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Violet crept across the kitchen floor on bare feet and peeked outside, craning to see out thein the door Her pulse leapt when she saw Jay there, standing on the other side, srocery bag in the other

She turned and quickly dropped her paper plate and cold pizza into the trash can before she unlocked the door and let hioing to the party after work"

Jay set the box on the counter and kicked the door closed behind hio out; you didn’t say anything about having to stay home alone I’d way rather be with you than at so her a prize "I brought ice crea the plastic bag and setting it by the pizza as she wrapped her ar they could have hts like this Just the two of them

"You don’t mind that I came, do you? Should I have called first?"

She shook her head, not wanting to let go of hirateful that he’d decided to come That he’d rather be with her than with Jacqueline "No, of course not I just hope you realize how important you are to me"

He squeezed her back, a silent reassurance that he knew, and that the feeling was mutual Then he picked her up and carried her fire, they dropped onto the couch and Jay kissed her, at last Violet forgot all about the pizza and the ice creaot about Jacqueline, and any crazy notions that Jay should be with someone else

He was hers, plain and sie that

Chapter 12

IT HAD BEEN HARD TO SLEEP THAT NIGHT, AND Violet was up way earlier than she needed to be She was anxious to knohat she suspected was true

Since she had soby the Java Hut on her way out of town to grab a breakfast sandwich and a coffee She was surprised when she got there and saw Chelsea’s car in the lot It was early for Chelsea, practically ungodly

It was fairly busy for a Saturday h Violet didn’t know if that was true or not, since she hadn’t spent a lot of Saturday s at the internet-café-turned-restaurant She found all three of her friends, Chelsea, Claire, and Jules, sitting at one of the booths, plastic e of the table