Touch

by Rose Wulf

  Their feet hit the tile at the bottom of the stairs, they turned down the hall toward the front door, and Vanessa called out to them from the kitchen. “What are you two up to?”

  “I’m taking Vaughny out for a bit,” Riley called casually.

  Vanessa appeared at the edge of the hall, in the kitchen entryway, and arched a brow. “Out where?”

  “Just out,” Vaughn replied shortly.

  Nothing else was said until Riley was settling in behind the wheel of her Porsche, asking, “So, where would you like to go?”

  Vaughn sighed and let his head hit the headrest. “This was your idea.”

  “True,” she acknowledged. She rolled the engine over, backed down the drive, and pointed the car in the opposite direction of the Hawke family home. He suspected she had no idea which way Angela’s parents lived, but he was glad for it anyway.

  They lapsed again into silence until Riley turned onto the interstate.

  “Why are you doing this?” Vaughn asked.

  Riley kept quiet for a minute, tapping the steering wheel as if she had a song stuck in her head. “Do you love her?”

  Vaughn sucked in a breath and locked his jaw. He hadn’t been prepared for that question. After a couple of seconds, though, he realized there wasn’t much point in ignoring it. “Yeah.” And that was the problem. Or, rather, that was going to become the problem. That was why it was going to hurt so damned badly when she left him.

  “How did you know?”

  The question threw Vaughn for a loop and he finally looked over at her, studying her profile. Her eyes were focused on the road and her posture was a little too rigid. She wasn’t being facetious, then. For whatever reason, the answer actually mattered to her. He looked away with a frown as he thought it over. When had he realized it?

  “I’m not sure,” he finally admitted. “I was always attracted to her.” That much was true. She’d struck him the moment he’d first laid eyes on her. But she’d been standing next to another guy, and that other guy had clearly recognized a threat when he’d seen it. Back then, though, it had just been lust. “We’d been friends for a little while,” he offered slowly as he thought back. He frowned. “Well, maybe not that long. I don’t think I’d known her for a year before I started suspecting it.”

  “You don’t have, like, a stand-out memory?”

  Vaughn snorted under his breath. “A stand-out? No. There are several. The list just keeps growing.”

  “Huh,” Riley muttered as she turned into the public beach parking lot. “I always thought there was supposed to be like a moment.”

  “Maybe there is for some people,” Vaughn commented. “It just didn’t happen that way with me.”

  Riley cut the engine after swinging into one of the many available parking spaces. “So it just … built? First came lust, then there was friendship, and now you’re terrified to live without hi—her?”

  Vaughn arched a brow at the obvious slip and nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.” He frowned and turned to face her. “Are you asking for a specific reason?”

  She pulled in a breath. “You can’t get good fresh air in a car! Let’s go down to the beach and see what it looks like at night!”

  “Foggy,” Vaughn said even as Riley threw open her door and jumped out. But he followed suit, anyway, and trailed after her down to the shore. It was almost ten o’clock already, so there wasn’t anyone else lingering around down on the sand. Since he wasn’t in the mood to be social, he was grateful for that much.

  Riley was several paces ahead, having run down to the water’s edge like an eager child. She even kicked off her flip-flops so that the water could lap at her toes. “Ah!” she exclaimed, running backward when the wave washed a little higher than she’d anticipated. “It’s cold!”

  “Yeah,” Vaughn replied, slipping his hands into his pockets.

  She laughed, scooped up her shoes, and jogged back up to him. “So,” she said, turning in place to look around, “you love her, but you’re giving up on her?”

  Vaughn frowned. “I’m not giving up on her.”

  “That’s what it seems like to me,” Riley said. “You’re certainly moping like you’ve already broken up.”

  “You’re wrong.” But … was she?

  Riley sighed and dropped to her butt. “I’m just telling you what I see. I can’t tell you what to do. I’m the last person who should be giving advice on love, trust me.”

  Gaze sweeping out over what he could see of the ocean, Vaughn took a second to reply, “There isn’t anything I can do.”

  Humming with understanding, Riley returned, “So you’re not giving up, you’re just admitting defeat. What’s the difference?”

  Vaughn ground his teeth and clenched his fists, suddenly wanting to yell at her. He couldn’t, though, because he already realized she was right. By acknowledging the fact that his and Angela’s relationship had an expiration date, he was admitting defeat. He was surrendering, and even if he thought he was surrendering to the inevitable, a surrender was a surrender. His heart hurt just trying to imagine his life a year from that moment. One year. Did he really think they wouldn’t even last that long?

  We won’t last five minutes if I call her up and tell her the truth right now.

  “I gave up,” Riley said quietly, her voice suddenly distant and mature. Almost nothing at all like the voice she’d been using since she’d shown up on his doorstep.

  Vaughn blinked, startled by her announcement, and turned to look down at her. The expression on her face matched the tone he’d heard in her voice. All of a sudden, she looked somber. “What?”

  “I fell in love,” she clarified. Her eyes narrowed and she added, “I think.” She paused and wiped at her eyes. “I just woke up one day, realized I’d started thinking in the plural, and freaked out. I packed up while he was at work, left a new bottle of whiskey on the table, and jumped on the next plane out.” A bitter chuckle escaped her. “That’s how I ended up at your door.”

  Not knowing what to say, Vaughn settled down beside her and rested his elbows over his knees. Eventually, he asked, “Do you regret it?”

  Her voice was full of tears when she replied, “Hourly.”

  Vaughn frowned. “What are you going to do about it?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve been trying to call him every day since your condo burned. I thought maybe it was a sign, you know? But he won’t take my calls.”

  “He’s probably pissed,” Vaughn said honestly. He couldn’t imagine if Angela did something like that to him, and he had to assume the guy they were talking about was fairly invested if—apparently—they’d been living together.

  “I’m sure,” Riley agreed with a sniffle. “And I deserve it.”

  Not wanting to get into who deserved what, especially in someone else’s relationship, Vaughn offered, “Maybe you should tell him that.”

  “How? I’m not leaving a message. He’d just delete it.”

  “In person.”

  Riley said nothing for several seconds. She leaned back on her palms and stared up at the fog-covered sky before quietly asking, “Are you saying I should go back? Fly all the way back out there and just … show up?”

  “Yep,” Vaughn replied. “It might show him that you’re serious.”

  She was silent for another minute. Finally, she laughed and smacked him in the arm. “That’s just crazy enough to work!” Her laughter subsided and she sat up straight again, adding, “But how can I take positive relationship advice from a guy who’s gonna let his own heart break because of something he has no control over?”

  Vaughn opened his mouth—whether to answer her question or to argue her statement, he had no idea—but then he snapped it shut again. She was exactly right. That was what he was doing, what he was preparing to do.

  When did I turn into such a fucking coward?

  “Take it from someone who’s possibly already lost that,” Riley continued gently. “If it’ll hurt either way, then i
t’s worth the fight.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Your job sucks,” Angela teased as she leaned into Vaughn’s shoulder. “I missed you yesterday.”

  Vaughn wrapped his arm around her shoulders with a chuckle. “My job does suck,” he agreed. “Did you at least have a good day?”

  “Eh,” Angela replied with a semi-shrug. “It wasn’t bad, I guess. We spent the day pouring over Joan’s diary, and it was kind of exhausting.” Well, it wasn’t like they’d spent literally the entire day reading the diary. But they’d definitely spent several hours doing just that, and once the emotional exhaustion was factored in, it sort of felt like the same thing. She could all-too-easily imagine how overwhelming it would have felt to be Joan as that chaos erupted around her. And it did sound like chaos.

  “Learn anything useful?” Vaughn asked. His tone was fine, and she’d been a little lost in reflection for a second, but she could’ve sworn he hesitated with the question.

  Frowning, Angela lifted her head enough to look up at him. “Is everything okay?” She certainly wouldn’t bore him with ancient history if he didn’t want to hear it, but if there was something else going on, she didn’t want to be insensitive, either.

  He arched a brow at her and inclined his head. “Yeah. That I know of, anyway.”

  Angela pursed her lips. She couldn’t explain it, but something told her there was more to his answer than his words implied. “Vaughn,” she hedged, wondering how best to articulate her thought. “Is there … something going on?”

  “No,” Vaughn assured her. “Nothing new.” He punctuated his declaration by pressing a kiss to her forehead.

  If he says so… Angela nodded, accepting his response, and resettled against his side. “Well,” she began on a sigh. “I don’t really know if what we learned qualifies as ‘useful,’ but it was kind of interesting.” If not also disappointing. She’d secretly been hoping there might be a clue in the text about the possible source of Vaughn’s unusual lightning immunity. She hadn’t been quite that lucky, though.

  “Interesting how?” Vaughn asked, the hand at her shoulders sliding down her torso to settle over her hip.

  “So far there are at least four named families involved, for one thing,” Angela said. “Reuben Cardwell, who killed an elemental named Cuthbert Grey, has managed to turn everyone against each other. Joan’s family joined in, of course, as well as the Cardwells’ cousins, the Baites.”

  “Sounds confusing,” Vaughn said.

  Angela laughed and bumped his extended foot with her own. “It kind of is. I’ve been writing the surnames down just to keep things straight and see how big it all gets.”

  Vaughn rubbed his thumb along her hip and asked, “Is it all elemental versus weather already?”

  She paused this time. That seemed like an odd question. “Pretty much,” she replied. “Why?”

  “I just thought I remembered the first guy killed was engaged to a weather-controller.”

  “Oh, yeah, Mabel.” Angela remembered. “Mabel might have been okay, but she committed suicide after Clemence was killed.” The whole thing was messed up. Not that any kind of murder wasn’t. It was just sad to read about all of the death that had occurred and know that was her personal history.

  Vaughn seemed to hesitate. “Which one was Clemence?”

  Grinning, Angela replied, “The Grey family’s legacy. Their ‘me,’ if you will.”

  His arm tightened around her as the words fell from her lips. “Is that how you think of yourself? As your family’s legacy?”

  Angela came up short at the question and found herself staring at the framed photograph of Vaughn and his parents that hung on the wall opposite them. He looked to be about ten or twelve in the picture and was grinning like the Cheshire cat, his father’s hand ruffling his hair. It was a cute picture. And how was she supposed to answer that question? Honestly. “Well, yeah. I mean … that’s kind of my destiny.”

  “Maybe,” Vaughn allowed, “but you’re more than your destiny, Angela.” He paused only long enough to give her another squeeze before quietly asking, “You know that, right?”

  “I—” Angela started. She cut herself off when she realized she wasn’t so sure about her response. I’m … more than my destiny? On the surface, it seemed like a simple, direct point. Surely, he was right. But when she really thought about it, she hesitated. Her whole life was about taking care of her family and preparing for the day when she inevitably became the matriarch of the next generation. For all they knew, she was the last legacy. The entire elemental heritage depended on her living long enough to become a mother of five. Aside from that … what was she?

  Who was she?

  Tears stung her eyes when she realized she had only one honest answer to his question. “I don’t think I had realized that.”

  “Angie,” Vaughn whispered, sad surprise in his voice. He adjusted his hold on her, shifting them both until she was facing him and he’d caught her face between the palms of his hands. When her wide, watery eyes met his serious ones, he said, “Take a minute and forget all the crap. Forget about superpowers and family feuds and legacies. You’re a person. Your name is Angela Hawke. You’re a beautiful, intelligent woman and you’ve got your whole damn life ahead of you.”

  He pulled her close before she could comment—before she could even fully process what he’d said—and brushed his lips over hers. Light and caressing and promising at first, then he put a little more intensity into it and sucked the air from her lungs. When he finally released her, his hands still threading her hair, he quietly added, “Not that this should make a difference in how you see yourself, but there’s one more thing. You should know that I don’t love you for what you are or what you’re destined for. I love you for you.”

  Angela’s heart lodged awkwardly in her throat as she stared into Vaughn’s eyes. She hadn’t been prepared for any of this conversation, it was true, but that caught her completely by surprise. And she realized, too late, that she really needed to force herself to sit down and give some serious thought to just how deeply her feelings for him ran. Did she love him? She suspected so. Or, at the very least, that she was in the process of falling. But … was she ready to admit it? Was she ready to go where that typically led? She wasn’t so sure about that part. She was scared. I can’t just leave him hanging. She had to say something, so she swallowed and ignored the runaway tear that slipped from the corner of one eye.

  “Vaughn,” she began. “I—”

  Her phone interrupted the moment, startling them both and causing Vaughn’s hands to fall away as she looked down toward the pocket the noise was coming from. With a sigh, she grumbled, “I should see who this is.” Vaughn only nodded his understanding and guilt twisted in her gut as she redirected her focus to the phone. She sniffled and explained, “It’s Mrs. Judd,” before swiping her thumb over the screen and putting the device to her ear. She could only assume she was finally about to get an answer as to whether or not she had a house of her own. She couldn’t think of another reason as to why her realtor would be calling.

  Her guess was correct. The seller had accepted her offer.

  Mrs. Judd wanted to meet, to let Angela take one last walk around the house and to discuss setting up any possible inspection, as well as setting up an appointment to sign the papers that would make her an official homeowner. It was a great idea, so Angela agreed.

  It was also a great excuse to avoid responding to what Vaughn had said, even though he came with her. And she felt more than a little guilty about that.

  “You’ll probably want to keep all your big family gatherings at your parents’ house,” Vaughn commented with a twitch of his lips.

  Angela laughed, doing her best to ignore the guilt still churning around in her stomach. “That was part of the point. And it’s only a five-minute walk.” Or it was normally, but she and Vaughn had taken their time on the short journey from her soon-to-be home to her parents’ house. It was the final Sunday of the m
onth, time for the Hawke family dinner. Angela had, fortunately, invited Vaughn to dinner before he’d announced his love for her, so it wouldn’t seem like some sort of awkward peace offering.

  The problem was, Angela had yet to figure out how best to respond to that declaration.

  Vaughn hadn’t made it weird. He hadn’t, in fact, said a word or given her a single look in direct reference to her lack of response. That was part of the problem. It would almost have been easier if he had pushed it. Except for the part about how she wasn’t sure what to say. And maybe he sensed that, somehow. Maybe he’d noticed her shock and hesitation or how quickly she’d jumped at the chance to take another look at the house. The best she’d been able to offer him, as lame as it was, was the invitation to join her.

  “There is that,” Vaughn replied easily as they stepped into the already crowded living room.

  Everyone was already there, for once. Even Dean. Then again, Dean’s punctuality has improved a lot. Still, the fact that they were the last to arrive only made her more uncomfortable. She wasn’t really in the mood to be the center of attention, let alone the focal point for her brothers’ needling. Although the latter was hard to avoid under any circumstance.

  Several heads swung around in their direction. Knowing it was better to embrace the entrance than try to downplay it, Angela said, “Sorry we’re late. I got a little distracted pre-shopping for my new place.”

  Clarabelle immediately perked up, an expectant smile on her face. “Oh, you got the house?”

  This time, Angela’s smile was sincere and she nodded. “Yep. I sign the papers tomorrow.”

  “Sweet,” Nate said with a grin.

  “Congratulations!” Clare exclaimed simultaneously. Several other voices added their own congratulations, and by the time that was all settled, Angela and Vaughn had somehow landed on the loveseat.

  Angela couldn’t help but look around, taking silent inventory of everyone in the room.

  Her parents were in their usual chairs. Daniel had just stepped in from the kitchen. Blake and Brooke shared the larger sofa with Dean, Ari, and a giggling Kira. Logan and Clare had claimed one half of the other sofa, with Nate and Madison on the other half. Madison’s mother, Missy Price, was squeezed in beside Angela on the side nearest her daughter. Madison herself was semi-stretched out, her feet resting on a pillow on top of the coffee table and her arms draped over her pregnant belly.