by Lisa Cardiff
Thirty minutes later, Alec found himself outside of Missoula walking along a dirt trail, listening to the rustling of the wind through the trees and branches snapping under the weight of his feet. Part of him missed the sound of the cars buzzing by as he ran through the streets of his neighborhood outside of LA. It drowned out all the thoughts taunting him, but he had to admit it definitely smelled better here.
“Do you come here a lot?” he asked, glancing briefly at Violet.
“In the summer. My mom used to take my brother and me hiking here every Saturday morning in the summer when we were kids. It’s become a habit for my brother and me. He’s not in town very often, so I end up going by myself a lot. My best friend, Annette, hates hiking.”
Alec nodded, looking away. His gut twisted. As a kid, he would have done anything for a moment of normalcy. Even before the car crash, his parents didn’t have the most functional relationship. It was a rollercoaster of highs and lows marked by a lot of drama, crying, and yelling, but all of that paled in comparison to the shit that happened afterwards.
“So where do you find the huckleberries?”
Violet stopped walking. “Tell me you aren’t serious.”
“What?” he said, holding his hands, palm up, in front of his body.
“You haven’t picked huckleberries before. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
“Honestly, I haven’t.” He chuckled. “My family didn’t do the outdoor thing.”
“What did your family do?”
He sucked his lip ring into his mouth. “Nothing functional, and by functional, I mean family outings, hiking, trips, or family dinners.” He started walking again, hoping that she’d stop questioning him about his family. After a minute, he heard her footsteps crunching against the gravel on the trail behind him and he exhaled, knowing her questioning had ended.
“There’s a steep incline along the side of the trail just around the next turn. The huckleberry bushes will be there.”
He looked at her over his shoulder. “Do you have something to put them in?”
“No. Most of the time, I just pick what I can eat.” She laughed. “My brother and I ate so many one time when we were kids, we got sick and could hardly make it back to the car. My parents were so mad. While they ate lunch near a waterfall, we wandered down the trail and ate as many as we could in an hour. When they found us, our hands and faces were stained purple and sticky. Twenty minutes into the hike back to the car, we could hardly walk because our stomachs were cramping.”
“Is that your way of warning me not to overindulge?”
“Hey, do what you want. It’s your stomach.”
“Did you pack anything else for us to eat?” he asked, patting her backpack lightly.
“Nope. Not a single thing. It’s only a three hour hike.”
“Well, I’ll have to take my chances because I skipped breakfast.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I hereby absolve you of all blame from any stomach problems I may or may not encounter as a result of overindulging. I haven’t had huckleberries since I was a kid so I can’t promise anything.”
Violet pointed up the hill on the side of the trail. “Here they are.”
Alec scanned the tangled bushes dotted with petite, almost black berries.
“Eat away,” she said as she stepped around him and climbed up the hill.
His eyes skated over her body as he followed her up the hill. Her long, toned legs sucked him in and he had a hard time concentrating on anything except what it’d feel like to slide his hands along their silky length. He groaned inwardly. He couldn’t spend any more time pining over her. They could never be together.
When they reached the top, they stopped at the same bush and he started popping the berries into his mouth one by one. They tasted similar to a blueberry, but a little sweeter. “I forgot how good these are.”
“These ones are perfect, not too red, not too bitter,” she said as she dropped a few into her mouth.
She closed her eyes, a faint smile on her lips as she savored each berry, rolling it around in her mouth before she swallowed. Watching her was more entertaining than eating, so he leaned back against a tall pine tree and folded his arms across his chest, his eyes devouring her. “It’s so quiet out here. I’m used to all the traffic and people in LA. It’s strange how the absence of noise almost has its own sound,” he said when she finally looked at him.
She nodded. “That’s why I hike here. I hardly ever run into anyone. It gives me time to think without any distractions.” She dumped a handful of berries into her mouth, letting out a soft moan as they exploded on her tongue. “Are you done already? I thought you were hungry,” she said as she wiped her mouth self-consciously with the back of her hand. “You’re making me feel uncomfortable stuffing my face.”
He laughed. “Just watching you and taking in the scenery.” She frowned slightly and then shook her head like he was a complex riddle she didn’t understand. That was fine because he didn’t understand himself most of the time, especially when he was around Violet. She was definitely getting under his skin, making him want more than he knew he should for too many reasons to name.
“Okay. I’d hate to let these berries go to waste. They’ll be gone next weekend.” She slid the straps of her backpack off her shoulders, set it on the ground and unzipped the front section.
“What are you looking for?” he asked sliding his back down the rough bark of tree to sit on the ground.
“I think I have a few plastic bags in here.” She pushed her sunglasses on top of her head.
“What do you need those for?”
“With one or two small bags, I could make huckleberry muffins for the kids at the Foundation and bring them in on Monday. I might even have enough for my personal favorite—huckleberries pancakes.”
“For the kids?”
“Muffins for the kids, pancakes for me.” She pulled out a bag and held it up for him to see. “I found one.”
“Save a few muffins for me,” he said, tilting his head toward the sky, letting the warm mountain sun soak into his skin.
“Catch,” she said, tossing one empty bag at him. “You fill that one and I’ll fill this one. The bushes are so full we’ll be done in twenty minutes.”
Reluctantly, he stood up and brushed the dirt off the back of his shorts. “Who said I wanted to help?” He didn’t mind helping. In fact, he wouldn’t mind helping her bake the muffins, but he kind of liked his view of her legs from where he sat. Without question, she had the most striking legs he had ever seen—long, not too skinny, and just the right amount of muscle that told him she hiked and exercised on a regular basis, but not so much that her legs had that over-muscled, trying too hard appearance. Then there was her hair. His fingers itched to get all tangled up in her pale silky strands. He loved the way her hair brushed the side of her face as it danced in the mountain breeze.
Pausing, she looked over at him. “You volunteered to help at the Foundation for a month and I need your help picking these berries, so get going. I have plans this afternoon so I can’t be out here all day.”
“I didn’t know volunteering meant you could boss me around for the entire month whether I’m at the Foundation or not.” He tossed a handful of berries into the bag, along with a couple shiny green leaves.
“Hey,” she said, dipping her hand into the bag and tossing the leaves onto the ground. “Just the berries, not the entire bush.”
“Sorry, Miss Emerson.” He flashed her a properly contrite smile. “What are these big afternoon plans that you’re so worried about?”
She didn’t look at him as she continued to pluck the berries from the bush. “Are you prying into my personal life?”
If Alec still had the ability to blush, he would have. Shamelessly prying or even caring enough to pry wasn’t his thing. What she did during her free time wasn’t his business, but he hated the idea that she might have a date, or even worse, a boyfriend.
It shouldn’t matter, but his mind had other ideas and it suddenly became imperative to know more about the woman who fascinated him more than he wanted to admit. “Not prying, just making conversation.”
She sealed her plastic bag and dropped it into her backpack. “I’m tutoring.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I tutor Dean every other Saturday.”
At his blank look, she added, “He’s one of the kids from the Foundation.” She cocked her head to the side. “Have you met any of the kids yet?”
“No.” And if it were up to him, he wouldn’t. At first he wanted to introduce the kids at the Foundation to music like one of the counselors had done for him as a teenager, but now that he had woven so many half-truths about his job and his life, he couldn’t risk any of the kids recognizing him.
“Do you want to?”
“I think I’ll stick to fundraising,” he prevaricated.
“Dean’s a good kid, really smart. He’s fallen behind school, but that only because his mom works the nightshift and he ends up taking care of his sister most of the time.” She pulled her water bottle out of her backpack and took a long sip. A few drops slid down her lips to her chin. “Do you want some?”
“No. I’m okay right now.” He brushed the droplets from her lips and chin and wished, not for the first time, he could taste her lips as they slid against his.
She shrugged, sliding the bottle into the side pocket of her backpack. “I promised to tutor him in math and if his grades improve, he wants to apply for a scholarship to a private high school for his senior year.”
“That sounds like a good plan.”
“Yeah. If he gets a college education, he could really help his mom and his sister and give them some stability.”
“That’s a lot of responsibility for a young kid.” He handed her his bag of berries.
“I know, but we can’t always choose our path in life—we just have to try to make the best of the bad choices.”
“I guess,” Alec mused. He thought he made a good decision when he left Taylor home with his mom to chase his dream to be in a band. Ultimately, it all worked out and now he could help Taylor as much as she needed. Sometimes, though, he couldn’t help wondering how much those years hurt Taylor. All evidence to the contrary, he always thought his mom would take better care of Taylor when he left. After all, Taylor was her daughter with her beloved husband while his was the product of an affair that ruined the family. If he wasn’t in his mom’s face every day reminding her of her mistakes, he thought she might pull herself together. She didn’t. Things only got worse. His mom’s addiction spiraled even further into the rabbit hole, and Taylor…well, fuck. He didn’t know if he could live with himself if he knew everything that happened to her after he walked out of their lives.
Violet studied him for a few moments, then she dusted off her backpack and looped her arms through the straps. “Are you ready to head back?”
Not really. He liked escaping to some area in the mountains that barely had a name and he didn’t have much of anything to do until Monday. He didn’t have any friends left from his high school days and he certainly didn’t have any family he wanted to visit. “Sure thing. I wouldn’t want you to disappoint Dean.”
He watched her face in profile as she laughed. She pushed the low hanging branches to the side as she made her way back to the trail. “He’ll probably be more disappointed if I show up. I’m interrupting his weekend to study math, of all subjects.”
His eyes swept her perfectly proportioned body and the delicate lines of her face. Somehow he knew any teenager worth a damn would have a pretty sizeable crush on Violet. In fact, Dean probably was looking forward to math for the first time in his life. “Oh, I don’t know about that. It’s probably the highlight of his weekend.”
“And what exactly are you implying?” she asked, leaning into his shoulder, shoving him as they walked side by side down the trail.
“That math isn’t so bad when the tutor looks like you.”
She looked away quickly, but he could still see the blush racing up her neck and the side of her face.
“Did I embarrass you?” he asked when she didn’t respond.
“A little,” she admitted.
He smiled inwardly. Most women ate up his compliments and begged for more. “Good time for a change of subject,” he suggested.
“Yep.”
“Okay. Since you’re busy tonight, when do you want to make the muffins?”
“Tomorrow. Ten in the morning.”
“I’m free,” he answered almost too quickly.
“Your place.”
“Why my place?”
“So you have to clean up the mess.”
“Do I need to buy the ingredients, too?” he asked.
Nibbling on her lip, she mulled over his question for a moment. “I’ll get the ingredients. You get the mess.”
“Somehow, I think I got the downside of that bargain, but tomorrow morning it is.” And damn, if he wasn’t looking forward to spending a morning cooking with Little Violet. He wanted to sink into her softness and bask in her goodness for just a little while. Was it wrong to want something he shouldn’t? He didn’t know any longer, but he didn’t want to let her slip through his fingers without tasting her at least one time.
Chapter Six
At exactly ten on Sunday morning, Violet knocked on Alec’s door. She’d been awake less than thirty minutes, which gave her very little time to get dressed and drink enough coffee to pull her out of her stupor.
Even though she planned to be home no later than nine last night, she didn’t make it home until four in the morning. When she showed up to tutor Dean, there was no food in the house and Dean wouldn’t tell her how long it’d been since he and his sister had a real meal at home. She couldn’t stand the thought of them having nothing to eat, so she went to the grocery store and bought enough food to last the entire week, but when she returned, Dean’s sister had an insanely high fever. She ended up taking her to the emergency room and Dean’s mother wasn’t able to get off of work until about three in the morning. Dean begged her to leave, but she didn’t feel right about leaving Dean at the hospital by himself. She was paying for that decision this morning, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it now. Besides, she couldn’t leave Dean and his sister to fend for themselves. It wasn’t right.
When Alec opened the door, Violet stood in the doorway with flour, sugar, and eggs balanced in her arms. She felt more than a little bit frazzled, but she made it, and that’s all that counted, at least in her sleep-deprived mind. She should have canceled or postponed their muffin baking party, but when she thought about seeing him today, her body buzzed with excitement.
“Let me take that,” Alec said, scooping everything out of her arms and smiling at her in a way that made the butterflies in her stomach come alive.
“Tell me you have butter.” She walked into the apartment and dropped onto the couch, letting her head fall backwards.
“I do.” Alec set the ingredients on the table. “Why?”
“We need butter for the muffins, but I didn’t have any and I didn’t have time to stop at the grocery store. I woke up less than an hour ago or I would’ve been more prepared.” She stretched her legs out onto the coffee table. Maybe Alec would do the majority of the baking while she closed her eyes for a few more moments.
“Late night?” he asked. She heard his refrigerator open and close.
“Something like that,” she mumbled.
“Did you go out after tutoring Dean?”
She opened her eyes. “If spending the night in the emergency room is considered going out, then I went out.”
“What?” He walked toward her, his eyes drifting over her body, inventorying every detail. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “No, not me. Dean’s sister. She had a really high fever and it didn’t go down after I gave her medicine. I finally decided to take her to the hospital.”
; He placed his hands on her shoulders, massaging her. “Is she okay?” His voice was low and sexy and she felt her sleepy haze dissolving under his touch.
“Yes. She has the flu, but she’ll be fine in a week or less.”
“Good.”
He started to pull his hands away, but she clasped her hand around his wrist. “Just a couple more minutes. That feels good.” As her head fell forward, she let out a little moan when he dug into a particularly tight spot and then moved down her arms in a delicious sweep.
“About these muffins,” he said. To her dismay, he dropped his hands from her shoulders. She already mourned the loss of his touch. He was unraveling her defenses one by one and she couldn’t even remember why wanting him was a bad idea.
“What about them?”
“I have a feeling I’m going to be making them by myself today.”
Tipping her head back so she could see his face, she nibbled on her lower lip as she took in his dark blue eyes. She’d never seen anything like them. In comparison, every other pair of blue eyes she’d seen looked washed out next to his indigo irises. She loved the way they changed from icy to fiery within seconds depending on his mood. “I can help.”
He sucked his lip ring into his mouth. “How about I do the cooking and you direct from the kitchen table? I’ve never made muffins before.”
“You’re making me feel bad. I roped you into picking the berries, making the muffins, and now I’m not going to help.”
He brushed her hair away from her neck and leaned forward so his lips were only inches from her ear. She tried and failed to hold back a shiver. “I’ll let you in on a little secret.”
“Yes?” she asked, her voice cracking on the word.
“I don’t mind cooking. In fact, my friends call me the food Nazi all the time because I’m really particular about cooking and eating.” His warm breath seeped into her pores, making her feel a little giddy, or maybe that was just her lack of sleep. She hoped it was the latter because feeling anything for Alec was certifiably insane. He had warning signs flashing all over him like his dark tattoos, the scar running through his eyebrow, and his hooded eyes that were both alluring and foreboding at the same time. He was temptation incarnate and she wouldn’t succumb to his charm. Look, don’t touch, she reminded herself. She didn’t need a man in her life right now. She only had to look at her track record with her last few boyfriends. It never worked. She didn’t have time for a relationship.