Page 81 of Whips and Chains
My mouth dropped open. “Silas Pearler?”
The guy peeked out around my grandma’s bony shoulders. His face smoothed out into a smile when he recognized me. “Hey, Knox, right? We went to school together, didn’t we? I think you were a few years younger than me, right?”
“I was a year older,” I grit out through barely moving teeth.
Silas laughed. “Oh, right. Long time ago. Bad memory.” He kissed my grandmother on the cheek. “We have that in common, don’t we, sweetheart?”
I turned to Violet and pulled her in close, inhaling the scent of her hair like it was aromatherapy fragrances designed to calm me down. It only half worked. “I have rage,” I whispered in her ear.
She stifled a laugh, but she squeezed my fingers, while I hid in her hair.
When I finally pulled away, my entire family was staring at us. My brothers and Suzanne with looks of complete and utter shock.
My mom with tears in her eyes and pure pride and happiness on her face.
She stood and crossed the room, and when she stood in front of Violet, a good ten inches shorter than her, she didn’t hesitate.
She went straight in for a hug, wrapping her arms around my girl.
“Welcome to the family, Violet.”
20
VIOLET
X’s mom was a tiny woman, but her hug was so tight it felt like it could crush my bones.
It took me by surprise at first, but something inside me, the part that didn’t remember my biological mother and who had never had a foster mother show her any affection, hugged X’s mom right back.
Which made the hug go on for way longer than an introductory embrace should, but I found I couldn’t let her go.
Or maybe we both couldn’t. Because we stood there like that for a really long time, my arms wrapped around her, holding each other while her family watched on with confusion.
But when the woman finally stepped back, there was understanding in her eyes. And something I connected with.
I liked her instantly.
“I’m Jeanie. This is my husband, Lewis.”
X’s dad stood, and I instantly realized where X and his brothers got their height because it certainly wasn’t from their mother. Lewis was very tall and had the long, lean physique of a basketball player.
Lewis offered me a handshake, rather than the hug his wife had, which felt fitting, and then Jeanie went around the room, excitedly introducing me to each member of her family.
She paused when she got to Silas and Grandma Ruth, but they were busy making out, so she just pressed her lips together and tried to school her features into something that wasn’t the pure horror written all over X’s and his brothers’ faces.
I elbowed him gently. “She seems happy,” I whispered to him. “Stop staring.”
“How can you tell?” he muttered back. “Her lips are being devoured by a washed-up football player who I’m ninety-nine-percent sure had a widely publicized case of gonorrhea in high school.”
Grandma Ruth dragged her lips away from her much younger man’s. “He had that taken care of years ago, Knox. And I don’t want to hear any grief about it. We’re both consenting adults.”
X coughed. “Are you sure? Did you check his ID?”
The older woman frowned at him.
He instantly hung his head. “Sorry, ma’am.”
“That’s more like it.” She patted Silas’s cheek, but her words were for her grandson. “Be nice. He might be your new grandaddy.”
