metal pins with men on motorcycles, and one that said family. She’d put tiny animals around Gunner’s pictures. The board was covered with dozens of other trinkets, each one perfectly thought out. Most people would have just given him the pictures, but Chloe cherished good memories as much as he did, and that was only one of a million reasons he adored her.
His phone rang, drawing his attention to where it lay on the table. Violet was calling on FaceTime. He turned off the music and answered the call. He was glad to see Violet’s face as she appeared on the screen. Her jet-black hair was pulled back with a tie-dyed headband. Her skin glowed with the bronze of a fresh tan, and her narrowed eyes and smirk told Justin that the Real Housewives of Bayside, which was what he called Serena, Emery, Desiree, and Daphne, had been gossiping again.
“Now, that’s a well-fucked face if I’ve ever seen one.” Violet had never been one to mince words. “It’s true, isn’t it? You put your snake in Chloe’s grass?”
He chuckled and said, “You know I don’t kiss and tell.”
“I definitely don’t want all the juicy details about your sex life. But, dude, do you have her chained to your bed? Desiree said Chloe hasn’t been to breakfast with the girls in days and that you hardly ever stop by to have breakfast with everyone anymore. I told her it’s not the same without me there, but I don’t know if she’s buying it.” Violet flashed a cheesy grin.
Violet’s sister, Desiree, loved to cook, and Chloe and their friends from Bayside Resort got together pretty often for breakfast with her. Justin tried to join them when he could.
“I can only take the blame for the last three mornings with Chloe, and I’ve just been swamped, Vi. But now that you’ve put the idea of chaining Chloe to my bed in my head…”
Violet rolled her eyes. “Maybe you can squeeze in one breakfast with Des before she gives birth? She misses you.” Desiree was pregnant and due in July.
“We’ll get there, Vi, I promise.” It felt good to refer to him and Chloe as we. “But I’m in no rush to give up my mornings with Chloe.”
“I know. I get it. Andre and I have been together for as long as you’ve been lusting after Chloe, and I still hate getting out of bed in the morning. So, Justin Wicked finally got his girl.”
“She couldn’t resist me forever,” he said arrogantly.
“No shit. The sexual tension between you two could ignite an iceberg. Just be careful, okay?”
“Careful?”
“Yeah. You might be able to hide that big, gooey heart of yours from everyone else, but we both know this isn’t just a casual affair for you.” Her gaze softened and she said, “I love Chloe. She’s a good friend and a really cool chick. But you’re a whole lotta man for a conservative woman. I just don’t want you to go all in and get hurt because your worlds are so different.”
“Hey, Kettle, are you really calling me Black?” Violet and Andre came from two very different worlds. When they’d met, Violet was a vagabond artist who never wanted to put down roots, and Andre was a highly sought-after pediatrician with a successful practice in Boston and roots that ran to the core of the earth.
“You’re right. Sorry. But I’m still worried about you.”
“She’s a lot more like you and me than you’d think, Vi. I know how you and everyone else sees Chloe. You see a careful, conservative woman who doesn’t curse much and is wary of tough guys. And you know I dig those things about her, but she’s so much more than that.” He didn’t want to breach Chloe’s confidence, so he kept his comments general and said, “What you can’t see is that she’s had to overcome as much as you and I have, and her refusing to go out with me had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the shit she’s been through.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, you just can’t see it because she doesn’t throw her past in people’s faces like you and I do with our take-us-as-we-are attitudes. And she’s not playing the game like Blaine does, either. She has truly risen above her past, and she’s proud of it, as well she should be. And now that I know what’s she’s gone through? Everything about her makes sense.” Last night he and Chloe had been talking about her