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

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.

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

Ash had never driven so fast as he did after Violet called him, telling him that Martha was in the emergency room. He burst through the hospital doors and practically ran over at least one nurse to get to the front desk. He was so out of sorts that the attending nurse had to get him to take a deep breath before he could eke out the words Martha, Fielding, where?“Ash!” Abby Thornton hurried up to him, which wasn’t particularly fast given the size of her pregnant belly. She took his arm. “Let me take you to Violet. She said you were coming.”Ash let Abby lead him to a waiting room not far from the nurses’ station. There, he found Violet slumped in a chair, her eyes closed and her face pale.“Violet, baby.” He sat down next to her and took her hands, chafing them because they were so cold. “I’m here. It’s me.”Her eyelids fluttered open. A second later, her face crumpled, and she started crying into his shoulder. Ash didn’t even notice that Abby had left them alone; he didn’t care ab

Violet groaned as she awoke to the sound of someone talking. It took her a long moment to come out of her dream to realize it was the sound of Ash’s voice. Opening one bleary eye, she saw him pass by his bedroom, his phone up to his ear.“Great, that’s fantastic news,” she heard him say. “Yes, I’ll be down there by this afternoon. Great. Thank you.”Violet yawned. She needed to get back to the hospital before Martha was checked out. Glancing at her phone, she saw that she had a little time to spare.Her stomach rumbled ominously. When had she last eaten? She couldn’t even remember.It’d been two days since Martha had been admitted to the hospital. When Violet had left to go home to get some sleep, she hadn’t intended on going to Ash’s. Yet the thought of going to that house without Martha had been unbearable. Like she couldn’t control herself, she’d driven straight to Ash’s, not caring that it was late or that it was pouring down rain.She’d just needed to see him. To be with him.