Page 93 of Come Back To Me

While most guys cringed when talking about their girlfriends’ periods, Vaughan had a more open-minded approach.

“No. Nothing to worry about there.”

He exhaled loudly. “Well shit, Shortcake, you nearly gave me a heart attack…not that I wouldn’t mind having a baby with you, I mean yeah, I want you to have my babies,” I raised my brows at that, “just, can we wait a few years?”

He was rambling, and I imagined him pulling his hands through his hair completely flustered. The visual gave me butterflies. In fact, everything about Vaughan gave me butterflies.

“Relax, King.” I’d taken to calling him by his surname when I was teasing or taunting him. “I don’t plan on making you a baby daddy any time soon.” Not that we’d had much time to talk about the future. We were quite content to be in the now. As long as we were together, then we’d deal with everything else.

“I’m so going to make you pay for this later,” he grumbled. I heard people talking in the background and figured he’d walked back into the rink. “I should be done by nine, see you at home?”

“I’ll be there.”

“You’d better be.” I heard the smile in his voice. “I’ll see you later, Shortcake.”

“Bye.”

I clicked end and stared at my phone like a total goof. I’d spent the night with Vaughan, said goodbye to him only hours ago and yet the prospect of seeing him again so soon made me giddy like a school girl with a crush. Except I knew it wasn’t just a simple crush and I was more than okay with that.

I packed up my things and walked towards the parking lot. It was too late to walk to Vaughan’s place, so I hailed a cab instead. The driver stopped at the curb outside Vaughan’s house, and I hopped out after paying him. I unlocked the door, and walked in, only to find that I was alone. I found a note taped to the fridge in Aiden’s God-awful scribble.

Gone to dinner. Got Daniel. See you later.

It wasn’t unusual for Aiden and Staci to be out, but they had Daniel on a school night which made no sense. Vaughan was strict when it came to his routine, and it became a team effort to make sure his home and his family were stable for Daniel. I admired it about him, the way he’d stepped up to take care of his little brother when he could have easily just ignored the responsibility.

Since I was alone, I took a shower, changed into some clean clothes from the drawer Vaughan had insisted on clearing for me, and decided to have a snack while I waited for Vaughan to come home. I snagged my journal and settled in the center of the giant bed. My last journal entry was dated four days ago, but unlike now, the man who lived in my journal was silent. Tonight he wanted to talk and like always, the words spilled as soon as my pen hit paper…

Feet thudded loudly behind me and rather than look back, I picked up my pace. If someone were following me, then I’d run like my life depended on it before whoever it was could lay a hand on me. It wasn’t late, but the campus was dark, and I still had a long way to walk before I got to the rink. The footsteps behind me sounded closer, and when a hand took hold of my forearm, I reacted on instinct and flung my left arm towards the person behind me. From the size of the hands, it was most definitely male.

“Whoa.” He stepped back and lifted his hands. “I didn’t mean to scare you, Shortcake.”

My pen hovered over the word Shortcake.

Wait….

I looked up and recognized the same guy who’d accosted me in the Photo Booth only a week ago. “Oh, it’s you.”

I turned and continued walking.Hot Stranger caught up to me, his long strides eating up the pavement. “Don’t sound so excited to see me.”

“I’m not,” I deadpanned. I had a pretty good poker face though, and I had to admit I was a little excited to see him again.

“You really know how to make a guy feel special, huh?”

I sighed and came to an abrupt halt on the pathway between the tall faculty buildings and lecture halls. There were many students still milling around so at least if this guy tried something else after I blew him off I could scream for help. Not that he looked dangerous but a girl could never be too cautious.

“Look, I’m not going to sleep with you, okay? I’m sure girls all over this campus have dropped their panties for you,” talk about a college cliché, “but your smile and your sexy green eyes don’t fool me, wise guy. I’m on to you.”

He grinned, showing off perfectly straight white teeth. Of course, he had perfect choppers. He looked like the kind of guy who manscaped, teeth included. Ugh. I disliked the ‘metrosexual’ men. Men were meant to be burly and rugged, not poster boys for hair removal cream.

“I think you have me confused with someone else.” His chuckle reverberated through me, and I fought the shiver wanting to wrack my body.

“I doubt it. You’re probably the big man on campus, football star, frat boy, ladies’ man, manwhore. Did I miss anything?”

“You forgot that I like to trap girls in photo booths and force them to take pictures with me.”

“There is that,” I acquiesced, not willing to admit that I didn’t like the idea of him doing that with another girl. Not that it would have surprised me. “I bet you keep them in a box at home and use them for your spank bank.”

His eyes widened and then he threw his head back with a laugh. “You know,” he started between his bouts of laughter, “you’re kinda funny, Shortcake.”