“I’m gonna visit him more. I definitely will.” Her leg jiggled and she fidgeted all the way there, and for a change, I wasn’t hitting any red lights. None at all.
***
“What happened?” she asks her younger brother, who has curly hair and the same eyes as Violet. He’s gotta be no more than seventeen or eighteen and looks like he hasn’t grown into his six-foot frame quite yet.
“I was cleaning his gutters and he just collapsed while holding the ladder for me,” Cody says. “Scariest shit. I phoned the ambulance first, then Mom and she and Dad are flying back now. Told me to call you. Aunt Sara and Uncle Hugh are on their way, Uncle Brock, too.”
“I messaged with Aunt Sara and Colleen by text on the way here. They’ll be here soon,” Violet tells him.
A woman in scrubs approaches. “Hi. You’re family to James Gabriel?”
“Yes, I’m Violet Gates, his granddaughter. Cody’s sister.”
Violet sways, and clasps the neck of her sweater. I know she’s bracing for bad news, so I move closer and put my arm around her.
They tell her that her grandfather is stable, but they’re running some more tests. They tell her they’ll keep him in overnight.
***
I’ve grabbed coffee for me and Violet and a Coke for her brother and then not long later, I’m introduced to an aunt and uncle that arrive. And then another uncle. Then two cousins of hers roll in, a brother and sister, the sister around her age, the brother early thirties.
She only introduces me as Killian. No identifier with it. No, he’s my friend even. Just ‘Killian’.
They all look me over. The women, with intrigue. The uncles and male cousin, the same way as Violet’s brother looked at me. I’m guessing they’re not gonna miss Iadanza, that they’re protective.
The bulk of the afternoon is eaten up by sitting and waiting while these people talk amongst themselves. They seem like a nice family. I don’t have experience with functional family units in a crisis such as this, so the whole thing is interesting for me to witness. All of them coming together during a crisis. Talking about family stuff. Catching up with one another since they last saw one another. Violet and her cousin Colleen seem chummy and they call the uncle, Brock, who teases them both affectionately Uncle Broccoli.
There’s stress in the air, they’re obviously worried about Violet’s grandfather. He sounds like a stubborn old man trying to do too much for his age. Violet explains to me that he’s lived on his own for years since his wife died.
Violet whispers to me that I can go, that she’ll catch a ride back, but I shake my head. She does it twice and then the third time, I grab her hand and kiss the back of her knuckles, then hold on.
She sits there, looking at me with huge and panicked eyes while I hold her hand on my knee. I don’t know if those eyes are pleading for me to leave or for me to let go, but I’m not going anywhere.
Her brother gives me a lingering side-eye. I know he’s making sure I know he’s got his eye on me.
I head across the street to a coffee shop to grab more coffees for everyone with sandwiches and pastries while they’re taking turns filing into Violet’s grandfather’s room, two at a time to see him for five minutes apiece.
Apparently, he tells them all to go back and finish doing the outside work at his house for him, insisting that he’ll be fine unless he has to go home and finish it – in which case he won’t be fine because he’ll probably drop dead.
The girls are all upset about this, but Cody mumbles that’s his grandfather’s way, to be irreverent in the face of death.
That he leaned over to explain that to me was cool, him trying to help me not feel like a complete outsider. And the way he talked, the kid shows maturity for his age.
Not long after that, Cody, the two cousins, and Brock go off to finish the yard work. Brock - forty-something, pudgy, and a big and friendly smile on the guy - invites me to come along, but Violet declines before I can answer, saying she’ll stay and wait for her parents to arrive.
***
“You don’t need to stay,” she says to me for the fourth time. This is the first time it’s just us two in the waiting area. I’m sitting beside her and have my arm around the back of her chair. Her aunt is gone to feed a parking meter, her uncle is in the bathroom.
“My mom and dad’ll be here in less than an hour and you don’t need to really-” She stops talking and stands up, color draining from her face. “Dad. Mom.”
Her mother’s eyes bounce between her and I for a moment before she wraps her arms around Violet.
It’s a flurry of activity for a minute while details are recounted. Violet’s parents plan to visit with him briefly and discuss picking up Cody.
Violet’s father’s eyes are on me. And he wants to know who the fuck I am and what I want with his daughter. The man is average height and husky with salt and pepper hair and mostly salt in his full beard. He eyes me with an expression that tells me he’s protective, that he’s gonna scrutinize me for being near his daughter, and that he’d happily fuck me up if he felt like it was deserved. And I’m sure he feels that way even further because of the loser his daughter has been with for the past three years.
Violet takes after her mother, an attractive lady that looks to be in her early fifties, maybe, holding her age well. She has the same hair as Violet, though hers barely grazes her collarbone and Violet’s is halfway down her back.
Violet turns to me and I rise.
“Killian Coulter,” I say, reaching out to shake her father’s hand.
“Kevin Gates.” He shakes my hand. “My wife Daphne.”
Violet’s mother stops ranting under her breath to Violet about her father being stubborn and how something like this is what it had to take to slow him down. She hugs me with a big smile spreading across her face. “Great to meet you, Killian.”
Violet looks away, looking embarrassed at her mother’s enthusiasm.
“It’s so great to meet you, Killian,” she repeats, injecting it with a lot of warmth. She looks at Violet and gives her a wide smile. She thinks I’m Ray’s replacement. And Daphne Gates is ecstatic about that.
“There’s the nurse taking care of Grampa. Let’s go see if you can get in to see him,” Violet says and tugs on her father’s hand.
I sit back down.
Violet’s mother hugs the returning uncle, who was introduced to me as Hugh. After hugging her, he moves to sit in a chair directly across from me, eyes on me with a serious expression. I meet him in the eye and jerk my chin, inviting him to say what’s on his mind.
This guy looks like a bruiser who gives no fucks. Fifty-something, bald, wearing construction boots. The guy has homemade tattoos on all his knuckles. The serious gaze transforms to a smirk.
“Nobody liked her last fella. Real dickhead. You might have your work cut out. Or it might be a breeze, maybe. Everyone’ll be relieved to see him gone so you might have it easy.”
“I’m prepared to work for it,” I say automatically and with zero fucks, because it’s pretty clear to me what’s happening with me. And I find that I’m fine with it. More than fine.
“Make sure you don’t stop her from bein’ around her family and that’ll be a good start. Hold down a regular job, let her live her life and have some fun, too. That girl used to be full of smiles. That guy dragged her down. I’d love to kick his teeth in.”