“Dramatic much?”
“You know what I’m saying. Although…you have to admit…she was clearly prepared. There’s a stack of boxes with Eli’s name on them, so…”
Yeah. Hunter figured Melissa had been planning this for a while to be this organized. His son’s room had been cleared out–all his toys and clothes were in boxes. It was the same in the living room where there were two small boxes with random books and family photographs. It was like she didn’t take one thing to remind her of the life she was leaving behind.
“Do you want to take any of his furniture?” Kyle called out from Eli’s room.
Did he? He had an entire bedroom set at his place, and yet…he felt like he should take it just in case at some point Eli wanted it.
“Uh…yeah. We’ll take it and store it in the garage for me to deal with later.” Then he looked around the house and considered if there was anything else he should take. This had been the first house he and Melissa had moved into together. The rent was cheap and most of the furniture was second-hand. They had always talked about how they would buy all new stuff when they were a little more settled.
They never got there.
And that’s when he knew there wasn’t a damn thing he was going to take other than Eli’s stuff. There was nothing here he wanted to remember. The house he had purchased on his own had always felt better to him–everything about it. And most of the memories he’d made there had been good ones.
His brother walked by him with an armload of boxes, and Hunter knew he needed to get going with the rest of them so they could get out of here.
And thirty minutes later, when he locked the door and put the key in the flowerpot, he thought good riddance.
He climbed into his truck next to Kyle and sighed.
“I’m not gonna lie to you, that was a little anticlimactic,” Kyle was saying as he buckled his seatbelt.
“What were you expecting?”
Shrugging, he replied, “I don’t know. Maybe finding ‘Screw you, Hunter’ painted on the walls in dripping red paint?”
“What is wrong with you? No one does anything like that.”
“Oh, please. It happens more than you think.”
“Speaking from experience?”
“Luckily, no. Although I’m sure there’s been more than one woman who thought about doing it.”
Hunter fully agreed.
“So, how’s Eli been with all this? Has he been asking for Melissa?”
“Once. Then I told him he was going to be staying with me from now on, and that was it.”
“Again, anticlimactic.”
“Hey, it’s better than the alternative.”
“True.” He paused. “What did I hear him telling Courtney earlier? Something about flipping?”
Smiling, he thought of the day he found Eli and Violet in the yard tumbling.
And honestly, it was a toss-up as to which sight enthralled him more–his son laughing and tumbling around–or Violet doing cartwheels in snug yoga pants and then rolling around in the yard.
And that hug? Yeah, he felt the imprint of her curvy body from his head to his toes.
And wouldn’t mind doing it again.
“Okay, what put that goofy smile on your face? Is it the flipper? Is she hot? Wait! Did Eli mean stripper? Was somebody stripping and not flipping?” Kyle immediately started laughing, apparently cracking himself up. “Nah, you’re way too uptight to bring a stripper around your son, so…”
“Seriously, dude. Grow up.”
“Fine, then explain both the stupid grin and the flipping. Or stripping. Please tell me there was stripping.”
Only in my mind…
So he stuck to the basics. He told his brother all about Violet–from their disastrous first meeting to finding her doing gymnastics in the yard.
What he didn’t mention was how he’d checked her out on YouTube and was seriously impressed.
And more than a little turned on.
That bit of information he was keeping to himself because, no doubt, his brother would totally go into creepy stalker mode and look for himself. And that wasn’t something he wanted to happen. He had a feeling if Kyle met Violet, he’d be all over her and break into his ultimate flirter mode and…just no. Hunter didn’t want to examine why that particular thought bothered him; he just knew it did. His brother could find his own women.
Not that Violet was his, but…
Yeah, okay. Fine. There was an attraction there. He’d been divorced for two years and had gone out on plenty of dates since then, and he knew there was nothing wrong with being interested in a beautiful woman.
And Violet was definitely beautiful–petite, curvy, and thanks to YouTube, he now knew how she looked in a skin-tight leotard and how bendy she was.
He’d be lying if he said that image wasn’t burned into his brain.
But…she was Katie’s friend who was only in town temporarily to help her out. She clearly had a busy life and traveled a lot so…it was pointless to engage in any kind of flirtation or imagine taking her out and seeing where it could go.
“It’s obvious she made an impression on Eli,” Kyle was saying. “Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him so chatty!”
“I know. It was…I’m telling you, it was an amazing sight. I walked into the yard and I heard him laughing. Like this honest-to-goodness belly laugh. He was doing somersaults across the yard, and when he saw me, he was grinning from ear to ear.” He felt himself getting emotional. Again.
“How long is this girl in town for?”
“Until Brian gets back.”
“And when is that?”
“Katie doesn’t have an exact date, but maybe six to eight weeks.”
“Okay, but think of what a great influence this Violet chick can be in that time? And really, what timing!”
“What do you mean?”
“Dude, you can’t be this clueless,” Kyle said with a little disgust. “Melissa leaves, and now there’s Violet!”
“Who is also going to leave,” Hunter reminded him. “If anything, it’s not particularly helpful. Eli will develop a relationship with Violet and then she’ll be gone. And don’t even get me started on what’s going to happen while Katie’s on maternity leave.”
“I thought you put in for personal time off during that time?”
“I did, but I told them I’d be on call if they really need me. Dad said he’d come and stay at the house if I need him…”
“And you know I’ll do it if Dad can’t.”
“Thanks. Scarlett said she’d be willing to watch him too since she works from home. Plus, she said it would be a great way for Eli and Asher to bond.”
“She realizes Asher’s still a baby, right? How much bonding could they do?”
“How the hell should I know? She offered, and I was so relieved that I just let her ramble on.”
“Smart move.”
“Yeah, so…Eli’s going to have his world turned upside down again for the month he doesn’t go to Katie’s.”
“And he doesn’t see Violet.”
“Exactly.”
“And then you don’t get to see Violet.”