“My parents’ puppy went to town on my sister’s wedding dress.”
“Crap,” she says.
“Yeah, Sasha’s apparently freaking out.”
“Well, I’ll take a look and see what I can do.”
“I’ll pay you.”
She stares at me. “Don’t be stupid, West. I don’t want your money. I’m happy to help your sister.”
I reach across the table and take ahold of her hand. “You’re the best.” I lean down and kiss her hand.
“I know.” She grins, and I smile.
“And I’m totally lifting the sex ban for this, Pins.”
“That lasted all of five minutes!” She laughs. “I knew you’d cave before I did!”
“I did not cave.” I frown. “I’m being generous, you know, because you’re being so generous with fixing my sister’s dress.”
“If I can,” she says.
“You’ll be able to.”
“You have a lot of faith in me.”
“Because I know how amazing you are.”
Her eyes soften at my words.
“So…now that the sex ban is lifted, you wanna go and break the bed with me?”
She laughs, bright and loud, making me smile. “You’re one of a kind, Vaughn West.”
“So are you, Charly Michaels.”
And she is. My one of a kind.
“Isn’t your mom sending over the picture for me to look at to see if I can fix the dress?”
“Oh, yeah. We’ll wait till she sends it over, and you’ve had a look. Then, we can go fuck.”
“God, you’re romantic, West.”
“I know.” I shrug, grinning. “You’re a lucky, lucky woman, Pins.”
Truth is, I’m the lucky one to have her in my life.
Charly
Vaughn leaves for his sister Sasha’s wedding in two days.
I fixed the dress. It was a bigger job than I had initially thought from the look of the pictures. There were some really fine tears within the lace of the bodice, and some crystals were missing, but I managed to get ahold of some that were almost identical from a store in Vegas. I finally finished fixing the dress late last night, and I did an amazing job, if I do say so myself.
I text a picture of the now-fixed dress to Sasha. I’ve been keeping her updated with my progress on it. She’s been so grateful, constantly offering to pay me money for doing it, but I keep refusing. Honestly, I enjoyed working on it, and it kept my mind off my silly feelings of rejection over Vaughn not wanting to take me to the wedding with him.
Because I am being silly.
We might be more than just sleeping together now, but that doesn’t mean he wants to take me home to meet his family. And, of course, it would expose our relationship, which I don’t want.
So, the dress is safely inside its garment bag in Vaughn’s hotel room, where I am right now, and it’s ready to go with him to Oregon.
We finished filming at six p.m. Vaughn and I were starving, so he had Alex order room service for when we got back, and we had dinner together in his room.
We’re now lying on the bed, watching an episode of Julian’s show Dead Cop. I’ll admit, I’m totally addicted. Logan and I are always talking about it at work, but because Logan’s ahead of me, he’s careful not to spoil it for me. But the one thing we do agree on is that we want Julian’s character, Mason Banks, to get it on with his costar character Meredith Castle. And I also want them together in real life. But Logan reckons that Julian is gay. He said his gaydar was flashing loud and bright when he met Julian.
I don’t think Julian is gay, and I think he and Sara Parks, who plays Meredith, would be perfect together.
I keep meaning to ask Vaughn if Julian is gay. I guess now would be as good a time as any.
“Vaughn?”
“Mmhmm?”
“Is Julian gay?”
His eyes flick to mine. “What made you ask that?”
“Because Logan thinks he is. He said Julian set his gaydar off when they met. But I think he’s straight.”
“Why does it matter?”
“It doesn’t. I just really want him and Sara to get married and have babies.”
He laughs, shaking his head. “Sadly, Julian won’t be having babies with Sara.”
“So, he’s gay?”
“Yes. But that has to stay between you and me, as Julian’s in the closet.”
“Why?” I frown.
“Because he has a hell of a lot of female fans who watch the show because of him and his pretty-boy looks. Coming out could damage the ratings, as his female fan base could drop when they realize that he’s not fishing in their gender pool, and the network doesn’t want that.”
“That’s stupid.”
“That’s reality, babe. Women like to see the men they watch on-screen as available.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like they’re ever really going to get with them.”
“You landed me, didn’t you?” He shrugs.
“Ass!” I poke him in his side.
“Hey! No need to go crazy and start attacking!” He holds his hands up in surrender.
“Drama king.”
“No, babe, your King.”
“God, you’re so arrogant.” I roll my eyes.
“Just the way you like me.” He chuckles.
Shaking my head, laughing, I settle back down beside him and start watching the show again.