Sister Pact: One Night Stand (book 1)

Chapter 4: Ribbons

This was the one thing that Viola hated the most, driving long distances. She couldn’t understand why her father couldn’t take the private jet, instead he wanted them to drive all the way to Texas which cost them more than a day of driving on the road that she was never going to get back.

Viola was a city girl at heart and seeing only kilometers upon kilometers of land was not something that she enjoyed much. She enjoyed the city and watching everyone struggle to get to their place of work.

They had finally arrived in the Houston Texas, in the little town of North saint. Viola couldn’t believe what she was seeing, the roads were muddy but other than that everyone had large plots of land and their farms looked pretty decent. They arrived at the B&B because the road to their hotel was closed off because of the heavy rains that apparently destroyed some roads and destroyed infrastructure.

Although all this was on her mind she couldn’t help but think of her sisters, who still weren’t talking to her, after nearly a month of them finding out that she was pregnant. A part of her missed the fact that her sister and herself would sit down and talk about their day but now they looked at each other like strangers.

She watched as her sisters walked ahead of her and up onto the steps, whistle she just stood feeling like she had been utterly forgotten. Her other came behind her back and rubbed her shoulders, something that Viola was getting to like a bit more as the days passed.

“Don’t let them bother you. Now hurry up we’ve got less than two hours before then cutting of the ribbon ceremony” Viola smiled at her mother and she made her way into her room. It wasn’t the type of room that she was used to, this was simpler with a window overlooking the B&B garden. This was far the highlight of being here.

**

The gunshot scared Viola so much that she placed her hand protectively over her belly. To protect her child, something that she now did often. The ribbon was cut and of some tradition there had to be a few gunshots shot and Viola didn’t like it, because no one told her beforehand. Not all of the town’s people were there of course. Understandably some of them had to repair their homes due to the heavy rains that destroyed their homes.

A few towns’ people came to greet their family and in just two hours the community folks made their way to the hospitals and both the doctors and nurses began working on them, treating people with broken legs and other minor cases.

At the corner of Viola’s eye she saw a truck, a familiar truck just parked in the parking lot of the new hospital. Of course many of the town’s men and women owned trucks but this one was different, because of a distinct feature. Viola quickly walked towards the truck which was about thirty meters away from where she was standing.

As she walked closer to the truck, she realized that she was holding her breath and a tear trickled down her cheek, it had to be him. Even though that night that he took her to his apartment she count quite make out the truck but the morning that she left she saw it, the three long scratches on the side of his car and the same miniature heart dangling from his review mirror.

Before she could get close enough to touch the car a man walked out, it wasn’t John, and it was some other guy who looked nothing like John. The guy looked at her and then he looked behind himself and then back at her. He waked up to her but Viola didn’t notice because she was still stuck thinking that she was losing her mind.

“Are you alright my lady?” he asked her holding her shoulder but Viola just smiled back at him and waved it off.

“It’s okay, I’m sorry I just thought I recognized this truck from somewhere— I’m sorry”

“It’s okay—“

Before the guy could finish what he wanted to say, Viola walked away as fast as she could, she was convinced that she was losing her mind. Whilst running she knocked into her mother again.

“Are you okay sweetie?” her mother asked her looking concerned about her daughters well-being but all Viola could do was sob in her mother’s arms.

“I’m losing my mind mother. I thought I saw his truck but then it was someone else’s”

“My dear you need to forget about this man once and for all, he’s not here but we’re here for you and I want you to understand that” Viola nodded her head in agreement to what her mother was telling her and they both walked away to get to the conference. Viola listened as her father was answering all the difficult questions flung at him and Viola hoped that she could be as smart as he was. Out of nowhere a reporter flung a question at Viola.

“Viola is it true that you’re pregnant?” at that moment fear coursed through her body but she didn’t let it show, all eyes were on her so she smiled back at the reporter.

“Well I swallowed a Pumpkin seed and as you can see it’s growing inside of me” there was a laugh from the crowd and everyone went back to speaking to her father. Viola’s mother then held her hand, acknowledging that she was proud of her.

**

Even for a small town they had quite a lot to offer, while the rest of the family decided to stay at home and watch TV Viola and her mother decided to go shopping. Viola loved shopping but she wasn’t in the mood today. Her feet were sore and all she wanted to do at the moment was sleep.

“Mother can’t we do this tomorrow, I mean we’re here for mother three days, three days that I won’t be getting back unfortunately” Viola rolled her eyes but her mother wasn’t having any of it, instead she kept walking ahead of Viola until she stopped a boutique. It wasn’t just any boutique, it was a baby store.

Her mother them looked back at Viola and said:” The shopping is not for you my dear, it’s for my grandchild” her mother smiled and unlocked the door for them. Inside was beautiful, painted with a softer peach and white color and the floor was covered in the most beautiful wood one can find.

This store had everything a soon to be mother has always wanted, from boys to girls’ clothing, to baby cribs and a whole lot more.

A consultant appeared and greeted then with a polite smile on her face and not like the fake smile she was accustomed to back in New York all because of her family name.

“Good afternoon Mrs Albertson and Viola, come on in”

Before long they were handed cups of coffee and the baby shopping began. Viola didn’t understand how excited the extent of her mother’s was but now she got the feel of it. At the end of the shopping trip, both women made their way to a coffee shop down the road. They handed their shopping bags to the driver who then drove it back to the B&B whilst they stayed to have some coffee.

“Are you feeling a bit better after the long hours of shopping?” Viola knew that her mother was teasing her and she didn’t mind so she shrugged the question off with a smile until the waitress appeared with their coffees.

She kept looking at her tea without touching it, because her instinct kept telling her that the truck that she saw was clearly John’s truck, she was sure of it.

“Are you still thinking about the truck that you saw at the hospital?” her mother asked her while she reverted to drinking her cup of coffee.

“Yes mother, I know that that was his truck— what if he borrowed that truck when he came to New York?” she couldn’t help but wonder if that was the case of it all.

Her mother placed her cup of coffee back onto the table and looked straight into her daughters’ eyes. And smiled at her. “Did this John mention where he’s from?”

“No he didn’t say, all he told me was that he lived on the outskirts of New York City. Now that I’ve come to think of it, his accent didn’t sound like he was from the outskirts of town at all”

“I’ll speak to your father when we get back home, we have to find this man even if it’s just to inform him that he’s going to be a father soon”

“What if he doesn’t want to be in the baby’s life?” those words coming out of her mouth scared her, she wasn’t sure if she could handle being a single mom. She couldn’t even imagine bringing a child into this world and worse she had to be responsible for the child.

**

Tate couldn’t deal with the thought of feeling utterly useless, just sitting on his bed and watching the TV. For nearly a day he’s been on his back, all in the name of resting whilst his best friends and ranch men did all the work around his five hundred acres of land. But he knew that his friends meant well for him, the only thing that he didn’t like was Joe having access to his truck for the day to go and get him some painkillers at the newly build hospital.

The door of his room was banged open and it was none other than Joe, with a huge smile on his face.

“I’m even going to bother asking you what happened— but knowing you Joe, you will probably tell me either ways”

Joe came around to my bed and dropped my painkillers onto the bed, he threw himself onto the bed with so much force that my bed shook and I was in pain again.

“I’m so sorry Tate” Tate knew that his friend meant the apology but he couldn’t figure why his friend was that excited for.

“So tell me what happened that’s got you jumping out of your boots like that?”

“So I went to go and get your pain killers at the new hospital right and then I met this pretty woman, who came to my truck—“

“You mean my truck?” Tate cut in to interrupt Joe.

“Yes. I think she recognized it from somewhere but before I could speak she just walked”

Tate couldn’t believe that his friend had interrupted his rest just to tell him about a girl he’d met, which from the looks of it wasn’t interested in what Joe had to say.

“Are you serious, that’s all that you wanted to tell me?”

“Nope but guess who the girl was? She is The Billionaires daughter that opened that hospital. I think her name is Viola Albertson” Tate felt like he was shot with a rifle in his stomach because clearly he was out of breath.

He couldn’t believe that Viola was here in his home town. For a girl like herself who liked the city life, he couldn’t phantom what she was doing on this side of the country. He needed to see her, just so that he could get some answers to the night that she disappeared from his bed.

“Tate are you okay?” Tate snapped out of his day dreaming and looking at his rind and nodded that he was okay, but he knew that he wasn’t he had to see Viola even if it was the last time.

“I’m okay Joe, but I need your help with something”

“Sure I’ll help out where I can”

“I need you to take me to the hospital, the newly built one. I need to speak to someone” Joe was looking at Tate as if he had asked him to build a spaceship of some sorts.

“But I got your pain killers already”

“Joe please I need to be at the hospital in fact these pain killers won’t help me fix my problems. You won’t understand”

“Then make me understand it! What is up with you? Ever since we left New York City you’ve been off, you hardly pay attention to anything and you spend your days day dreaming. The incident with your horse wouldn’t have happened if you were still the old you” Tate knew that his best rind was right about everything. He wasn’t the same after that night with Viola and unfortunately he didn’t tell his friends about it.

“Joe when we were in New York I met a young woman, who I left with that night and I must admit that she has been on my mind ever since then”

Joe stared at Tate for a while and smile broke from his face and he began laughing.

“Go ahead and laugh at me all you like I just need to see her maybe she’s still single”

That was when Joe’s smile disappeared from his face and he placed his hands into his pockets. “Joe what’s the matter?”

“Bro I don’t think that she’s single”

“And how do you know that’s since you didn’t even talk to her”

“Well I think she’s married or engaged or something like that, she did look pregnant to me” Tate felt like a bucket of ice water was poured on him, he went from being excited to meet Viola to being crushed that someone else had beaten him to her.

Tate slowly relaxed his back, back onto the pillow. He couldn’t believe that Viola was pregnant with another man’s child. The one woman that he couldn’t stop thinking of was already another man’s wife, with a baby on the way.

“I’m sorry Tate, is there anything else that you need from me?”

“No nothing at the moment, but thanks for getting my med's. I owe you one” Joe quickly shrugged it off and walked out of Tate’s room.

He couldn’t get it, his whole life he spent being alone and he even liked it. The only family he had was his two best friends and he preferred it that way.

But why you are feeling so empty Tate? He asked himself but he couldn’t come with a conclusion and Tate wasn’t the type of man to give up on anything or anyone that he wanted.

Although his back was hurting he pulled himself up from the bed, as soon as his legs landed onto the carpeted floors he felt it throb. But he didn’t care, he had to see Viola. He slowly stood up from their bed and walked himself around the house, whilst steadying himself along the walls of his house until he found his car keys.

If Joe isn’t going to take me, then I’ll just take myself then.

He didn’t know what he was going to say to her if he saw her, but he figured that he’ll think about it as soon as he sets his eyes on her. As soon as he got into his truck and the engine came alive, he drove it out of the farm. From the review mirror he saw Joe calling out to him but he wasn’t going to stop for anyone.