Tears leaked from her eyes, making her realize how deeply she’d wandered into the past when she hadn’t intended to. Vaughn stroked her hair like he could have comforted her all night, but that wasn’t fair to him.
She levered herself to sit upright. “I’m sorry. I meant to feed you and let you get back home before it got any later.”
“I’m glad to learn more about you.” His green eyes followed her as she started scooping up the dishes. “Let me get those.”
He plucked them out of her hands.
“I’ll go change so you can have your shirt back.” She was scavenging for excuses to leave the room, needing to rein in her runaway emotions.
The last time she’d shared her grief with a man, it had all but overwhelmed her. And while she trusted Vaughn not to take advantage of her feelings, she didn’t trust herself to maintain control of her boundaries.
Those boundaries were the only way her heart was going to survive this relationship with a man who became more important to her every day.
* * *
The hospital summer gala was more than a reception to unveil Abigail’s statue, although for Vaughn, that was the most exciting part.
Vaughn had a role to play glad-handing donors to the hospital’s trauma center, as well as those who supported the new art installation in the children’s ward. He’d visited the barber earlier in the day for a trim, letting the guy shave off his beard while he was at it.
He looked like an entirely different man. More like the military officer he’d been throughout his deployment. He’d been keeping that side of himself at bay, trying to bury his memories, but that hadn’t worked.
As he dressed in the requisite monkey suit for the event, he adjusted the bow tie he couldn’t get quite right and wondered what Abigail would see when she looked at him tonight. The same world-weary man she’d started sketching that first day they’d met? Or was there more life in his eyes these days, now that she had come into his world with her vibrant outlook?
Vaughn didn’t know. He couldn’t tell what he saw when he looked in the mirror anyhow. From behind him on the bed, Ruby lifted her head to study him. Apparently she didn’t see anything too far off base since she settled her head back on her paws and let her eyes drift closed again.
He was pretty sure the dog missed Abigail.
After that night Abby had spent at his house, Ruby went into the spare room where she’d slept a few times. She’d circled the bed. Nosed the drawer where she’d helped unpack Abigail’s few things. Then she’d padded back out into the hall to lie by the door.
Not often. But she’d never done that before Abigail’s appearance in their lives.
“Maybe we’ll see her again tonight if I’m lucky,” he told Ruby, scratching behind her ears.
Since the night when he’d let his guard down at her place, confiding his loss of the patient, he’d been at work two of the three days. He’d finished off those two shifts by visiting her at the children’s ward, both times finding Brandon working beside her. Lifting tree limbs into place at her direction, and fastening them onto joints he’d made himself.
Vaughn planned to make a sizable donation to the guy’s business start-up fund, although both times he’d mentioned it, Brandon had waved off the suggestion with an assurance that he was learning a lot. That made Vaughn happy even as he wondered what Abigail would have done on her own. Would she have lifted those limbs over her head to extend the size of that tree?
He scowled just thinking about it, but he hadn’t wanted to ask her when she was hard at work. She’d texted him last night—on his off day—to show him a photo of her smiling in front of the completed tree. Vaughn had been touched that she’d thought of him, but worried what it meant for them that her primary project at the hospital was finished.
Would he see her after tonight? Sure, her work would continue at the children’s ward, but not at this pace. And much of it would be accomplished in her studio and brought to the hospital at a later date. So the days of seeing her regularly were over. The realization nagged at him, pushing him to think of other ways to keep her in his life.
Which made no sense because he’d known from the start that the relationship couldn’t really go anywhere. He didn’t want a family and she needed to think about her future with her child.
His cell phone chimed before he could leave for the gala, alerting him to a call from a private number. He debated not answering but he was ahead of schedule.
“Chambers,” he answered, peering out the back window onto the lawn overlooking the woods where he’d walked with Abigail that day.
“Vaughn, it’s Will Sanders.”
Just hearing the name sent a weird reaction tumbling through his gut. Abigail had been with a man she believed to be Will the night her child had been conceived. She still thought of that man as “Will.” So the surge of jealousy Vaughn experienced at hearing the name was obviously misplaced.
And, considering the hell this guy had been through, would be a slap in the face if he knew.
“It’s good to hear from you, Will.” Vaughn pulled the blinds on the view and double-checked the lock on the sliding glass doors. Ruby appeared in the room behind him, no doubt remembering it was suppertime.
“I wanted to let you know that I’m putting my personal resources into the investigation of the imposter situation.”
“Can’t blame you there. Any man would want justice.” Vaughn filled Ruby’s water and food dishes.
Micah would take the dog out for a walk soon.
“I’ve hired a detective, Cole Sullivan, from a local private security firm to find Jason Phillips.”
“He’s with the Walsh Group.” Vaughn knew
