As I got in my newly purchased Mustang, I was feeling confident about where I was headed.

And I didn’t mean to Minnesott Beach to pick up my niece; I mean in the sense that I finally had a direction.

I was going to stay in North Carolina.

I suppose the minute I had paid cash for the car at the dealership a week earlier, I had probably known but I had denied my feelings for too long.

Vyolet Viera had woken something in me that I never realized existed and I would be a fool to let her go.

She was everything I had ever wanted in a woman, something I never knew could exist in one person.

Every minute I spent with her I knew I was growing more infatuated with her, but that afternoon had sealed the deal.

She is open to exploring and she still looks at me with those big blue eyes. I want to keep her safe. I want to protect her from everything…and possess her in the most dominating way.

Vyolet had become indispensable to me and Alex.

I’m telling her tonight that I’m staying…and that I want her to move in with us.

I knew that there was going to be a lot to overcome but we would get there.

I hoped Oscar would forgive me, but we would keep our relationship quiet until the time came.

It had worked for us thus far; maybe we had a little bit more time to bask the sanctuary of our secret.

A twinge of guilt swept through me as I drove up the circle roundabout in front of the ranch-style house, knowing that Oscar and Amelia would be appalled.

Especially after everything they’ve done for me since Jocelyn died, I thought, frowning slightly.

I sat in my car for a long while, pondering my dilemma.

Maybe I was being too rash. After all, maybe Vyolet had only entertained our trysts because she believed I was leaving.

Perhaps staying would only create friction.

The uncertainty came creeping back into my body as I slowly opened the car door and made my way to the front door.

I didn’t bother to ring the bell, knowing that Amelia might be in the yard with Alex.

I’m even at the point where I can just walk into the house. God, I can’t tell them about us. It will devastate them. Oscar will kill me.

“Hello?” I called out, not hearing any voices as I made my way through the house toward the kitchen.

I reasoned they were in the back.

Suddenly I heard Amelia call out to me.

“Evan!”

I whirled and saw her coming toward me. There was something different about her and I peered at her closely, wondering what it was.

“Where is Alex?” I asked, looking behind her but I didn’t see my niece.

“She’s watching Beauty and the Beast. I just put it on for her,” Amelia replied, and I suddenly realized what was amiss; she wasn’t smiling.

“Oh,” I said uncertainly. “I hate to interrupt her but it’s almost dinnertime.”

“Come and sit down in the kitchen with me for a few minutes. I put the movie on, so we have some time to chat,” she told me, and a stab of apprehension pierced my gut.

“All right,” I replied slowly. “Sure.”

I offered her a quick smile, but she didn’t return my beam.

This isn’t good, I decided, swallowing the lump of worry which had formed in my throat.

I sat at the round kitchen table as she pretended to busy herself at the coffee maker, but it was obvious she was trying to gather her thoughts together.

“Thanks for watching Alex today,” I volunteered, hoping to lighten the atmosphere. “I didn’t realize that today was a teacher prep day.”

“No?” Amelia replied, and I heard the sharpness in her tone. “I would have thought that Vyolet would have told you.”

“I guess she forgot,” I said and suddenly I felt like a schoolboy being reprimanded by the principal.

“Odd,” my best friend’s wife bit back. “I hear you and Vyolet spend a lot of time together these days.”

I felt my eyes narrow slightly.

Who would have told her? Did someone see us in Oriental? Just deny it until you and Vyolet agree to go public…if it ever comes to that.

“Why, yes,” I answered slowly. “She’s Alex’s teacher and if I remember correctly, Amelia, it was you who gave her my cell number. She’s been a huge help since I’ve been back with Alex and apartment hunting.”

Amelia stalked toward the table, her green eyes flashing with anger.

“Do you play me for an idiot?” she hissed. “If you are having some sort of midlife crisis, Evan, leave my daughter out of it. I’m sure there are lots of women in Seattle who would fall into that kind of thing, but this is a quiet town. What you’re doing is scandalous and will hurt all of us!”

I was taken aback by her outburst.

“Amy, I don’t know what you’re thinking – ”

“Are you going to deny that Vyolet stays at your house every night since you moved to Oriental? Is that why you moved there? To be close to my twenty-five-year-old daughter?”

I was at a loss for words.

Did Vyolet tell her mother about us? She wouldn’t blindside me like this, would she?

And then the answer became blindingly clear.

Alexa.

Out of the mouth of babes…

“Amelia, it didn’t happen like that,” I told her softly. “What happened with Vyolet and I…”

She glared at me, her face white with anger.

“I don’t expect you to understand,” I said quietly. “But it is not as sordid as you’re making it out to be.”

Amelia scoffed, folding her arms over her chest.

“You really have been out of Minnesott Beach too long, haven’t you? Vyolet is a school teacher, Evan, a girl twenty year your junior! This is not some big city where that will be easily dismissed. People will talk. Her career will be ruined not to mention what Oscar will do to you when he finds out about this. Did you think about anything but what’s going on in your pants?”

I was offended by the implication, but I dared not bark back at her. She was rightfully furious.

“It’s not like that,” I mumbled again. “Vyolet is a grown woman – ”

“Don’t you dare tell me about my daughter!” Amelia spat. “I know how noble and good Vyolet is and always has been. You’re about to walk into her life and ruin everything she’s worked so hard for because you’re trying to reclaim your youth or having a difficult time coping with Jocelyn’s death. Or maybe you’re looking for a nanny for Alex. Well I won’t have it!”

I gaped at her, unsure whether I should laugh or shout.

But suddenly, her words, her concerns hit me like a ton of bricks.

Is that what this is? Some way of coping because of Jocelyn? A midlife crisis?

I couldn’t believe any of that was true but as I stared at Amelia, the blood drained from my face.

She was right. The town would never forgive the scandal of a young school teacher shacking up with an older man, her father’s best friend no less.

Why hadn’t I thought about that before?

Amelia seemed to read the shame on my face and her own expression soften if only slightly.

“I won’t tell Oscar,” she informed me in a low voice. “If you return to Seattle.”

“I can’t,” I replied flatly. “The house is still for sale.”

“Oscar and I will take that over for you. I recommend you get your affairs in order and leave sooner rather than later.”

My eyes bored into hers.

“And what about Vyolet?” I asked dully. “What will I tell her?”

Amelia’s mouth became an almost nonexistent line.

“Don’t tell her anything!” she spat. “I don’t want you to go near her again! How you two have carried on this long without being caught is beyond me but your luck has officially run out. I am giving you a way to leave with my daughter’s dignity intact. Take it before you make things worse than they already are.”

A weird burning started in the corners of my eyes and I realized that I was about to cry.

“Do we have an understanding, Evan?”

I rose from the chair, shifting my eyes downward.

“Yeah,” I muttered. “Go get Alexa.”

She nodded and disappeared from the kitchen, leaving me to blink madly to keep tears from fully forming in my corneas.

I couldn’t just walk away from Vyolet without an explanation, but I couldn’t very well tell her that her mother had run me out of town either.

Vyolet would never accept a dissolution of our relationship based on Amelia’s threats.

If she even wants a relationship. How do I know?

“Uncle Evan! I was watching Belle!” Alex cried, hurling herself into my arms.

“I know, honey,” I told her, scooping her up in my arms. “We can watch it later at home, but we have to go home now.”

“Is Vyolet going to be at home?” Alex chirped, and I knew that my hunch was right. I had been ratted out by a six-year-old.

Amelia stood in the doorway of the kitchen, her arms still crossed over her breasts, eyeing me with naked disgust.

“Say thank you to Aunt Amelia, Alex,” I instructed.

There was clear pain in Amelia’s eyes as she smiled at my young niece and more shame filled my belly as I realized that I had ruined yet another relationship with my inability to keep my feelings under control.

I almost destroyed Vyolet’s career; my friendship with Oscar and Amelia is over and now Alex has lost another important person in her life. I am an ass. Amelia is right. I need to get out of here.

I turned away as they embraced quickly in my arms and marched out of the house with Alex.

“You aren’t going to say goodbye to Auntie Amelia?” Alex asked, and I was mildly impressed with her observational skills.

“We already said our goodbyes,” I told her gently, strapping her into the backseat of the Mustang on her booster seat.

As I took my position in the driver’s seat, I noticed that Amelia remained at the door, staring at me and I wanted desperately to yell a parting shot at her, something that would make her understand that what I shared with Vyolet was not some tawdry, cheap affair but how could I?

Instead, I put the car in reverse and almost squealed out of the Viera’s drive, eager to be away from her judgmental gaze.

My cell dinged, and I knew it was Vyolet before looking at the screen.

What am I going to say to her? What am I going to say to Alex?

“Uncle Evan?” Alex called. “Your phone is going off.”

“I know, hon,” I told her. “I don’t want to text while I’m driving.”

“It’s probably Vyolet. Call her on Bluetooth.”

I shook my head.

“I’ll call her when we get home,” I told her.

“But I want to talk to her now! She’s the best teacher I ever had,” Alex chirped. “Do you think that you will marry her now that she lives with us?”

“She doesn’t live with us!” I snapped with more anger than I intended but Alex did not seem deterred.

“But will you marry her?” she pressed. “I bet she would be a good mommy. She’s so nice to me but sometimes I forget to call her Miss Viera at school and call her Vyolet and get in trouble.”

I gritted my teeth.

Amelia was right. The bug was already in everyone’s ear. Alex, in her naïve sweetness had inadvertently told the town about our relationship.

We had been under scrutiny and not even realized it.

“Uncle Evan?” Alex called. “Can we call Vyolet?”

“No,” I said sadly. “We can’t.”

And I meant it. We had to make a clean break before any more damage was done.