“What in the world is going on out here?” Dominic shouted before frantically looking around the yard. “Your son is here, for crying out loud, Hunter! What were you thinking?”
“I uh…”
“He came at me for no reason!” Kyle explained–almost whining–and it was tempting to hit him again.
Luckily, his sanity prevailed, and he dropped his arms to his side. Eli was in the corner of the yard playing with his trucks in the sandbox and wasn’t at all phased by the insanity happening over here.
Thank God.
Hunter took a step back and wiped the sweat from his brow but didn’t say anything. Meanwhile, Kyle was going on about being attacked when it was completely unprovoked.
And…he kind of had a point.
It wasn’t his fault that Hunter needed to get out his frustration.
Not that he was going to admit it.
“Hunter, it’s not like you to be so aggressive. What’s going on?” his father asked.
“It’s nothing, Dad. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Well that’s too bad because you’re obviously upset and you’ve brought it to everyone’s attention, so…out with it.”
“I’m probably going to have a bruise on my face for the wedding,” Kyle said. “You know, in case anyone’s interested.”
“We’ll ask Scarlett to put some makeup on you,” his father quipped, and for some reason, that broke all the tension and had them all laughing. “Okay, come on. Let’s grab something to drink and talk in the shade.”
Hunter looked at the piles of lumber and knew he needed to be working, but…getting some things off his chest was probably the smarter thing to start with.
It took a few minutes to get themselves settled and to make sure Eli didn’t need anything, but by the time they had some chairs situated in the shade, Hunter felt more than ready to talk.
He told them about Violet coming over Friday night and spending the night and how they had breakfast with Eli and played with him before going to the local home improvement store and looking at furniture for the yard and even coming back home and going online to look for design inspiration.
“That all sounds good,” his father commented. “There’s nothing about that to make you so angry.”
“Yeah, well…over breakfast, I sort of…hinted at her moving to Magnolia.”
“Oh, good Lord,” Kyle huffed.
“What? What’s wrong with that?” Dominic asked.
“What’s wrong?” Kyle repeated. “They’ve been dating a month! One month!” He shook his head. “Although we shouldn’t be surprised. I mean, this is your M.O. You rush in and get serious way too soon. Remember with you and Melissa…”
Hunter never let him finish. “I’m going to stop you right there. Melissa and I were kids when we started dating, and if you remember, it was always on again, off again. There was always drama! Did I love her? Yes. There was a time when I definitely did. But she messed with me for years and knew how to manipulate me to get what she wanted.”
“Dude, you always went back–even when you swore you wouldn’t,” Kyle reminded him.
“Yeah, but I also dated other women in between. It’s not like she’s the only woman I’ve ever been with.”
“He’s right,” his father said. “Although, Melissa seemed to be the only girl you ever got serious with.”
Nodding, he replied, “I know. And we stayed together longer than we should have, but that was mostly because of Eli. I really thought we could make it work. But any romantic part of our relationship ended when he was a baby.” Raking a hand through his hair, he sighed. “Honestly, I fell out of love with her while she was pregnant, but we were having a baby, and I wanted to…I mean, I hoped we could…”
“We get what you’re saying, son. It was very admirable for you to work as hard as you did with her. But we’re rehashing ancient history as far as I’m concerned. This is about you and Violet.”
With another nod, he took a sip of his water. “From the moment she opened the door to me at Katie’s, I was drawn to her. Every time I talked to her, there was…there was just something there. At first, I thought it was just…you know…lust. A physical attraction.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, bro. You don’t have to dress it up to mean something more.”
“That’s the thing, Kyle. I’m not. I look at Violet and…things suddenly fit.” He jumped to his feet and began to pace. “I think about her all the time! I want to talk to her about my day and hear about hers, and…and…dammit, I don’t know, she’s just…” He growled as he tried to find the words.
“Hunter, do you think it’s practical to be asking her to move here? Bottom line is you don’t know her that well.”
“I know how I feel,” he said defensively. “I may not know all there is to know about her, but do we ever know everything about the person we fall in love with?” He looked at his father. “Can you honestly say you knew everything about mom?”
“Well…no…”
He looked at Kyle and waved him off. “I’d ask you, but I don’t think you’ve ever been in love, so…”
“As a matter of fact, I have,” Kyle snapped. “You remember Sydney? We dated for two years!”
“Please, that was in high school,” Hunter said, waving him off again. “That hardly counts.”
“Funny, it counted when you talked about you and Melissa!”
“Boys…” Dominic said wearily.
“I’m just saying,” Kyle interrupted. “I was in love with Sydney and I knew everything about her!”
“Right. You screwed up that relationship,” Hunter argued. “And if you knew her so well, then you would have known your behavior was going to break you up.”
Now Kyle was on his feet. “I don’t need this…”
“Why? It’s okay for you to point out stuff you think I’m doing wrong, but I can’t do the same to you? And why are you getting so ticked off? That stuff with Sydney was like…ten years ago!”
“Boys!” Dominic yelled. “Both of you sit your asses down!” He rubbed his temples until everyone was sitting again. “Kyle, relax. And Hunter? I’m not going to say you’re wrong for wanting Violet to move here. It is a little fast and I want you to really think about it. How does she feel about it?”
He groaned.
“Ooohhh…I get it,” Kyle said. “That’s why you’re pissed off! She wasn’t as excited about it as you are. Am I right?”
There was no way to deny it.
“I think I freaked her out a bit.”
“Oh, boy,” Dominic muttered.
“And the thing is, after I mentioned it, she started talking about the two of us going away together–like taking a vacation just the two of us. I mean…I can’t just do that! I have Eli to consider!”
“Plus the whole you not liking to have fun thing,” Kyle interjected, but one glare from their father and he immediately stopped talking.