Violet Ugly_A Contemporary Romance Novel by J. Lynn Bailey

Author:J. Lynn Bailey [Bailey, J. Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: J. Lynn Bailey
Published: 2018-10-22T18:30:00+00:00

Twenty-One

Ryan

Granite Harbor, Maine

Present Day

It’s been two weeks since the pantry incident. Dubbs is still missing. This isn’t unlike him though. He did it a lot during my upbringing—if that’s what you’d call it. Besides, it was better when he was gone.

But what keeps the situation in the back of my mind is the guy who took Dubbs’s phone. Why? And why the hell can’t we find him?

After we left Dubbs’s place and when we got home, I tried a Google search with the uploaded grainy photo that I had taken with my phone with the word Maine. I’ve narrowed it down to three.

Luther Waker from Tyler, Texas. A black man.

Ronan Fields from Augusta, Maine. A white man.

Bruce Watts from Boston, Massachusetts. A white man.

Clearly, he’s not a black man, so I removed Luther from the list and had dispatch run a search on Ronan Fields and Bruce Watts. Watts has no priors but a creepy penchant for unicorns, according to his Facebook page, but nothing else is out of the ordinary. Fields, on the other hand, has a criminal history longer than the state of California. From drug trafficking to felony drug possession to money laundering. The list goes on.

What would Fields want with Dubbs? Did he owe money to Fields? Hell, I just gave Dubbs five grand. That should have fucking covered what he owed. But what if he owed more? What if it wasn’t enough? What the hell would a guy like Ronan Fields want with an old, drunk fisherman? Sure, he did drugs occasionally, definitely gambled, but not felony-level shit. He didn’t mess with the underworld. The fucking thieves that send the lower-level thieves to prison for the crimes that the big thieves committed. Was my dad working for one?

We’ve just finished at my last doctor’s appointment. The ribs are pretty much healed. My shoulder brace is off but not without physical therapy.

This also means that Merit has a decision to make. She can leave now. She’s free to do whatever the fuck she wants.

Go back to California.

Stay here with me.

I sure as hell don’t want to force her to do something she doesn’t want to do. I don’t want to bring it up right now, but I’m not sure I can help myself.

She finally stops laughing from a one-liner joke I told.

Merit sets down her Diet Coke.

Since that day in the pantry, we’ve done our best to avoid what’s clearly never left our minds. I think she thinks it went too far. I get it. It’s like after a night of drinking where you don’t remember much, only bits and pieces. Like coming out of a fog, scared to death that what you did will happen again, terrified and excited, all at the same time.

She’s distant with her body.

And I accept that—not always willingly, but I do.

I know she wants more, just like I do. I think, though, her guard has come down. I just hope she stays forever.

I take the straw wrapper and twist it around my finger.

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