29. Sawyer

Chapter 29

Sawyer

It’s been almost a week since that asshole on the Cyclones checked me, but with every step I take on the stairs as I head down to the kitchen, my ribs still ache a bit.

It’s late at night, and Violet is waiting for me at the bottom, smiling playfully with her hair tousled and her face flushed from the orgasm I just gave her. I know that the nearly ten years in age difference between us isn’t that massive, but with my injury, I feel a bit like the old man she jokingly called me. Thankfully, I’ve been cleared to resume playing, which makes me feel less like an invalid.

When I step off the stairs, Violet reaches out to brush her fingers over the fading bruises on my side. “It’s looking a lot better.”

I grin at her. “I’ve had a good nurse taking care of me.”

She snorts, arching a brow at me. “I don’t know about that. In fact, Coach Dunaway would probably be pissed at me if he knew just how bad I’ve been at getting you to take it easy.”

Her cheeks flush adorably as she speaks, and I wonder if she’s thinking about the particularly athletic round of sex we just had. She’s right that I haven’t been taking it as slow as I usually would when healing from an injury, but I’ve got no regrets.

“Nah, he wouldn’t be mad at you, heartbreaker,” I murmur, tugging her close and kissing her, just because I can. “Now, me? That’s a different story. But you? I don’t see how anyone could be mad at you."

She threw on an oversized t-shirt before we headed downstairs, and I can’t resist slipping my hand beneath it to squeeze her ass. She smiles at me, then wriggles out of my arms and heads into the kitchen, her ass swaying enticingly and her lightly tanned legs on full display.

I groan as I watch her walk away, and she laughs quietly. I know she’s teasing me, but I don’t even care. I’d let that woman dance around on my bruises if she wanted.

When I trail into the kitchen after her, I find her standing in front of the fridge looking sexy and relaxed. Her hands are wound up in her sex-mussed hair, and she’s trying to twist it into a bun—but it must not be going well, because she sighs in frustration and drags her fingers through it to undo it.

“Ugh. I like to twist it up to get it out of the way, but I’ve never been good at doing buns.” She makes a face. “My hair is too soft or something, it always falls right out of the bun.”

“Want me to try?” I ask, and she raises an eyebrow at me.

“Do you know how?”

“It can’t be rocket science, right? Come here,” I say, beckoning her toward me.

Wearing a teasing smile, she walks over to me and spins around so I can reach her.

Admittedly, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but I’ve seen buns before, and they look pretty simple, so I feel like I should be able to figure it out.

I gather her hair up and then twist it, creating one long rope before trying to wind the rope into a circular shape. It seems like it’s working… at first. But then everything starts to fall apart, the silky strands of her hair slipping free from the twist. I try to salvage it, but by the time I’m done, it looks less like a bun and more like—well, nothing.

Violet laughs, craning her neck to look back at me as I stare at her hair in bewilderment.

“Told you,” she says, still chuckling softly. “It’s not as easy as it looks. My hair is too… I don’t know, slippery or something. It’s fine, I’ll just leave it down.”

I turn her around to face me, tugging a lock of her hair between my fingers. “You say slippery, I say silky. I love how soft your hair is. And it smells so fucking good.”

I lift it to my nose, inhaling the cherry and almond scent that I’ve come to associate only with her. She lets me indulge my addiction for a moment, watching me from beneath her long lashes, and when I let the lock of hair fall back around her shoulders, she turns to the fridge and opens it.

“I’m starving,” she whispers. “Are you hungry?”

The thing I’m most hungry for is her, but since I’ve technically already eaten that meal tonight— twice —I figure she’s probably talking about real food.

“Yeah, I could go for a snack,” I answer, nodding.

She hums in response, then grabs a jar of pickles in the door. She slides them onto the island countertop, then crosses the kitchen to the pantry.

“What are you after?” I ask, watching her curiously.

“Peanut butter,” she says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

My brows twitch upward. I know exactly what kind of peanut butter she likes, and what brand of pickles. I’ve been making sure the house stays stocked with them ever since she came to live here. But I didn’t know she liked to combine the two.

“Wait, you eat pickles… with peanut butter?”

She pops her head out of the pantry, shooting me a pitying look. “You’ve clearly been missing out on the finer things in life.”

“Or maybe you’re just a monster?” I tease, and she lets out a quiet laugh.

“Hey, don’t knock it ’til you try it,” she insists, then emerges from the pantry with a jar of smooth peanut butter a moment later.

She reaches back into the cabinets and pulls out a bowl, then scoops a healthy amount of peanut butter into it. Then she spears a pickle out of the jar with a fork and dips it in the peanut butter. She takes a bite and closes her eyes, an expression of bliss spreading across her features as she moans softly. The sound goes straight to my cock, making me think of all the other ways I’ve elicited that noise from her.

“Mmm, that’s delicious,” she says, opening her eyes again and grinning brightly.

“You really are a monster,” I say with a chuckle.

She gives me an innocent look. “What? It’s good!”

I arch a brow skeptically. “I’ll take your word for it. But I swear, the combinations of foods you love are wild. If I hadn’t had that vasectomy, I’d be convinced you’re pregnant.”

Violet laughs and dips the pickle wedge into the peanut butter again, then holds it out to me. “Like I said, it’s good! Want to try?”

I arch a brow at her, my nose wrinkled. “No thanks.”

She tilts her head to one side, pouting her lower lip a little as she looks up at me through her lashes. “Please?”

Jesus. I wonder if she knows the effect that single word has on me when it comes out of her mouth.

Rather than admitting that there’s no fucking way I could deny her anything when she looks at me like that, I give a grudging nod. “Alright, fine. I’ll try it. One bite.”

“Brave man.”

She grins at me in a way that makes her look entirely too alluring, and I accept the proffered snack and take a tentative bite. Although the texture of the creamy peanut butter with the crunch of the pickle is a shock to my taste buds at first, the more I chew, the more I find that it’s not bad.

“Hm,” I say, and she must interpret the sound correctly as reluctant agreement, because she beams at me.

“See? It’s the sweet and sour thing. I know it sounds gross, but it makes such a good combo.”

She offers me another bite, so I take a bigger one this time and chew it, then pull her in to steal a kiss before she can take another bite herself. The sweet saltiness is still lingering on both our tongues, and I’m not really sure how, but tasting it on hers makes it even better.

“Delicious,” I say, licking my lips when we part, and Violet blushes. We quietly share a few more bites—and kisses—while we hang out in the kitchen. I can’t believe it, but I’m actually starting to like this weird combination.

“How do you discover all these… interesting foods anyway?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I just try stuff without thinking too hard about it. Some people make life way more complicated than it needs to be.”

“So, what, one day you just decided to dunk a pickle in peanut butter and see how it went?”

“Pretty much, yeah. I was hungry, and all I had were some pickles, but I wanted something sweet to go with it. I love peanut butter, so I decided to mix them, and voilà.”

“Most people probably would’ve written that idea off right away.”

“I guess I’m not like most people, then,” she says with a laugh.

She has no idea how right she is. I’ve never met anyone else like Violet, and I’m becoming more and more certain that I never will.

After a moment of easy silence, she cocks her head at me, biting her lip. “Can I, uh, ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“You mentioned that you got a vasectomy. Why did you do it?”

It’s a good question, although it’s not something I’d normally talk about with, well, anyone. But like Violet said, she’s not just anyone, so I decide to be honest.

“I did it after Miriam and I split, mostly because I was determined not to do a repeat of the marriage and kids thing. Besides, I already have Jake, and he’s all I need.”

Violet smiles at me, her eyes softening. “I like how fiercely you and Jake love each other. And the way you protect him. I’ve always wanted to have kids of my own someday, and I’ve realized after seeing the way you are with Jake that it’s exactly how I’d want my kids’ dad to be.”

“Wow, thanks. That means a lot to hear.”

“I’m serious. You’re amazing with him, much better than my parents were with me and Reese when they split up.”

“I’m sorry. Can I ask what happened?” Reese has made little comments about it here and there over the years, but not in much detail.

Violet sighs and leans against the counter. “When our parents split, neither one of them really prioritized us. That hurt the most, honestly. They were way too busy with their own lives and drama to worry about me and Reese.”

“That must have been really hard.”

“I took it better than Reese. He really struggled with it and always tried to convince them to get back together. But I never felt that way. Even when I was a little kid, I could see how bad their relationship had gotten.”

I don’t know what comes over me, but before I even realize what I’m doing, I’m taking her face in one of my hands, my thumb stroking her jaw line. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve any of that.”

Violet shrugs. “It’s fine. It taught me at a young age not to believe in the fairy tale of love and happily-ever-afters. That’s saved me a lot of heartache over the years.”

Hearing that makes my own heart twist because her story hits really close to home. My split from Miriam was—understandably, after she cheated on me—pretty fucking contentious. And even though I tried my best to make sure Jake knew we both still loved him and that would never change, after hearing Violet’s experience, I can’t help wondering if Jake has already learned a similar lesson.

That’s the thing about being a parent. Even when we try our hardest to protect our kids, to avoid repeating what happened to us, sometimes it still isn’t enough.

I’m sure Violet’s parents did their best with what they had, and if I ever got the chance to ask either of them about it, they’d probably say they never meant for her to feel the way their split made her.

But it did, and I know from firsthand experience that’s not a lesson that’s easy to unlearn. And that’s exactly what makes it so hard to hear Violet’s story. I’ve only just started getting to know her, but I already know she deserves her own fairy tale and happily-ever-after. She’s so sweet and genuine with me and with Jake, with everyone she meets, and it proves that she’s got a lot of love to give—and that there’s so much about her to love.

I can’t be the one to give that to her though, and it’s not my place to try to convince her to believe in love again. I’ve been through more than my fair share of battles of the heart, and I still bear the scars, so it’s not like I’m in any position to do that. But I hope that eventually someone comes along and shows her what I can’t. Gives her what I can’t.

My hand drifts down to her chest, resting right above her scar. “There’s a good heart in here. It’s worth protecting.”

Violet smiles and puts her hand on mine, using it to pull me into her for another sweet, salty kiss.

“What do you say to another bite of me?” she whispers playfully when we part.

“Heartbreaker, you never have to ask me twice.”

I scoop her up into my arms, ignoring the slight twinge in my ribs as she yelps in surprise. We try our best to keep it down on our way back upstairs, but we laugh quietly the whole way and can’t keep our hands and lips off each other.

I might not be able to give her the love she deserves, but I can at least give her this.

And maybe that’s enough for now.