Page 80 of Always a Bridesmaid
Ford hung his head, his skin reddening slightly. “You’re making me sound much cooler and more important than I am.”
“Is that…?” Violet reached up as if to wipe something off his face. “You got a little humility right—” She smudged her thumb across the corner of his mouth. “There. I think I got it all.”
His eyes locked onto hers, amusement twinkling in the green depths. “Oh, good. I’d hate for anyone else to see that. It’d be so embarrassing.”
“Does that mean you kinda sorta care what they think once in a while?” Violet leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
He lowered his head so that his forehead touched hers. “I care about what one person in here thinks.” He used his thumbs to tip up her chin and close the scant distance between their mouths.
While it was one of the more chaste kisses they’d shared and lasted only a second or so, it felt more intimate. Like wrapping yourself in a fleece blanket and sinking onto the couch at the end of the day next to someone you loved.
It was the type of desire she’d tried to snuff out six months ago. One that had her picturing a picket fence and a couple of kids running around the grassy yard as she and her husband sat on a porch swing, watching on and sipping their lemonade.
Because of this particular guy, Pyro and Trouble jumped into the mix as well. Even though, like with the man, she wasn’t supposed to go getting attached.
Uneasiness bobbed its head, even as Violet assured herself it wasn’t a big deal. As long as she kept the longing off her face. The last thing she wanted was to scare Ford off.
Then again, maybe she should find out now if he’d run from commitment.
She wasn’t asking for forever. Just that one day he might be open to more than…whatever they were.
“What would you say if I told you I was considering staying in Uncertainty for good?” The question burst out of her, and Violet held her breath, scrutinizing his features as she awaited his answer.
“If you want to stay, you should. Even as biased as Lottie is, I guarantee if you or I or anyone else in town needed help, she’d show up. And while it was hard growing up with the McGuire reputation looming over me, plenty of others have shown me kindness and made me who I am today.
“I worked a summer at Martin’s Trading Post, and when it came time to pay for college, my boss gave me a loan, no interest. One he refused to let me pay back after I graduated.”
That was it. No more, no less. Not particularly what she’d hoped for, yet if he told her sheshouldmove here, she might balk at that, too.
Still, was he trying to talk her into it? Or out of it?
“Hello, Violet.” The voice made her freeze in place—not because it’d been cold. No, Cheryl Hurst had the kind of voice that’d persuade you to thank her for driving an ice pick into your eye.
Chapter Seventeen
While Violet had loved feeling like a teenager at the fishing booth, she wasn’t so much for it right now.
Slowly, she pivoted and summoned up a smile. “Cheryl. Hello.”
“I was wondering when I’d run into you.”
Me, too.Except replace it with wondering how to avoid running into you.“Here I am.”
Cheryl’s glacial blue eyes homed in on how close Violet and Ford were standing. As usual, her auburn hair was styled in a less-poofy version of the news anchor bob. Pearl earrings and a matching necklace accented her dress suit, and every inch of her dripped style and class.
In other words, the opposite of Violet.
Awkwardness crowded the air, and then Cheryl aimed a tight smile at Ford. “Would you excuse us for a moment?”
Obviously not an actual request, but instead of immediately agreeing with Cheryl Hurst like most people did, Ford looked at Violet.
“It’s okay,” she said, hesitantly loosening her grip on him. “I’ll find you afterward.”
“Pro tip: check the food area.”
A simple tilt of the head implied Cheryl wanted to take their conversation to one of the empty, darker corners of the community center.
It took Violet back even further, to her elementary years, when she dragged her feet as her mom forced her into the car before school.
