The Certainty of Violet & Luke (The Coincidence, #5)(39)

It makes me smile, f*cking grin like the stupidest, most happy idiot in the world. ‘Oh, you’re asking me out.’

Her brows dip. ‘Why are you smiling like that?’ I can’t help it – I bust up laughing at her. She swats me with her good arm. ‘Luke, seriously, what the hell is so funny?’

Shaking my head, I try to settle my laughter. ‘I’m sorry, it’s just that you looked so nervous I was seriously expecting you to say something really bad, like you thought we needed to take a break or something.’ She playfully slaps my arm again and I cover the area with my hand. ‘Hey, what the hell was that for?’

‘For laughing at me. You know, I’ve never asked a guy out, right?’

‘And I’ve never really used lines on a girl either. Trust me, for the most part I was a f*cking *.’

She rolls her eyes. ‘Jesus what is wrong with the female population. Treat them like shit and they want you even more.’

‘Not all of them.’ I trace the path of her jawline, loving the way her eyelids flutter from my touch. As far as I know, she’s the only woman who’s ever reacted to my touch that way and that’s because she’s the only woman I’ve paid enough attention to, to notice her in reactions in that much detail. ‘That’s one of the first things that attracted me to you – because my shit didn’t work on you.’ I give her a half-smile. ‘I was drawn to the fact that I seemed to annoy the shit out of you whenever I opened my mouth. Well, that and the fact that you were so f*cking sexy and I couldn’t stop thinking about f*cking the shit out of you.’ I give her a full smile now as she rolls her eyes. ‘See those are my lines. Not too impressive, right?’

She shakes her head, but then wraps her arms around me and presses her lips to mine, giving me a quick, but deep kiss. I nip on her lip as she pulls away.

‘We better get going.’ She looks at the clock on the nightstand. ‘Or we’ll be late picking up your dad and Trevor.’

‘Yeah, you’re right.’ I collect my wallet from the nightstand then start toward the door, but she grabs my hand and draws me back to her.

‘Are you going to be okay with this?’ she asks. ‘With them being here. I mean, I know we spent that time at their house, but this feels a little different.’

No, not at all. ‘Yeah, I’m good.’

She’s right. This is different. When Violet and I went to their house, it was to hideout. Yeah, my dad and I talked and everything, but most of my time was spent on taking care of Violet. This is just a plain and simple visit, to hangout, chat, have dinner, spend time together. It’s strange and unnatural and something I’m completely not used to. But all I can do is cross my fingers that it’ll be okay.

That everything will be okay.


We’re about fifteen minutes late picking them up, but my dad seems happy with me just showing up, like he expected me not to. When I pull up to the curb, park and get out, he comes up and gives me this awkward hug while Violet helps Trevor put the suitcases in the trunk. After they’re finished, my dad pulls away, giving me this strange, almost choked up look and I can’t help but think: f*ck, is he going to cry? Thankfully, he doesn’t and steps back to give me a good look.

‘I swear you’ve grown taller,’ he says to me with a smile. My dad is about four or five inches shorter than me, medium build, with thinning brown hair. He likes to wear a lot of jeans and t-shirts, nothing business-like, something I learned when we were in San Diego.

‘I’m twenty years old,’ I tell him. ‘I stopped growing like five years ago.’

His smile falters, but he quickly recovers and steps back to let Trevor give me a handshake. ‘It’s good to see you again, Luke,’ he says. Trevor is closer to my height with blond hair and he likes to wear a lot of button down shirts, so pretty much the opposite of my father.

‘You too.’ I really don’t know what to say. Trevor and I don’t know each other very well at all. We’ve only met the one time and he was working a lot, so we maybe had like ten conversations tops.

Trevor releases my hand and steps back, opening his mouth to say something when my father walks up to Violet and pulls her in for a hug. I can tell it startles the shit out of her by the way she goes tense as a board. She manages to pull herself together enough, though, to give him a one-handed hug.

‘It’s so good to see you,’ my dad says as he frees Violet from the hug. ‘Both of you.’

Violet shuffles back from him toward the curb and starts fidgeting with her cast, scratching her fingernails up and down on it, staring off at the doors of the airport. There’s not much to look at, though, hardly any people coming in and out since it’s a small airport and it’s in the middle of the afternoon. I’m guessing there’s some sort of emotion building in her and she’s trying to keep it together.

‘Yeah, good to see you too.’ I give Violet’s hand a squeeze. She doesn’t look at me, but she does inch closer. ‘Should we hit the road?’ I ask.

My father nods then opens the back door of Seth’s Camry. While they’re climbing in, I open the passenger side door for Violet and when she starts to duck in to climb inside, I place my hand on the small of her back, stopping her. Putting my lips beside her ear, I whisper, ‘Everything okay?’