Page 25 of Blue Norther
“Ford,” I answered gruffly, clearing the sleep from my throat with a borderline indecent cough. Everything was silent, until a watery sniff came over the line.
“Colt?”Violet’s whisper had the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up. Not only because she was calling me in the middle of the goddamn night, but because I could hear the worry in her voice. The room zoomed past me as I sat up in bed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I-I need you. Can you come to the cabin?” The small hitch in her voice made my blood run cold. She wascrying. Violetnevercried. Not on our wedding day. Not from our divorce. She was always so steady. So stoic. Nothing except when we struggled to get pregnant. And…oh fuck. The last times I’d seen her cry were after the last miscarriage and when her mother died.
“I’m already on my way, sweetheart. Just take a deep breath.” I was on my feet, sliding them through the legs of some jeans I’d thrown over the armchair in my room when I’d gone to bed after dinner. “Is it the baby?”
“No. He’s okay. It’s…I can’t…please, just hurry. I’ll explain when you get here.”
“Fuck, Vi. I promise, I’m going as fast as I can. You want me to stay on the line with you until I get there?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. I’m heading out the door right now. It’ll take me five minutes to get in the truck and get to you. Just breathe. You don’t have to say a goddamn word, but I better hear you breathing over this line the entire time.”
I made it out my door, into my truck, across the ranch, and down the road to her place in three minutes. I should arrest myself for how fast I was driving.
“Violet? Hey, sweetheart, it’s just me,” I called out as the door knob twisted easily in my hand. Fuck. She better have just unlocked it, or I was going to lose my goddamn mind. The door swung open, and it only took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dark, landing squarely on her.
Violet was hunched over, her elbows resting on the counter in the kitchen with her face illuminated by her laptop. She was fully dressed…If it wasn’t the baby, why was she still dressed inwhat she wore to dinner? Shouldn’t she be in whatever she’d wear to bed?
Damn it. Now I was the one who needed to take a breath.
“Violet?” I called out again. But her body didn’t move, her eyes just stayed glued to her cell phone.
“Vi,” I whispered before I slid my hand to cup her cheek. She jumped at the contact, her hand coming up to slap me away.
“Christ, Colt. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“Me? You stopped responding to me while I was driving over here, and then I came in and found you standing there like a goddamn mummy. What the fuck is going on?”
“I…” She winced, her hands moving to her lower back. My hand followed hers, pressing in right next to where her fingers were massaging. She groaned, her eyes closing, and the realization of how intimate the moment was slammed into me.
I wasn’t the man who should be helping with her pregnancy aches and pains. She had someone—who knows where he was—that needed to step up and be by her side.
“You should be sitting down. Or do we…you’re dressed? Do you need me to take you to the hospital after all?”
“What? No…no, I’m fine. I just…” Her head shook as her eyes dropped back to her phone.
“Come on.” I wrapped my arm around her waist and slipped her phone off the counter before she could grab it. It took only a second to guide Violet over to the couch before I made my way back into the kitchen. Once I had a fresh glass of water, I marched it over to her.
“Drink.”
“I’m not thirsty. I just want answers.”
“Don’t be stubborn. You’ve been crying, and you’ll get a migraine.”
Her eyes finally found mine for the first time since I’d gotten there. “You remember that?”
I nod my head. “Yeah, I remember. Drink. And then I want to hear about why you’re wound so tight I’m afraid you’re going to pop.”
Violet’s hand came up to rub her belly, the glass of water still sitting on the coffee table untouched. “I’m waiting for a phone call.”
“At…” my eyes dropped down to my watch, “almost midnight? Who the fuck is calling you this late?”
“The Milton City Police Department.”
