VIOLET
I’m exhausted. I spent all night tossing and turning, unable to turn off my brain no matter how much I tried. Between spending way too much time looking up my brother’s information, whether or not he knows I exist or if he’s as in the dark as I am, along with what our childhood could’ve looked like if we didn’t have an ass for a father, and what I’m going to do now that my childhood home doesn’t belong to me anymore. Add in my early shift this morning, and I swear I’m about to keel over.
The bell jingles on the door as I scroll mindlessly on my phone. I’ve been here for almost an hour and haven’t had a single customer until now. Pushing up from the back room floor, I head to the counter but stop short. My greeting clogs my throat.
“Hey, Vi,” Ethan says. With his hand in his front pockets, he looks up at the menu, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth like he has all the time in the world to decide on his order. And me? I can barely think straight as I take him in. He looks so…casual. Like his—and my father’s—actions didn’t rock my world last night.
What is he doing here?
“A little far from The Drift, aren’t you?” I ask, hoping my tone comes off as light and breezy when I kind of want to throttle him.
“Thought I’d make an exception.” He glances from the menu to me. “I’ll take a coffee. Black.”
I fight the urge to point to the company’s we refuse the right to serve anyone sign and dig my fingernails into my palm instead. Why is he acting so casual? Why is here at all? Does he really think I don’t know? That my dad didn’t show up on my porch last night, begging me to sign over my childhood home? Maybe. Maybe he thinks he’s flying under the radar for now. Maybe he thinks I don’t know he took a bet from my father. And won. Because if he does know I know, how can he show his face to me after everything he’s done? Honestly, I’m dumbfounded.
“Coffee. Black,” he repeats.
I don’t move a single muscle.
“There a problem, Violet?” he prods.
Only that you basically stole my house, asshole!
I press my lips into a thin line as the warning bells in my head ring louder than a siren. “What are you really doing here?”
“Lexie refuses to give me your number.” He sighs. “It’s a shame, really.”
Lexie. I’ve been too scared to reach out to my best friend directly and ask if she knows what happened. If she knows how her brother totally screwed me over, albeit inadvertently. I kind of doubt it. It’s only been one night, and if she was working, she’ll be asleep until after my shift ends, and then, I have every intention of telling her everything that happened last night. Maybe she can convince her brother to let it go. To give me back my house. And maybe I can, too.
“What’s a shame? That your little sister’s a good friend?” I counter, making sure to lace my voice with enough teasing to keep things light. I don’t want to come off as a bitch. Not yet. Not unless my gut instinct is right. “Passing out your friend’s phonenumber to random guys is probably frowned upon, don’t you think?”
He clutches at his chest, feigning offense. “Is that all I am to you? A random guy?”
“You’re right, I don’t know what I was thinking.” I give him a shy smile. “And why would you need my number,friend?”
“Only wanted to thank you.”
I quirk my brow. “Oh?”
“Not sure if you heard, but your dad and I made a little wager, and he,” he grimaces, “he lost.”
Wow.
My hand itches to reach out and slap his fake-ass grimace right off his face. Instead, I plant it on the counter separating us and lean forward. “You know, I actually am well-aware of the little wager.”
“And?”
“And I was hoping…” I bite the inside of my bottom lip. “Maybe you’d make an exception and let it go?”
With a smirk, he drops his attention from my eyes to my mouth, then trailing even lower and settling on my boobs while simultaneously making me feel like I’ve been dipped in a vat of acid. Gross. I fold my arms to cut off his view. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all about some innocent flirting if it gets me my house back, but there’s a line I refuse to cross, and if he has his way, I have a feeling he’d have no problem stomping all over it.
“Let it go, huh?” He grimaces again, though I see right through it like before. “I’m afraid I can’t.” Tucking his hands into his pockets, he gives me a shrug. “It’s a shame, you know? Addiction’s a bitch.”
My eyes thin. “So you admit you’re aware of my father’s gambling addiction?”
“I mean, who isn’t in this town? He’s kind of a mess, Violet.”
Man, he’s annoying. How did I not fully notice it until now? The arrogance? The stupid haircut? The way he looks down his nose at anyone and everyone. I know I should be indifferent, after all, he’s Lexie’s older brother, but clearly, one of their apples fell super far from the tree because these two should not be related.
