Page 41 of Avenged

“Antibiotics. I know. I’ll take them with me, but it’ll be fine.”

“If you have a headache or a cough, don’t forget to?” I started, but she interrupted me again.

“I promise, I’ll take them, Jers.” I flinched a little at the name Travis had started calling me and Violet had picked up on. We’d never shortened our names before. I’d always been Jersey. She’d always been Violet. And now we both had nicknames that the men we were living with had given us. Just like they had their own nicknames. I couldn’t quite think of Travis as Truck. It was like I wasn’t close enough to call him by anything but his real name. That would seem ludicrous to most people if they found out we were married.

Those words still seemed unbelievable to me every time I uttered them. I was married...

Violet flung herself into my arms and jerked me out of my thoughts. I held on tight to her. It felt like our world had been shifting for both of us ever since Travis and Dawson had arrived in New London. I didn’t want things to change between us. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with myself if I didn’t have Violet to take care of. She was the reason I’d stayed sane through Mom’s death, and Dad’s alcoholism, and the accident. I’d had to be strong for her. I wasn’t blind. I’d just finished a four-year psychology degree, and it was clear as day I was taking my guilt and wrapping it up in my care for her, but I also hadn’t ever thought of it as being as unhealthy for her as it was for me.

I was determined to do better. To make sure she really did have everything she wanted, including this stupid trip to New York City where she’d never been before. I took the little pile of cash I had intended to buy groceries with out of my wallet and pushed it into Violet’s hands. “Here. Have fun. Forget all of this for a while, but just don’t forget to take care of yourself.”

“I won’t,” she said, but then really noticed the amount of cash I’d given her and frowned. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. I was. She deserved to get away from it all. To just escape. The added benefit was she’d be gone when I went to see the specialist in Derby. I wouldn’t have her hovering around, and I could process the information I was given before having to tell her what they said.

“’K,” she said, and her voice was clogged with emotion.

“Don’t you dare cry.”

She nodded again.

“I love you,” I said. “I have to go open the bookstore. Just promise you’ll be safe and that you’ll call me if you need anything.”

“Will do,” she said with a huge, watery smile. Instead of making me feel better, it continued to make me feel worse. My fears were holding her back, and that wasn’t what Violet needed. She needed someone pushing her to be everything she could be, not holding her back behind an Invisible-Woman-sized force field.

I squeezed her hand. “Text me when you get there.”

She nodded and then dragged Jada down the hall to Travis’s bedroom to pack some of the things we’d just placed in the room a few nights ago. I picked up my purse and my keys and looked around the cottage. It seemed almost impossible that it had only been a little over three weeks since I’d helped Travis move in. My entire life had shifted in that time. I was now married to him and living in his bedroom.

I shook my head, clearing it, and then left for the bookstore, hoping I’d find something there to take my mind off of everything that seemed to be unraveling in my life.

? ? ?

I’d spent the day and night worrying about Violet in New York City, but as if she knew it, she’d texted me nonstop. She’d texted me several times from the car on the way there and then again when they’d arrived. Later in the evening, she’d sent pictures of Jada’s grandmother’s penthouse, which looked like one of those places you only saw in magazines.

The next morning, she FaceTimed me when she knew I’d be getting ready to go to the bookstore. She whispered to me with laughter about the butler, the cook, and the maid hugging and fussing over Jada, treating her as if she was some kind of princess.

“What are you doing first today?” I asked.

“We’re going to some exclusive boutique for Jada’s dress. After, she’s taking me to some touristy places, because I’ve never been here before.”

Violet looked happy, and while my heart was pounding at all the things that could go wrong, I knew letting her go had been the right thing to do.

“I see your frown,” she said, misreading why I’d gotten quiet. “Don’t worry about me. Get this, we’re using her grandmother’s car and driver all day, so there’s no slumming it on public transportation and way less chance of me catching anything. I’m good.”

I swallowed hard. “I’m really glad you’re having a good time.”

And I was. But it wouldn’t take the worry away.

We hung up with I love yous, and then she continued to text me all day, including pictures of her and Jada out and about in New York, smiling and posing in stupid ways. Violet at her most lighthearted. Violet at her best. It reassured me she was whole and well and that Jada wasn’t doing anything crazy with my little sister in tow.

After work, I finally went grocery shopping, determined to start making the meals Violet and I had agreed to do as a way of thanking Travis and Dawson for taking us in—on top of everything else they’d done for us—that Travis had done for us.

It about wiped out my bank account for the rest of the month, but I got enough for what I thought would last us several days. When I got home, I still wanted to scurry away to the room and hide, but I couldn’t hide and show my appreciation at the same time. So, I sucked it up, put the food away, and made spaghetti. It wasn’t anything special. Nothing truly homemade. The sauce was from a jar, the noodles from a box, the bread from the bakery section of the grocery store, but it was food, and it was made with gratitude.

Dawson came home first, smelling like grease and looking like he’d been dipped in it from head to toe.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

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