Wrong for You (Before You #3)(31)

A faint smile tickled the corner of her lips.

“You’re still here,” he said, one of his fingers ghosting along the silken skin of her pale pink lips.

“Were you hoping I’d leave before you woke up?”

“No.” He shook his head. He liked seeing her face in the morning. It made him feel hopeful and alive rather than waking up with the heavy weight of all his guilt and regrets reflected back at him. “It’s Saturday.” His hands threaded through her soft hair, twisting it around his fingers. “Do you have any plans today?”

Not answering the question, she braced her body on her elbows as she watched his face. He didn’t know what she thought she’d find. He mastered his poker face as a kid and even his closest friends didn’t understand him most of the time. It was a lonely existence, but he didn’t have a choice, not when his mother had crafted his life around a lie that came to a fiery end—the death of the man he thought was his father. Living in the shadows seemed so much easier than vomiting his wounds for everyone to see.

“My brother’s coming home next week. I need to get some stuff lined up for him at the Foundation. He likes to volunteer there when he’s in town. He takes the kids on field trips.”

“Field trips?”

“Hiking or fly fishing mostly, and now that the Foundation has some money I can plan something bigger. I was thinking about an overnight camping trip the weekend he gets back or maybe rafting. I love rafting.”

“What day is he coming home?” Alec turned his head away from her. He didn’t know much about Violet’s brother, but he was one more person who could expose his identity to Violet.

“Next Thursday, give or take a day or a week. Ryder is kind of unpredictable.”

Sitting up, hanging his feet over the side of the bed, he nodded. He either needed to tell Violet who he really was soon or leave before she had the opportunity to put the pieces together, so that left a little under a week to decide what to do with her and his dad. Not much time, but it was probably better that way. He didn’t need to complicate his time in Montana anymore than he already had by sleeping with Violet last night. Get in, get out, and move on with his life.

“What’s on your schedule for the day?” She sat up behind him, her bare skin brushing against his back.

Normally, the women who passed through his life never made it to the point where they were still around in the morning. He’d been with more than his fair share of women since Chasing Ruin made it into the big leagues, but none of those women came close to capturing his interest like Violet had from the moment he saw her. This was uncharted territory for him, and even though he should tell her to leave, he didn’t. He couldn’t find the right words to navigate the situation. The minute she walked out the door, reality would come crashing down around him again. For some reason, Violet kept his demons in check, something no one else had ever managed to do. He leaned forward, scooping his rings off the nightstand and slid them on his fingers one by one. “I need to visit someone.”

“Who?”

“My dad,” he answered, practically spitting the words out of his mouth. Referring to Brad as his dad left a sour taste in his mouth. It disrespected the man who he called dad for the first ten years of his life, the man who he succeeded in driving to his death with a simple question. Brad could never be his dad. It was too late for him to fill that role, but last night when he sat in the bathroom alone, he decided to seek him out one more time and hear his story unless he slammed the door in his face again, and in that case, he’d finally be able to close the door on this town forever.

She kissed the top of his shoulder, her hands moving slowly up and down his arms. “Are your parents still married?’

Well, damn. Even that question couldn’t be answered simply. His life was a minefield. “They were never married.” He shrugged her hands off his shoulders and stood up. Without turning around, he shoved his legs into his jeans from last night. He needed some coffee fast. His head was already pounding and he could feel Violet’s unspoken questions bouncing around in the air, putting him on edge, and he didn’t need to be any more anxious than he already felt.

He could hear the slide of fabric against her unmarred skin as she dressed and it took all his energy not to turn around and watch. Spending all day exploring Violet, getting to know every little thing about her sexy, cute as sin body sounded infinitely better than knocking on the door of the man who hovered over his life like a specter. As much as that appealed to him, he kept his eyes trained on the coffee pot, trying to figure out the right amount of coffee grounds to dump in the machine. Where the hell was the nearest coffee shop when he needed one?

“Are you close?” Violet asked, pulling two blue speckled metal mugs from one of the upper cabinets. They looked more like something that belonged on a camping trip than in the kitchen. She slid them on the counter next to the coffee pot.

“No.”

“When’s the last time you saw him?”

Eighteen years, two months and three days ago. The day the man he believed was his father died in a car crash. Brad hadn’t bothered with Alec since, and even though his mom admitted to blocking Brad from seeing him, it wouldn’t have been difficult to circumvent her and fight for him. His mom spent more than half of his childhood drowning in a bottle of whiskey and god knows what else. That fact alone would have steered any judge away from believing her twisted lies. “A long time ago,” he answered, not wanting to get into the gory details of his life. Not even Taylor knew the man they considered their dad wasn’t his dad, just hers, and he’d stolen him from her with a slip of his tongue.