bed, which was barely at the crack of ten o’clock, Violet was left on her own once again.
It took some doing, but she finally managed to fix a bowl of microwave popcorn and actually get it to the family room, eventually giving up on the crutches and hopping-carefully-from one room to the next. She was exhausted by the time she reached the couch again. So when the tapping started, so faint that she wasn’t sure she’d even heard it at first, she tried to convince herself that it was nothing.
But it didn’t go away, and in fact it got louder, and pretty soon Violet knew that she couldn’t just ignore it. It was coming from the front door.
She was a little afraid, even though she told herself that she shouldn’t be. There was a cop out there, facing the entrance. And her parents were right upstairs; all she had to do was yell and they’d come running.
She finally got up, which was not a small feat in itself, and decided to at least look through the peephole before deciding whether or not to answer it. She didn’t move quickly, for obvious reasons, and the tapping continued in intermittent spurts, not really getting louder but remaining fairly constant.
Despite self-reassurances, her heart was beating too fast and her mouth was suddenly too dry. She tried to concentrate on sensing anything unusual coming from the other side of the door.
When she finally reached it, she bent forward and looked through the peephole.
Jay was grinning back at her from outside.
Her heart leaped for a completely different reason.
She set aside her crutches and quickly unbolted the door to open it.
“What took you so long?”
Her knee was bent and her ankle pulled up off the ground. She balanced against the doorjamb. “What d’you think, dumbass?” she retorted smartly, keeping her voice down so she wouldn’t alert her parents. “You scared the crap out of me, by the way. My parents are already in bed, and I was all alone down here.”
“Good!” he exclaimed as he reached in and grabbed her around the waist, dragging her up against him and wrapping his arms around her.
She giggled while he held her there, enjoying everything about the feel of him against her. “What are you doing here? I thought I wouldn’t see you till tomorrow.”
“I wanted to show you something!” He beamed at her, and his enthusiasm reached out to capture her in its grip. She couldn’t help smiling back excitedly.
“What is it?” she asked breathlessly.
He didn’t release her; he just turned, still holding her gently in his arms, so that she could see out into the driveway. The first thing she noticed was the officer in his car, alert now as he kept a watchful eye on the two of them. Violet realized that it was late, already past eleven, and from the look on his face, she thought he must have been hoping for a quiet, uneventful evening out there.
And then she saw the car. It was beautiful and sleek, painted a glossy black that, even in the dark, reflected the light like a polished mirror. Violet recognized the Acura insignia on the front of the hood, and even though she could tell it wasn’t brand-new, it looked like it had been well taken care of.
“Whose is it?” she asked admiringly. It was
Jay grinned again, his face glowing with enthusiasm. “It’s mine. I got it tonight. That’s why I had to go. My mom had the night off, and I wanted to get it before…” He smiled down at her. “I didn’t want to borrow your car to take you to the dance.”
“Really?” she breathed. “How…? I didn’t even know you were…” She couldn’t seem to find the right words; she was envious and excited for him all at the same time.
“I know, right?” he answered, as if she’d actually asked coherent questions. “I’ve been saving for…
Violet smiled at him, thinking that he was entirely too perfect for her. “I think it’s beautiful,” she said with more meaning than he understood. And then she glanced back at the car. “I had no idea that you were getting a car. I love it, Jay,” she insisted, wrapping her arms around his neck as he hoisted her up, cradling her like a small child.
“I’d offer to take you for a test-drive, but I’m afraid that Supercop over there would probably Taser me with his stun gun. So you’ll have to wait until tomorrow,” he said, and without waiting for an invitation he carried her inside, dead bolting the door behind him.
He settled down on the couch, where she’d been sitting by herself just moments before, without letting her go. There was a movie on the television, but neither of them paid any attention to it as Jay reclined, stretching out and drawing her down into the circle of his arms. They spent the rest of the night like that, cradled together, their bodies fitting each other perfectly, as they kissed and whispered and laughed quietly in the darkness.
At some point Violet was aware that she was drifting into sleep, as her thoughts turned dreamlike, becoming disjointed and fuzzy and hard to hold on to. She didn’t fight it; she enjoyed the lazy, drifting feeling, along with the warmth created by the cocoon of Jay’s body wrapped protectively around her.
It was the safest she’d felt in days…maybe weeks…
And for the first time since she’d been chased by the man in the woods, her dreams were free from monsters.
CHAPTER 25
THE DAY OF THE DANCE WAS LIKE A DREAM.
Violet woke up alone. She realized that Jay must have left sometime during the night, and she’d stayed where she was, curled up contentedly on the couch, basking in the warmth he’d left behind.
As she stretched and finally forced her nebulous thoughts to clear, she remembered Jay’s new car. She was thrilled for him all over again as she easily recaptured his image in her mind’s eye, that childlike enthusiasm on his face as he showed off his new toy. She smiled to herself at the memory of it. She couldn’t wait to ride in it, with Jay behind the wheel.
She couldn’t wait to go to the dance.
She spent a lot of the day fielding text messages from her friends…and forcing herself
Her mom made several appearances, camera in hand, to take pictures of her getting ready. It seemed to be exactly what they needed as a family, something to take their mind off all the tragic and frightening events of the past weeks. Even her father, who still had reservations about her going, couldn’t stop telling her how beautiful she looked when her mom dragged him in to see Violet all dressed up.
Her dress was simple enough: a soft, flowing, black jersey fabric with a narrow Empire waist and a halter top that created a V-shaped neckline. The crisscrossing straps in back held up a scoop of fabric that ended in a soft wave, exposing a generous length of nearly bare skin from her shoulders to below her midback. It clung to Violet’s body in all the right places, and the hem all but covered her strappy sandals, for which Violet was now grateful, knowing that it would also cover the ugly, unavoidable ankle brace she would be forced to wear.
The effect was not only elegant but dramatic.
Violet felt like a princess.
Not like one of Lissie’s band of nauseatingly counterfeit princesses, but like a real one. From a fairy tale.
