by Linda Bridey
Violet never flew so fast as she raced away from that window. She forgot all about her face, her hair, Cornell, the ranch, and everything else. She only knew one thing: she was going downstairs to see him. Nothing else mattered in the world.
She ran down the stairs and nearly collided with Chuck in the entry hall near the front door. She collapsed into another laughing fit, unsure whether to run away or throw herself into his arms.
He held her at arm’s length. “Hang on there. Where’s the fire?”
“I was just coming downstairs to meet you,” she stammered. “I guess I got a little ahead of myself.”
“I’ll say.” Chuck examined her face a little more closely. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She tried to cover her mouth with her hand, but laughed hysterically instead. “It’s just been such an emotional day. I guess I’m a little overwrought from it all.”
Chuck cocked his head. “Emotional? How?”
“Oh, I just mean meeting you for the first time,” Violet explained. “And I had it out with Cornell this morning, and now I just had it out with him again when we came in after dropping you off. But I’m fine. I guess I’m just tired. I’ll be just fine as soon as I’ve had a chance to calm down.”
Chuck heard more than she intended. Even at a distance from him, Violet felt him stiffen. “You had it out with him? In what way?”
“I went to the library to find out if he was still working in there, and he was,” Violet told him. “You know he’s not happy about us marrying you men. Well, he’s more unhappy about it now that you’re here. He got quite nasty about it, in fact.” She glanced in the direction of the library, although she knew Cornell wouldn’t be there anymore. He’d be back at the Bird House, having his own supper by now.
Chuck’s sharp eyes pierced her. “What did he say? What did he say to you this time?”
Violet quailed. Why did Cornell have to spoil her happiness even now? She’d been so excited to come downstairs to Chuck, and here they were, alone, just inches away from each other, and what did they do? They talked about Cornell. She’d had enough of Cornell to sink the Spanish Armada!
She waved her hands as if to shoo Cornell out of her life, but the tears mounted in her eyes despite her efforts to blink them away. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore. We’re here together, and we’re alone together. I don’t want to spend the time we have together talking about Cornell. Let’s go in to supper, and afterward, we’ll go out for our walk, and we won’t talk about Cornell, or the ranch, or anything else. We’ll just enjoy each other’s company”
Chuck frowned at her, and she almost lost her nerve entirely. Then he reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “All right. We won’t talk about Cornell anymore.”
“I hope you understand,” Violet exclaimed. “It’s just that I was so happy to come down here to meet you…..” She burst into tears. “And here we are talking about Cornell! I could choke on Cornell! And we just met! It isn’t fair!” She covered her face with her hands and sobbed.
Something soft and warm was happening to her, but she couldn’t see through her fingers or stem the flow of her tears to figure out what it was. Then she felt a warm breath on the outside edge of her ear and she realized Chuck was holding her in his arms. If only she could stop crying and enjoy it! What was wrong with her?
A slight inclination of her head brought her forehead into contact with his chest. An overpowering surge of raw emotion swept over her. Was it passion, or grief, or anger, or elation? She’d never experienced emotions so strong before, and they took every scrap of feeling in her whole body and heart and soul just to experience them without exploding into a million shards of glass.
She laid her head down on his chest and wept for all she was worth. It was the only response she could muster in the face of this overwhelming upheaval. Maybe she was exploding into a million shards of glass. Maybe this is what it felt like to explode and come back together as a completely different person—a person in love.
What must Chuck think of her strange behavior? Would he think she was upset about meeting him or unwilling to go through with their marriage? Heaven forbid!
But he patted her on the back and breathed his intoxicating breath into her ear. Every breath of his on her ear and neck only blew the pieces of her up into the atmosphere again. Every breath of his burned her skin and fanned the flames of her torment. Why did she have to wait until Friday to rest her head on his chest forever, to let the breath of his mouth blow her away, never to return?
At last, the fragments of what used to be Violet Kilburn settled back to earth and she dragged her head up. She sniffed and dabbed the corners of her eyes on her sleeve. “I’m a mess,” she mumbled. “Pay no attention to me.”
He chuckled from somewhere above her. “Okay. I won’t.”
She snorted with laughter again, and looked up at him. But she nearly choked on her laughter when she found his face just inches away from hers, his eyes searching hers and his lips parted. Instead of starting away from her in astonishment, he leaned even closer to her, his breath kindling her brain into a dizzying shower of sparks.
His lips hung so close to hers. His hands pressed so tightly against the small of her back. His heart thumped against the bodice of her dress, reverberating through her being and shaking the edifice of her nature to its foundation.
“I guess we better go in to supper,” she breathed. “The others will be waiting for us.”
“Let ‘em wait,” Chuck murmured.
He moved forward another fraction of an inch to close the gap between his lips and hers, but a door slammed in another part of the house and startled both of them apart. “It’s him!” Violet gasped. “It’s Cornell!”
Chapter 17