Read Online Sweet Violet and a Time for Love by Leslie J. Sherrod - Free Book Online

would come next. “Oh, don’t get upset none, sugar.” She opened the flask and poured it out on the ground, letting the brown liquid trickle over a small patch of dead grass.
    â€œSome people get drunk off of liquor. I only get drunk off of love. That’s more dangerous, you know. Loving a man can leave you tipsy, walking around like a ragged fool, tripping over your own feet, landing in your own vomit. You’re left with the aftertaste of tears once he’s gone and have nothing to show for your high but an empty, empty bottle.” She looked at the bottle in her hand, turned it right side up. She held it up to one eye, examining the remaining drops of whiskey running down the sides of the flask. “Bet you don’t know nothing about that kind of intoxication, sugar.” She burst into laughter, and then quieted into a bitter silence. “Bet you don’t know nothing about that.”
    â€œSienna, wake up. You’re due back in court in an hour.” His lips nudged my earlobe; his hands ran over my full belly. A kick responded to his touch.
    The dreams.
    Seemed like all the events of the past seven months replayed over and over again in my dreams, interrupting my sleep now that the court case had finally begun.
    You’re due. Leon’s words hung heavy in my ears. I felt my eyelids flutter against his warm cheek. His toenails accidentally scraped my ankle as he swung his legs out of the bed.
    â€œIs it really seven already? Why are you waking me up so early? I can get ready in fifteen minutes,” I groaned, though I counted it a blessing that my husband was allowed to be my alarm clock. The state’s attorney willingly agreed to let Leon stay with me in my hotel room by the courthouse. The room was for my protection from the media madhouse and Leon was my protector, in more ways than one.
    â€œShe shouldn’t be by herself this late in the pregnancy. She’s almost into her third trimester and the events of the past few months have been strain enough without her having to worry about staying alone in a barely secured room,” he argued when the state’s attorney’s office agreed to the room. The room across the street from the courthouse was not just for convenience.
    The circus over the last few months had been real, cameras flashing nearly everywhere I went.
    With the court case finally starting, the invasion had become even more out of control. I couldn’t wait for another story to take over the news circuit. The triple murder trial, the gory details that accompanied it, and my role as a witness had headlined the local news for weeks.
    â€œRoman said he’ll be in town today.” Leon stood in front of the dresser mirror, his hand smoothing over his bald head. I could tell he was debating whether to take out his razor. His quick glance at the wall clock told me he was deciding whether he had time.
    The little details of being married, the observations, the unspoken routines . . . I never imagined falling in love with the boring nuances.
    â€œRoman called you?” I sat up in the bed, my body afloat in a sea of white, down-filled pillows. As my brain tried to catch up, my heart sank to a lower depth. Roman. I thought of my last real conversation with him and squeezed my eyes shut to keep a tear from falling out of them.
    â€œHe would have been here yesterday for the first day of your testimony, he said.” Leon’s eyes never left the mirror as he now rubbed the slight stubble on his neck. “But he promised that he’ll be here this morning.”
    â€œDid he say anything else about . . .” My words trailed off and Leon’s eyes locked with mine in the mirror, his hand frozen on his neck, behind his ear. I looked away first.
    â€œAlisa wants to meet you in the lobby right at eight.” Leon began fussing over his facial and head hair again. “She wants to go over your testimony