Every Little Thing (Hart's Boardwalk 2)

She shrugged. “The way he looked at her. Like he hated and loved her all at once.”

Sadness fell over me, ruining any buzz I’d had from the morning sex I’d had with Vaughn. “I’m going to go check on Dahlia.”

“Give her a hug from me.”

I squeezed Em’s hand in answer before heading out of the store to find my best friend.

TWENTY-FIVE

Vaughn

It was unheard of for Vaughn to take two evenings off work.

Until now.

He wasn’t going to lie to himself—he was a little antsy about his decision to give his night manager, Freya, and his new daytime manager, Graham, extra responsibilities so he could spend more time with Bailey.

Yet . . . he also couldn’t seem to help himself. He wanted to spend an obnoxious amount of time with the woman.

He looked over at her sitting in the passenger seat of his car, unable to shift the unease he felt. When he’d picked her up from her place ten minutes ago he’d known right away just from her kiss that she was preoccupied. Usually Bailey gave her all to a kiss, just like she did with everything in life.

Something was bothering her. And Vaughn was worried that something was their very new relationship.

“Is it because I asked you to wear a skirt tonight?”

“What?” Bailey frowned.

“You’re quiet.”

“Oh.” She shook her head.

“No. Although why a skirt?” She pointed to the high-waist flared green skirt that came to her knee. She had a cream silk camisole tucked into it and was wearing a matching sweater. The skirt was as perfect as if he’d chosen it himself.

“I wanted to see your legs.” He shrugged, nonchalant.

He felt her stare and turned to give her a quick grin before concentrating back on the road.

“You wanted to see my legs?”

“You have great legs and you’ve worn jeans every day this week. I’ve seen you wearing a dress all summer. I missed them,” he teased. “And I thought you weren’t offended by the request because you wore a skirt but . . . ?”

“I’m not offended. I kind of found it sexy.”

He was pleased but still confused. “Then what’s going on?”

Bailey sighed. “I’m a little worried about Dahlia. She had a bad day. I won’t go into it. And I’m worried about Vanessa and the fact that I haven’t seen her since I kicked her out. And I’m worried that you might be a workaholic who doesn’t care if we don’t see each other a lot and I care if we don’t see each other a lot because I work a lot, too, and you work a lot and I just think that we should talk about it because I am more than willing to make time for you and I need to know if you will make time for me and this is way too soon to mention it.”

God, he loved when she rambled at him.

It was unbelievably adorable.

What she had to say, though, still concerned him. “Okay. Number one on that list: Dahlia. Is there anything I can do?”

“What?”

“Is there anything I can do?”

When she didn’t reply, Vaughn shot her a look. She was staring at him, openmouthed. It was his turn to ask, “What?”