Cold Hearted Bachelor

Three

Paisley

* * *

Things are not going well. My thigh is on fire from the brief contact with Vaughn’s. It’s like he branded me. One good thing—I guess—is that there was no reaction to the dress. After dinner is cleared away, I grab a sweater and my purse, and stifle the urge to bow out of Vaughn going to my house.

“Ready?” Vaughn asks, twirling his keyring around his finger.

Of course, I’m not ready. I haven’t seen this man in many years, and let me just say...the years have been oh so kind.

“Yes.” I give a wave to the family throwing me to the wolf and follow Vaughn out to his truck. “Thank you for driving.”

“Sure.” He swings my door open and I hesitate, staring a bit too long inside his truck, wondering if I can just do the work on the house myself. “Everything ok?”

I slide into the passenger seat. “Yes, fine.”

“You just seem nervous.”

“Should I be?”

He laughs, shutting my door and making his way to the driver's side. “Women aren’t usually nervous around me.”

I snap my eyes to his as he turns over the ignition. “So I’ve heard.”

Spencer always says Vaughn is a player of the worst kind. So, I guess it’s safe to assume the man gets around. Now, I wish I had gotten around. Maybe I wouldn’t be sitting here like a loon in this dress because...who cares. He’s going to help with my house, and I am going to focus on my objective, and we’ll go our separate ways.

He pulls out of my parents’ driveway and the silence is oppressive. But it’s better not to speak, because the alternative is having to listen to his sexy voice.

We ride in silence for a few miles, and then he breaks the quiet, “So, why buy a house in the middle of nowhere?”

I shrug. “I fell in love with it.” The location didn’t phase me.

“You couldn’t find something of your own in the city?”

“No, I couldn’t. I actually didn’t want to. I want a change.”

He merges onto the interstate, and I stare out the window. “A change? From what?”

“Well, I don’t know. The hustle and bustle of it all. I’m so busy with work during the day, at night I just want a place to calm me.”

He half-smiles. “I get that. Spencer mentioned you work in real estate, right?”

His question makes me realize we’re strangers who only know each other through Spencer. “Yeah.”

“What made you go that route?”

I don’t know how to answer that. Or if I want to. The answer would make me look like the child he thinks I am—my parents thought it was a good choice, considering the family history with construction. But I’m not a child, because I did refuse to work for Spencer. I remove the metaphorical pacifier from my mouth and answer, “Seemed like a smart choice.”

He glances over at me with a furrowed brow. “But do you love it?”

“I don’t know if you’d say I love it. I do love helping people find their new home, though.” And then I let the truth out, “But, sometimes I feel like there’s more for me out there.”

“Like what?”

I shrug. “Just something. Like my skills are being wasted.”

He smiles. “I kind of get that too.”

“Please, you love building things.”

He glances over at me, and his smile widens. “Yeah, you’ve got me there. I do love it.”

“I just wish I loved my job as much as you love building things.”

“You’re young. You have plenty of time.”

I hate that he still views me as this little sister—a child. But, maybe that’s all I’ll ever be to Vaughn, and I need to be ok with that. And I am. Sort of.

There’s not much I know about Vaughn James. I only know a few things I get from stalking... ahem, looking at his Instagram page on occasion.

He’s an avid golfer.

He loves Star Wars—eww, I know—but it has to be a guy thing. I don’t think I’ve ever met a guy who didn’t love Star Wars.

He’s a total mama’s boy.

And he loves building things with his hands.

There are other things I know, like his father left their family when he was young. How he told Spencer once he was never getting married. And how light blue is his favorite color. He always says it reminds him of something.

“Get off on this exit,” I direct him, when I see the sign for Winter Park.

“Damn. This is way out here.”

“Yeah,” I say as if it’s no big deal. “It’s peaceful. And beautiful.” I don’t want to admit that a small part of me is afraid to live at home alone. I’ve always had roommates. Even Gwen and I lived together for a year or two, until she moved in with a boyfriend a while back. Even though they broke up, it’s unlikely she’d move out here with me, because she loves her life in the city. But, I’ll be fine.