AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I always thought Hunter Sorenson was… you know.
I was tempted on several occasions to pull away and tell people exactly what I thought of their gossip. But Hunter’s subtle grip kept me in place, and reminded me at the same time I wasn’t alone in this.
Seeing Ramsey was still the hardest though. His handshake for Hunter and kiss on the cheek for me were the most fake things ever, and he made both look more genuine than anyone else here.
Then Ramsey was swept away again. Each time he tried to approach us the rest of the night, someone stepped in his path.
Turned out I still hated these parties.
The ride home was quiet. I didn’t know if Hunter was respecting my exhaustion or if he was as conflicted about the evening as me.
When we stepped inside, I muttered, “Good night,” and turned toward my room. Being so close to security, to solitude, was shattering the walls I’d had up all day. The reinforcements I’d put in place for this evening had already splintered.
“Violet.” Hunter’s voice was weak.
I couldn’t. I walked into my room without looking back. With the door closing me off from the world, everything inside me crumbled. Everything I needed to do, everyone I needed to help, look out for, lie for, all pressed in on me until I couldn’t breathe.
I stripped off my dress, and grabbed a nightshirt.
The fist around my chest clenched tighter.
I sank to the edge of my bed before my legs could give out. The thigh-high stockings and lacy underwear weren’t me. Not like this. What was I doing?
Tears stung my eyelids, and I scrubbed them away with the back of my hand. I tugged on my shirt. Yanked off the first stocking.
A sob tore from my throat, and it loosed the tears I was fighting. And then I was wailing and gasping for air.
“Violet?” Hunter pounded on my door.
I bit the side of my fist to muffle myself, but I couldn’t stop crying.
“I’m coming in,” Hunter said and walked into the room. He sat next to me on the bed, and wrapped his arms around me. The comfort was perfect, which made me cry harder.
He was the one thing about this entire situation that didn’t suck, and getting away from him was the one thing that was going to make it better.
He didn’t ask what was wrong. Not that I could have paused long enough to answer. He simply held me until the tears were dried up, and my throat was raw and my eyes ached.
At some point, he tucked me in, but I didn’t want him to leave. I grabbed his arm and tugged him next to me under the covers. I don’t know when or how I fell asleep, but when I woke up Hunter was still wrapped around me, protecting me.
I opened my eyes to find him watching me.
His eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. “I promise I’m not staring at you while you sleep, like a creeper. I just woke up.”
“You say that…” I wasn’t in the mood to laugh, the weight of everything hadn’t lifted while I slept, but he was making me feel better. “Think we’ve found the latest sleep fashions?” I gestured down to me in my T-shirt and single stocking and him in a button-down with boxers.
“Something tells me Paris won’t be knocking down our door.”
“They’re missing out.”
Hunter brushed a strand of hair from my forehead. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“I really don’t have anything new to say.” I was sick of sounding like a broken record every time I spouted offwe need to fix things, and nothing was going to get better if the situation stayed the same.
Twenty
It was easier to let the days blend into each other, to run on auto-pilot, than to let my mind wander. If I focused on the tasks I had to do—cafe, shelter, home, repeat, I could get everything done that I needed to, without breaking.
As Thursday at the cafe wound to a close, concern set in. Tomorrow was supposed to be a cafe day off, but Lyn had asked me to come in for a few hours in the afternoon to help with inventory. I’d been torn between jumping at the chance to stay busy, and the fact that I hadn’t had time to go visit the kids from the shelter all week. The other volunteers were available in the new place, but I missed the kids.
