Cynthia was blathering on about something Gray didn’t particularly care about but he continued to smile and nod as his mind wandered. Fertility technology had come a long way in the decades he was locked up. If he did manage to find a woman it wouldn’t be completely impossible to him to become a father…

The idea of finding someone to give birth to a child for him simply to fulfil his desire of having a family wasn’t appealing. Gray truly would prefer if someone like Keeley Hale, who miraculously managed to love her ice-cold husband, fell into his lap. But the odds of that happening were practically zero.

Even if a woman did fall in love with him, he would have to keep his true nature a secret for the rest of his life. Did he really want that?

Gray had used a charming, insincere tone when he spoke ever since he was in college. He had to work hard to stop using his old Brooklyn accent but it still tended to come out when he visited his mother’s grave. There was no telling what a woman would think if she stuck around him long enough for him to slip up.

If only he could find someone similarly minded. Was it possible to advertise for an attractive female murderer online? No one would go for that.

“Are you even listening to me?” Cynthia demanded.

Gray dropped the pretense. He didn’t want to see this woman again so there was no point placating her. “No, I am not. You’re too boring to pay attention to.”

Infuriated, she splashed the contents of her water glass all over him before storming away. ‘What a drama queen,’ he thought distastefully as he tried to dry himself with a napkin.

At that moment Violet got up from her table to go to the bathroom and halted when she was about to pass Gray’s table. She gave him the slightest hint of an incredulous look, seeming so much like her almost completely expressionless father that he had to hide his laughter.

“Hello, Violet. Fancy meeting you here.”

“Why are you all wet?” she asked bluntly.

Gray waved it off airily. “Ah, my date didn’t go so well. No matter. There are plenty of fish in the sea.”

He said that but finding the right subspecies of fish for him might not even be possible in this lifetime. Bitterness filled his heart but he did his best to keep smiling for Violet’s sake. It wasn’t like he could ask Aaron to set him up with someone either. He would never pair one of his precious wife’s friends up with a murderer.

Violet’s eyes narrowed warily. Yet another way she was like her father. They didn’t trust so easily. Had Aaron told her the truth about him? And here Gray had thought he didn’t want any of his children knowing about their wayward uncle.

“Whoever your date was has no manners. Better luck on the next one,” she said coolly.

Gray smirked at her. Talking to Violet was almost exactly the same as talking to her father. How fun. Maybe he should try and run into her more often. Except Aaron might give him a hard time about that. Ah, appeasing him could be so difficult!

But he had to follow the rules Aaron had set if he wanted to be involved in his family’s lives at all. No matter. He would let her get on with her own date without causing any trouble.

“Thank you,” he replied graciously before waving her off.

Violet continued walking toward the restrooms as if nothing had happened. She was definitely Aaron Hale’s daughter. Gray’s desire to have a child increased. If anyone could understand him, his own child could. His niece was proof of that.

===

“You ran into your uncle?” Noah asked with a frown once they were back in his car after dinner.

Violet nodded grimly. “He claimed to be on a date. Can you imagine dating a convicted murderer?”

“I couldn’t imagine dating anyone other than you.”

She rolled her eyes, unable to suppress her smile. He had always been at least a little cheesy with his straightforward compliments but it had gotten ten times worse once they started dating. Noah was more of a romantic than she would have thought.

They ended up heading back to her place to watch TV in the entertainment room. The Hales’ TV and couch were a lot bigger than the Singletons’.

The two of them spooned under a blanket as they watched because it had been pretty chilly when they were out earlier. Violet was still getting used to this kind of closeness. None of her previous boyfriends had lasted long enough to get to this point.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t used to being around Noah. When they were younger they would do things like hold hands and hug all the time. The feeling of having his arms around her was a familiar one. Just…not like this. Noah’s embrace had never made her heart beat faster until a few weeks ago.

Aside from a few awkward attempts at acting like a real couple, their relationship remained as it always had. Despite the new changes to how they interacted, Noah was still Noah. She felt as comfortable with him as ever, despite occasionally bursting into hysterical giggles about how strange it was to be dating him now.

He had to be the world’s most patient person. Even her father hadn’t waited for her mother to come around for as many years as Noah had for her. All he wanted was to be around her, even when he thought that they would never be more than best friends.

Her heart swelled at the thought. Nobody valued her exactly as she was the way that Noah did. Violet would always cherish that.

She couldn’t consider herself in love with him yet—it was still an adjustment thinking of him as her boyfriend instead of her surrogate brother—but neither of them were going anywhere. They had all the time in the world to get this sorted. 

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