ALEX
I’m on a sabbatical.A dating sabbatical.
That statement kept replaying in my mind. Over and over. It was like a broken record in my head ever since I left the bakery four hours ago. The repetitive statement didn’t get me any closer to the question as to whyshe was single, just that her relationship status was not by accident. She didn’t date.
It shouldn’t matter to me so much, but it did. On the one hand, I was glad she wasn’t dating anyone. On the other, why was she so adamant about being single? She’d seemed flustered when the subject had come up. Was it because someone had hurt her? Was she trying to get over a heartbreak? Was she pining after someone who she considered her soulmate?
The thought of her having a soulmate caused my shoulders to tense. I was far too invested in a woman’s life I knew nothing about. I needed to get a grip. Which meant no more visits to Sweet Temptations.
My stomach growled loudly as I walked down the alley that led to Golden Gate Diner. The smell of urine, garbage, and gasoline might not be scents that people would traditionally associate with good food, but every time that unique combo drifted into my nose, my stomach answered in a growl. I couldn’t count the number of times I’d taken this shortcut down the dingy, dumpster-filled, alleyway. Part of the reason I’d chosen the office space I had was its proximity to the diner.
It was a short enough walk that Mia wouldn’t give me shit about walking instead of taking the car, but it was long enough for me to have some time to clear my head. I loved my job and after I lost Ash and AJ, I’d thrown myself into it completely. I thrived off of the intensity because it demanded my sole focus and attention. When I was home all of that went to Lexi. Since I was always either at home and or at the office, it had given me no time to think, to feel, to grieve. Which were all things I’d avoided at all costs.
But there were times I needed to step away from the endless stream of emails, calls, decisions, and meetings. I needed a break from the high stakes and billion-dollar deal atmosphere of being the founder and CEO of Vaughn Holdings.
That’s what these lunches afforded me. It was something that money couldn’t buy. It was time where I could just be me with no demands or expectations.
When I opened the door, what appeared to be a man and his son were leaving. The older gentleman slapped his hand on the young man’s shoulder. “I know it’s easy to get distracted, man. It’s fine to party a little. But you’ve got to get it together with your grades. No more slacking in that department. Study hard to party hard.”
As the two walked by me, I lost the ability to breathe. AJ would be just finishing up his freshman year in college if he was still here. I could very easily be having the same conversation as I’d just overheard, with him.
Fuck, I wished I was having that conversation.
But I never would.
I paused a moment to collect myself before walking inside. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that the excruciating pain I was feeling would dull. The walls weren’t actually closing in. I wasn’t going to throw up.
After the worst subsided, I stepped inside the ’50s themed diner and immediately spotted Maddox and Nick who were already seated in the booth tucked in the far corner. Our booth. We’d been coming here since we were preteens and could barely afford to split a plate of endless fries and a refillable soda between us.
Now, any of us could own the place if we wanted to.
It was so strange to think about times when we had to scrape together dimes, pennies, and quarters we found on the street to buy a burger and none of us had facial hair. Now, we were all in our thirties and had ended up single dads of daughters who were all born within a year of each other under very different circumstances.
Maddox had a friends-with-benefits situation that resulted in an unplanned pregnancy and the birth of Hannah who was turning five in a couple of weeks. He and his baby mama had a great relationship. The two of them had been hooking up casually for a couple of years when Lizzy found out she was pregnant and when she told him she was going to keep it, he was all in. Five years later, they were co-parenting rock stars. He even got along with her husband Ryan.
It was funny to me that Lizzy had married a man named Ryan since the night Lizzy met Maddox, and Nick and I for that matter, we were at the bar and her opening line had been to come up and ask him if anyone ever told him he looked like Ryan Guzman. She wasn’t the only woman to make that comparison. He got that and William Levy a lot.
But Ryan Guzman look-a-like or not, he was an amazing father.
Nick, who Lizzy had called a Hemsworth brother the night we met her—which he also got a lot—had fallen into parenting much differently than Maddox. He wasThree Men and a Baby’d. He’d opened the door one morning and found a newborn dropped off on his doorstep with a note saying that the little girl’s name was Isabella and he was the father but not giving any further information.
Being the man of action that he is, he immediately did three things. Had a paternity test done, contacted his lawyer, and hired a nanny.
The results were mailed to him within 48 hours and in a very Maury Povich-esque moment Nick handed the envelope to Maddox, the most mature of the three of us, who opened the envelope and read aloud, “Nicholas Matthew Locke, you are the father.”
In the months that followed, Nick poured money and resources into finding Bella’s mother, it had taken him three years, but he’d managed to track her down. She was a model who he’d only been with once. She begged him not to tell the press, he agreed and asked that she sign over full custody.
To this day, I was still impressed that Nick had grown up and taken on the responsibility of raising another human overnight. Literally. And he’d done a damn good job. Well, the grown-up part was debatable, but he’d definitely stepped up and been an amazing father to his daughter.
My situation was a lot different than my friends. I’d become a father the first time before I was old enough to vote. When I was sixteen Ash snuck into my room at the group home we both lived at and woke me up holding a positive pregnancy test.
In the blink of an eye, my entire life changed. I knew, in that moment, that I had to get us out of the group home. It wasn’t just me trying to survive anymore. I had a family I needed to provide for. The next morning, I skipped school and went to practically every job site in the city. Thankfully, Frank, who was now my driver, saw the desperation in my eyes and when I explained the situation I was in, he took a chance on me. I’d be forever grateful and in his debt.
It took me four months to save up enough money to put a down payment on a shoebox of an apartment in the Tenderloin. Two months after we moved in Ashley gave birth to Ashley J. Vaughn. Life hadn’t been easy those first few years, but Ash and I had made it work. She finished high school online, stayed home and raised AJ. I worked to support us.
About ten years ago, I started buying properties, commercial and residential and flipping them. I used all of our savings to start Vaughn Holdings. It took a few years, but we finally started making a significant profit. Everything I’d worked for was paying off. AJ was a freshman in high school and made the dean’s list for academic excellence, he was starting quarterback on the football team, and even had a girlfriend that Ash and I approved of. I was set to have my first multi-million-dollar year as CEO and Ash was talking about going back to school to become a therapist.
Then, she woke me up with another pregnancy test. This time, I wasn’t terrified. I knew that I was capable of supporting the life that was about to come into the world. Everything was so much easier the second pregnancy. Money might not buy happiness, but it sure as hell bought security and convenience.
