secret when she said, “My mommy’s name is Violet. Like a pretty flower.”
Like I didn’t know.
Like I hadn’t whispered that name a thousand times.
Moaned it when she’d shown me what heaven really was like.
Shouted it when I’d wake in the middle of the night and realize she really was gone.
Tried to clear the roughness, but the words were raw, “Yeah, her name is very pretty. Just like the rest of her.”
Violet shook.
Anger and disbelief.
Could I fuck this up any worse? Stand there like a beggar, a prodigal, and ask her to forgive me?
But I didn’t even want that.
Knew I didn’t deserve her forgiveness.
Just standing there was breaking every rule I’d given myself.
Nothing but another vulgar betrayal.
But I wished to God she could at least understand.
“We should get going,” Violet grated through the emotion clogging her throat.
“Well, who do we have here?” Rhys’ voice broke through the disorder.
“Daisy!” Daisy bounced on her toes.
Tiny thing was way too friendly for her own good.
Violet sighed in exasperation. “Rhys.”
“Violeta.”
He grinned at her before he shifted his attention to the child.
“Daisy? As in Daisy Mae? Holy moly. And are you eatin’ my favorite cookies?”
She giggled. “I dropped it. You want it? I’ll get it for you, but it’s broken.”
He laughed. “You offerin’ me a cookie from the floor?”
She shrugged. “Hasn’t been five seconds yet. Wait, has it?”
She looked at me for the answer to that.
She was a little tornado. A lightning strike. A flare of the brightest sun.
My chest tightened, agony stretched tight, and my gaze shifted to Violet who pulled at Daisy’s hand in clear distress.
“We really need to get going. Remember Papa is waiting for things to make dinner?”
“Oh no…we better hurry. Nice to meets you!”
She grinned and waved, and Violet was hauling her toward the registers. Rhys made a beeline behind them, chatting Daisy up the whole way. He got into the lane beside them and paid for our single purchase while I stood there itching.
Violet hefted her two reusable bags up and held out her hand for Daisy with the other. “Come on, sweetheart.”
“Need a little help with that?” Rhys asked, back at her side, but he shifted to widen his eyes at me when he said it, the asshole.
This was complete idiocy.
Stupidity on a level that was going to cost everything.
But I shot into motion, anyway, like some kind of knight in shining armor who really was the monster hiding underneath, my hand already on the straps before Violet could refuse.
She attempted to do it anyway. “I have it,” she growled. A fierce, ferocious kitten.
“Let me help you.”
“I don’t need your help.”
I tugged it out of her hold.
She held in a high-pitched scream.
“I’m just taking your bags for you. That’s all.”
She huffed, rambled under her breath, “If that were the only thing you’d taken from me, I’d be just fine.”
Still, she gave, and she stomped out the door with Daisy in tow while I followed a couple steps behind.
Basking in her rays like a pathetic fool.
She headed straight for where she was parked a few spots down from Rhys. She opened the back door of the truck and helped Daisy inside.
I opened the opposite door and reluctantly set the bags on the floor.
“Goodbye, Mr. Richard,” Daisy sang from her car seat. “I likes meeting you a lot.”
“Goodbye, Daisy.” My smile was rigid. “I liked meeting you a lot, too.”
I wanted to stall. To say something. Fucking explain or apologize or just round them up and carry them away where I could forever keep them safe.
Wishing it was my place and knowing it most definitely was not.
Didn’t matter.
I could already feel the fires striking all around me. Getting ready to blaze.
If I wasn’t careful, I’d burn this entire thing to ash.
And I was just selfish enough to think it might be worth it.
I closed the door and moved around the back of the truck and onto the sidewalk. Violet hopped into the front seat, rolling down the manual window that whined as she did. She blew her bangs out of her gorgeous face.
Why did she have to affect me this
