by Janie Crouch
This woman. How the hell was he supposed to live without her? “Violet . . .”
Now it was her who took a step back. “But that isn’t what this is, is it? Linear doesn’t need you to go overseas. You’re volunteering.”
“I think it would be a good idea for us to take some time away from each other.”
One eyebrow rose. “Is that so? It didn’t seem like you were feeling that way when we had sex in the shower yesterday after our workout. Or when we were dancing tonight. Is this something that came up on the walk home?”
He drew in a breath. “I’m not trying to be petty. I’m saying this because I care about you.”
“You’re saying you don’t want to be with me anymore because you care about me? Excuse me if I don’t quite see the connection. I never took you for a coward, Teague. If you’re done with our relationship, just say so.”
She turned and began walking away, but he grabbed her arm. “This isn’t about me being done. This is about you and what you want to become.”
“And what is that?” She put her hands on her hips.
His hands moved up to her shoulders. “Fierce. Independent. Completely your own.”
He could almost see the fight drain out of her. “I do want to be those things. I thought we were working toward those goals together. That you wanted it for me too.”
He couldn’t stop himself. He yanked her against his chest. “I do. Seeing how far you’ve come over the past couple of months? Your transformation has been one of the most amazing things I’ve ever participated in.”
“Then why stop?” Her words were muffled against his chest.
“You’re not stopping. I’m just stepping back so that you can make the rest of the journey on your own.”
“What if I don’t want to make it on my own?”
He set her back from him so he could look her in the eye. “If I stick around and we continue the way we have been, at some point you may look back and wonder if I was your crutch. You’ll worry that it was me who got you through this, not you. I can’t stand the thought of that happening.”
He could tell that although she may not like what he was saying, it was at least making sense to her.
“I’ll take a few jobs away from here, give us both a chance to get some perspective. Give you a chance to try this on your own.”
“There’s more that you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”
More, as in he was in love with her and wanted to ask her to marry him? More, as in he was about to turn thirty-four, and she was barely twenty-two, and they were in hugely different places in their lives? More, as in this conversation was eating away at his heart like acid, and he wasn’t sure he was going to survive it, much less survive being away from her? He gave her the best smile he was capable of and then turned, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, and moving them forward again.
“You know how it is, Firefly, there’s always more. But that’s not what’s important.”
Violet was what was important. And he would give her what she needed, even if it killed him.
Chapter 23
Three days after the talk with Aiden, Violet was pissed.
And sad. Heart-crushingly sad.
She’d thought long and hard about what Aiden had said, and she understood why he’d said it, but that still didn’t make it any easier.
She hadn’t actually been mad until she’d showed up at Linear this afternoon, ready for her Krav Maga lesson, and was met by Gavin rather than Aiden. She liked the other man just fine, just hadn’t expected Aiden to totally bail.
And then an unbearable thought hit her. “Did he leave already?” she asked Gavin, unable to keep the panic out of her voice. “Take a job out of the country?”
“No,” Gavin told her. “He just thought you working with someone else would be better starting right away.”
Violet had felt like her heart was shattering, but she’d nodded and followed Gavin into the training area.
At least one consolation was how surprised he’d been when she’d knocked him straight onto his ass within the first two minutes of them sparring. Then he’d begun taking her seriously.
An hour of trading blows and the challenge of a new opponent had exhausted her. The hardest part of the lesson was that Aiden had been right. She’d learned more from Gavin in an hour, just because he was new to her, then she would’ve learned from fighting with Aiden for twice that amount of time. She and Aiden knew each other too well, at least in this particular area, for her not to be able to figure out what he had planned next.
Later that night, she lay in her bed, thinking it all through. Again. God, she missed him. Even understanding why they were doing this, and maybe partially agreeing, she missed him.
How was she going to bear it when he left the country for weeks at a time? The thought had her rubbing her chest against the phantom ache there.
But right on the heels of the sadness was the anger. Why was he the one who got to make all the decisions? Another person who was doing what was best for her, but without asking her what she wanted.
And if that was the case, didn’t sticking up for herself, being fully independent and fierce as Aiden had put it, mean telling him to go fuck himself?
Or more directly, to fuck her?
She honestly didn’t know. But just the thought that this was her choice too, that there was more than one option here, helped her relax a little bit.
Aiden was right; she had to know that she wasn’t using him for a crutch. But there was one thing she did know, and that was her own mind. It didn’t take her weeks or months to come up with the decision. She just needed to let her mind process it and figure out the right way to go.
Yes, not having Aiden around made that a little bit easier. But hell if she was going to not have him in her life based on sheer principle.
She could be a strong, independent, fierce woman standing on her own.
She could also be a strong, independent, fierce woman with Aiden standing by her side.
Nobody got to make that choice for her except her. Not even him.
Too bad she was having this epiphany at three o’clock in the morning. Since she was wide awake, she decided to go downstairs to try out the new recipe she’d written on her hand at The Eagle’s Nest.
Baking always helped center her, almost as much as her newfound skill at kicking ass did.
She slipped into her yoga pants and a shirt and headed downstairs. When she walked into the kitchen and found the light on, she was confused.
She spun around, taking a fighting stance, instincts and training kicking in as the door to the storage room opened. She relaxed when she saw it was Jordan.
The other woman snatched her headphones out of her ears and let out a shriek. “What are you doing here?”
Violet rolled her eyes. “I happen to own this business and live on the premises. What are you doing here?”
Jordan had a key and the security code, and honestly, Violet had no problem with her hanging out, but it was the middle of the night.
“I’m not stealing anything,” Jordan was quick to say.
“Jordan.” She actually snorted. “It never crossed my mind that you would be stealing something.”
“I just couldn’t sleep and my house . . .” The woman shrugged. “I just couldn’t be there alone right now.”
“Ugh. I don’t want to be alone either.”
“Why don’t you call Aiden? He’s got to be up for a booty call from you, even if it’s the middle of the night.”
Violet leaned against the counter near the sink. “Unfortunately, my boyfriend thinks he knows what’s best for me, and that is for us to be apart for a while.” A very short while, if Violet had anything to say about it.
Jordan came and leaned on the counter next to her. “I don’t have very good luck with guys, so I’m probably not the one to give you advice.”
Violet nodded and slipped an arm around Jordan. “I had an idea for a gougère the other n
ight. Want to try to make it now? We’ll both be exhausted tomorrow together.”
Her eyes brightened. “Anything is better than facing my house alone. Let’s do it.”
Nobody had time to worry about empty beds or sleepless nights when there was a wonderful dessert to be figured out. An hour flew by without them even realizing it while they were busy tasting and reworking problematic parts.
Two times they thought they had the recipe just as they wanted it, but both times on final tasting it wasn’t quite correct. Violet decided to just save the trial for another day and they moved on to what they needed to make for this morning’s rush. They were both walking into the large walk-in cooler when heat and a terrible noise exploded in the kitchen behind them.
“What the hell?” Violet screamed as they both ran back out of the cooler.
The entire kitchen was on fire.
“What happened?” Jordan asked over the roar. “Did the oven catch fire?”
Violet wasn’t exactly sure where the fire had originated, but it didn’t look like it was from the oven. It was more like it was from . . . A breeze caught her from the doorway, causing the flames to pick up.
“I think something burning flew through the window.” Violet had no idea how that could happen, but the fire seemed to be spreading from the back door.
But it didn’t really matter how it started; they had to get it under control or they would lose the whole bakery.
“Where’s the fire extinguisher?” Jordan yelled.
“It’s by the back door.” Both she and Jordan pulled the bottom of their shirts over their face as the smoke became thicker and harder to breathe through. They couldn’t get to that extinguisher without going through the flames.
“There’s one out front, too, right?” Jordan ran for the door leading to the front of the house, but when she pushed on it, she was knocked back almost onto her ass.
“What the hell?” Violet said, running over to help her friend. That door shouldn’t be locked. There wasn’t a lock on it. Something was blocking the door.
They both pushed on it together, but it wouldn’t budge. They met each other’s eyes.
Someone had trapped them here in the kitchen and set it on fire.
Fire was engulfing the whole back wall now. Whereas a few minutes ago Violet was hoping to save the bakery, now she just wanted them to escape with their lives.
“Call 911 and let’s get in the cooler,” she yelled. “We should be able to keep the smoke out until the fire department arrives.” She hoped.
“If we do that, the bakery will burn,” Jordan yelled back. The flames were getting higher. “I can still get to the fire extinguisher by the door.”
She grabbed the other woman’s arm. “No. Those flames are too high. It’s not worth your life.”
“Yeah, well my phone was hanging by the door. Where’s yours?”
Shit. Hers was upstairs in the apartment. There was no calling 911.
Violet began gathering any material she could use to douse flames. Baking soda, salt—she knew better than to use water or flour. A few seconds later, when she had them all gathered, she turned to Jordan. “You throw it, I’ll run through the flames.”
Jordan shook her head. “Sorry, boss, but even with your workouts, I’m taller and can jump higher. It will be easier for me to get over the flames and grab the fire extinguisher.”
She was right, and they didn’t have time to argue. Violet nodded once. She would make sure to smother the flames as much as possible with her dry goods.
“On three. Jump high.” She got her supplies ready. Timing would be everything. The smoke was getting higher, the heat more oppressive.
“One. . . two . . . three. . .”
Violet dumped as much of the dry materials as she could to make a path for Jordan. The other woman used her height to her advantage and leapt across the flames. Violet kept throwing all the powder she could in Jordan’s direction, even when it meant the flames were getting dangerously close to her.
“I got it!” Jordan yelled.
Violet was finding it harder to breathe, now that the baking materials she’d thrown had smoldered some of the flames. Not as much fire, but more smoke.
There was a yelp of pain from Jordan’s direction, and then the blessed sound of the fire extinguisher turning on. Jordan sprayed everything she could while Violet continued to pour the last of the flour over the flames.
When they got it under enough control that they could get out the door, they ran outside, both of them gasping for air. Violet took the fire extinguisher from Jordan, wincing at how hot it was, and continued using it on the fire. “Go get help.”
Jordan hadn’t been gone long when the fire extinguisher ran out, but at least the worst of the blaze was under control. Not long after, Jordan was running back, holding another fire extinguisher awkwardly in her arms. She thrust it at Violet.
“That’s from The Mayor’s Inn. They’re calling the fire department now.”
Within just a few moments, the bakery was surrounded. Someone pulled the fire extinguisher from Violet’s hands and used it to finish putting out the flames, along with another one that had shown up. Sirens were ringing through the air just a few minutes later. More and more people started milling around as the sun began to rise.
Violet sat down on the curb next to Jordan to watch it all. They had made it out alive. Survival. That was the most important thing.
Chapter 24
She’d been at the hospital for less than an hour when Gabriel came storming in, Edward on his heels.
“Are you okay? What in God’s name happened?” Gabriel walked straight up to her and clutched her against his chest.
She finally worked her way free and hopped up onto the exam table. “There was a fire, obviously.”
Violet wasn’t hurt, except for a little smoke inhalation. She and Jordan had been ushered into separate rooms upon arrival at the hospital. Violet had already been checked out by one of the doctors—not Anne—who had informed her she would probably have an annoying cough for a while, but that it shouldn’t have any effects long-term. It wouldn’t be long until she was released. Then she would have to get back and figure out what the hell she was going to do about the bakery.
She needed to talk to the sheriff and figure out if what she thought was true, that someone had deliberately set fire to Fancy Pants.
It just seemed so impossible. Why would someone do that?
And Gabriel was going to freak out when she told him.
“Where the hell are all the doctors in this one-horse town?” Gabe was already pacing.
“I’ve already been seen by the doctor. I’m okay, just some smoke inhalation, and I smell like the inside of a chimney. Nothing that shouldn’t be completely gone in a few days. They should be back to officially release me soon.”
Her brother studied her as if trying to figure out if she were being truthful. From her seat on the exam table, she held out her arms and legs in front of her so he could see she wasn’t burned. That at least got him to stop pacing.
“What happened, Violet?” Edward asked, moving in closer from the door. “The fire was in the kitchen?”
“Yes.”
Gabe rammed his fingers into his hair. “And you just, what, figured out the kitchen was on fire and decided to run downstairs and fight it yourself rather than call the fire department? That’s just stupid, Vi. I know you love this bakery, but it’s not worth your life.”
“Actually,” Violet crossed her arms, “I was already in the kitchen when the fire started.”
“What?” Edward seemed more upset by that than the thought that she had run down to fight it herself. She couldn’t win with these two.
“Why were you in the kitchen in the middle of the night?” Edward asked.
She shrugged. “I had an idea for a new recipe, so we were trying it out.”
“We? As in you and Teague?” Gabe bit out.
God, she wanted to see Aiden. She’d wante
d to call him the moment all this had happened. But there hadn’t been a chance. And she still didn’t have her phone.
“No, actually, it was me and Jordan.”
Gabe rolled his eyes. “Of course it was. I should’ve known if there was trouble, that woman would be in the center of it.”
“Cut her some slack. If it wasn’t for her, I’d probably be dead right now.” She glared at him.
He rolled his eyes. “Because you’re both too stupid to leave a fire rather than stay and fight it?”
“Have you always been this much of an asshole, or has this fine personality trait just sprouted recently?”
Gabe shook his head with a wry smile and jumped up onto the examination table next to her. “Both, probably. I’ve always been a jerk, but you were too much of a sweet little sister to notice. But Jordan Reiss . . . Damn it, I don’t trust that woman.”
Violet leaned her head against her brother’s massive shoulder. “She saved me, Gabe. She jumped through flames to get us both out.”
His eyes narrowed. “Then I guess I’ll try to keep my assholery in check when I’m around her.”
She had to tell him the truth about what had happened. He wasn’t going to like it, but he would find out either way. “Somebody set fire to the place on purpose.”
He went completely still. “Why do you think that?”
“The fire didn’t come from the stove. It wasn’t some sort of electrical malfunction. Somebody threw something through the back window.”
“Are you sure?” Edward asked, looking alarmed.
“Yes. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s not me just being overdramatic.”
Gabe slid his arm around her and pulled her close. “I believe you. Even when I haven’t liked the decisions you were making, it wasn’t because I didn’t trust your judgment. You’re not prone to histrionics.”
No matter how independent she became, her brother’s opinion was always going to matter to her. “Thank you. But what I can’t figure out is why. The bakery has been doing so well. I’ve had to hire more people to help with the business.”
