Page 50 of D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding

She returned her gaze to the phone in her hand, straight dismissing me in a way she’d never done before. That stung and I had to admit that my feelings were hurt a little bit. Maybe Rhea’s know-it-all ass had a point. Reaching across the console, I grabbed D’Vaughn’s hand in mine, linking our fingers and resting them on my thigh. She gave me a questioning look.

“I think we had a misunderstanding yesterday.”

Her brows furrowed. “Why do you think that?”

“Because I’m pretty confident that you wouldn’t have told me to take my ring off and ‘be discreet’ if you’d known that I was talking about you.”

Her lips parted as if she were about to say something, then quickly snapped shut as she looked out of the windshield at the parking lot. When she still hadn’t said anything after a minute passed, I squeezed her hand.

“Tell me what you’re thinking.” Her silence was unnerving.

“I...I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” I meant that, but I’d be lying if I said her response didn’t burst my bubble a little bit. “I’m not trying to put any pressure on you,” I assured her, in case that was a concern. “You already knew my goal; I just wanted you to know that you were the person I had in mind.”

“Am I though?”

“What do you mean?”

She tugged her hand out of my grasp and flexed her fingers in her lap.

“I’m just trying to get a clear understanding of what you’re saying. You already knew, well before you were paired up with anyone, that you were looking for love on the show. Now here we are and you’re telling me that person is me. You’re staring at me and waiting for a response, but I truly don’t know what to give you. Am I supposed to be excited or something? Yay, I was the chosen one!”

“What? I ain’t asking for all of that.”

“But you do want me to be excited, no? You’ve reached the point in your life where you’re ready to settle down and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. From where I’m sitting, it could have been Margo in this spot, or shoot, even Tanisha, and you would be telling them the same thing. So once again, I’m trying to figure out how I’m supposed to respond to this.”

Her logic had me thrown.

“It couldn’t have been either of them because it was never supposed to be either of them. Yeah, I’m ready to have something serious, but I’m not so desperate that any ole body would do.”

“That’s not desperation. You’d be figuring it out regardless of who’s on the other side.”

“But it’s you on the other side.”

“But if it wasn’t me, you’d still be trying to make someone your future something-serious. I’m not a Lego. You can’t just put me into a slot because I fit.”

Oh. Oh. It hit me then what her argument was. She didn’t want to feel like she was just filling a role. To her, I would have “fallen for” whoever I’d been paired up with, so anything I did was taken with a grain of salt. That also meant that she didn’t believe that I was being authentic with any of the affection I showed her. How the hell was I supposed to convince her that I was being serious and that it was her specifically that made me feel the way I did?

Ah, hell. Rhea was fucking right again.

“Get out of the car,” I instructed, reaching for the handle on the passenger door.

Blinking rapidly, D’Vaughn turned to me. “Huh?”

Pushing open the door, I stepped out and looked back at her. “Get out of the car.”

While I waited for her to do as I said, I rounded the trunk of her car and grabbed the door as she pushed it open, reaching in to offer her my hand. She allowed me to help her out of the car but gave me a curious look, her brows furrowed and lips twisted to the side. Once she stood in front of me, I grabbed her hands and made sure that we had full eye contact before I spoke.

“I like you, D’Vaughn. I know that we have to show a level of familiarity for those around us, but I think that you can agree that it’s been easy to do.” I paused, waiting for her to nod or verbally agree. When she dipped her chin twice, I continued. “That type of chemistry isn’t easy to fake for me, but it’s come natural with you and that’s because it’s not all fake. I’m attracted to you physically, but beyond that, I really vibe with your energy. I think that if we let it, something real could happen between us. Obviously, I’m down with that. The question is, are you?”

She gaped at me. “I wasn’t expecting this. I’m not sure. Um...” She started to chew on her bottom lip but stopped as soon as I lifted my hand. “Can I think about it?”

“Of course. I meant it when I said I wasn’t trying to pressure you. I’m an all-in type of person, but I understand that everyone doesn’t share that mentality. Think about it and let me know. I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing, and if you decide that you don’t want to take it there, then let me know and I can reel it in as much as possible. At least in a way that won’t affect the show. No hard feelings, no drama, none of that. Aight?”

She nodded. “Okay. That sounds good. Thank you for being up-front with me. I definitely took it wrong yesterday.”

Blowing out a relieved breath, I nodded. “That was damn sure.”