Can't Help Falling in Love - Samantha Chase Page 0,11

forgiven.”

Violet could only assume she was referring to yesterday’s debacle.

After Hunter had left yesterday, Katie had filled her in on all the details. Single dad, nasty breakup with Eli’s mom who–apparently–was the real irresponsible one in the relationship. She bragged on Hunter ad nauseam, and by the time she was done, Violet felt a little guilty about how she’d talked to him.

But how was she to know? When a kid is left behind and is all but crying for his parents, and the one who shows up clearly had been sleeping…it just made sense that he was the bad guy.

Except he wasn’t and now she felt weird about her behavior.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hunter reaching for a napkin before he handed it to her. “This row has all Death by Chocolate. The name’s pretty self-explanatory. The middle row are called Tuxedos. Chocolate cake, vanilla icing, and there’s white chocolate ganache in the middle.”

“Oh, my…”

“And this last row has one Cookies and Cream, one Red Velvet, and two yellow cake with chocolate icing.”

“Wow,” she said, her eyes never leaving the box. “They all look amazing.”

“Go for the Tuxedos,” Katie said around a mouthful of cupcake. “The baby needs all the Death by Chocolate ones.”

Laughing, Violet took her suggestion. “Far be it from me to deprive the baby.” And with that, she took her first bite of Henderson’s Tuxedo cupcake.

And immediately made a very sexual, near orgasmic sound.

“I told you they were good,” Katie said with a knowing wink. She was about to say more when her phone rang. “I’ll be right back. It’s Rose.” Awkwardly, she got to her feet before Hunter or Violet could help her and made her way down the hall to her bedroom to talk–effectively leaving them alone.

“So,” she began once she finished chewing.

“So,” he mimicked, studying his hands.

Violet knew she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t apologize for her behavior the previous day and…well…now seemed like the appropriate time. Reluctantly, she placed the rest of her cupcake on the coffee table and faced him.

“I’m sorry.”

His aquamarine eyes went a little wide as he looked at her. “Excuse me?”

“I said, I’m sorry. About yesterday. I made a snap judgment about you without knowing any of the facts, and I was kind of bitchy to you, so…yeah.” She let out a long breath and wondered if it would be rude to take another bite of cake before she spoke again.

“I appreciate it, but it really wasn’t necessary,” he said as he went back to studying his hands.

Which–in turn–made her study his hands and…wow. They were impressive.

Like the rest of him.

Swallowing hard and forcing herself to look at anything other than his hands, she said, “It really was. I’m not usually like that. I mean, I’m opinionated and not shy, but I usually give people the benefit of the doubt before I verbally attack.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say attack…”

“No. It was an attack. For sure.” Pausing, she figured she’d give him the Reader’s Digest version of herself to make him understand where she was coming from. Shifting, she faced him. “I have a…a thing about bad parenting. I spent a lot of years in foster care and I saw a lot. Too much. And now, when I see parents mistreating their kids and being neglectful, it just…”

If anything, his expression softened slightly. “I get it, and I’m sorry you had to go through that. And for what it’s worth, I feel the same way about bad parenting. I didn’t have it easy growing up either. My mom died when I was eight, and my dad was stuck raising four kids under the age of ten.” He paused and shook his head. “He did the best he could, and he wasn’t abusive or a bad parent, but…we struggled. I swore to myself I would give my kids the life I never had.” Then he let out a mirthless laugh. “And I’m failing miserably.”

Unable to help herself, Violet placed her hand on his arm. “You’re not. You’re really not. Yesterday–from what I could tell–was just a crappy situation. I’m sorry for what you’re going through.”

“Thanks,” he said quietly before his head turned toward hers. “If you don’t mind my asking, how did you end up in foster care?”

It wasn’t something she enjoyed talking about, but considering she was the one who brought it up, Violet figured she owed him an explanation.

“My parents were barely out of high school when my mom got pregnant