Page 52 of Might as Well

“Mom?” Violet says from behind me. “You’re back.”

“Can we come in?” her father asks.

Violet glances at me. She wrings her hands together and takes a step closer to me before interlacing her fingers with mine. She stands slightly behind me as if I’m her shield. Even upset with me, it’s a relief that she’ll lean on me in a situation that makes her uneasy.

“What do you want?” I ask them instead.

Her father’s mouth hardens and his wife takes the opportunity to explain their appearance.

“Well, we were hoping for a place to crash. We heard you got married, and if you don’t want us to stay here, maybe you could loan us some money?”

Violet tenses. “You came here to ask me for money?” she asks carefully, slowly.

“Sorry, the answer is no,” I reply, hoping I’m not overstepping once again. I’m already on thin ice with Violet. This whole situation screams at me to get Violet far away from them. “Now, if you’ll excuse us.” Ignoring them, I glance down at Violet. “You got your things?” She steps away to grab her purse and the car keys for me.

“Wait just a second,” her father starts, clearly upset this isn’t going the way they wanted.

“Go on to the car,” I tell Violet. I unlock the doors to the car and lock up the house.

“You can’t just turn us away,” he continues. “We’re her family!”

“I can and I will. Violet doesn’t seem to want to reconnect and I’ll be damned if she hands over any of her money to anyone else, family or not. If that’s all you’re here for, don’t ever come back.” I step around them and leave them behind without another glance.

“You okay?” I ask Violet a few minutes into the drive.

She nods, but doesn’t say much and soon we arrive. A bunch of the family members seems to be present tonight. They welcome Violet warmly, not that I’m surprised. We end up sitting with Sydney on one side and Deanna on the other.

I relax as Violet engages Deanna in conversation over their respective crafts.

“Where are the kids?” I ask Sydney.

“With Logan and Kayla.” Her voice lowers as she says, “I see you managed to work things out with her.”

“Yeah.” Mostly anyway.

The puck has already dropped to start the game. It seems like it’ll be an aggressive one based on the start.

Sydney squeezes my hand. “I’m happy for you. And I like Violet. Please don’t screw this up again.”

Violet breaks away from her conversation with Deanna and leans toward me instead.

“Okay, Zane. Tell me what’s happening. You might as well educate me while I’m here.”

“Well, the goal is to get the puck in the net,” I start, causing her to laugh. “We’re the team in blue and silver,” I add. She rolls her eyes at me.

“Fine. I don’t need your help after all.”

Deanna stands abruptly as the entire arena seems to fall silent. Our gaze swivels to the ice where Brayden lies still. A trainer rushes onto the ice to check on him. The crowd roars, pissed as hell, as a replay shows a dirty hit on Brayden that is no doubt going to result in a nasty concussion.

A couple of the guys help Brayden stand. It’s clear he’s still in a daze as they help him off the ice. The moment he steps off, Deanna rushes out of the room.

“Is he going to be okay?” Violet asks quietly.

“Yeah, but that’s his second in only a couple of years.”

“Is she going to be down there alone?”

“Until they are done with him and they let her see him, yeah?”

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