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“Sounds like it,” I said, grinning.
“Yep. So…?” He infused a coaxing quality to his voice. “Still think it’s too soon for me to see you again?”
Not at all, actually. But I laughed. “You just introduced me to flirty phone Vaughn, and now you want me to give him up. Hell, no. I want to be pursued, mister.”
“But what if I promise you’ll like bedroom Vaughn even better?”
I already knew I liked bedroom Vaughn, so I greedily announced, “I want both of them.”
“Oh, that’s how it is, huh?” he asked with a chuckle. “Alright then, we’ll keep playing phone dating. For a bit, anyway.”
“Good,” I said, pleased by that answer.
We talked for a few minutes longer after that, mostly with him wanting to know about my day and how I was doing. And by the time I crawled into bed that night, I had to wonder why I was keeping him away at all.
He’d sounded so alive and happy.
But maybe he only sounded so good because we were staying apart and he wasn’t constantly being reminded that he’d fallen in love with the mother of his brother’s child. And I didn’t want to hamper his progress until he’d made complete peace with that fact.
Then again, I also didn’t want him getting lonely.
Thank goodness I had a huge family to help with that, and they already considered Vaughn one of them.
So I called my brother on Friday evening.
“Hey, can you check in on Vaughn again?”
“Oh my God,” he groaned. “Why aren’t you two talking this time?”
“We’re talking just fine, thank you very much,” I muttered sourly. “But suffice to say, he needs some companionship, anyway. That isn’t me. So can you go over there tonight, or not?”
“I can’t tonight, no.”
“Beau,” I begged. “Remember the last time I was worried about him and what kind of condition you found him in that day? You had him moved into my garage by the end of the night. And if I was right then, just imagine how he could be doing now.” Okay, maybe I was fibbing a bit there, but it was against my brother, so I didn’t feel bad about adding, “So please…”
“Jesus,” he grumbled, sounding swayed by my supplication. “If you’re that worried about him, why don’t you just check on him?”
“I can’t,” I mumbled. “It has to be anyone but me.”
“Gah, fine. But I still can’t tonight. I’m giving Bentley a foot rub.”
“A foot rub?” I repeated incredulously. “You want to ignore the possible emotional breakdown of a very
important man because of a freaking foot rub?”
“And I’m making her supper,” he added reluctantly. “Braiden’s staying the night with Mom and Dad. It’s supposed to be a whole thing.”
“Oh... Wow.” My eyebrows shot up. “So you’re still trying to make up for how much of an asshole you were to her at Cress’s engagement party, huh?”
“She’s pregnant with my child,” he snapped. “Can’t I pamper the love of my life for one night just because I want to?”
“Meh. I guess. If you want to,” I answered, still not buying it. He’d been a total jerk for a few minutes there. And just because Bentley had obviously forgiven him didn’t mean he’d necessarily forgiven himself. I felt sure he was still doing all this out of shame.
“How about this? I’ll make sure someone checks in on your boy, alright? Will that appease you enough to get you off my damn back about it?”
“Which someone?” I countered suspiciously. “Because Trick and Luke are the only two single guys left in the family who’re probably free to spend time with him tonight, and those morons will only try to get him drunk and laid.”
“Hey, good idea,” Beau congratulated. “I’ll call Hamilton and Ryan. Thanks for the suggestion. Bye now.” And the asswipe hung up on me.
