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With that, he spun on his stupidly expensive shoes and climbed into the back of a waiting town car, driving away without so much as a goodbye for his own sister.
We stood in silence, the tension thick as we watched the taillights disappear down the street. Finally, I turned to Ricki, studying her profile and the small smattering of stars she had tattooed behind her ear. Looking at her, seeing the pain etched on her face as she continued to stare at the empty street, I realized I’d never seen her appear so vulnerable. Something about that interaction had cut Ricki wide open, and I was doing my best not to demand she tell me how to fix it.
“You wanna tell me what that was about?” I started gently.
“Not really.”
“Come on, Ricki. It doesn’t take a genius to see that there is a shitload of history there.” Stepping close, I reached for her hand, wanting to be connected with her physically, even if she was trying to shut me out emotionally, but the moment I touched her, Ricki flinched away.
“Don’t,” she snapped, her eyes sparking as she glared at me. “Don’t come at me with all that pity. I don’t need that from you or anyone.”
“What?” I asked, shocked at her sudden change in attitude.
Again.
“What are you talking about? I don’t pity you. I just wanted to know what the hell was going on between you two.” Raking my hands through my hair in frustration, I blew out a breath. “Because I gotta tell you, Ricki. Your brother’s an asshole.”
“Well, excuse me!” she yelled, throwing her hands up in the air dramatically as she paced around on the sidewalk. “I’m sorry that my family doesn’t live up to your standards, Asher. We didn’t all have the idyllic white picket fence childhood, you know?” The few remaining party goers were staring now, and I could see Violet standing in the doorway to the tattoo shop, the fluffy cotton top of her latte costume now dangling from her fingers as she watched her friend breakdown. “I’m sorry that once again, I’m a disappointment. I forget sometimes that everyone in my life expects me to be perfect all the time. God forbid I don’t fit into everyone’s ideas of what an acceptable woman should be.”
“Ricki, I don’t understand—”
“No, of course you don’t! Nothing ever goes wrong for you, Asher. You walk around with your perfect truck and your perfect house in the perfect neighborhood, like life doesn’t fucking suck for the rest of us. Then you drive out to your little whiskey farm surrounded by your American Dream family, and you forget that for the rest of us, that doesn’t exist.” She started backing away, moving toward the door that would lead up to her apartment. “For the rest of us, life is just one big kick in the teeth.”
Ricki turned around, storming over to the open door that led up to her apartment, slamming it tightly behind her and leaving me baffled on the street.
What the actual fuck had just happened?
“So,” came a soft voice from beside me. Turning, I saw Violet looking at me with a defeated expression. “I see you met Dom.”
“Yeah.”
“There’s a pretty big story there, Asher,” she said unnecessarily. “But before you get to know what it is, I need to ask you something.” I nodded, inviting her to continue. “I need to know how much Ricki means to you, and if you plan to stick around.” I opened my mouth to respond, but Violet raised her hand, halting my protest.
“I’m asking you this because some wounds never heal, Asher. Sometimes, all they do is fester, scabbing over occasionally, but always vulnerable to the slightest poke or prod.” Violet looked up, the darkened windows of the apartments over our respective businesses looking forlorn against the backdrop of the lonely Halloween night. “Ricki has a beautiful heart, Asher. I know you know that. But it’s buried beneath a gaping wound that was put there by her family. If you expect to continue any kind of relationship with her, I need to know that you’ll be gentle with her where it matters. Because if you aren’t, you’ll only be doing more damage to a woman that never deserved to be wounded in the first place.”
For a moment, I considered her words. I had known Ricki was...prickly. Hesitant to let anyone close, she hid behind sarcasm and humor. I didn’t mind; I liked that side of her, willing to banter with me and give as good as she got. But the side of Ricki I had just seen was exactly as Violet had described: a wounded animal striking out where she could, trying to hurt someone else before they had a chance to hurt her.
I got it, but that didn’t mean I’d accept it.
“Violet,” I said, my eyes on hers so she could see my sincerity. “I’ve never met anyone like Ricki. She’s special in a way that you don’t find often. I plan to show her that. Show her that I mean business when it comes to her.” Violet’s somber face cracked a little, a small smile creeping up at the corners of her mouth. “But if you expect me to stand here and make declarations, you’re not gonna get them, because the only person who should be hearing those things from me right now has gone and locked herself away. So if you can’t help me get up there, then you need to get out of my way, because there is nothing—not a shitty family, not her own fears, not even that goddamn door”—I pointed to the locked door behind me, the one that was currently keeping me from my woman—“that will stop me from going to her. I won’t let anything come between us. Not anymore.”
Violet’s smile stretched, her eyes misting a bit before she reached into the pocket of her strange brown dress and pulled out a set of keys.
“Alright, caveman. Cool it. You’ve convinced me.” Pulling two keys off the ring, she held them out with a grin. “Here you go. One for the door and one for the apartment.” Passing them to me, Violet winked. “Go show our girl you mean business.”
Chapter thirty-one
Ricki
Therewasastrangecomfort to be found around plants, especially considering most of the world in my immediate vicinity consisted of concrete and steel. Humans had spent so much of the last couple hundred years destroying anything they didn’t find particularly useful and replacing it with things they thought they needed—like parking lots—that it was often a wonder there were any green spaces left. It was rare for anyone, especially anyone in this city, to truly stop and smell the roses so to speak.
But that was exactly what I needed to do, even if there were no actual roses in sight.
Since Violet had been forced to move out thanks to the ridiculous clause in her bizarre inheritance situation, I’d been trying to fill the void her absence had left in our apartment by adding more and more plants to my space. Now that I had a spare room available, I’d moved my small collection from the shelf in my room into hers, expanding with larger potted plants as well as a few more delicate ones I’d always wanted but never had the time or the space to truly look after, like the gorgeous orchid I was currently spraying with a gentle mist of water.
Plants were truly incredible things when you considered it. They all grew from tiny seeds, each one small and delicate, yet bursting with possibilities. Each seed contained the same building blocks for the plant, but how the plantactuallydeveloped depended largely on the environment in which it was raised.
Some of them were delicate, finicky and temperamental, and they needed care and nurturing in order to be able to reach their full potential. The slightest upset to the balance of their lives and the plant would wither and die, wasting away without ever having been given a chance to bloom.
