Every Little Thing (Hart's Boardwalk 2)

Back inside his car he let go of the breath he’d been holding in and slammed his hands down on his steering wheel. “Fuck!”

Exhausted and worried, Vaughn laid his head on the wheel and tried to will himself to calm down.

These past few weeks he’d been fighting with himself, knowing that he was in love with Bailey, but not knowing whether he could sacrifice his autonomy for her. But there really wasn’t anything to think about.

Not after he’d acted like a lunatic based on a split-second assumption he’d made. Vaughn had great instincts and he knew he was right about Jack. But driving over to threaten Devlin, revealing his weakness . . .

Ian Devlin was right. Bailey Hartwell was his Achilles’ heel.

On that thought he started the engine and pulled out of the parking spot. However, he didn’t drive back to his hotel. Instead he drove down the coast, to the outskirts of town, to his beautiful house on the south side.

Inside, he wandered through the spacious house that was too lonely to call home and out onto the balcony that sat right on the water.

Then he called his dad.

“I’m just about to go into a business meeting,” William said in lieu of “hello.”

“I admit it. I’m in love with Bailey.”

Silence greeted him on the other end and then he heard his dad say to someone quietly, “Can we move that meeting to two o’clock? Apologize to them, tell them something came up.”

After a few more seconds of background noise, his dad’s voice came on the line. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never put myself into a situation I wasn’t ninety-nine percent sure I’d be able to control the outcome of.”

William grunted in amusement. “Well let this be your first.”

“What if I’m too late? I’ve fucked this up a lot. I’ve been immature. She doesn’t trust me and I don’t blame her. And what if she does end up saying she wants to give us a shot and it falls apart?”

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; “I can’t tell you whether it will or not. There’s no guarantee. But I’m guessing I’m getting this call because you know you can no longer put off what you feel for her.”

“No.” He couldn’t. It was driving him crazy. The torment he was feeling had to be worse than facing his fear of commitment, right? “Every time I try to stay away or stay out of her business, I end up in it. Because I put myself in it.” He grew quiet, slightly embarrassed. “I can’t help but want to protect her.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“She wants it all. Marriage. Kids.”

“And you don’t.”

“No, it’s not that . . . I just . . . I gave up on believing I’d have those things.”

“And now?”

“It would mean sacrifice, of my autonomy, some of my career . . . to give her those things.”

“But you’re willing to give her those things?”

Vaughn took a deep breath, saying the words that had been buried deep inside him for a long time. “I think I’d do anything to make her happy.”

There was no hiding the joy in his father’s voice. “Then go tell her that.”

TWENTY

Vaughn

Once he made the decision to tell Bailey that he wanted to be with her—to see what was possible between them—Vaughn had to tell her. Immediately. He drove back to the boardwalk and parked the car in his spot in the lot behind the hotel, his body thrumming with impatience.