"How?"
"Staring at her?" She tried to make it sound serious, but her grin ruined it. "Dad, you were almost drooling! I mean, she's the prettiest woman I've ever seen, but you weren't really playing it cool."
"Oh." And while she might be right, hearing her say it was kinda funny, but I didn't want to laugh. "You know what I like most about her?" I glanced over again, making sure my daughter knew I was being completely honest. "She's strong. Violet Dawson doesn't take crap from anyone, doesn't need help unless she wants it, and she's still the most amazingly elegant woman I know."
"Yeah. I wanna grow up and be just like her."
That was exactly what I'd been hoping she'd say, but I wanted to push just a little bit more. "Not like your mom? She's a pretty amazing woman, too."
"Dad," Faith grumbled, "that wasn't even a good try. C'mon. We both know Mom's marrying Brody so she can be lazy. And Violet said that it doesn't matter who it comes from, no one has the right to make me feel bad about myself." She paused, biting her lips together. "And Mom kinda does. She doesn't mean to, but when she tells me I'll just never be as pretty as the other girls? It kinda sucks."
"Yeah," I agreed, struggling not to let my anger show. How dare that woman... but I had to focus. "I think Violet just proved her wrong, huh?"
"Yep. She said that if I'm trying to look like someone else, I'll always fail, but if I try to look like me, I'll always be beautiful."
For a moment, I couldn't say a thing. For the last year, I'd been trying to tell Faith exactly that, and hadn't been able to find the words. Violet had. One afternoon with my little girl, and she'd already made such a big difference in the way Faith looked at things. No matter what happened between us, I'd always owe her for that.
Chapter Eighteen
Luke was no more than out the door before I picked up my phone again. That little conversation with Cyan was still spinning in the back of my mind. Of course he hadn't said anything when he broke up with his last boyfriend. He'd never been the kind to ask for help, but the fact that he was thinking about moving? What were the chances of that?
Southwind needed a mental health professional on staff. Cyan was a doctor of psychiatric medicine. Sure, he hated it when people called him "Doctor," but he'd still earned the fancy letters to go after his name. He'd also been working in a jail for the last couple of years, which meant he was more than qualified to work with troubled teens. If it had been anyone else, I would've offered him the job without hesitation, but Cyan came with one big complication that I couldn't overlook.
I dialed my first contact and waited. Soon as it was picked up, I said, "Ashton?"
"Hey!" he greeted me. "Please tell me there's not a problem already?"
"Um..." Shit, I should've come up with a way to ease into this. "So, I think I found a shrink."
"Great! Hire her."
"Him."
Everything on the other end got quiet. That meant he knew who I was talking about, but I wasn't sure how he'd take it. I could still hear Ashton breathing, but that was about it. He was giving me nothing at all to go by.
After a very long pause, he finally asked, "Who?"
"Cy," I said softly. "He, um, was thinking about moving. I haven't made him an offer yet, but you know he'd be perfect for this place."
Again, it took far too long for Ashton to reply. "Yeah. He knows firsthand how important it is." Unfortunately, Ash didn't sound excited about it.
So I kept going. "I'm not going to hire him if you have a problem with it. That's the entire reason I called. If Cyan working here means that you'll never come back, then I can find someone else."
He let out a heavy sigh. "No, Vi, that's not it. I just... I really have no interest in the awkwardness of meeting his new husband."
"They broke up before the wedding." The silence lasted so long I had to look at my phone to make sure we hadn't been disconnected. "Ash?"
"Is he ok?" he finally asked.
"I'm not sure. He's talking about moving and said his lease is up in two weeks. That's why I decided to push this. If he needs a job, and I have a job, how can I not offer it to him? I know it's asking a lot of you, but..."
"But Southwind is more important than a couple of idiot boys," Ash finished for me. "No, I think you're right. I just... I wasn't ready to hear his name so soon."
"You were fine with him at the funeral," I reminded him.
"And I basically avoided him the whole time because that was for Gran. I think it will always be too soon when it comes to Cy," he assured me. "I just... He was supposed to wait for me to get back," Ash said softly.
"And we were kids," I reminded him gently. "A couple of years was a long time back then. Then we were gone longer, and longer still."
