Ash hadn’t seen Violet since she’d sneaked out of his apartment a month ago. He didn’t know how she’d managed to avoid him in a town this small—it was almost impressive, in a way.At the moment, she looked like a cat with its fur standing on end, her eyes blazing. He wondered for the thousandth time what the hell he’d done to freak her out. If the sex hadn’t been a big deal to her, why had she gone out of her way to avoid him?“Hi,” she said briskly as she opened her car door. “And goodbye.”He put out a hand to stop her from opening the door. “That’s it? What the hell did I do to warrant that kind of a greeting?”Her shoulders tensed before slumping. “You didn’t do anything,” she said, speaking to the car window. “But I need to get home.”Ash wasn’t about to let her leave without an explanation. He should’ve been pleased that she hadn’t tried to pursue something more serious. Wasn’t that what he always preferred? Violet was the opposite of clingy. She was practically a walking ad
Ash swore when he couldn’t find the green folder with the documents he needed. He shuffled through the twenty other folders on his desk and the seemingly endless piles of papers, getting to the point where he was tempted to dump everything onto the floor and set it on fire.It was twelve fifty in the afternoon, and Violet had texted him two hours prior to say she would be stopping by with her books by one o’clock. He’d glanced at his watch at least half a dozen times since then. 12:51. Nine minutes to find this folder for Trent so he wouldn’t be lurking when Violet arrived. The last thing Ash needed was his older brother sticking his giant nose into his business, which was one of Trent’s favorite things to do.“Hey, do you have that folder yet? Whoa, what the hell happened in here?” Trent surveyed the mess on Ash’s desk. “Don’t you have bins and shit to organize this stuff? How much am I paying you anyway?”“You’re paying me nothing, as you know, and when you have twenty thousand pi
Violet waved as her sister Vera’s face popped up on her phone for their monthly video chat. Someone yelled and then there was a crash, but Vera just shrugged.“Ethan has a new soccer ball and I told him”—she looked over her shoulder—“not to play with it inside. Ethan Lucas, if you break another vase I’m going to put you up for adoption!”“Yeah right!” Ethan called from the background.Vera rolled her eyes. Two years older than Violet, Vera didn’t look like her sister at all. She was shorter, with dark brown hair and eyes, although she and Violet had a similar smile. Vera had married a decade ago and had two children, Isabella and Ethan, who were eight and six, respectively. Violet hadn’t really understood her sister’s attraction to the staid and quiet Jim, but as far as Violet knew, their marriage had been relatively happy.“So, what’s new with you?” asked Vera. “How’s the business going?”Violet had told her sister about the business’s financial issues, although now she didn’t kn
Ash rolled his neck and checked the time. He’d been working on Violet’s books for over three hours now, and his eyes were blurry from staring at incomprehensible spreadsheets on his computer and mounds of indecipherable notes and receipts. Her husband might have taken care of the books, but he’d done a shit job of it.Going back to the beginning, Ash had yet to figure out how William had come up with his numbers. There were acronyms throughout that were never explained, and Ash could also find no records of many expenses. All of it had given him a raging headache.Shutting his laptop, he rubbed his eyes. He wished he could give Violet good news, and he felt stupid for thinking he’d be able to figure things out quickly. Pride comes before the fall. He’d told Violet he couldn’t guarantee anything. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t thought he wouldn’t untangle this mess, either.Ash wished he could wring William’s neck. It wasn’t just jealousy that made him feel that way: from William’s l
Violet scanned the occupants at the bakery, The Rise and Shine, and let out a breath of relief that Ash hadn’t arrived yet. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see him, but at the same time, she needed to prepare herself anytime she was around him.Everything he did reminded her of their night together. He could do something as benign as tap his finger against his knee, and suddenly she’d be transported back to when he’d parted her knees and had sunk between them...“What can I get you?” a girl with dark brown glasses and pink hair asked Violet. The girl smiled, showing perfectly straight white teeth.“An Americano with room for cream, please.”“Cream in an Americano? I’m going to have to write you up,” Ash said over her shoulder.Violet jumped a little and whirled to face him. “You scared me!”“You didn’t hear the front doorbell jingle?” He grinned.She’d been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t heard anything. Blushing, she turned back to the cashier and paid for her coffee,
Ash was on pins and needles for the weekend to arrive. It didn’t help that Trent had asked him to finish up some financial statements that week, and Ash had had to put aside thinking about Violet to finish the job. Trent had seemed to sense that Ash’s mind was elsewhere, but he’d thankfully kept his big mouth shut.Twenty-four hours before their date, Ash texted Violet. I don’t want to just take you to dinner. I want to take you somewhere else.Like the playground? she replied with a winky-face emoji.Better than that. Can I pick you up around ten tomorrow morning?Now I’m curious enough to say yes.Despite Violet’s best efforts, Ash wouldn’t tell her where he was taking her. He hoped this mad scheme he’d concocted would work. He wanted to take Violet away from Fair Haven, and away from everything that was holding her back. He knew that her business’s financial issues, along with being reminded of her husband while living with her mother-in-law, were causing her to push him away.
Violet licked her fingers and sighed happily. “That was the best continental breakfast I’ve ever eaten,” she declared. “The Fruit Loops were a particular delight.”Ash smiled wryly. “Don’t try the coffee, then. You might be disappointed.” He grimaced as he drank his own cup of coffee before setting it aside. “I need real coffee. Do you want some? I’m dying.”Violet kissed him, letting the sheet she’d wrapped around herself fall to her lap. They’d woken at dawn to make love a second time before falling back asleep. A few hours later, starving and caffeine-deprived, they’d snagged a few bagels, mini boxes of cereal, and milk cartons from the continental breakfast just minutes before it had ended.“I don’t want you to go anywhere,” she said. “Coffee isn’t that important.”“It’s pretty important, but with breasts like yours...” Ash kissed her neck as he fondled her breasts, making her shiver. “You’d make a man forget his own name with tits this pretty.”She pinched him. “Don’t be vulg
Ash had a pile of things he needed to do today, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Violet’s books. He’d gone over the spreadsheets, the receipts, the bank statements—all of it. The numbers on the bank statements and spreadsheets didn’t add up, yet Ash couldn’t figure out why. Tired and frustrated, he’d gone to bed well after three in the morning Sunday night.When he’d gotten into the office this morning, he’d begun calling the bookkeepers who’d helped with Violet’s books. One had resulted in a disconnected number. The second had been sent to a voicemail that might have been the wrong number entirely. The third had been the voicemail of an actual bookkeeper, but Ash hadn’t had high hopes that Jeffrey Martin, CPA, would return his rather odd phone call anytime soon.With only a few hours of sleep, he was tired and grumpy. He was tempted to go home early. Although Trent was technically his boss, he wasn’t a hard-ass about Ash being in the office, either. Trent worked at all three rest