Page 33 of Pulse
Chapter 12
Ren
“I knew you’d come back.”
I stared up at Violet as she opened the front door of her and Ash’s fancy house.
I had gone back after all. I told Dad I had some personal things to do and took the day off training with the promise that I’d catch up tonight. After all, I was now ranked number two overall in the AUFC pro league.
The whole way over here, I’d cursed Josie. She was always right and it pissed me off, but that was just because I was mad at myself for letting fear get the best of me. Nobody had an easy ride. Nobody, least of all me. That woman should be a therapist, not a publicist.
I squirmed uncomfortably as Ash’s little sister looked me over. “I don’t know what I can say…”
Violet shrugged, giving away that she was in unknown territory as well. “Ash never talked before either.”
By before, I gathered she meant before he went to prison.
“Come inside,” she said, stepping back so I could pass. “He’s upstairs so he won’t hear us.”
Tentatively, I went into the house, the door closing behind me sounding a lot like a nail in my coffin.
“Would you like a drink? Tea?”
I nodded. I wasn’t ready to venture upstairs to face Ash. The amount of effort it had taken to actually get myself here had been astronomical. I needed a minute to gather my thoughts…and my nerves.
She led me into the kitchen and gestured for me to take a seat at the dining table.
“I’m glad you came back,” Violet said as she filled an electric kettle with water.
“It’s not a quick fix,” I murmured, staring at thetabletop. I studied the pattern in the wood, anything to help me keep a grip on reality.
“No, I don’t expect it to be.” She switched the kettle on to boil.
“I don’t even know what to say to him.”
“He’s always responded well to tough love,” she said with a small laugh. “That’s why he looks up to your dad so much. He never gave him an inch.”
“You know my dad?” I asked, glancing up at her. I was so angry at being kept in the dark about so many things, but now I had the opportunity to ask. Time to suck it up and ask the hard ones.
“I do. Though, it’s been a while since I’ve seen him. He wasn’t there the other day.” The kettle started to whistle and the switch clicked as it flipped off. She moved to pour water into two mugs, dumping a tea bag in each. Setting a mug in front of me she said, “Chamomile. It’s meant to calm you down.”
I curled my hands around the hot porcelain and stared into the yellowish tea. “So you know the Twins too? Lincoln said he remembered you.”
“Really?” she asked, her cheeks turning pink.
I narrowed my eyes slightly, realizing that once upon a time Violet Fuller had had a crush on the more sensible of the Twins. “Yeah, really.”
“I used to hang around Beat a lot when I was younger. I was Ash’s biggest cheerleader.”
“Was?”
She smiled thinly, the emotion never reaching her eyes. “You know the rest.”
