"Hmm." He folds the towels and places them neatly into the canvas bag. "I guess I'm pretty vanilla, too… With a few sprinkles."
"I'm intrigued."
He nudges me with his shoulder before returning to Mabel. "So you should be."
The gleam in his eye incapacitates me, rendering me unable to respond. We gather the rest of our stuff in silence.
I really enjoyed myself today. I didn't open up to Vaughn, telling him about my family, as some sort of quid pro quo.I'll tell you about my fucked-up shit if you tell me about yours.I just wanted to be honest with him, plain and simple.
I genuinely believe so much hurt in life could be avoided if people were just upfront with one another and didn't lie or hide the truth. Maybe if Melinda and River had been open about why they were really breaking up with me instead of giving vague word soup reasons, it might have taken less of an emotional toll. I might not be stuck in this inert state where I know I need to move forward, but I can't because I have so many unanswered questions blocking the path.
We're about ready to set off when Vaughn lifts Mabel, her small feet kicking against his chest. "You want to take her?"
I’m thrown. "Are you sure?"
He and Mabel are joined at the hip, well, his chest, usually. It makes sense that Vaughn is overprotective of his daughter given everything that's happened. Even though he's fine with me playing with her whenever the three of us are together, he's never suggested I carry her.
"Of course," he says, handing me the carry sling. "Mabel would love it."
His eyes meet mine, and an unspoken current leads me to believe it's not just Mabel he's thinking of, that he knows how much it would mean to me, too.
"Thank you," I say, our fingers brushing as I take the sling from him and hook it over my shoulder. I carefully take his precious princess off his hands and make sure she's secured firmly before we set off.
I wait until we're back at the marina before asking, "Who does Mabel take after, you or Evie?"
Vaughn slows down, visibly tensing. "Evie. She's all Evie," he replies in his customary way of answering without evading…or elaborating.
That's okay. I get it. My brothers and I are the same, careful before letting anyone into our inner circle. We have a private detective on retainer for crying out loud. Vaughn letting me carry Mabel is a giant step in the right direction. If he needs some more time to truly trust me, that's fine.
I've got all the time in the world.
15
Vaughn
"Can't help but notice you and Clayton have grown awfully chummy," Rove says as we're going through the refrigerators, doing our weekly stocktake. We sell a few essentials to save people from having to drive into town just to pick up milk or bread.
I jot down the soft drink tally so I don't forget it before turning and treating him to my finest unimpressed look. He just grins, probably because Mabel is giggling away to herself, strapped to my chest, and not only because he enjoys giving me shit. Although I'm sure that's a big part of it. Teasing, it seems, is a very common love language in this country.
"Chummy?"
"Yeah. Leo and I saw you at the beach together on Saturday. Not to mention you hanging out at his place every night, him walking you and Mabel back to your boat. Do I sense a tropical romcom in the works?"
I chuckle before I can contain it, before I'm even consciously aware I'm doing it. Who knows? Maybe Rove is onto something.Things with Clayton certainly seem to be moving in that direction.
Except for the bit where I'm a walking, talking bullshit artist. Pretty sure that's not giving romcom main character energy.
"Possibly. But it's complicated."
Rove nods knowingly, dropping his gaze to Mabel. "Because of…stuff?"
"Yeah. Stuff."
Code for my reasons for being on the run and in hiding. I open the second fridge and start counting again, but my brain refuses to cooperate, a collage of random memories drifting through my head. Evie and I jumping for joy—literally—when we got our Australian residency visas. How surreal our first night here was, getting ice creams and walking by the Sydney Opera House, pinching ourselves because this was the start of our new lives. How wonderfully friendly everyone was and how quickly we became acquainted with our townhouse neighbors.
Then my thoughts take a dark detour. From the moment Evie told me about the guy she'd met out at a bar during after-work drinks with her colleagues, I had a bad feeling about him. She started spending more time with him, became evasive when I asked the most simple question like how was your day?
When she fell pregnant, I knew there was no way out. Whatever happened next, Evie and Davi would be bound for life by a parental bond. I just had no idea how short her life would be, cut off by a monster.
