Vaughn's Pride: California Cowboys

by Selena Laurence

  “Jesus, baby,” he crooned as he held her close, listening intently to every shallow breath she took. “Don’t leave me like this. Please don’t leave me like this.”

  And while he waited for someone or something to come get them out of the mess, Vaughn poured out his heart, his mind, and his very soul to the only woman he’d ever loved.

  He told her how he’d felt the first day he ever laid eyes on her when they were five. How all he’d wanted to do was touch her shiny black braids and listen to her silly giggles. It was why he’d asked his mom to buy him a book of jokes the next day and then memorized every single one. So he could tell them to T.J. and make her laugh.

  He told her about the first time he ever jacked off to images of her. They were fourteen and they’d been swimming at the beach all day on a school holiday. T.J. had breasts and a bikini, and Vaughn had been stunned into near silence as he’d watched her emerge from the waves time and time again, water dripping from her chest and down her slim legs. He’d been at half-mast all day long, his body betraying him in a way it never had before.

  Then he’d gone home, and in bed alone that night, he’d tried to sort through the feelings he was having for a girl who the day before had been like a sister. But he couldn’t. All he could do was want, and my God, he wanted to touch her. Her skin, her breasts, her lips. So he lay in the darkness with his hand wrapped around his dick, and he stroked one off for the very first time to visions of T.J., wet, naked, and touchable. And it was like when he came, those images were forever sealed in his heart. Forever tied to the single most confusing yet enlightening moment in his life. It was all about T.J. It was always all about her.

  A rapping on the window had Vaughn stopping his murmured confessions and Ty swung open the door to the truck, standing in the gap like some sort of big, dark avenging angel.

  “What happened?” he asked, his voice tight as he surveyed Vaughn, bare-chested, holding an unconscious T.J.

  “I think she was struck by lightning,” Vaughn answered. “Lynn’s called 911, and I got some of her wet clothes off, put her in new drier things.” He looked up at Ty, his heart full of the worst fear he’d ever felt—and Vaughn was the king of being fearful, fearful of failing, fearful of looking foolish, fearful of committing. “I don’t know what else to do for her. What the hell else do we do?” he begged, his voice cracking.

  “We wait,” Ty said. “They’ll have to send the life chopper—” Vaughn looked at him, and he saw it in Ty’s eyes, the fear, the sorrow, the memories of another night so much like this one, but with Vaughn lying like the broken doll in the rain and the mud, Cade by his side, and the life chopper coming in to pick up the pieces.

  “She’s going to be okay,” Ty said, leaning into the truck more. “You hold on to her and you love her.” He reached down to stroke T.J.’s wet, matted hair. “And don’t you ever let her go.”

  Never again, Vaughn vowed. Never again.

  “I don’t give a damn what your hospital policies are, I’m going with her!” Vaughn shouted as he struggled to keep up with the rolling gurney that carried his heart.

  “Vaughn.” A doctor followed the voice, and soon Vaughn was faced with his brother Cade’s longtime friend Jeremy who put an arm out between Vaughn and the gurney. Vaughn considered punching the bastard in the face and moving on, but he was still rational enough to know that security would then eject him from the hospital altogether.

  “Let them examine her. They need to see what’s going on.”

  Vaughn shook, but whether it was from cold or adrenaline or pure emotion, he didn’t know. He was standing in the tiled hallway of a hospital, fluorescent lights glaring on him in his wet, muddy jeans and bare chest covered only by his rain slicker.

  “Come on, I’ll get you a scrub shirt and show you to a waiting room. Are her parents on the way?”

  “Ty should have called them,” Vaughn answered, his gaze still fixed on the hallway down which T.J. had disappeared.

  Jeremy touched Vaughn’s arm, drawing his attention back to where they were standing. “It’s okay. Let me get you settled, and then I’ll go check on her. I’ll come back with information as fast as I possibly can.”

  Vaughn nodded, his throat feeling like it might close if he tried to push words through it.

  They made their way through the corridors, busy doctors and nurses walking by briskly in their comfort clogs and scrubs. Vaughn’s mind struggled to compute the fact that even though his world teetered on the verge of ending, other people’s were still normal, average, everyday.

  They stopped off at a supply closet and Jeremy handed him a scrub shirt, which he pulled on while they walked. When they reached the waiting room, he heard Grace Brisco’s voice. “Oh thank God, there he is.”

  He turned to see Grace and Ted hurrying toward him, their faces pale with worry.

  “Oh my God, Vaughn!” Grace cried out in horror as she took a look at him. “You poor thing. What happened out there?”

  “Where’s T.J.?” Ted said to Jeremy, his face a storm cloud of anger and distress.

  “They’ve taken her back to examine her, and if you all wait here”—he gestured toward the waiting room door—“I’ll go find out what I can and come right back.”

  Ted nodded, and Grace wrapped a hand around Vaughn’s arm as she let him lead her into the waiting room.

  “What happened?” Grace repeated as they all sat down on the chairs upholstered in some sort of rough blue tweed.

  “I think she got hit by lightning,” Vaughn answered.

  Grace’s face went pale, and her hand flew up to cover her mouth. “Oh my God,” she gasped, tears forming in her eyes. “My baby. My sweet, darling baby.”

  Ted slammed a fist on the arm of the chair and stood. “Goddammit!” he shouted in frustration. “This is all my fault. I never should have given her the impression that gate was her responsibility. I should have been out there doing it myself, not relying on my twenty-four-year-old daughter to figure it out.”

  Vaughn stood and walked to where Ted was glaring out the window as if he could frighten the world into submission.

  “No, sir, if this is anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I left my phone at home while I was out looking at real estate. It was me you asked to get that gate… Oh shit,” Vaughn groaned and pressed a hand to his forehead. “Oh my God, I was so worried about T.J. that I never even got to the gate.”

  His mind went into overdrive. “I’ll call the staff at the bunkhouse and have them load up sandbags and shovels. If we get them over there right away, they might be able—”

  Ted’s voice was soothing. “It’s okay, son. Ty got the gate shut after you and T.J. left in the chopper. He made sure to let me know when he called with the news.”

  Vaughn let out a breath of relief as he nearly melted onto the floor. “Oh thank God. I’m so sorry, I just—” He paused, trying to regain control of his emotions. “When I found her there, lying on the ground…”

  Grace gave a small hiccup of distress, and Ted went to her, sitting down to wrap his arms around her. “Shh,” he crooned. “It’s going to be okay. She’ll be okay.”

  Vaughn didn’t say anything else, just leaned back against a wall, letting his head fall forward, chin to chest as he closed his eyes and pictured T.J.’s pale, cold face while she lay on his lap in the truck. And he repeated the mantra he’d started in that moment: Never again. Never let her go again.

  20

  “T.J.” She heard Vaughn’s voice as she surfaced, shaking the water from her hair and eyes.

  “Hey!” she called out. “I’m over here!”

  He stood, waist deep in the pond, his chest bigger and more muscular than it was last summer, and she couldn’t help the little flutter that started in her tummy and worked its way someplace lower. His hair was brushed back from his face, his eyes were searching for her, and when they landed where she was treading water out in the middle of the pond, they lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July.

&n
bsp; “God, T. Don’t do that,” he grumbled. “I thought you’d drowned. You scared the hell out of me.”

  She smiled. “How could I have drowned in a pond the size of a swimming pool where the deepest part is hardly deeper than I am tall?”

  He moved, pushing off the bottom into the water where he did a slow breast stroke to her. “Maybe there’s a monster in this pond that snatches girls and pulls them under to its murky lair,” he said, using his best creepy-movie voice and grinning maniacally at her.

  She rolled her eyes. “Or maybe there’s just a stupid boy trying to scare a girl with stories about pond monsters.”

  He shrugged as much as you can while swimming, and answered, “Maybe. I guess you’ll find out soon enough.” And then he dove, torpedoing under the water until he reached her legs, where he yanked, pulling her under with him. She shrieked before she went down, and once underwater, she began grabbing back, trying to push him down while pushing herself up. They struggled and wrestled and spent the next hour getting thoroughly mucky with pond water and mud. When they finally took a break and lay in the warm sun on the towels they’d brought, all Vaughn could think of was that moment when she’d disappeared under the water’s surface and he couldn’t find her. He knew right then and there that he’d always need to know where T.J. was. He had to be able to find her, no matter what or when or where.

  “T.J.” She heard Vaughn’s voice as she surfaced, shaking her head gently to clear the fuzziness and buzzing in her ears.

  She tried to say his name, let him know where she was, but when she did, her throat was dry and sore.

  “Shh, baby,” he whispered to her as his hand stroked her hair. “You don’t need to say anything, I’m right here.”

  She managed to pry open her eyes, finding a softly lit room and Vaughn’s very anxious face over her.

  Joy replaced some of the worry when her eyes met his, though.

  “Hi,” he whispered as tears shone in his eyes. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but judging by the way she felt, it was akin to being hit by a Mack truck, and it had obviously done a number on Vaughn.

  She opened her mouth again, but still nothing was forthcoming.

  “Here,” he said, reaching first to the call button on the wall, then over to the table next to them. “Let’s see if you can get some of this in you.” He held up a glass of water with a lid and straw inserted.

  She gave a tiny nod, and he held the straw up to her mouth. She managed to get it between her lips and sucked. Cool, sweet liquid washed down her throat, and she closed her eyes for a moment just to savor it.

  When she nodded again, he pulled the cup away and set it aside.

  Then he gazed at her, his face so open that she could see every tiny thought he had. And he was scared, and he was relieved, and he was something else, something so different from anything she’d ever seen there that she lifted one heavy hand to touch him, grasp his forearm lying on the bed, and squeeze as much as she could when she felt as weak as a kitten.

  “Do you remember what happened?” Vaughn’s voice was gentle, and he continued to stroke her hair.

  “I went to close the floodgate,” she said, trying so hard to remember more than that. And what was that ringing in her ears? She shook her head gently, but that sent everything to sloshing and the world around her to spinning.

  “Whoa,” Vaughn said, holding her face between his palms. “You still with me?”

  “Dizzy. And my ears are ringing.”

  He smiled, warm and gentle. “Yeah, that’s normal. The doctors said it may last as much as a few weeks. You were struck by lightning, baby.”

  Oh my God. Now she remembered. Stepping out of the pickup a sizzling crack, bright light, then nothing until now.

  “I think I remember,” she told him, relishing the feel of his rough palms on her tender cheeks. “Will I be okay? Is there anything permanent?”

  “You’ll have a pretty cool scar on your arm. Other than that, you’re going to be fine.” He paused, swallowing visibly as his gaze dropped from hers. When he continued, his voice shook with emotion. “I’ve never been so scared in my entire life, T. You were unconscious for hours. I thought I’d lost you.”

  She felt her heart swell, and tears came to her eyes. She hurt everywhere, but somehow, seeing him here, knowing that he was hers and that he cared so much made all the pain dissipate like smoke in the air.

  “I love you,” she said, her voice raspy.

  “Oh baby, if you only knew just how good it is to hear you say that, because I am never going to let you go again.”

  He kissed her then, long, deep, and slow, only coming up for air to look into her tired eyes.

  “This is it, T.,” he whispered.

  “What?” she asked, a soft smile working its way across her face.

  “The start of forever.” Then he kissed her again.

  “Enough of that now. She just came to,” a nurse chided as she bustled into the room followed by T.J.’s parents.

  “Oh my God, she’s awake!” Grace cried out, rushing to the bedside. Vaughn stepped out of the way so Grace could see her daughter, but T.J. kept her eyes on him, yearning for his touch to return. She knew he was the best medicine they could give her, and his love was going to make her well.

  A week later, T.J. sat in her porch swing, a cup of tea in hand, as she watched Vaughn’s truck rumble up the drive. He stopped in front of her steps, opened his door, and climbed out.

  “Took you long enough,” she said, grinning at him. God, he was beautiful. He wore a sleeveless T-shirt and loose track pants. When he twisted to get things out of the cab of the truck, the shirt lifted just enough to show the V that arrowed down from his abs. Yum. Just downright lickable, her guy was.

  He turned back, a paper bag in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other. “Quit your complaining, I had to make a stop.”

  “You got me Lynn’s lemon poppy seed muffins,” she exclaimed with delight.

  “I did, but if you’re going to complain, I’ll just eat it myself.”

  He climbed the steps, then held the bag out, snatching it away as she reached for it.

  “Fine. I don’t need it anyway.” She feigned disinterest, looking at her fingernails, struggling not to smile.

  He dangled the bag in front of her. “You sure? This muffin’s pretty damn special. Maybe the most special muffin you’ll ever get.”

  She looked at him, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. He just grinned evilly and wiggled the bag in front of her.

  “Give it to me,” she finally said.

  “Ask nice,” he said, his voice growing rough and his gaze hot. T.J. felt an ache start between her thighs. He’d only been gone to town for a couple of hours, but already she missed being in bed next to him. Missed his touch on her sensitive skin, missed his harsh breaths in her ear as he stroked in and out of her.

  “Please,” she said, no longer really caring about the damn muffins.

  He set the bag on the swing next to her, then leaned down, placing his hands on either side of her hips. “Your wish is my command,” he whispered before kissing her seductively on the lips.

  When he pulled away, she was breathless and fuzzy headed. Somehow, after all this time, he could still do things like that to her. She looked away to grab the bag and remove a muffin. But what her hand hit wasn’t soft, fluffy pastry. Instead, she felt a rough cube of some sort. She glanced back to Vaughn, questioning what he’d put in her muffin bag. But Vaughn wasn’t standing over her anymore. No, Vaughn was in front of her on one knee.

  Her heart raced as she grasped the object and pulled it out of the paper bag. Her hands began to shake, and Vaughn reached out to gently remove the box from her hold.

  T.J.’s hand flew to her mouth to muffle the gasp that tried to escape.

  Flipping the lid on the velvet box open, Vaughn removed a familiar white-gold ring with an oval-cut diamond in the center.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered, gently reaching out to touch it.


  “When Cade asked Nina, he didn’t even consider using Mom’s ring. He wanted to get her something that was exactly her taste. I always figured that we’d just give all of Mom’s jewelry to Katie when she grows up, but then I told them I was going to ask you, and Cade and Ty came to me with this.”

  He lifted her left hand in his and held the ring out just shy of her finger.

  “We all agreed, T. You were the daughter that Mom never had, and while she would have loved Nina and welcomed her to the family with open arms, she would have wanted you to have this.” He slipped the ring onto her finger. “Someday, Lynn will be gone, and then there will only be four people left in this world who truly knew my parents. Cade, Ty, me, and you. There is no one my brothers and I would rather see wearing this ring than you.”

  Tears floated at the edge of T.J.’s vision as she stared down at the ring she’d seen on Sophia Jenkins’s finger so many times. When she looked back at Vaughn, he returned all her emotions with one tender gaze.

  He cleared his throat before he continued. “Theodora Jayne Brisco,” he said, a tear trickling down his cheek. “When I saw a little girl with shiny black braids standing under a flowering eucalyptus tree on a playground, I never dreamed that she would become so essential to my life. But over almost twenty years, hard times and beautiful times, childhood, and hopefully some adulthood now too ”—he chuckled, and she smiled back—“you are the one constant in my world. The center of everything I am and the reason for everything I want to become. Will you do me the honor of marrying me so we can continue this beautiful trip together?”

  She nodded through her tears, and he leaned forward, taking her face in his hands and kissing her on the lips over and over. And if spirits really did roam the world with the humans they’d once loved, T.J. knew that Sophia Jenkins was right there with them, watching, protecting, blessing. The road had been hard, and long, and painful, but the reward was the sweetest thing that life could offer.

  Epilogue