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“I don’t know. I wasn’t sure…”

“If I had someone waiting on me?” I finished for her. When she nodded, I clenched my jaw, and I slowly released my pent-up breath. “Vi, there hasn’t been anyone in my life since you.”

“Yeah, okay,” she muttered and stood. Picking up her plate, she took it to the sink.

“Seriously. I haven’t dated anyone.” Taking my own plate, I followed her and rinsed the dishes off before placing them in the dishwasher.

“So, the chick on ESPN last summer…?”

It took me a second to remember what she was talking about. When it clicked, I groaned and explained what had happened. “She was some fan who snuck past security and more or less attacked me when I walked out of the locker room after practice. I know you might not want to hear this, but I’m going to tell you anyway.”

She turned away from me, but from the set of her shoulders and the way her head was slightly cocked, I could tell she was listening.

I closed my eyes and told her the truth. “When I say there hasn’t been anyone since you, I mean anyone. Not a girlfriend. Not a hookup. Not even a girl who was a friend. Yes, there have been opportunities for all of those to happen. Ric’s wedding was just one of them. Those biker chicks were trying to get with me left and right, but I just wasn’t interested. Because they weren’t you.”

“You’re right,” she said with her back still to me. “I don’t want to hear this.”

“Vi,” I groaned, taking a step closer to her, but she started for the door.

“If the offer still stands, I would like to leave in the morning.” She paused at the door but didn’t look at me. “That is, if Krush can come with us?”

“Of course he can. I meant for him to come with us anyway.”

She bowed her head. “I’ll let the pilot know to get the plane ready.”

Chapter 49

Violet

Luca’s house was about five miles from the Nialls’ farm. It was a large, two-story house on fifty acres of land with a huge wraparound porch. A separate four-car garage was a short distance from the house with an apartment over it where Jenner was able to stay.

Since I was on vacation but not really planning on going anywhere other than the property, I wanted him to relax as much as possible too, and giving him his own space seemed like the best idea when he refused to stay behind in California after I told him I was going to Tennessee for an indefinite period.

Luca must have had a cleaning service come in frequently because the house was spotless when we arrived. There wasn’t anything out of place and not a single speck of dust in the entire house. Some of the bedrooms were empty, though, except for the master and one guest room. But the rest of the room were furnished stylishly.

“Arella had a little time off last month and decided she needed to do me a favor by decorating this place for me.” He glanced around the living room with a shrug. We were sitting on the couch after dinner with the television on, but it was mostly background noise because we’d been talking more than watching what was on the screen. “I told her if she ever gives up acting, she can start her own interior design business.”

“She did a great job,” I agreed. “But it suits you. She put a lot of your personality into the place.”

“She was a pain in the ass the whole time she was here,” he grumbled. “I guess something happened while she was filming, and she was more or less hiding out. Every time I asked her what was really going on with her, she would either cry or snap at me to mind my own business.”

“I haven’t talked to her in a while, so I wouldn’t know.” I felt bad that I hadn’t kept up with what was going on in my cousins’ lives, but I’d had a lot on my mind the past several months to keep me distracted.

“Have you seen the latest pictures of Isaac and Ian?” he asked. I shook my head, and he grabbed his phone before scooting closer. Grinning, he swiped his thumb over the screen and then turned it to show me the Insta picture.

Mila was sitting on the floor with her dark hair pulled up into a sleek ponytail. She had zero makeup on, but she still looked beautiful as she held one of her sons in each arm. They were huge and getting bigger by the day, and she had the brightest smile on her face as she looked at the camera.

“Look at those chunkers,” Luca said with a laugh. “They aren’t identical, but they might as well be, don’t you think?”

“I can’t really tell them apart,” I said with a smile as I traced my finger over one of the babies’ cheeks. “They look a lot like you and Lyric. And their eyes are already dark.”

“Ric has started talking about more babies.” Luca shook his head. “Mila heard him telling me the other day, and she told him if he wanted more kids right away, he was the one who needed to be pregnant this time.”

A picture of Lyric with a stomach as big as Mila’s had been at Christmas filled my head, and I couldn’t hold back the giggle that erupted from me.

Luca’s eyes lit up. “That’s the prettiest sound I have ever heard,” he murmured, touching my cheek.

His touch felt so good, I leaned into it. My lashes started to lower, savoring the contact.

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