Page 84 of Come Back To Me

Vaughan was standing so close I could feel his chest moving up and down against my back with every intake of breath.

“The hell it isn’t,” snapped Alex. He was losing his cool real fast and I suspected it had more to do with Vaughan’s presence than anything else. He was obviously threatened by Vaughan, but what he should have seen was that he was no competition at all. The hard look in his eyes told me that perhaps that’s what he’d just realized. “You were fucking him while you were with me.”

Vaughan stepped forward, but I stood my ground and thankfully he listened. “I was not fucking Vaughan, and you and I were never a couple, Alex. I’m sorry if I led you on, but it just didn’t work out between us and it had nothing to do with Vaughan.”

“Oh really?” He huffed out a harsh breath. “So he’s not the guy you were having fantasies and writing about in that journal you keep?”

“You invaded my privacy,” I bit out, agitated that he’d bring it up to begin with. “You had no right to read it.”

“Well I’m glad I did because otherwise I wouldn’t have known you were screwing around with this meat head behind my back.”

Vaughan’s palms made contact with my shoulders, and he spoke with an eerily calm voice.

“Careful, Doc, you’re in a house full of men who aren’t afraid to get physical.”

“Please, you’re nothing more than grown ass pansies prancing around on an ice rick dressed in tights and skates.”

Oooh boy. So not the thing you want to say in this house.

“Say that again pretty boy and you’ll walk into my pansy ass fucking fist,” said Liam. He walked into the living room and stood beside Vaughan. Alex bristled.

“I suggest you leave,” said Liam. “You’re not welcome here. Private family party.”

“I was invited.”

Was he serious?

“Well I’m uninviting you,” replied Liam. “And if you don’t want to leave, then I’ll throw you out myself. Nobody speaks to my sister like that.”

“Maybe if your sister wasn’t such a cock tease-”

“Alex!” Natalie joined us with Connor right beside her. The living room was becoming crowded.

“I think you should leave,” said Connor. He was always even-tempered, but his tone always made people listen when he was talking. He could be intimidating in that state, something he inherited from our Dad.

Alex looked as if he were contemplating what to do next, as if he had another choice besides leaving.

“This is my fault,” added Natalie. “I asked you to come.”

“I was hoping to fix things and get another chance, but clearly I’ve wasted my time.”

With those parting words, Alex spun around and marched out of my Dad’s house. I hadn’t noticed it before but he was actually an irritating gnat. I snickered at my own logic and turned to face my family. “Right, let’s get the cake!”

They all exchanged expressions of varied confusion and thought better of questioning my change in tack. Better have them distracted with my facade than have them wonder what happened with Alex the night we were in Denver and the morning that followed. The last thing I wanted was someone asking me about my journal, and the man who I loved between the pages. For some reason, I didn’t want anyone to know about him. Especially Vaughan.

I SPENT THE rest of the afternoon making sure my Dad enjoyed his birthday. Natalie had a chocolate cake made with fifty-seven candles, something we all thought was amusing, and we watched on as Daniel helped my Dad blow them out. I’d just helped clean up with Maddy, Staci, Natalie and Ava when Vaughan found me in the kitchen. I was worried about what he thought after Alex had been here but like me, he’d carried on like it hadn’t even happened.

“You ready to go?”He rubbed his chin, and then looked down. His posture was hunched, and he wouldn’t look at me. My stomach clenched. The thought of him telling me he didn’t want to see me anymore mattered more to me than it would have had it been anyone else. But with Vaughan it was different. I was starting see that it had always been different with Vaughan.

“Yeah. Let me just say goodbye to my Dad.”

I hugged the girls and Ava and found my Dad sitting outside with my brothers.

“I’m heading home,” I told them.

“Vaughan taking you home?” asked Aiden.

I nodded, expecting a mouth full of protests from every one of the overbearing men in my life. Instead, they nodded and told me to let them know when I got home. If I weren’t struck by the unexpected non-reaction I would have rolled my eyes.