I took a deep breath and forced myself to keep talking.
“She wasn’t feeling well Sunday afternoon and went to bed early after I’d already left for the night. She never woke up. Our maid found her lying peacefully in bed the next morning. I really don’t know any more than that. We’re still waiting on the autopsy results, but I think about it all the time. I left one evening and when I came back, she was gone – forever. And, no matter how much I try to make sense of it, I can’t.”
A few long moments of silence passed again before I noticed we were parked alongside the road. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luke waiting for me to turn and look at him. I gave in and looked through my watery eyes.
“Logan…” he trailed off as he reached his arms toward me across the seat. I started to cry. He gently grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into his embrace. I tried to think of other things. This was not how I imagined spending my first time out with Luke. I willed myself to stop crying.
“I’m sorry, Luke, I didn’t mean to…”
“Shh, don’t be sorry,” he said softly in my ear.
I pulled my face away from him slightly. I had the sudden urge to press my lips against his. My heart hammered in my chest and I felt light headed when his eyes slowly moved from my eyes to my lips. I mentally recorded his every subtle movement so I could remember this moment forever. I watched him close his eyes as he moved slowly, closer to me. He was so close; I could feel his cool breath tingle the surface of my lips.
“Oh!” I gasped as my phone started ringing.
I jerked the phone out of my sweatshirt pocket to see who was calling. It was Lindsey. Annoyed, I looked up at Luke while the phone continued to ring. By the look on his face, he was as disappointed as I was that cell phones even existed that at very moment.
“Let me just answer this to tell her I’ll call her back later,” I said, putting the phone to my ear.
He nodded.
“Hello?”
“Hey Logan, its Linds. I saw you called earlier. How’s everything going?”
I paused to absorb her words and the twinge of suspicion I’d been ignoring returned in full force. She said so little that meant so much.
“I called you earlier? No, I called Brody earlier,” I stated regretfully. I had yet to mention Brody to Luke.
“Ugh, your name is on my caller ID from a few hours ago. Sorry I didn’t call you back right away, but I had a really long night last night,” she divulged.
This pause was longer than the last.
“What were you doing when I called?”
“What?”
“What were you doing when I called?” I asked again, raising the level of my voice.
“I was probably in the shower. That’s literally all I’ve done since I woke up. Why?” she insisted. I let her wait for my response.
“Why was Brody over at your house when I called?”
I waited. Waited for her to say something that made sense.
“Logan?” Lindsey whispered into the phone. She must have realized I knew something, but didn’t know exactly how much.
“Logan? Logan are you still there? Shit. Logan, answer me!” Her voice grew louder and panicked.
“Logan? Logan, it’s not what you think…I can explain.”
I dropped the phone at the same time the tears fell from my eyes toward the floor. Luke was immediately pressing his body against me again and his arms wrapped tightly around my shoulders. I couldn’t breathe, but Luke wasn’t the reason for my lack of oxygen this time. I could still hear the faint sound of Lindsey’s voice on the phone somewhere below me. Luke kept me tucked closely to him as he reached down to pick up my phone. Lindsey was still there. Her voice was closer to me again as he fidgeted with the phone, trying to hang up. When he couldn’t figure it out, he pulled me off of him slightly and showed me the phone. I touched the screen ending both the conversation and my relationships.
I leaned back into Luke and let his warmth shower over my body. His mouth was buried in my hair. I could feel his steady breath and focused on the rhythm of his breathing, shutting everything else out. My phone started ringing again and I began to sob. I was so overwhelmed with my life falling apart; I hadn’t questioned why Brody answered her phone earlier. I hadn’t wanted to face losing another person I cared about who loved me. I clinched onto Luke’s shirt, and thought about all the times they acted too close toward each other, rehashing all the signals I’d been ignoring.
Everything became clear in that moment as the past two years together with Brody flashed before my eyes. It dawned on me that Brody didn’t even seem upset that I was moving twelve-hundred miles away for an entire year. And Lindsey had even thrown me a going away party at her own house as if to celebrate my departure the night before I left. The same party Brody stayed at after I left to go home. I stopped crying. It was over.
“Sorry,” I mumbled breathlessly into Luke’s chest as I wiped my eyes, my fingers covered in mascara.
“Why are you sorry?” he whispered into my hair. His mouth was right next to my ear; close enough I could feel his breath lightly hitting my face when he spoke.
“I’m sorry I ruined our little outing today,” I offered. The phone started ringing again. Luke picked it up and looked at the screen.
“Lindsey?” he questioned as he turned the screen to show me. I didn’t say a word, just took the phone and shut the thing off mid-ring.
Luke sympathetically smiled down at me and moved a piece of wet hair off my face. I half-smiled at him to let him know I appreciated the gesture before I squirmed to hide my face in his chest again. The car was off, but the radio was still on, competing with the sound of the downpour hitting the roof.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. I didn’t, but I knew I had some explaining to do.
“I called my best friend, Lindsey, this morning and my boyfriend, Brody, answered her phone while she was taking a shower. Certainly an accident on his part because they both have the exact same cell phones. I knew something was wrong, and it all came together just now when Lindsey called.”
Luke pondered for a moment. I finally shrugged as if to give up on the whole mess.
“Boyfriend?” he questioned.
“Correction,” I couldn’t help but to laugh a little, “EX-boyfriend!”
“Does he know he’s your ex yet?”
“He will soon enough, I’m sure,” I affirmed.
“Ouch!”
I gave him the most discerning look I could muster and he started to laugh too.
“I mean poor guy… his loss. Seems like he’s going to lose a good one,” he said growing serious with his tone.
“Thanks, Luke.”
“Although…” he paused, “I might need to see a picture of Lindsey to be sure!” he joked.
“What!” I screeched in disbelief and tried to wrestle free from his embrace.
“Okay, okay. I give up. He can have Lindsey, I’ll keep you.”
Blood pulsed through my veins. I cocked my head to the side and grinned beneath my messy hair. He reached out and brushed it out of the way and effortlessly pulled me over toward him again.
As he pulled me in, he whispered, “I’m sorry they did that to you.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder and snuggled into his side. I felt the flutter of an attraction I had never felt before toward someone I just met. It was like magic. I was comfortable around this complete stranger who the day before, I thought was my step-brother and the day before that, I didn’t even know existed. I wasn’t really sure what to make of it or where this was going, but I decided I was going to let it happen.
“Our relationship has been on a downward slide since Brody graduated high school in June and moved to L.A. A matter of time before it ended, I suppose. Although, I was hoping that it would’ve ended on better terms. And, I wish he hadn’t taken my EX-best friend down with him.”
“So, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” I nodded.
“Why would your boyfriend, who you’d been in love with, have any reason to do that?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean…” he hesitated looking away. “I mean, look at you. Why would he ever want anyone else?”
“I guess because I wouldn’t give Brody the one thing he wanted,” I answered suggestively.
I watched as Luke’s eyes went from confused to certain. “Oh,” he said.
He leaned carefully over me to turn up the radio. I focused on his movements and let the music to take my mind off the conversation. As if on cue, the next song on his playlist started after a short pause. I immediately recognized the piano notes.
“I love this song. It’s one of my favorite songs of all time. The lyrics are amazing, though I haven’t heard them in years,” I said, excitedly.
“Ha!” Luke laughed. “That’s good. As soon as I felt you take a breath to say something, I thought for sure you were going to hassle me for listening to a boy band,” he chuckled.
“Well don’t worry – it was dually noted,” I laughed.
I sat up and pulled my knees in close to my chest. Electricity flared in the air as Luke inhaled.
“You know, Logan, you’re not who I expected you to be,” he said, taking a long thought-filled pause. “I thought the next twelve months were going to be hell living with a California socialite, but you’re pretty amazing. I guess I owe you an apology.”
“So, it’s a good thing that I’m nothing like you expected?” I asked.
“It’s a really, really good thing.”
As I started to smile back he craned his neck to look away from me. His eyes focused. Something black flashed across the road but I was more scared by Luke’s reaction. The warmth had vanished from Luke in a heartbeat. The object stopped moving toward us when it got to an opening between the trees. Even though I could feel Luke’s concern, I leaned forward toward the window, curious. It was a wolf – a really big wolf, staring directly at us with bright green eyes. It was close enough I could see quick breaths escape into the crisp rain-drenched air. I was startled when the engine roared to life. Luke threw the car into reverse, and I nearly slammed into the dash as the sound of gravel scattered everywhere. He quickly jockeyed around and pulled back onto the road heading home. I kept my eyes on the wolf until he was no longer in sight.
“Was that a wolf?” I asked. Everything happened so quickly, I had to be sure.
“Yes,” he spit.
“I’ve never seen a wolf before – that thing was huge.”
Luke immediately turned to look at me with an expression that I couldn’t begin to read.
“What’s going on?” I pressed, puzzled.
When he looked toward the road and didn’t answer, I knew my question needed to be more specific to get results.
“Why are you freaking out? It was just a wolf.” I was worried. He had gone from warm and comforting to moody and distant over such a small thing and I second-guessed how quickly I had fallen for him.
“Because I need to get you home, it’s getting late,” he muttered, failing to control his tone.
“That doesn’t make any sense, Luke. I have no curfew and you flaked as soon as you saw the wolf.”
“Wolves are dangerous.”
“We were in the car,” I countered.
“Doesn’t matter.”
And with that, I dropped it. I didn’t know much about wolves, but I knew we were safe in the car and something else was wrong. My father hadn’t wanted me exploring – maybe Luke was on edge he’d taken me out and we’d been gone so long. I wasn’t going to keep asking Luke questions if he was going to be rude.
We didn’t speak the whole ride back to the house. I could tell he was upset, but if he didn’t want to talk, I wasn’t going to ask. As we pulled through the trees in the driveway, I noticed my dad’s truck already parked by the garage. I grabbed my phone off the seat and shoved it into my pocket. We had been gone for over two hours, though it felt like we’d just left the house. Maybe time only flew by when I was around Luke, I concluded. He pulled up to the garage, leaving the car running and got out in the rain to open my door before I even had my seatbelt off.
“Go inside through the garage so you don’t get wet again.”
I stoop up from my seat, my eyes meeting his as the rain dripped between us from the sky. I slowly mouthed, “Thanks,” unsure about his mood swing and not appreciating his sudden curtness.
“You’re welcome,” he smiled, though it seemed forced.
He slammed my door and left me standing there as he walked around the back of his car, climbed inside and backed down the drive. He opened the garage door to the barn and disappeared inside before I finally realized I was getting soaked again. I turned to go inside.
“Where have you been?” my dad scowled as soon as I shut the door behind me.
“I went for a ride with Luke,” I replied pleasantly, trying to shake off my displeasure.
“Logan, what did I tell you before I left?” From his tone, I began to see why Luke was on edge.
“You told me that if I needed anything, the guys were here.”
“Did you need anything?”
“No.”
“Then, why did you leave the house?”
“Because I wanted to, I guess. I don’t see what the big deal is, Dad.”
“Don’t be difficult, Logan. I lost your mother – I’m not about to lose you,” he hissed.
He knew what he’d done as soon as he let the words roll off his tongue. His words cut me like knives. I started to storm out of the kitchen. He was faster, grabbing my arm with unbreakable force. I refused to look at him.
“Logan, I’m sorry. I’m just scared of losing you.”
“Well, I’m here… for now,” I added, snidely.
“I’m glad you’re here, but I’m in no way glad about the circumstances that brought you here. I’d give anything to have your mother back,” he said as he lightened his hold on my arm.
I sensed double meaning in his words and glared at him. He didn’t have the right to burden me with this – not now.
“I would,” he went on, “but, I can’t bring her back. So, I’m going to live up to my promise to your mother: I will take care of you.” He let go of my arm and tried to pull me into his arms for a hug but I pulled away quickly – still mad.
“That doesn’t make it okay that you’re trying to put me on lockdown. I’m not a total idiot and you’re not going to lose me. I have no intentions of running away. Okay? You gotta trust me, Dad. I’m almost seventeen; you need to trust that I can make my own decisions.”
“I do trust you,” he quickly responded.
“Then you have nothing to worry about.” I turned without another word before he could stop me.
I was able to maintain my poker face until I got upstairs. I was overwhelmed with emotion. A week earlier, my only problem was where to go for dinner with Brody. Now, my life had completely changed – and that was putting it lightly. I was still consumed with thoughts of my mother’s death. And now, I’d lost my boyfriend and my best friend, my two biggest lifelines to my old life in Cali. Losing Brody and Lindsey felt like two more deaths in my life. I was starting to grow numb to the whole idea. To top the day off, my dad had revealed a paranoid side and apparently thought house arrest was appropriate. I had no control.
I chided myself for the self-loathing. I needed to just focus – twelve months and I wouldn’t have to worry about any of this. Lying boyfriends and bad best friends would be a thing of the past. The barb-wire lined dirt roads would eventually turn back into palm tree lined streets that would lead the way to the white sandy beaches beneath my bare feet.
I walked over to my desk and started sifting through a stack of books. Sheridan High was kind enough to send everything I’d missed from the first week of class so I could catch up. I decided to get started on reading for American Literature: Romeo and Juliet. I’d already read the novel a few times on m
y own for auditions and most recently as a junior at Laguna, but I wanted to read it again. It could be the escape I needed from the crazy storyline I was living. Maybe Luke would be my Romeo – showing up to save me from the wars that were waging around me. I smiled at the fantasy, snuggled up in the window seat with a blanket and began reading.
I was so lost in the novel that I didn’t notice how late it had gotten until I could barely see the words. I remembered Luke’s comment from earlier – I really was oblivious to my surroundings. I set my book down to turn on the lights when movement on the other side of the window caught my eye.
Taking a seat outside in the darkness on the damp porch was Luke.
Andrea Wells – The Violet Hour
Chapter 7
It was just past midnight, but I hadn’t woken to the grandfather clock chiming downstairs. The blinds were open and bright light of the moon cast shadows across my room. I couldn’t remember how I had gotten to my bed. Images of a weird dream were racing through my mind. I got a glass of water from the bathroom and walked to the window seat; breathing in the mountain air, mild and inviting from the days’ rain. As I stepped onto the damp wood of the deck, wolves began howling in the distance, cutting sharply through the night’s silence.
Fear set fire in my veins and I dropped the glass of water.
Luke took a step toward me from the deck’s edge and raised his hands as if in surrender. I couldn’t move. He slowly reached for me, cupping my face with one hand and then the other. I let out a short gasp of fear when he pulled me forcefully into his chest.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he whispered against my ear.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” I mumbled into his chest. My heart was still pounding.
“I came up here to check on you. What are you doing out of bed?” I noted the quick change of subject from what he was doing outside my window to what I was doing.
The Violet Hour (The Violet Hour Series) Page 5