Stepping back, she held her arms out to the sides, tears streaming down her stunning face and glinting in the reflection of the sun.
Wisps of black hair fluttering around her.
My fairy girl.
I was in front of her in a flash, one arm looping around her waist and the other cupping one cheek.
Emotion crested through her features.
Girl overcome.
Disgust.
Love.
Goodness.
Grief.
Everything I wanted to gather up and hold forever.
“You think you’re in pieces, Violet? Look at me. Look at us without each other.”
That crystalized gaze blinked and fluttered, her lips parting and making me want to devour her all over again.
“That’s your fault.”
“I know it’s my fault. I know it. And I can’t change what I’ve done, no matter how badly I might want to. Question is, can you forgive me?” The last scraped up my throat.
Violet stared at me, wavering and confused and unsure. Her attention moved to the injury between my eyes, and her hand trembled when she lifted it and feathered it over the butterfly stitch. “How could you ask me to forgive you when I know you’re hiding something from me, Richard? I see it. I feel it. What have you gotten yourself into? What happened last night?”
I flinched. “My past is catching up to me, Violet. Every mistake I’ve made is right here, and I’m doing everything in my power to fix it. To make it right the only way that I can.”
“I don’t understand.”
Anger blistered across my flesh. “There are things at play that I can’t show you, Violet. That I can’t let you see. But you need to know I’m going to destroy it. I’m going to end it. Burn it to the ground. And when it’s done? I’m going to pray you can find a way to forgive the unforgivable.”
I was so close, our mouths grazed.
Tiny wildfires erupted.
“Just remember when you find out? Remember I did it for you.”
That energy whipped. Agitated and wild. The girl’s heart started to pang in a disturbed, unsettled way.
“You’re scarin’ me, Richard.”
I exhaled a heavy breath. “Believe me, baby, I’m scared, too.” Not for myself. But I couldn’t shake the terror that I might not be able to pull this off.
And if I didn’t?
None of us could afford the cost.
“One thing I need you to know is I’m not going anywhere,” I told her. “I’m going to be right here, taking care of you and Daisy, protecting you, until it’s over.”
Confusion bound her, her defenses trying to make a rise. “When did you start caring about me and Daisy?”
My fingertips played across her knitted brow. “When did I start caring about you and Daisy? Told you last night, I never stopped. Never stopped loving you. Never stopped wanting you. Not for one fuckin’ second.”
“You didn’t sign the papers,” she whispered, still staring at me like she was going to stumble upon the answers hidden in my eyes.
I recoiled at the memory.
Way I’d nearly lost my mind when the divorce papers had been delivered to one of the hotels we were staying at on the road. The words had read like my own goddamn tragedy that I’d personally penned.
In a fit of rage, I’d ripped them up and tossed them over the balcony.
“Couldn’t.”
“Why?”
I snatched her wrist and brought it to my nose, inhaled across the tiny piece of art that represented us.
A music note.
Swore, the violet on my wrist throbbed, desperate for its match.
“Because that would mean completely letting you go.”
She exhaled a shaky breath, and I kissed across the lifebeat that thundered at her wrist and murmured the words like they were proof, “Funny how I never heard another word about it from you after that. Funny how you didn’t push. Funny how you felt the exact same way as me.”
I let the implication hang in the air.
Fact that we belonged.
That it didn’t matter the space I tried to put between us.
Our hearts were still touching from across the miles.
“It was easier just to let you go,” she whispered.
“Let me go? Don’t lie to me, Violet. Your heart wouldn’t be doing this if you had.”
I set my palm flat against her chest. Against the thunder that raged and banged and fought for what was right.
“Taking you to dinner tonight.” I was back to kissing across the tattoo on her wrist. “Want to take you out. You and me,” I rumbled at the tender flesh.
Needed her alone.
She raked out a surprised sound while goosebumps pebbled her skin. Her blood sloshed and her chest heaved. “Are you crazy?”
Obviously.
“Always have been for you.”
“You’re insane.”
“Exactly.”
I edged back, gazing down at my fairy girl. “Things were never quite logical for us, were they?”
They were instant.
Rash and reckless.
Rejection shook her head, those cheeks so pink and her eyes so dark. “I’m not gettin’ back together with you, Richard. I might be a fool, but I’m smarter than that.”
“I never said you were.”
“You’re acting like I am.”
“Just making it clear what I want.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I agree we need to talk, and we can do that over dinner. But no more kissin’ or touchin’.”
I grinned in victory.
She scowled the cutest scowl I wanted to trace with the tip of my finger. “I mean it, Richard. We are just talkin’.”
I backed toward the steps, never taking my eyes off the girl who tried to keep her cool. To pretend like this wasn’t more than what she’d just agreed to.
“I’ll pick you up at six.”
Air huffed from her nose.
“Don’t text me later giving me some line about you not feeling well.” It was almost a tease.
“Fine,” she shot out.
I turned and ambled down the porch steps, heading for my truck. I opened the door and glanced back at her through the intensity that shivered through the air.
Like I was physically tied to the one thing I’d been missing.
“Oh…and wear one of those sundresses I love so much.”
I sent her a wink and hopped into
