Page 28 of Against All Odds (Ember Falls #3)

twenty-one

Violet

“ O h my God! You’re here!” I scream as I rush toward her.

“You could have just called.”

She shakes her head, laughing, and then pulls me down next to her on the couch.

“Like I didn’t try that first. You weren’t answering, and after an hour and about six hundred attempts, I called my pilot and got the jet ready.

Within thirty minutes, I was flying here, all the while still fucking calling you. ”

I look down at my phone. “I don’t have any missed calls.”

“Well, I can show you my call log. I was worried. I thought maybe you were abducted or being held at knifepoint.”

I laugh because that would be the conclusion she jumped to. She seriously lives on true crime podcasts. Ana is one of those friends that no matter what you need, she’s going to make it happen, because instead of waiting, like a normal person would, she got on a plane and came here.

“I live in Ember Falls. This place is safe.”

“That’s what they all say before they end up swimming with the fish,” Ana says, tilting her head. “Obviously it’s not that, so what’s the emergency?”

I still can’t believe she’s sitting here. I’ve missed her so much. I didn’t even realize how much until I saw her.

However, this is the hard part. Where I have to tell her what I really wish wasn’t my new reality.

“I’m pregnant,” I blurt out before I back out from telling her.

Her jaw drops. “No!”

“Yes, and it’s Dylan’s.”

“No!” Ana says again, her eyes wide. “Shit, I was hoping it was your sexy vet next door. Ugh, Dylan. Okay, well, I’m here and we’re going to sort this shit out.”

I lean against her, laughing once. “How are you going to do that?”

“I have no idea, but we have to start somewhere,” she says, crossing her legs and turning to face me. “Have you told him?”

“I did, and you can just assume how he reacted.”

She rolls her eyes and scoffs. “Asshole. I should’ve run him over with my car.”

And I don’t doubt that she would’ve done that either. “It wouldn’t have changed this, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

“I might do it anyway.”

I shake my head. She’s here and I’m ... alone, no thanks to my own decisions, but if there’s anyone who can fix this mess of a life, it’s Ana. My voice cracks as I plead with my best friend. “Just tell me what to do. Tell me because I clearly shouldn’t be involved in any decision-making.”

Ana shifts forward, taking my hand. “What do you want?”

I’ve asked myself the same question, but I just go in circles. I want Everett. I want the baby. I want to stay here, but I’m pretty sure none of that is possible. So I tell her the easiest answer I can. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do,” she chides. “You are just afraid of what you want. You always have been. Dylan did a number on you, and so did your parents. Is your life an absolute dumpster fire? Yup, it sure is. In the span of a few months, your marriage ended publicly, your soon-to-be ex-husband is already engaged, you came face-to-face with your first love that you still have unresolved feelings for, slept with said first love, and now you’re pregnant with your ex-husband’s baby.

I mean, girl, you couldn’t get any messier than this. ”

“Thank you for that lovely breakdown of my life.”

She smiles. “You’re welcome. My point is, before the last surprise, you were happy, weren’t you?”

I think about how I’ve felt since getting back to Ember Falls. How easy it is here. How much fun it is being around people who mean what they say. I’ve loved being back here, feeling as though life was going to finally get better.

Not only that, there is Everett.

“I was.”

“Okay, then why can’t you be happy still? You’re having a baby that you want, Violet. It’s not a death sentence. Many women have kids or divorce and are single moms. Is yours just a little bit more stressful? Yeah, it is, but you are fully capable of handling it.”

I know that I can handle it. I don’t doubt that I can do it and that I will do it, but there is the worry of who I’m doing it with.

“I’m all alone, Ana. I’m out here, by myself, no family, and I can’t put that on Everett. I mean, sure, he’s great and he was here for me the last twenty-four hours.”

She lifts her hand. “Wait. You told him?”

I sigh. “Yes, I went to try to break off or at least put the brakes on the whole sleeping together.”

Analeigh is on her feet a second later. “You didn’t tell me it happened again! Please tell me it was good. I really need you to have at least that.”

“It was good.”

“Really good?” she asks, sitting back down next to me.

She’s never going to relent. “It was the best ever.”

“Thank God! I thought you were going to be one of those girls who only ever had bad sex and then blamed it on yourself. It is never your fault.”

“Good to know,” I say with a sigh. “It just can’t keep going.”

“Why not?”

Has she been listening at all? I mean, it’s pretty damn clear why.

“Because I’m pregnant!”

Ana rolls her eyes. “So what? Pregnant people have sex. Plus you don’t have to worry about getting knocked up again. You can have all the sex you want without the possible repercussions.”

I really don’t know why I’m friends with her sometimes. “You give terrible advice.”

She laughs loudly. “Please! I give amazing advice. You’re just way too uptight. Look, I told you how I felt about the neighbor, and now you’ve had amazing sex. Did he say he wanted to stop banging you?”

“No,” I huff. “He didn’t.”

“Okay, so you told him and he wasn’t like, you’re a shit show that I don’t want tickets to?”

I think back to last night and how that was definitely not what he said. He was sweet, held me all night, and then made sure I had fun today.

“No, he didn’t.”

“Then I’m going to ask, again, why you can’t be with him.”

“Because I can’t. I can’t even think about being with someone. I can’t do that to him. I can’t ask him to get involved with me. I’m a mess, Analeigh. A fucking. Complete. Mess. A mess of epic proportions. I’m not even divorced yet and ... God, I just ... I can’t.”

She moves toward me, pulling me against her. “It’s okay, Vi. I know you’re a mess, and ...” She pauses, sniffing me. “What the hell is that? You smell like a barn.”

“I was at the farm all day today. That’s probably why I didn’t get your calls. Everett took me there after I woke up. He wanted me to see a cow and goats.”

Ana looks absolutely horrified by this idea. “This is what you moved here for? Goats?”

“I didn’t know there were goats.”

“Okay, while you’re all Little House on the Prairie here, I’m going to back up a second and ask how he was able to convince you to go on this ... trip to the farm when you woke up?”

“I slept at his house. I had an epic meltdown after my call with Dylan, went to tell Everett whatever we were doing was done, and then proceeded to cry on his chest until we fell asleep.”

Her concern is now replaced by a large smile. “He held you all night?”

Oh boy. She’s going to get that hopeless romantic look in her eyes and start her scheming. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Don’t you see!” she snaps and then grabs my hands. “Vi, you told him your hot mess of a life story and he didn’t just toss you out. He must really like you.”

“Or he didn’t want to be mean to an emotional pregnant girl.”

Although, that doesn’t explain why he would take care of me all day. Unless he really was worried I was going to snap, which was totally plausible.

Still, it didn’t feel like an obligation, and even when I walked away after our talk in the car, it was more that he was doing what he thought I wanted.

Which really was what I wanted, but then not really because I don’t want any of this. If I could’ve had my way, I wouldn’t be pregnant with Dylan’s child, and I would keep having mind- blowing sex with Everett, get my divorce finalized, and then maybe we could build something special.

“I’m going to let you in on a secret: Men do not take care of emotional pregnant girls if they don’t care about them.

You guys are like a second-chance love story for the ages.

Girl loves boy, leaves him behind in his dusty little town to fall in love with a douchebag Hollywood star who has a small dick.

Then you come back, and ... poof ... love.”

“You have been in Hollywood for too long. This is real life, Ana.”

She shrugs. “These stories exist for a reason.”

“This isn’t that story.” I won’t allow myself the belief that this ends happily, because all too often—it doesn’t.

“Fine. Then why are you staying here?”

I blink, unsure of what the hell to say to that. “Where would I go?”

“You’ll come live with me and Nick or I’ll buy you a house or something.”

“Ana, stop. First of all, I have a job here. I promised Miles a year, and I’m going to uphold my obligation until the end of the school year.

Also, I don’t want to go back to California.

I hated it there, and I really don’t want to leave this place.

I love this house and the town and the people here. ”

“And your neighbor?”

“It can’t happen,” I say, needing her to hear me.

“Okay, then. Well, how about you show me all there is in this cute little town so I can at least feel better when I leave.”

I reach out, taking her hand in mine. “I can do that.”

“Okay, this store is absolutely adorable! We should franchise it and have one just like this in California,” Ana says as she’s walking around Prose & Perk.

“You really like it?” Hazel asks. She about lost her shit when she saw Analeigh.

“It’s amazing, seriously. I love the entire feel of it.”

“Thank you.”

The way Hazel looks as though she might explode is really cute.

I’m such a dork that when I met Ana, I had no idea who she was.

I grew up with two parents who probably had no idea who her father’s band was, let alone let me listen to it.

Although, my Gran did love him, but I didn’t get her musical influence until later.

I had classical music or nothing.

I usually chose nothing.

Instead of music, I read.