by Stacy Eaton
Now I no longer held back. I let it all out. If anyone should know the pain I was going through, it should be Trevor. He should see just how much Carol’s friendship had meant to me, how much her death devastated me. I hated that he was the one comforting me, but at the same time, I could not stop myself. I clung to him; I needed him at that moment.
As the tears began to subside, I began to feel embarrassed. Ashamed that I had let myself fall apart in front of a stranger, in front of him—the reason she was dead.
I stepped back from him, and this time he allowed me space. Wiping at my face, I turned away. “I need to use the restroom.”
“It’s in my bedroom.”
I nodded and walked away, not even looking at him. I found the bathroom, surprised at how clean it was, and gathered enough toilet paper to blow my nose and wipe away the tears. In the mirror, I saw the bloodshot eyes, the anguish on my features, and the exhaustion. Even though I had gotten eight hours of sleep yesterday, I had been up all night, and the weariness was weighing down on me again.
I took the time to use the bathroom and washed my hands and face, then opened the door. I stared around his room, the bed unmade, but otherwise, there was no clutter. It was surprisingly neat and tidy. Even the items on his dresser were all lined up perfectly.
I paused by the side of his bed, staring down at the indentation on his pillow and suddenly wanted to dive in and drift off to sleep. Would he mind? Did I care if he did?
Without another thought, I climbed into his bed, curled on my side, and stuck my nose into his pillow. I inhaled his slightly musky scent and closed my eyes. A moment later, I was gone.
When I woke, it was to a sound I hadn’t expected. I rolled to my back and noticed the door was closed, but on the other side, I could hear Trevor laughing. I found myself smiling as I wiped at my eyes and glanced around the room again. I had no idea how long I had slept, but I felt almost human again.
I rolled out of bed and used the bathroom again before I quietly opened the door. Trevor was lying on the floor of the living room, Devon on a blanket in front of him kicking his legs and waving his arms at a small toy that Trevor held above him.
He glanced toward the door and smiled. “Did you sleep well?”
“I’m sorry about that.”
He sat up. “It’s okay; you were up all night working. When you didn’t come back from the bathroom, I checked on you and found you passed out.”
“Yeah, well, I appreciate you letting me sleep. What time is it?”
He glanced at his watch. “Almost twelve. I was just thinking about finding something to eat. You hungry?”
“Starved actually, but I need to go home. I should probably call my boss and make sure that the program worked.”
“It does,” he replied as he got off the floor.
I stared at him. “How do you know that?”
“Because your boss called, like four times in a row, and I finally answered so he would stop.”
My jaw dropped. “You answered my phone?”
“Yes, it woke Devon up,” he said with a shrug.
“You shouldn’t have answered my phone, Trevor. You had no right.”
“Yeah, well, I did, Davina, and I told your boss that you were sleeping after being up all night. Funny that he had no idea that you have been taking care of a newborn or that you had lost your best friend.”
“It was none of his business,” I snapped. “What the hell did you say to him?”
He shrugged again as he went into the kitchen. “Not much, but he said he had a couple of things he wanted to change about the program, but that it looked pretty good. He also said he was sorry about Carol and had he known that you were taking care of a baby, he would have had one of the other developers take over the project.”
“I am quite capable of doing my job.”
“I’m sure you are, but you’ve been dealing with a lot, Davina. He gave you a week off. Said that if you had time, you could work on the changes, but he didn’t need them for a couple of weeks, so take some time off.”
I stared at Trevor as he moved around in his kitchen, pulling a container of something out of his freezer. I was flabbergasted. “Trevor, I’m serious; you had no right to tell him that stuff.”
Trevor turned to me. “Why not? It’s the truth. You’ve gone through a lot these last couple of weeks. Your boss should be aware of those things.”
“He doesn’t need to know anything about my personal life!” I snapped, and Devon let out a whine. Both of us glanced back at him still lying on the floor.
“Davina, I didn’t tell him that to get into your personal life. I know that the circumstances that we deal with affect our job performance. As an employer, he had the right to know that you were dealing with some things. That way he would get off your back if you didn’t perform up to your normal standards.”
“I pride myself on those normal standards, thank you very much.”
Trevor chuckled. “I’m sure you do, Davina.” He turned and put his hands on the counter in front of him, staring at me. “Just say thank you and let it go.”
“Why should I?”
“Because I just got you a week off, paid I might add.”
I stared at him. Okay, so my boss was a cheapskate, so having a week of paid time off was a good deal, especially when I didn’t have any vacation time left. “How did you manage to get me the time off?”
“I told you, I explained to him what you have been going through. Told him that you needed a little time to grieve and that you would be back to yourself shortly.”
I frowned, and a thought came to me. “Did you threaten him?”
Something crossed the features of his face but was gone before I could comprehend it. “No, why would I threaten him?” He turned away from me.
“Oh, my god! You did threaten him!”
“Davina, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Do you like chili?”
“Yes, I like chili, but we are not done with this conversation, Trevor Vaughn. Don’t think that I am going to forgive you for speaking to my boss without my permission. You had no right.”
“You are feisty; I’ll give you that.”
“Kiss my ass,” I growled, and he laughed.
“With pleasure.” He winked over his shoulder, and I did an about-face. I was not going to let him control my life or flirt with me. The last thing I was going to do was fall into bed with this man.
I spun back around. “I am not sleeping with you,” I blurted.
He slowly turned to me. “I don’t think that I suggested that. What makes you think that I want to sleep with you?”
Why did I? He had never said anything to that effect; in fact, he’d never even looked at me like he was thinking about that. I felt my cheeks begin to warm. “Because I don’t want you to think that I’m going to somehow repay you with sex after you got me a few days off.”
Trevor put the container into the microwave and turned it on before he replied. “As nice as it would be to have you warm my sheets without sleeping, I’m not interested in you that way, Davina.”
I forced myself not to react. Why did that statement bother me? I should be happy he said that, but instead I was a little bit disappointed. Of course, he didn’t want to sleep with me. I wasn’t his type; Carol had been his type.
“Yeah, well, I’m not interested in you that way either. So I’m glad we both have that straightened out.” I turned and went back to Devon. “When is the last time he ate?”
“About an hour before you woke up. He’s been awake since.”
“Okay, well, he’ll probably want to eat again soon, and then he’ll probably nap most of the afternoon. You should be able to deal with him on your own.”
“Are you leaving?” he asked as he came out of the kitchen.
“I’m not going to stay here. You asked for my help last night, and I gave you that, but I do have a life, Trevor.”
“I didn’t say that you didn’t,” he muttered and then sighe
d. “You said that Carol had other things for him. When do you think I could get those?”
“I guess if you want to go over after lunch, I could help you load them into your car.”
“My truck.”
“What?”
“I drive a truck.”
“Okay, whatever. Car, truck, they are both the same. They get you from one place to the other.”
He shook his head, chuckling. “Where are the things?”
“At Carol’s apartment.” I frowned. I wasn’t sure I was ready to go back there. I’d been to her place once after she died, and it had been ultra-painful, but I had needed to get stuff for Devon.
“Would you mind?”
I stared at Devon, thinking about how much I didn’t want to go back to her apartment, but knowing that I needed to. I had to get her place cleared out by the end of the month anyway. I guess it was good that I now had a week off. “No, I don’t mind. I need to get her place packed up anyway.”
“What are you going to do with all her stuff? Are you going to give it to her family?”
I spun on him. “God, you didn’t know anything about her, did you? She grew up in foster care, Trevor. No, she didn’t have a family. Her family died when she was like seven. Of course, if you had gotten to know her instead of just using her body, you might have known that.” I rubbed my hands over my face as I tried to calm down. This man made me lose my shit so easily. “I’m going to take a few special items and give the rest of her stuff away to charity.”
He frowned at me as he leaned back against the wall near the kitchen, crossing his arms. “You really have a problem with the fact that I spent the weekend with Carol and then didn’t see her again, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why is that?” he asked as he stared at me hard.
“Because you’re what, forty or so? I would think by this time in your life, you would have grown up and stopped living the frat-boy kind of life.”
“Frat boy?” He pushed off the wall and stalked toward me. “I’ve never been a frat boy, Davina. I graduated from high school and did twenty years in the military. You have no right to talk down at the way I live my life.”
“Yeah, well, so what. You did twenty years in the military, and I bet you had a different girl in every port.”
“That’s a sailor reference, Davina. I was in the Marines.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “Who cares. You know what I mean.”
He stepped closer to me, glaring down at me, and I got lost in his serious blue eyes for a moment. “I didn’t get involved in relationships, Davina, because I never knew if I was coming home. To be honest, I think that is a pretty mature decision. I never once got involved with someone and made them believe for one moment that I was in for the long haul. I was always honest with the women I dated and told them that our time together then was all there ever would be. Don’t get your panties in a bunch because I don’t measure up to your standards.”
“My standards!” I blurted. “You couldn’t possibly measure up to my standards! You’d have to have some for yourself first.”
For a moment, the two of us stared at one another, and I had this sudden urge to go up on tiptoe and kiss his sexy mouth. I held myself back, but I noticed his gaze drifted down to my mouth, and I knew that if he leaned forward, I probably would have kissed him. I hated myself for that.
Trevor didn’t lean forward though; instead, he did something else that surprised the hell out of me. He ran a finger down the side of my face. “I like your feisty nature, Davina. It makes me want to put you over my shoulder and take you to my bed.”
I jerked back from his hand and took two steps away from him. “It will be a cold day in hell before that day ever arrives.”
The side of his mouth tipped up. “We’ll see about that.”
Before I could pick my jaw up off the floor, he was walking back to the kitchen, and Devon began to cry.
Chapter Nine
Trevor
What in the world made me say that to her? Maybe it was because her whiskey eyes snapped with energy or that she said whatever came to mind. I knew that she didn’t like me, not really. Maybe she was slightly attracted to me, but she sure as hell didn’t want to be. And to be honest, that was the last thing that I wanted either.
I had enough to deal with now that I had a kid. The last thing I needed was to get entangled in a relationship on top of that. I frowned as I pulled the container out of the microwave and stirred it. There would never be a relationship with Davina, and I wasn’t sure why I even suggested that there might be.
Maybe it was because when I’d gone to check on her after she’d broken down, I’d found her curled up in my bed, and I’d watched her for a moment. She was the first woman to ever sleep in my bed, and I had to admit that I liked seeing her there. I also appreciated the fact that she had come over to help me last night and allow me to get some rest. I felt much more human today, and even though my life had changed so drastically, I felt like I could now navigate the waters and figure it out.
I’d re-read the letter from Carol, and then the other notes she had left. Devon’s middle name was Michael, and she said that she was going to have my last name put on his birth certificate. So my son’s proper name was Devon Michael Vaughn. I liked it. I’m not sure that I would have named him Devon Michael, but I did like it.
When Davina’s phone had kept ringing, I’d finally answered it. “Hello?”
There had been a long pause, and I wondered if the name that was on the screen calling her was her boyfriend. “Who is this?”
“Who is this?” I parroted back.
“Where is Davina?”
“Sleeping, who is this?”
“This is her boss, Scott. I didn’t know she had a boyfriend; can you wake her up?”
“I’m not her boyfriend, and no, I’m not going to wake her up. She was up all night working on a project that I will assume was for you.”
“She was up all night? Why didn’t she finish that before? She’s never waited until the last minute to finish a project.”
“Maybe because she’s been a little busy.”
“Doing what? Davina has no life. Her job is her life.”
“You sure don’t know your employee very well. Are you aware that for the last ten days, she’s been taking care of a newborn?”
“What?”
“Yes, her best friend passed away in childbirth, and she has been taking care of the infant until she could get in touch with me. She’s been taking care of my child while I was working overseas. Now she’s sleeping.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I had no idea.”
“No, I assumed that you didn’t. Davina’s exhausted and in mourning right now. She needs some time off.”
“Yeah, well, she’s got work to do. Her program works, but I have changes that I need made. I’m sorry for her loss, but I do have a business to run.”
“What is the name of your company?”
“Treemont Industries, why?”
I chuckled. “The software program that she was working on is for a new tracking ability, right?”
“How did you know that? That’s classified. She’s not supposed to talk about her work.”
“She didn’t. I work for Safety Zone Security. I’m one of the guys that tested your last program, and it sucked.”
“What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t. It’s Trevor Vaughn.”
He grew quiet. “Would you be willing to test it again?”
“I’ll test it again after you give her a week off to mourn for her friend.”
“Done.”
“Paid.”
“I can’t do that. I don’t know if she has any vacation time left.”
“Call it bereavement, and you will pay her. If you don’t, your program will not pass our test, which means you won’t have our endorsement.”
“And if I give her the time off, with pay, you’ll see that it passes
.”
“I’ll give it a fair try as I do with everything that we test.”
“Fine, she can have a week, paid.”
“And another week to get the program finished. She needs a week of relaxing, not stressing over her job.”
“Fine. Two weeks to get the fixes made, but after that, she better be back to herself.”
I grinned. “I’ll let her know.” I didn’t let him say anything else as I’d hung up. Maybe it had been wrong for me to answer her phone, and yeah, maybe I’d stepped over the line by telling him we wouldn’t approve his software, but it had turned out all right. She had been helping me; it seemed only right that I help her out, too.
I put the container back into the microwave to finish cooking. Devon was fussing behind me, and I turned to see Davina bend over and pick him up. I stared at her ass; it was nicer than I had expected. That was actually the first time I’d noticed it because of the heavy sweater that she wore hung down past her butt cheeks. I frowned to myself. Stop thinking of her like that.
“So, after lunch, we can go get his other stuff?”
“Yeah, I can help you get it.”
“Thank you.”
She kept Devon’s attention while I got our food ready. After putting the bowls on the table, I held my hands out to take Devon.
“What?” she asked, staring at my hands.
“I’ll take him so you can eat.”
“I can hold him,” she said and sat down.
“Yes, I know you can hold him, but so can I.”
She stared at Devon, then looked up at me. “He’s your son; you’ll have him forever. I’m only going to have him a little bit.”
Her voice sounded sad, but it was the look in her eyes that did me in. “You know, you can be part of his life.”
She picked up her spoon and stirred her food. “I appreciate you saying that, but he is your son.”
“And he’s your best friend’s child, too. She wanted you to be part of his life. You read the letter from her.”