"So where have you been fucking off to, Violet?" Internally I cringe because that was a horrible way to start this conversation. I force my face to stay neutral and a little bored, but, fuck, I feel sick.
"You can fuck right off out of this restaurant, you son of a?—"
"Jamie!" Violet hisses, sending daggers with her eyes. Not a lick of makeup coats her eyelashes,endearing me to this new woman even more. "He can ask me questions."
"Not like that," Jamie snaps back, and I gotta say his protectiveness of her is a turn-on. It pisses me off though. Not because I want Jamie to protect me, but because Violet doesn't need him stepping between us.
"I'm not here to hurt the girl," I drawl and lean my elbows on the table.
Jamie shoves one of my arms off the wood and looks at me like he's about to punch me in the jaw. "Judging by the tears she shed over you, I'd say?—"
"Jamie enough," Violet cuts him off, looking furious and like she might cry. "I hurt them first. Just stop and let Ellis ask his darn questions."
Nate's lips twitch. We make eye contact, and for once it's kind of hard to read my partner's mind. Frowning at him, I hope he will tell me what he's thinking, because I'm no longer certain he was biting back laughter.
Violet's deep breath is audible, drawing my attention back to her. "I'm assuming you know what happened to my mom?"
"Blue upgraded to Mom, huh?" Nate murmurs, sounding thoughtful.
Violet just nods and waits for us to answer her question. While I'm wondering how much to share because I'm not feeling very forthcoming with the woman who broke our hearts, Nate gives her all my fucking secrets.
"We do. Ellis was actually Blue's nurse right when she got to the hospital and woke up. Met the four guys attached to your mama too."
"Nate." My voice is growly and full of so much warning I'm sure the table next to us can feel the threat.
"What?!" Violet's shocked, and her already big eyes are wide as saucers now. "Wait, but I never saw you there."
Ignoring the wobble in her tone, I level her with a cool glare. "Nate and I had a trip planned. The dates were already taken off, so we went on a self-care trip. You know, to heal our broken hearts. Oh, wait. You already knew that."
Tears fill Violet's eyes as she recalls the plans we finally made to meet the woman we loved in person. We were going to start our life together when she ghosted us and made it very clear she didn't want to be involved with us when we were blocked and removed from her life.
"Ellis," Violet chokes, and Jamie's hand fists on the table like he's holding himself back. He would probably equally like to punch me and scoop Violet up in a hug.
"Yes? What do you have to say?" I'm an asshole, but I do want to know if she can defend herself in any way. We were going to meet her somewhere in Chicago. Maybe we were fools not to demand her address so we could show up, but she always teased that once she met us in person she would give us her address.
We knew she was nervous about sharing it, so we respected her wishes. I never expected to fucking hate myself for never forcing the issue though. If we had known, we could have found her.
"I–" she stutters and swipes the tears from her cheeks. Her trembling fingers make me frown.Why isshe shaking so much?But she must read my expression wrong and flinches away from me a bit.
"I'm sorry. I—I ran."
I snort. "Well, that was pretty fucking obvious."
"Ellis," Jamie starts, voice tight, wrapping his big hand around the back of my neck and squeezing. "Don't get your wires fucking twisted. I'mallowingthis conversation. You swear at her one more goddamn time and I'll drag you out of here with more than just a bruised ego, and you won'teverbe allowed to see either of us ever again. You fucking understand me?"
Nate pushes his chair back, looking pissed at the sexy man’s threatening hand on me. I implore my partner to stay in his seat with a small shake of my head.
Chills run down my spine, making me squirm as Jamie squeezes me a little harder. Quickly, so he doesn't get the wrong idea about my head shake, I nod and agree, "Yes. I understand."
I almost don't want to say it because I'm intrigued by the idea of Jamie manhandling me. The only thing that stops me from testing him are Violet's sniffles and the sheer despair drooping her dainty shoulders.
Surprisingly, I barely notice Jamie removing his hand from my skin. I'm stuck watching Violet try to gain control of her emotions.
With a deep breath and a moment of silence, I pull on all the empathy I honed from my career and try for the millionth time to see Violet as the victim she absolutely is, rather than the woman who abandoned me.
What I see breaks my heart. I feel my face slackenfrom my usual frown as I take in her hunched posture and the way she's angled away from the table as if she's ready to flee at any moment.
Notoncein the few times I've seen her, even when we first found her at the coffee shop, has she smiled. The Violet I knewalwayssmiled. There could be many explanations for why her pink bow-shaped lips haven't lifted with happiness, but what about the odd detachment I've noticed?
