Violet Schultz has been alone since her parents died a couple of years ago. And she likes it that way... At least, she did. After driving around the country for a long time, she is finally ready to find a place she can call home and settle down. Whi...
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After leaving Violet at Buddy's, I stopped half a mile away from his shop and just sat there. I couldn't make myself move for the longest time, only being able to think about Violet and the fact that I wasn't going to be able to see her anymore. The woman who made me feel more than I ever had before, who I just had to leave and drive away and act like it wasn't killing me on the inside.
I had been determined not to kiss or touch her, afraid that it would make it worse and make me blurt out all of my feelings, which had never been a problem for me, but I learned quickly that nothing was the same with Violet and comparing her to anyone else was useless.
I eventually forced myself to drive back to my cabin, knowing that sitting there when she was just a couple of minutes away was too much of a temptation.
I walked inside and everything felt wrong.
The place that I had been able to fill the silence and find peace just a week before was no longer the same. Violet brought a warmth, a light, that I had noticed and hoped wouldn't change anything once she left, but who the hell was I kidding? It just lacked everything.
I tried to keep myself busy, keep my thoughts away from her and all of the new and ultimately terrifying emotions that I was feeling over her.
You knew she was leaving. You knew this would happen.
I knew it would happen, sure, but I never expected to hurt this much over it.
My chest ached in a deep way that it never had before. Not even when my father died, when I was forced to deal with the pain of that. Which was crazy, because I only knew her for a little over a week and my father was the best man I had ever known.
Whenever he died, I threw myself into work. It made me feel closer to him, doing the work that we once did together. It made me feel like I was doing something that was for him and would make him happy.
But there was no way to forget Violet. Not whenever I could still see her lying on my couch with her sketchbook, looking so focused and lost in whatever she was drawing. And when I walked to the bedroom, I could smell her, see her sitting on the bed with her hand down her panties, touching herself because she just couldn't help herself.
I cursed loudly and slammed the door to the bedroom shut, keeping a barricade between me and those thoughts.
It wouldn't help for long, though.
My heart beat wildly in my chest whenever I heard a knock at the front door.
It opened a second later to reveal Killian, looking mighty happy, which I hated, and cursed myself even more for the hope the swelled inside my gut before I saw him.
I went to the kitchen and popped a few Ibuprofen to kill the pounding headache that was forming behind my eyes.
"Oh, nice to see you, too, brother. I'm great, thanks for asking. Yes, we missed you at work, and yes, I am dying to know why you took days off for the first time in..." He looked at his wrist, pretending to check a watch that didn't exist, and I scowled. "Forever."
