Wrong For You (Before You Series Book 3)

by Lisa Cardiff

  Violet covered her face into her hands. “I did something really stupid.”

  “You?” Annette’s eyebrows jumped up her forehead as she sat down in a chair across from her. “I doubt it. You’re the queen of good decisions. If I didn’t love you so much, I’d make fun of you for being such a pansified goody-goody.”

  Violet looked up as she chewed on the inside of her lower lip. “Apparently not anymore.”

  “That bad, huh?” Annette rubbed her hands back and forth along the top of her finely worn jeans. Only Annette could look good in thrift store jeans.

  “Not my finest moment, that’s for sure.”

  “Do you want something to drink?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure? From the look on your face, I think you could use a margarita. I still have some mix and tequila left over from our girls’ night out a couple months ago.”

  “It’s ten in the morning. I think I’ll pass.” She gnawed on her lower lip and then she shook her head. “Well, not until twelve. My conscience won’t let me have a drink earlier than that. Ask me again then. I might change my mind.”

  “Deal. So tell me what happened?”

  Violet released a deep breath and pushed her hair away from her face. “There’s a new volunteer at the Foundation. He took over fundraising for me. I didn’t think he’d do much of anything because I have knocked on every door of every person living in this city asking for money and I couldn’t raise more than a few dollars and I needed a break. He couldn’t do any worse than me, right?”

  “Probably not. How’d it go?”

  Violet nodded. “He raised a lot of money, and when I say a lot, I mean enough to sustain the Foundation for a year.”

  “That’s great.” Annette shook her head. “But I’m confused. What does that have to do with you having bad judgment?”

  “Last night, he cooked me a celebratory dinner and we hooked up, but I stopped it before it went too far because I don’t know much about him except for what he wrote on his volunteer application, and he’s only in town for a couple more weeks before he goes back to California.”

  Annette leaned back in her chair and crossed her ankles. “That doesn’t sound like an epic judgment failure to me.”

  “That’s not the bad part. As he left, his mom stopped by and things got pretty heated between the two of them.”

  “Wait.” Annette held up her hand. “I don’t get it. Why did his mom go to your house?”

  “Because I rented the basement apartment to him for a month.”

  “Oh. Hm. That’s interesting. I thought you were done renting that place. Never again, I believe were the words you muttered after you evicted the last renter.”

  Violet sucked her lower lip into her mouth, contemplating what she did last night or really since the first moment her eyes met Alec’s. Now that she reflected on the way she practically chased him into his apartment and fell into his bed five minutes later, she was having difficulty understanding why she forgot who she was around him. “I was, but with the financial situation at the Foundation, I needed the money and he was planning to stay in a hotel for a month. It seemed like a good alternative for both of us.”

  Annette’s eyes narrowed. “What’s this guy’s name and what does he look like?”

  “Why?”

  “Because he must be something special to twist you into knots and cause you to bend your rules. Once you make a decision, you never change your mind.”

  “Alec.” Violet tapped her fingers on her knee. “Tall, dark hair, tattoos, very attractive in a dark, dangerous ‘I wouldn’t want my mom to know anything about him’ type of way.” She shrugged and stared absently at Annette’s mossy rock fireplace. “Basically, he’s nothing like the normal guys I date or even associate with, but there’s something about him that draws me in, and even though I know I should walk away from him, I seem to be drawn closer and closer to him.”

  Laughter exploded from Annette’s mouth. “Holy shit, Vi, I wish you could see your face right now.”

  Violet’s eyebrows drew together, leaving two little indentions between her eyes. “What’s wrong with my face?”

  “It’s doing this dreamy, glazed over, ‘I need you’ thing.”

  Her heart lurched against her ribs. “No!” She shook her head feverishly, like someone just accused her of a crime, and getting a dreamy look on her face after what Alec did to her this morning was a crime against self-respecting women everywhere. “You’re out of your mind.”

  Annette’s lips twisted as she slanted them to the side. “Sure, go ahead and believe that, but you’re right, your mom would die if she knew you ever touched him. I can practically hear her lecturing you about bad boys with bad tattoos and bad intentions.”

  “Ah…yeah, and that’s not even the worst part. After his mom left, I went down to the basement apartment, and when he didn’t answer, I opened the door and went in.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it sounded like a real shit show down there. Loud music, profanity, banging…I don’t know.” She tried to mind her own business, but every fiber in her being pleaded with her brain to check on him and in the end, her brain lost. She was dangerously and hopelessly attracted to him.

  “Hm,” Annette said, raising one of her perfectly arched eyebrows.

  “Basically, one thing led to another and we…” Violet’s eyes darted around the room as heat flooded her face. She lowered her voice to a faint whisper, “…had sex.”

  Annette’s foot tapped against the floor, and Violet thought she’d die if she waited one more second for Annette’s judgment.

  “So. What’s the problem? This isn’t high school. You’re twenty-five years old. You can date and do what you want with whoever, whenever. You act like one questionable decision is a stain on your life. Get over it.”

  “He kicked me out in the morning with the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ line.”

  “Oh crap, that’s the worst,” she said, moving her head slowly from side to side. “It’s better when the guy just comes out and tells you he’s not interested in anything else.”

  “Are you speaking from experience, because I always get the ‘it’s not you’ line, which makes me think it is me. Before I never cared, but when Alec said it, it stung.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not, but really you shouldn’t let it get to you. You’re beautiful, smart, and caring to a fault. If he’s stupid enough to use the ‘it’s not you’ line, then fuck him. He’s an unoriginal idiot.”

  “You’re probably right, but you know me. I don’t have one-night stands—ever—and I feel really dumb for misinterpreting the situation. For some reason, I thought we had a connection and his behavior this morning took me off guard. It’s like a switch flipped in his brain and he couldn’t stand being around me any longer. It was a real mind fuck.”

  Annette stood up. “Have you eaten breakfast?”

  “No. When he kicked me out, I couldn’t stick around knowing he was wandering around in the basement of my house probably contemplating how to avoid me for the next two weeks until his lease ends. I took off in my car and showed up on your doorstep.”

  “Then it’s settled. We’re going to breakfast and it’s going to include bottomless mimosas, so put your party hat on. You won’t even remember his name by the time you polish off one of those egg white omelets that taste like cardboard.”

  Violet grinned, pushing her body out of her chair. She could do this. So what. She made a mistake. Big fucking deal. Annette was right. She didn’t have to be perfect all the time. Nobody else seemed to hold themselves to such high standards and she didn’t have to either, at least not today. She had her entire life to demand moral perfection. “That sounds perfect.”

  “Let’s go.” Annette grabbed her purse off the entry table. “But I’m driving.”

  “I’m not that bad of a driver.”

  “Oh please,” Annette said. “You can’t even talk while you’re driving. You’re the quinte
ssential distracted driver.”

  Violet rolled her eyes even though Annette had a point. She couldn’t even make conversation or listen to music while she drove. Her thoughts always drifted off to other things. “I’m better now,” Violet said, even though it wasn’t the truth.

  “Sure you are, sweetie, but I’ve already had one trip too many in the ditch with you and I’m adverse to spending the rest of the weekend in the hospital. God knows, going to the hospital on the weekend is like serving a mini-prison sentence.”

  Two days after getting her driver’s license, Violet accidently drove them into the ditch near her parents’ ranch and Annette never let her forget it. “Whatever,” she protested. “I just got my driver’s license a couple days before and you weren’t hurt.”

  Annette laughed her deep smoky laugh that reminded Violet of their childhood slumber parties, sneaking sips of her dad’s bourbon in the barn, and a million other stupid pranks. “Not too bad, but I don’t hold it against you. You can’t be good at everything. Your inability to drive is charming…when I’m not forced to be in the car with you.”

  “Screw you,” Violet said good-naturedly as she elbowed Annette in the side.

  “Vi, don’t hate me for spilling the truth.”

  ***

  Two hours into bottomless mimosas, Violet’s head felt heavy and her lips tingled, but she had barely thought of Alec and his sexy arms wrapped in even sexier tattoos as they held her in bed last night.

  She waved her hand in front of her and she thought her hand blurred in the air. Not a good sign. “No more,” she said as her hand hit her water glass, sending water flying across the table.

  Annette jumped up from her seat, narrowly escaping a tidal wave of ice cubes. “Holy shit. You’re wrecked.”

  Violet giggled. “You think?”

  “Yeah. I should probably take your drunk ass home before you throw up your egg white omelet.” Annette mock shivered. “I can’t even imagine what that crap tastes like a second time.”

  Violet tossed her napkin over the mess on the table. “It’s not bad. Besides, I don’t need more calories with the number of drinks I’ve consumed and it’s only…” she lifted her wrist to study her watch. Telling time when her eyes wouldn’t stop bouncing around the room was a monumental task. “One thirty.”

  “You’re a toothpick. I don’t think you need to worry about calories.”

  “Where are we going next?” she said slapping some money on the table from her purse.

  “I’m bringing you home. Did you already forget?”

  “No way.” Wide-eyed, she shook her head back and forth in a big, exaggerated sweep of her head that made her dizzy. “Alec might be there and I can’t see him yet. I need to be armed and on guard the next time I see him.”

  “Huh?” Annette said through a chuckle.

  “He has these eyes,” Violet said, leaning forward. “They’re dark blue like twilight, hooded and sensual, and every time I look at him, I feel like I’m falling into him. I think he might be a snake charmer or something.” Then laughter erupted from her mouth as if she’d just said the funniest thing in the world.

  “Yeah, right,” Annette said with her eyebrows raised. “I don’t think that makes any sense.”

  “You’d have to see him to understand it.”

  Annette exhaled loudly. “So, no going home right now. Any ideas where you want to go?”

  “A bar,” she said, jumping out of her seat, clapping her hands excitedly. She needed a bar. What better way to forget her idiocy than to douse the burning flames of regret in her chest with a truckload of alcohol? “Remember when we graduated from college and we danced on tables at that bar near campus? Let’s go there.”

  Annette shook her head, looking a little apprehensive. “I don’t know, Vi, that doesn’t sound so smart. Maybe we could hang out at my house and make those margaritas.”

  “Can we invite some people to come over? We could have a party.” With a bunch of people around, she didn’t think she’d fall back into a state of deep emotional self-pity and margaritas sounded really delicious right now.

  Annette wrapped her arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the parking lot. “I have some new cute neighbors. If they’re home, I’ll ask them to join us.”

  “Okay. Let’s do it. I’m all for cute neighbors and I haven’t been to a party in so long,” she said, swinging her arm out in front of her to emphasize how long it had been.

  Annette barked out a laugh and shook her head. “Yes, I know exactly how much you like cute neighbors.”

  “I stepped right into that, didn’t I?” Violet said, swatting Annette’s arm. Acid burned her stomach as reality crashed into her slice of drunken happiness. She groaned. “Don’t remind me of him. I was having so much fun.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Annette said, squeezing her shoulder. “I’m just glad we’re spending the day together. We can deal with the rest later. Today we’re going to have fun…lot’s of it.”

  “Yes, fun,” Violet said with a touch of whimsy. Fun was the perfect antidote to a one-night stand that had gone badly, really badly. Well, not all bad. The sex part was nice. Better than nice. It rocked. It was the stuff afterwards that sucked.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Alec had been sitting on Violet’s front porch for the last two hours. As far as he could tell, she hadn’t been home all day. Now, it was nearly nine o’clock at night and he was worried something had happened to her after she ran out of his apartment this morning. When she left, she was upset, but he convinced himself that she’d be fine in a couple days and it’d be better if he let her go thinking the worst about him instead of entangling her in his life, especially when he lived in another state. As the hours ticked by without any sign of her, remorse seized hold of him and refused to let go.

  He didn’t know what he’d say to her when she finally returned home, but he needed to say something. Yesterday, he had several chances to send her away and do the right thing, but in a moment of weakness, he couldn’t stop himself from touching her and taking what he wanted. Asshole, he chided himself.

  Headlights lit up Violet’s street, and he stood up, staying in the shadows of the front porch, trying to get a better look. When he noticed it wasn’t Violet’s car, he started to sit back down, but the car stopped in front of her house and he froze in place.

  The driver’s side door opened and he heard laughter.

  “You’re home,” a woman he didn’t know said as she walked toward the passenger door.

  The passenger door flew open, springing back so hard it almost slammed shut again. “And you said I was a bad driver. We nearly hit that lamp post and you were driving so fast I could barely see.” It was Violet’s voice and she sounded like she fell inside a bottle of booze for the better part of the day.

  “That’s because your head is spinning.”

  Violet cradled her head with both hands. “Annette, you’re lying. I think you’re the one who had too much to drink. My head is just fine, see?”

  Shaking her head, Annette leaned against the open door, one hand on her hip. “Do you need help?”

  “I’m perfectly wonderful,” Violet shouted. “Stop asking me if I need help. I’m more than capable of walking, talking, and driving by myself.”

  “Riiight says the girl who hasn’t stopped drinking since this morning.”

  “You’re no fun,” Violet said, standing up. “Ouch. Crap that hurt,” she yelled, rubbing her head. “I hit my head.”

  “I can’t imagine why.” Annette wrapped her arm around Violet’s waist. “You need to get in bed and sleep this off. You’re trashed.”

  “But I had fun,” Violet said in a singsong voice, or at least he thought that’s what she said because fun came out as a hiccup.

  “And you’ll probably be kicking yourself when you wake up tomorrow.”

  “Nah, I didn’t drink that much. One or two at the most,” Violet said, tripping over a raised lip on the sidewa
lk in front of her.

  Before Alec could consider his actions, he stalked forward and grabbed Violet by her shoulders and pulled her toward him. “I can get her inside.”

  Annette yanked Violet by her waist, boomeranging her backwards, but Alec refused to let go, tightening his grip on Violet’s shoulders.

  “And who are you?” she asked, her eyes narrowed into slits.

  “Alec, her neighbor.”

  Annette’s eyes swept over him contemptuously. “No, thank you. You’ve helped enough for one day.”

  Shit. Violet spilled the story and he came out looking like a complete jerk. Not that he was surprised. He was a jerk. “Let me carry her inside and then I’ll leave,” he said, his voice urgent but soft. He tugged her back toward him ever so slightly. He didn’t know why he was fighting to take care of her. It seemed ridiculous when she had a very protective friend offering to do it. He needed to pull his head out of his ass and mind his own business. After the way he treated Violet this morning, he was lucky Violet hadn’t hit him or worse.

  “Ugh,” Violet moaned. “I don’t feel so good. Stop playing tug of war with me.”

  “You’ll be okay,” Annette cooed in her ear, a sympathetic smile on her lips, but when she focused all of her disdain on him, her eyes hardened and her lips thinned. “Just tell this asshole to back off and I’ll take you inside.”

  Violet lifted her head and opened her mouth, but no words of dismissal exited. Instead, she lurched forward, violently hurling all over his shoes, and it didn’t stop with one eruption. Before he could move away, her body jerked toward him again and vomit hit him squarely on the front of his shirt.

  Paralyzed, he didn’t say anything for a few prolonged beats of silence and then Annette started laughing, and it wasn’t a small chuckle. Her entire body shook and she dropped her hands from Violet, bending at the waist. “That was fucking awesome,” she said between gasping breaths. “In fact, it was the best thing I’ve seen in…oh…years.”