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Is she getting back at me?
Was this her plan?
I hurt her many years ago, so she decides to hurt me now?
“I’m sorry,” she says again, wiggling free from my arms.
I shovel a hand through my hair. “I don’t understand.” Because I don’t. Things were going great. I was actually beginning to feel something real.
Fuck that. I did feel something real.
Tears stream down her face. “Please don’t make this harder.” She tries to move away from me.
I don’t know what to do. “Paisley, please don’t leave me like this.”
“Vaughn, I was a fool to think we could ever have anything real.”
“What are you talking about? I want something real.”
She looks me in the eyes. “Well, I don’t.”
“What?” Things were going so well, weren’t they?
She rushes into the house, and I don’t follow. Instead I get into my truck and drive away.
It’s been two weeks since Paisley told me to kick dirt at her parents’ house. Ok, maybe she didn’t say it that way, but the meaning was the same.
It’s been a miserable two weeks. Ever feel like you’re being ripped apart at the seams? That’s how I feel every minute of every day.
I walk around in a fog of despair, just moving through the motions.
“Dude, you look like shit today,” Spencer says with his signature charismatic smile.
“Thanks, I was going for hell, but I guess shit will do.”
Spencer laughs. “Well, you look like hell too.”
“Double score.” I want to ask him how Paisley is. He must know I’m dying to ask, so he puts me out of my misery.
“She’s still the same. She won’t talk to me. She won’t even let me finish up her house. She says she’s going to hire someone. I haven’t really even talked to her.” He rubs at the back of his neck. “Honestly, this isn’t like her.”
“No shit it’s not like her. There’s something more going on, I just can’t put my finger on it.”
“What are you thinking?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
Business has been great for us. A few of the accounts we lost actually came back to us, along with a few new accounts which has left us completely in the weeds with work. But it’s ok. It’s what we signed up for.
“She hasn’t gotten anymore phone calls or stupid notes, either.” Spencer heads into his office of our Two Ordinary Guys construction building.
I follow behind him, closing the glass door. “Not at all?”
Spencer fires up his computer, taking a seat behind his desk. “Nothing.”
I sit in the leather chair across from his desk. “What are the chances someone would just stop all at once? We get our projects back, and she’s not being stalked anymore.”
Spencer’s dark blue eyes meet mine. “I don’t know, man. I can’t wrap my head around it.”
“Yeah.” My cell phone rings and I grab it out of my pocket expecting it to be Manny on the jobsite. “Hello?” I say into the phone.
“Vaughn? This is Colby. Is this Vaughn?”
“Yes, it is.” I mouth the name Colby to Spencer.
Spencer’s eyes widen. “What does he want?” he whispers.
I shrug. “What’s up?”
“There’s something strange going on with Paisley that I think you should know about,” he says in a rush.
I straighten in my seat. “What’s going on?”
“Paisley has just admitted to everyone that she and Chuck have been having an affair for the past few months.”
My mind spins and I relay the message to Spencer. “No way. There’s no way she’s been sleeping with him.”
Spencer agrees, standing from his seat behind his desk. “Ask him if Chuck agrees?”
I ask Colby.
“No, Chuck is saying it isn’t true. His wife has filed for divorce and it’s a big shit show over here.”
“Thanks, man.” I hang up after saying goodbye, and lean back in my seat.
“What did he say?” Spencer asks, leaning his backside against the edge of his desk.
“He says Chuck said nothing ever happened between them. That his wife is filing for divorce.”
“I need to call Paisley, cause this is a bunch of bullshit.”
I nod, trying my best to understand why Paisley would say such a thing. I stop Spencer before he makes the call. “You don’t think this is why she was stalked, do you?”
“What do you mean?” Spencer asks.
“Who is Chuck’s wife?”
Twenty-Seven
Paisley
* * *
“Yes, I’m doing everything you asked,” I say into the phone.
“Good.” Jackie hangs up, and my blood curdles in my veins.
I can’t believe I’m doing this. I can’t believe this is my life.
I had everything I could have ever wanted, and I was forced to throw it all away. I had the only man I’ve ever truly loved.
Yes, I’m not afraid to admit I love Vaughn James.
But there’s no way he’d ever want me after this story breaks. I fear he probably already knows. It makes my heart ache at the thought of Vaughn hearing this news.
