Page 80 of A Spot of Trouble
Violet wouldn’t have gone so far as to say that she was grateful for the canine switcheroo, but she was definitely thankful for the timing of the discovery. Had Sam’s realization occurred a second or two later, she’d have kissed him right in the middle of Seashell Drive. Would she ever learn?
No, apparently not. Which was why the moment this confrontation was over, she was ceasing any and all interaction with her nemesis. In fact, from here on out, he wouldn’t even be her nemesis anymore. She was pulling out of the bet. From this point forward, Violet would have no reason to interact with Sam in any capacity.
She pressed on her breastbone to still the ache in her heart. She could do this. The epiphany she’d had back in her jail cell had been real. New leaf, new life, new priorities.
“You still haven’t explained why,” she said to her friends.
“It’s simple, really.” Mavis shrugged. “We just thought if you took care of Cinder that you might develop an appreciation for Sam’s positive traits, and vice versa. If Sam got to know Sprinkles, for example, he might…”
“…come to love her sense of whimsy? Realize that life is sweeter with a dash of the unexpected?” Sam said. His gaze slid toward Violet, and his dreamy blue eyes were full of questions.
She looked away. “I suppose you three thought Cinder would make me appreciate the comfort of her heroic sense of honor.”
“Something like that,” Mavis said quietly.
Sam moved to stand in front of Violet so she had no choice but to meet his gaze.
“Did it work?” He smiled into her eyes.
Yes. Oh my gosh, yes!
Longing whispered through her. The old Violet wanted to throw her arms around Sam and admit how much she wanted him. She didn’t care if people talked. She didn’t care what her dad and brothers had to say. She didn’t even care about the stupid softball tournament. She just wanted to be with him. For real. No more sneaking stolen kisses, no more pretending that she couldn’t stand the sight of him. She’d fallen hard for Sam Nash, and as crazy as the fall had been, Violet never wanted it to end.
But she wasn’t that girl anymore. Violet had left that naive, romantic soul back in the jail cell at the Turtle Beach police station. She’d promised her father she’d be more responsible from here on out…and as torturous as it was, the here on out started right now.
“Don’t be silly,” she lied. “Of course it didn’t work.”
Sam‘s eyes narrowed, and his gaze bored into her with such intensity that she started trembling from head to toe.
“You sure about that, love?” he said in a voice so soft and tender that it made her want to weep.
There it was again—the endearment that had caught her so off guard the first time he’d said it, Violet had nearly crumbled inside.
She couldn’t keep having this conversation. She had to put an end to things once and for all.
“Completely sure.” She wrapped her arms around herself and looked away.
Behind Sam, Mavis, Opal, and Ethel watched her with so much love and concern in their eyes that Violet couldn’t help but think that maybe she hadn’t missed out on a mother’s love as much as she’d always thought she had. Maybe she’d actually experienced it threefold.
She squared her shoulders and forced herself to meet Sam’s gaze. “This Dalmatian flirtation, or whatever it was, is over.”
“I guess everything can go back to normal now,” Sam said, and his tone carried just a hint of the straitlaced man she’d first met back on the dog beach—the one she’d thought had been stealing her dog when in fact he’d come to steal her heart.
“I guess it can,” Violet said.
Then she clipped the pink cupcake leash onto theactualSprinkles’s collar and left without a backward glance, all the while wondering if perhaps normal wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
***
Thirteen days later, Sam knocked on the open door of Chief Murray’s office at the firehouse. “Chief Murray, can I have a word?”
Murray Jones looked up from his desk and scowled. He’d been doing a lot of that lately—scowling. Mostly at Sam, both on and off the softball diamond. “Fine. But make it quick. We have practice in less than an hour.”
Sam was aware. Murray’s dreams of winning the Guns and Hoses softball tournament in a sweep had died, and the following Saturday he’d watched from the sidelines as his star player struck out a record three times. It seemed that when Sam had been reunited with his lost Dalmatian, his mojo went inexplicably missing.
That had been Griff’s take. Sam knew better, of course. He wasn’t missing his mojo. He missedViolet. He missed herjoie de vivre. He missed her unflappable optimistic attitude. He missed the happy chaos that had taken over his life from the instant he’d fallen in love with her.
Sam still couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment it had happened. He just knew that it had. He’d arrived in Turtle Beach a broken man, and somewhere along the way, Violet March and her kooky Dalmatian had put him back together.
