by Stacy Eaton
“Yeah, I guess.” We grew quiet, and I was tempted to reach over the table and touch her but held back. “So, should we get started?”
She winced, and I glanced at my watch. “I can only stay for a little while. I have to drop Devon off and then meet with someone.” Her eyes looked stormy as they turned my way. “I’m looking at houses.”
The storminess in her gaze subsided. Well, wasn’t that an interesting tidbit of information? Did she think I had a date?
“You mean, you’re really going to buy a house?”
“Yep. I can’t imagine living where I am much longer. I’m going nuts with the clutter already.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I did notice that your bedroom was very neat and tidy.”
“My years in the service did that.” I grinned back at her.
“It’s a good trait.” She collected our trash and went to throw it away. Then she stood in the hallway and stared at the bedroom door.
I came up behind her, putting my hands on her shoulders and squeezing softly. “It’s okay.”
“I don’t want to go in there. I’m afraid if I pack all of that, it will be final.”
She leaned back against me, and I wrapped my arms around her waist, holding her tightly to me, inhaling the fresh scent of her hair. “Sadly, it is final, Davina. Carol is gone.”
She put her hands over mine on her stomach. “I know, but I’m not sure I’m ready for her to be gone.”
I twirled her slowly around in my arms, cupping her cheeks. “She will never be gone for good. You will carry her in your heart and mind forever.”
She blinked rapidly as if she were about to cry. “Thank you for saying that.”
I wanted to kiss her, so damn badly, but instead, I pulled her to my chest and brushed my lips over her brow and crazy hair. She clung to me for a moment, then inhaled and released it slowly before she stepped back.
“Okay, I got this.” She turned for the door and got as far as putting her hand on the doorknob.
“Go ahead; you can do it,” I said from behind her, my hands on her hips, my chest against her back.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“You can.”
She began to shake her head and pushed back against me. “No, I can’t.”
“If you don’t open that door, I’m going to turn you in my arms and kiss you again.”
“That’s not fair!” she hissed.
I leaned down and whispered in her ear, “All is fair in love and war.”
“War! You are evil, Trevor Vaughn.”
I chuckled. “What’s it going to be, Davina Daniels? Me? Or the door?”
“Ugh,” she growled and put her hand back on the doorknob. She started to turn it but shocked me by spinning in my arms instead. “I’ll take you.”
Before I could respond, she plastered her lips to mine. Shocked that she had chosen my ultimatum, I quickly got on board, pulling her to me and returning the kiss with all the pent-up wanting that I’d had for her this last week.
Davina whimpered, and I held her tighter, curling one of my hands around her ribs, brushing my fingers along the side of her breast. She arched harder against my chest, and I pushed her up against the door, wanting to feel her body pressed tightly to mine. Only as I put our bodies against the door, it burst open, and we fell into the room.
I spun her at the last second so that I took the brunt of the landing and sucked in a sharp breath as she landed on me. The kiss ended abruptly, and then we started to laugh. Davina put her head on my chest, her hot breath filtering through the Henley shirt I wore as she giggled.
A cry from the other room reached us both, and I said, “Whoops. I guess that was a little louder than expected.”
“Oh, my god! I can’t believe that just happened.”
I lifted her head off my chest, staring into the whiskey-colored eyes that I dreamt about all week. “Yeah, well, it did, and look, you’re in her room. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
She frowned at me. “That’s not funny.”
“But, you’re in her room.”
She glanced around, and I saw her wince again. She pushed off me and crawled on her hands and knees out of the room. “Devon’s awake; now I can hold him.”
“Davina! Come back in here,” I said as I got off the floor.
“Nope, Devon needs me.”
I shook my head and glanced around Carol’s room. There were a ton more pictures on the walls, and the room was decorated in navy and grays. There was a huge storm painting above her bed. Something caught my eye lying on the quilt, and I skirted the bed to see what it was.
There was a photo album there, and I gasped as I saw a few pictures of us. I picked up the book and flipped through a couple of pages, finding quite a few of us and a couple of me alone. Then there were a bunch of Carol in different stages of pregnancy and notes written off to the side.
I blinked back sudden tears that filled my eyes. What a gift to give Devon. I took the book with me and left the room, pausing at the door to see Davina bouncing Devon in her arms.
“Did you know she was making a scrapbook for Devon?”
“What?” Her gaze fell to the book in my hands.
I set the book on the table and opened it to pages of Carol in her early pregnancy. Davina sucked in a sharp breath. “I had no idea. She never told me.”
She began to page back through the book, stopping when she got to the first page that contained pictures of Carol and me. “Wow, I didn’t know she had this many pictures of you. This is the only one I ever saw.” She pointed to one of the two of us standing by the balcony of the bed and breakfast where we’d spent our weekend.
“I remember her taking a few shots, but not this many,” I spoke reverently as I scanned the page. I was in awe of what she had created and flipped back a few more pages. On those few pages, Carol had created a fairy-tale romance. To someone, it might look like years together, but it had only been a couple of days in total. I laughed when I noticed a picture of me at the coffeehouse where we’d met. She had taken a shot of me getting refills.
“Wow, this is just amazing. Where was it?”
“On her bed.”
She glanced over her shoulder momentarily. “This is going to be really nice for him when he gets older.”
“Yeah, it is.” My cellphone rang, and I pulled it out to see it was the real estate agent. “Hey, Margo.”
“Hi, Trevor. I was wondering if you might be available a little earlier. I got ahold of one of the homeowners, but we only have a small window to see this house. I think this house might be perfect for you.”
I glanced at my watch. “I could be there in about an hour.”
“That would be excellent.”
I said goodbye to her and then looked down at Davina cuddling Devon. “I have to get going. She has another house to show me earlier than expected.”
She nodded and kissed Devon’s forehead before putting him back in the car seat.
“Davina, do you want to come with me? I know you want to get her room finished, but I could use another opinion.”
Her gaze snapped to mine. “Really?”
“Yeah, I would.”
She turned and looked back at the bedroom again, her response coming much faster than I had expected. “Yes, I’d love to come, because I’m not ready to do that yet.”
“Okay, well, go get your stuff from your apartment, and I’ll put Devon in the truck.”
With a nod, she grabbed a few things from Carol’s place, including the scrapbook, and we hurried out. She locked the door and joined me on the steps.
“I’ll be down in a minute.”
“Sounds good,” I told her as she cut off on the next floor down toward her place. As I made my way down the stairs, I was thinking over the scrapbook and was looking forward to looking at all the pictures and reading her notes. She really had left behind a great gift. Not only for Devon but me as well.
I tucked Devon into the truck and got behind the whee
l just as Davina came out of the building. As I watched her approach, holding the album close to her chest, I thought back to the kiss that we’d just shared. There was no way that we were still in the friend-zone after that, but I wasn’t about to say anything. I had a feeling that when Davina was ready, she’d bring it up herself.
Color me surprised when she no sooner closed the door, set the book down at her feet, and clicked on her seatbelt than she turned to me and said, “About that kiss—”
Chapter Sixteen
Davina
What had I been thinking kissing him? I should have gone into her bedroom, but no—I had to attack the man like I was desperate. And what had I said? I’ll take you? I smacked my forehead after letting myself into my apartment.
Yeah, I’ll take him, and I’ll end up with a broken heart. I am not going to let that happen. I was going to have to make sure he understood that it hadn’t meant anything.
I climbed into the truck and immediately turned to him. “About that kiss—”
His brows rose, and he waited. My focus landed on his mouth, and the words I’d been about to speak vanished from my mind.
“Yes? What about it?”
The next words rushed out of my mouth. “It didn’t mean anything.”
He shocked me when he shrugged. “Yeah, I know. I was just trying to distract you.”
“That’s the only reason you kissed me?”
He glanced my way as he put his truck into reverse. “Let’s reword that, shall we? I gave you the option of opening the door or kissing me. It was your choice to kiss me.”
My jaw dropped, and for a second, I was speechless. Trevor pulled out of the parking space and began to drive. His hand reached over and pushed my chin up. “You are going to drool on my upholstery.”
I smacked his hand away. “You think I kissed you because I wanted to?”
“Hey, if the shoe fits, wear it.”
“Trevor Vaughn, I kissed you because, at that moment, it was a better option than opening the door. I would have kissed a frog if that had been the offer.”
He chuckled. “Okay, Davina Daniels, if that’s what you want to tell yourself.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared out the side window. How dare he say that to me! Strangely enough, I think I was more upset about the fact that he seemed to know me slightly better than I knew myself. Damn him! I had wanted to kiss him.
From the moment he had shown up at the door, it was practically all I could think about. While we’d eaten, I’d kept looking at his mouth as it moved, and the longer we sat there, the tenser I became. I’d begun to relax when he’d held me, and I treasured being in his arms. The way he held me was like nothing I had ever experienced before. The soft kisses to my brow made my knees weak.
It was just better to forget it and move on. “Yeah, well, it won’t happen again. I learned my lesson. From now on, I’ll jump into the snake pit before I kiss you.”
He chuckled but didn’t say anything. So I could ignore him more, I retrieved the book from the floor and started at the beginning. There was a page for each of her years from birth through her early years of high school. Then there were pictures of the two of us, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
“You okay?” Trevor asked quickly.
“Yeah, just found some pictures of us in high school,” I murmured to him before I began to read the captions she’d added beside the pictures. “Aunt Davina was my best friend from the moment we met. We did everything together, as you will soon see. She’ll be able to share lots of stories with you of the stupid things we did growing up.”
Trevor chuckled. “I’d like to hear a few of those.”
“I don’t think she was talking to you. I do believe that this information is for Devon only.”
“Hey, why are you mad at me?” he asked.
“I’m not.”
“You sure sound like you are. It’s not my fault you kissed me and enjoyed it.”
“Will you just let it go?”
“Nope. Not until you admit that you enjoyed doing it.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Yeah, it will.”
I glared at his handsome profile. “You are so sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
He winked my way. “I know the way a woman responds to someone they want. You want me, Davina.”
And just like that, I no longer wanted him. Being reminded of his playboy ways helped justify my reasoning for not kissing him again. “You know, I never pegged you for being arrogant.”
“I’m not arrogant.”
“Ha! I know the way a woman responds to someone they want. You want me, Davina. If that’s not arrogant, I don’t know what is.” I shut the book and set it back down. “And for your information, I do not want you, Trevor Vaughn. It might have been a long time since I have been with someone, but I’m not that hard up to jump in bed with a playboy.”
“Ouch,” he muttered but didn’t say anything else. In fact, he was quiet until we reached our destination. “Do you want to come in, or should I just drop him off?”
“I’ll stay in the truck,” I said softly, feeling bad now for what I had said. It was all lies, and I knew it. Okay, so maybe some of it wasn’t. He did have a past, and he’d obviously been with a lot of women, but I didn’t have to smack it in his face like a whipped cream pie.
Hmm, whipped cream. The thought made me slightly hungry, and part of me craved a big helping smothered over his amazing chest. I put my face into my hands and groaned. Why did I say I would come with him? I would have been less tortured packing Carol’s room.
Trevor was back a few minutes later. “Lexi said hello.”
“That was nice of her.” I smiled at him.
He stared at me for a moment. “Do you want to come with me, or do you want me to take you back home? If you don’t want to hang with me, I can drop you off on the way to the first address.”
I sighed. “I owe you an apology.”
“Because you want me to take you home?” He seemed confused.
“No, because of what I said. I’m sorry I called you a playboy. That wasn’t very nice.”
“Davina, you might think that I have slept with a lot of women, and maybe I have over my thirty-nine years, but I haven’t been with that many. I admit that I haven’t been in a relationship in a very long time, but that doesn’t mean I have been with a different woman every chance I’ve gotten.”
I studied him and saw the truth in his eyes; sadly, I couldn’t help myself as I asked, “How many women?”
His brows jumped. “Well, shit. I don’t know. I’ve been having sex since I was fifteen. I was with a lot of women when I was younger, but I guess in the last few years, five or six maybe.”
“How many since Carol?” I asked.
He seemed to be thinking over that answer for a few seconds. “I went out with three women, but only slept with one of them, and it was only once.”
“Are you being serious?”
“Yes. I would not lie to you, Davina.” He put the truck in drive and pulled away. “Because I travel, and I’m overseas a lot, I didn’t want to leave someone behind in case I don’t come back.”
“I guess that makes sense, but didn’t you want to fall in love?”
“Maybe, but I never found the right woman.”
“Don’t you think you’d have to date them more than once or twice to know if they were the right woman?”
He pursed his lips. “I live my life on instinct, Davina. I always have.”
“Your gut has never told you that a woman might be worth your time to get to know?” He glanced at me, but I couldn’t read his expression. “I’m not trying to be mean here; I honestly want to know.”
He inhaled long and slow. “Yeah, once.”
“And did you get to know her?”
His hand squeezed the steering wheel. “Can we shelve this discussion for a little while? I need to figure out where I’m going or if I need to take you home first.”
“Okay.” He slipped his phone out of his pocket and pressed a button, then handed it to me. “Go into my text messages and get the address where I’m supposed to meet Margo.”
I did what he asked, and for the next few minutes, I gave him directions into a nice neighborhood. In fact, it was a really nice neighborhood, and I completely forgot about the fact that he hadn’t answered my question.
“That’s it, the house on the corner.” I pointed as he slowed down to turn.
“Wow, that’s a nice house.”
“Yeah, this whole neighborhood is nice.” We pulled up to the curb behind another car, and he cut the engine.
“Thanks for coming with me.” He winked my way and then climbed out.
Trevor shook hands with Margo and then put his hand to my lower back. “This is a friend of mine, Davina Daniels.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Daniels.” She eyed me up and down carefully and smiled as if she approved of something.
She led us to the front door and knocked. “The homeowner hasn’t officially put it on the market yet. It is supposed to be listed tomorrow, but when a friend of mine mentioned this, I knew it was the right house for you. I had to promise him two tickets to the opera for an early viewing.”
We all chuckled, and Trevor responded. “Well, I’m glad you were able to. This is a great neighborhood.”
“It’s prime real estate.” The door opened, and she introduced herself to the man on the other side. “We appreciate you letting us get in before it’s listed.”
“No problem,” the man said with a kind smile. He was an older man, maybe mid-fifties and in shape with a dark head of hair. “I’m going to be in the back office if you all have any questions. No one else is home, so feel free to look around as much as you want.”
Trevor watched him walk away and then began to scan the entry and the living room off to the side. He was quiet as he moved, and I followed silently behind him. This house was amazing with its brightly polished floors and wide staircase.
“Let’s start upstairs,” Margo suggested, and we followed her up to the second floor. There was a hallway that went both ways, and we went to the right first. There were three bedrooms on that side, all decent-sized bedrooms that would be perfect for children, or a child, a nanny, and a guest room or another office.