From the look on Gabe’s face when he opened the door a few days later, he hadn’t expected her to show up to dinner. To be fair, she hadn’t expected to take Mr. Atwood up on his offer, but Lily had called and texted, insisting she attend. It seemed rude not to and, to be honest, with the truck closed, she was going a little stir-crazy. An outing, no matter how strange it may be, was just what she needed.

“Violet,” Gabe greeted, his face devoid of expression.

“Gabe,” she copied.

“How’s the finger?”

“Okay,” she lied. “I’m almost ready to get back to work.”

“And Miles agreed to that?”

“He gave me some guidelines,” she hedged, avoiding his dark eyes. “But they’re just guidelines. I’m sure some people heal faster than others.”

“You cut off your finger—”

“Part,” she corrected. “Just part of my finger.”

“You cut off part of your finger. It isn’t going to heal in a week.”

“I know.”

“Gabriel. Why aren’t you letting the poor woman in?”

The shameful look on his face, when he was scolded by his mother, was priceless. Violet filed that hilarity away for another time when she needed a good laugh. The woman pulled the door away from Gabe and stuck herself in front of him.

“I apologize ahead of time. We worked hard on his manners but the older he gets the more he forgets.”

“Mom,”

“It’s okay,” Violet told her. “He’s been snapping at me for weeks now. I think I’m used to it.”

“Gabe.” His mother turned, hands on hips. “Is there a reason you’ve been acting like a bear to everyone in spitting distance?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “I don’t like people within spitting distance.”

“I’d like to note for the record, that you came to my truck for food and entered my spitting distance. Not the other way around.”

With another disappointed shake of her head, Gabe’s mother ushered Violet inside. “We’ll talk about this later, Gabriel.” With her hands on Vi’s shoulders, the woman led her guest deeper into the house. “I apologize for him. Being a single parent has taken its toll on him. While he’s a great father, his social skills are atrocious. I’m Mindy, by the way. Lily’s told me all about you.”

Without getting an opportunity to ponder Gabe’s single-parent status, they launched into a conversation about Lily and the food truck while she got a tour of the home. It was beautiful, definitely higher-end with some gorgeous antique pieces floating around. A student of the world, Violet stopped to study a painting depicting two dancers, their dresses a vivid teal as one fanned her face and the other stretched. The background was nearly the same color, their skirts getting lost in the swirls of color.

“It’s a replica,” Mindy explained.

“I like that one.” Lily trotted up, pointing at the picture and one of the dancers. “I like how she’s all like, whatever dance class. I’m just fanning myself.”

Violet chuckled at the girl’s description. “I’ve seen this one in person and I think you’re right. She’s definitely a total whatever about dance class. She’s not into it at all.”

“You’ve seen the original?” Mindy asked.

She heard Gabe make a scoffing sound before he stomped away. He really was an ass, sometimes. She’d have been happy to have dinner with his parents and daughter without his miserable presence.

“In Vienna,” she said, watching his retreating back.

“Don’t mind him,” Mindy waved.

“I don’t,” she lied. “But he’s my ticket to hang out with Lily, so I tolerate him.”

“He says you’re fanciful,” the little girl supplied. Violet wondered how he’d come to that conclusion and Mindy looked aghast. “I think fanciful sounds nice. Like fancy but full of it.”

“Oh, I’m full of fancy, alright,” Violet joked, pulling Lily to her side and scruffing up her hair. “I can’t wait to see these place cards you made. I better be the Squirtle or I’ll have to trade with someone.”

Smart girl that she was, Lily made Violet the place card that had a Squirtle on it, so there was no trading seats. Mr. Atwood came in and they all exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes before sitting down for dinner, Gabe directly across from her and Lily at her side.

It should have been awkward because she really didn’t know them but Lily helped bridge some of the gap. The rest came when Gabe’s dad opened up a little.

“So, how’s your grandmother? We were all surprised when she decided to retire somewhere else.”

“She’s doing really well. She loved it here but I think she wanted to be closer to her sister in Arizona. Plus, her house was becoming more of a burden on her than anything, so smarter to let that go while she had the chance.”

Again, Gabe made a scoffing noise. Violet’s head snapped in his direction but he was just shoveling food into his delectable mouth.

Delectable? Where did that come from? Snide mouth. Sarcastic mouth.

“The upkeep was too much for her,” she finished what she’d been saying. “I haven’t asked yet, but how did you know my mother?”

“He didn’t tell you?” Mindy asked, her eyes wide, Mr. Atwood’s face freezing.

Violet looked between Gabe’s parents. “No. What am I missing?”

“Your mother and I were engaged, very briefly, before she met your father.”

Gabe’s fork clattered to the table, his face falling as Lily’s eyes grew as round as the plates they were eating from.

“Wait. You’re the guy?” Violet asked, laughing.

Mr. Atwood lifted a shoulder.

“The guy that basically got ghosted by his fiancée and was still nice enough to push her to the other guy?” she continued.

“Ghosted?”

“She just kind of disappeared on you,” she explained.

He sat a little taller. “I am.”

A smile stretched across Violet’s lips. Her mother had always told them about the man she’d been engaged to before she met their father. She’d said he was kind and smart, but they’d been a poor match. She’d known from the first, too afraid to say no to his proposal, not to mention, too scared to leave Fortune’s Bay and her mother. But one look at Reed Hart changed her world, and when they fell in love, Marx Atwood, got left behind but not before gently nudging Violet’s mother in the other man’s direction.

Violet felt another one of those shifts inside her body, like the one she’d felt when she’d driven into Fortune’s Bay. Like something that had been out of place suddenly snapped in. She was meant to be here. She was meant to meet this man and these people, in this time.

“I’m honored to meet you.” She opened her hand to him and gave him a squeeze when he put his palm on hers. “You’re the reason I even exist today, according to my mother.”

“This is so weird,” Lily marveled. “You could be my aunt.”

Gabe rolled his eyes. “That’s not how it works, sweetie.”

“I totally could be.” Violet winked at the girl. Heaven forbid her father indulge her a little. “You’d be my favorite niece, of course. I’d invite you for sleepovers and let you eat ice cream for breakfast. I’d teach you how to yodel and we’d camp in the woods, learning the constellations.”

“Oh, Dad, can we?”

“She’s not really your aunt. She’s just playing with you.”

“I may not be your aunt for real, but I don’t have any nieces of my own. All my sisters are notoriously unattached and happy that way. The only nieces or nephews in my future right now are of the feline variety. Cat ladies, all of them,” she rambled, loving the stars in Lily’s eyes. Her father had always said she was a dream chaser. Looking at Lily was like looking in the mirror. “Anyway, you can be my niece.”

“She can’t be your damn niece,” Gabe growled, his dark brows slashed down over his eyes. “You aren’t even related.”

Violet wasn’t the least bit intimidated by his anger. It annoyed the crap out of her, but wouldn’t scare her off and if he insisted on annoying her all the time, she’d do it right back.

She put on her most innocent face, her lips turned down. “You could have been my big brother.” She held out a fist in his direction. “Knuckles for what could have been, bro.”

Mr. Atwood chuckled and Mindy covered her mouth with her napkin.

Gabe slapped her hand away. “I am not fist-bumping with you.”

“Ever?”

“I’ll fist-bump you,” Lily said, her little hand outstretched.

Violet made a tsk sound at Gabe and then bumped Lily’s fist with her own. “There’s my girl. You and I are going places, girlie. Just me and my almost niece, out in the world.”

“Do you really know how to yodel?” the girl asked.

“Like I learned at the knee of a cowherd in The Alps,” she confirmed.

Lily’s face scrunched up. “What’s that mean?”

“Yodeling was a way people in certain areas of Europe used to communicate between villages.” She went on to explain to Lily and a dumbfounded looking Gabe about the history of yodeling and what it was used for.

“Whoa,” Lily marveled. “How do you know all that?”

“I read it in a book,” she told the girl. “Then my dad took me to the top of a giant mountain so I could practice yodeling with an echo.”

The girl looked at her father, her eyes wide. “Can you take me to the top of a mountain?”

He scowled in Violet’s direction before facing his daughter again. “Sure. There’s a good spot in town.”

* * *

Gabe refused to look at Violet again. The woman was like a walking, talking encyclopedia that filled his daughter to the brim with crazy ideas. At dinner, they talked about yodeling into the wind, learning to sail and how to find the perfect baguette. Now that dinner was over, the two were sitting on the living-room floor, Violet’s skirt inching high up on her thighs as she let Lily look through the pictures on her phone.

Her hair was loose tonight, not like when she worked on the food truck and kept it up. It fell around her shoulders, short and a bit wild. When he thought of her, that’s how he’d describe her: short and wild. She talked about traveling and all the things she’d seen in the world. All the things she’d done and still wanted to do.

Her head was in the clouds and her feet were always moving.

In hindsight, letting her get close to Lily was a bad decision on his part. She was someone that had no anchor anywhere in this world, let alone Fortune’s Bay. He’d hate to see his daughter lose another woman she loved to the idea of adventure.

Lily was worth more than a thousand safaris or European museums. When Violet left to go on another adventure, Lily would still be in Fortune’s Bay and he’d be the one picking up the pieces.

Violet rolled over, laying on her stomach and laughing with Lily about one of the pictures.

She bent her knees and kicked her feet a little, the pose innocent yet somehow not. When she looked over her shoulder and caught him looking at her, she sent him a flirty wink. He assumed it was because she was trying to get under his skin, which she did. Between the wink, her deep-red lipstick and her pose, his brain immediately began conjuring images of her naked, just like that. He chided himself for being so immature about her looks. Sure, she was attractive, he wasn’t blind. She looked soft in all the right places and sometimes, his hands itched to touch her. Her lips were plump and even when she was doling out one of her sarcastic barbs, they were enticing.

He had every intention of closing his eyes and shutting that image out but his brain had other plans. In his mind, his palms traveled up the backs of her thighs. She still looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes a smoky green as she anticipated his next move. He’d slide his hands up and explore both her cheeks, squeezing until she moaned, which she would. If he separated the globes of her behind, he could slide his length up and down, climbing on top of her to fill his hands with her breasts. Full and milky white, he’d fill his hands with her, tugging on her nipples while he slid back and forth.

“Gabe?”

He looked up, caught in her sights. Busted.

“Yeah,” he mumbled.

“Lily asked if I can read her a bedtime story.”

He nodded. “Sorry, yeah. That’s fine.”

He got another view of her backside as she climbed off the floor and followed Lily out of the room.

“Nice girl,” his father commented from his chair, a closed book on his lap.

“She’s fine,” he said, still a little shocked at how far his mind had taken him.

“Lily seems taken with her and I can see why. She’s bright and fun to be around.”

“Lily’s nine. Her tastes aren’t all that sophisticated.”

“Violet is a well-read, world traveler. Maybe it isn’t Lily’s tastes that aren’t sophisticated.”

Gabe crossed his arms. “I’m trying to build a stable life for her here, filled with people that will be here when she needs them. You think Violet fits that bill in any way, shape or form?”

“I think she’s the only person Lily’s talked about, at all, in the last year or two. That alone is pretty important, don’t you think?”

“I think it means I let my kid get attached to someone I shouldn’t have.”

“Something you learn as a parent, son, is that no matter how hard you try to protect your kids, some things they have to learn on their own. You can’t protect Lily from everything, forever.”

“Well, I can when she’s little and I’ll be damned if I’ll let her get attached to another woman that thinks Lily’s nothing more than a temporary accessory.” He shot his father a look. “You could have given me a heads-up that you used to be engaged to Violet’s mother. Kind of a big bomb to drop at dinner.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Still.”

“I suppose I could have mentioned it. When I saw Violet the other day, it was like going back in time. She looks exactly like her mother.”

Gabe didn’t know what to say to that, so instead he said, “I should go check on them.”

“Try not to look like a harbinger of doom, if you can. Let Lily have a little fun.”

* * *

Harbinger of doom, he scoffed. He was just a father looking out for his daughter. Violet wasn’t the best influence for Lily. He wanted to see her look up to someone successful and stable. Not Violet with her wild hair and crazy plans.

He stepped up to the door of the room Lily used at his parent’s house. He leaned closer and listened as Violet read aloud.

“And when the fairy queen stepped into the clearing, she found a merman. I know what you’re thinking. Mermen can’t be in wooded clearings. I know. But this one was, kneeling in reverence to the queen. He held out a basket of seashells as a gift and a show of fealty.”

“What’s fealty?” Lily asked.

“It’s like a sworn loyalty. So, he’s handing her the seashells and swearing he’ll always be loyal to her.”

“Oh.” The girl yawned.

“The queen however was not interested in him on his knees. She did not want to be superior to him, or any other creature. So, she took his hand and raised him off his knees so he stood before her. Be not my subject, she commanded, Be my partner. With great pride, the merman did, in fact, become the queen’s partner, and he taught her things that only mermen knew how to do. Things queens weren’t allowed to do. She swam in the ocean, under the water, where buried treasure sparkled in the sunlight and squid melted along the ocean floor. He sat beside her in times of trouble and soothed her by reading from ancient scrolls. She loved the merman and in time, he asked that she leave her duties as queen behind and swim out to sea with him. It was a selfish question and though she was tempted, tired of being royalty, the queen sent him away. Her duties were important to her, more important than the whim of a merman.”

Gabe listened harder, trying to hear the rest of the story when the door opened and Violet tiptoed out.

Not expecting him to be standing in the hall, she jumped a little, her hand to her chest.

She shut the door behind her and whispered, “You scared me to death!”

“Sorry.” He held up his hands. “I thought I’d let you finish before I said good night.”

“She’s out,” Violet told him. “Sorry.”

“How far did she make it?”

“I think she hung in until the merman reads to the queen.”

“Quite a story,” he said. “I don’t remember reading that one before. Did you just make it up?”

“No, it’s been in my family for a while now. There are a few variations but I like that one the best.”

In the dim light of the hall, her red hair looked dark and bronzed, her green eyes a deep emerald. She leaned against the wall across from him, her leg propped up behind her, her heels dangling from her fingers. The hot-pink paint on her toes sent a shot of heat through his blood—the color sexy, but still soft.

She watched him, her expression neutral as he inspected her. There was no embarrassment or coyness to her and he felt the sudden urge to pull her into his arms.

Stupid.

She looked away for a moment, glancing down the hall and her hair caught his attention again.

“You’ve got something,” he said, leaning forward to pull something out of her hair. “Is that paint?”

She rubbed a hand down that spot and pulled away. “I thought I got it all. I had a little mishap this afternoon.”

“You were painting? Is that a good idea in your condition?”

“I cut my finger, Gabe. I’m not dying.”

“You cut your finger off,” he corrected.

“Just a little piece,” she hedged. “And it’s on my left hand so I can still do most stuff.”

“And the mishap?”

She waved him off. “I’m sure you don’t want to hear about that.”

“I might.”

“If it’s humiliating, I’m sure you do. You’ll be disappointed to know it was just a boring, paint mishap. I didn’t go flailing off the ladder with the paint can on my head or anything.”

“That is disappointing.” He smiled, the image forming in his mind. “What is it that you’re painting?”

“Oh, you know, some stuff.”

He narrowed his eyes at her as she looked away again.

“What stuff?”

“All the stuff.” She shrugged. “The walls, the ceilings, the cabinets.”

Gabe raised his eyebrows. “You’re doing all that on your own?”

“Little by little,” she said, her cheeks turning pink. “Slower now.”

“You know I’m a contractor, right?”

“I’m aware.” She nodded.

“You could have just called someone to help.”

“I don’t really have many friends here I would call,” she admitted. “And I was just kind of picking away at it in my spare time.”

At her confession, Gabe felt a squeeze in his chest. For all the flirting Violet did, for as popular as her food truck was, she all but admitted that she hadn’t gotten close to anyone in Fortune’s Bay.

She had no one to call for help if she needed it. When she’d cut her finger, she hadn’t picked up her phone once.

The only person she’d looked to for help and support was Lily.

He rubbed a hand down his face.

“Why don’t I give you hand with the painting,” he offered.

“No, that’s okay.” Her answer was immediate. She didn’t think on it for even a second. “I think I’m going to head home.” She straightened from the wall. “I’ll go find your parents and say goodbye.”

Without looking back, she hurried down the hall and out of sight.

Gabe stood there, unsure of what had just happened. Whatever he’d done or said had made Violet hightail it home like her ass was on fire.

He looked at the empty hallway for a minute more before going into Lily’s room. He got the feeling that Violet needed help, badly, but would never ask.

Why was he suddenly feeling like he was just the guy to lend her a hand?