Page 40 of Forever Mine

“Seriously? How would you even know what I was thinking if you didn’t have an even nastier mind?”

When we laughed, Angel and her new friend looked at us over their shoulders. Angel said something to the other girl, and they giggled. The, they forgot about us and continued scooping sand into a pile.

“Angel acts older than my niece, who’s a handful, and they’re only a year apart,” I said.

“It’s because she’s an only child.” Vaugh shifted and supported her weight with both hands spread behind her. “She spends more time with adults than the average kid.”

“So that’s what’s wrong with Olivia. That’s my niece. Sometimes I wonder if she’s six or sixteen.”

We chuckled over that before I spun to face Vaughn. “So, let me ask you … why didn’t you want Angel to come with us?”

A frown creased Vaughn’s brow for a nanosecond and then disappeared. She looked me dead in the eyes. “Yeah, I needed to talk to you about that. How’d that happen?”

“Well, we were talking about you and me texting all the time and suddenly we were on the subject of what I was doing on the weekend.”

Vaughn’s gaze shifted to Angel and her eyes narrowed.

“Care to explain the suspicion on your face?” I asked.

With a shrug, Vaughn said, “I was wondering if she heard my entire conversation with Rita today.”

Vaughn had told me about her best friend in an earlier conversation, so I know who she meant.

“And why would you do that?” I asked, turning away briefly when a group of people whooped downwind from us. “Ask her to keep Angel, I mean.”

Her teeth sank to her lip, not in a flirty gesture, but as if she was thinking about what to say to me. When she released her lip, I followed the movement, then met her eyes. She knew I wanted to kiss her. I saw it in the softening of her gaze.

Vaughn pulled in her legs and hugged them to her chest. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to introduce her to anybody I’m seeing.”

Jealousy punched me in the stomach, but I kept my cool. “You say that as if there have been many.”

She gave me the side-eye as if I’d insulted her. “Are you asking a question?”

In mid-shake of my head, I changed my mind. “Yeah, I am. How many have there been since Angel’s dad?”

Vaughn kept her gaze on the girls as she said, “You don’t have a right to know.”

“I know, but humor me.” I stroked her arm with my thumb. “Tell me anyhow.”

Vaughn turned her head to look me in the face. “One.”

“One?”

When she nodded, I chewed on that. “You’ve been divorced for five years and in that time, you’ve only been with one man?”

“I never said I was with him. We only went out a few times.” She looked down at her toes, then added, “The others were mostly one-shot deals.”

Vaughn’s statement puzzled me because I sensed there was something she wasn’t saying. My gaze landed on Angel, who turned at the same time and held up the buckets she’d brought to the beach. “Uncle Scott, would you get some more water, please?”

I noted my promotion to uncle status and figured Vaughn had orchestrated that.

“Sure.” I got to my feet. “Hold that thought,” I said to Vaughn.

Angel stood as if to follow me, but I told her to stay with her mommy.

Her chin drooped, and I explained. “I’ll come back quicker with your building material if I don’t have to watch you.”

That seemed to make sense because she said, “Okay.”