Delayed Call Read online

  Brie looked back at Vaughn, and her eyes were wide as she said, “This is stunning.”

  He smiled. “It’s prettier in the spring, but yeah, it was the first thing I built when I got here. There is a matching spot at NateWay One where I buried my mom’s and Nathan’s ashes with a statue just like that above it.”

  “Wow. It’s beautiful.”

  “Thank you.” He watched as she moved around the birdbath, her lips curved as she took in the statue of his mother and brother. It was like seeing Brie with fresh eyes. She was so breathtaking, and he wanted nothing more than to try. Try to be hers. Try to be in a relationship, even if it scared the shit out him. She’d be insane to take him back, but maybe telling her the truth would help that. Not that he deserved her. “I lost my mom when I was six, like I had told you. She died giving birth to Nathan.”

  Her smile fell as she looked up at him. “Oh, that’s horrible.”

  “Yeah, it was. And when Nathan came out, a wiggly Down syndrome kiddo, I remember falling in love with him because he looked just like my mom, and I had this crazy protective feeling over him.”

  “Yeah. I have that.”

  He nodded with a smile. “But my dad hated him. He blamed him for my mom’s death, and it was ugly. He sent Nathan away to my grandma’s, and I got so mad, I went with him.”

  She gasped. “How can a man hate his child?”

  “I don’t know, he loved his wife more, I guess.”

  Shaking her head as she watched him, she lowered herself onto the bench. “I would have done the same as you. You love your brother.”

  Coming to sit beside her, he opened the box and offered her some of the pizza inside. “More than I can describe. I think that once we left, my dad realized he was lonely and he missed us. So we went back, and things were good. I mean, as good as they could be. Nathan was a lot lower functioning than Rodney, worse than Amy too. He had really bad outbursts and he couldn’t talk really well, and it was hard for him. My dad had a difficult time taking care of him, but it was easy for me. I did everything. It amazed me how he wanted to be more—he used to write me these letters about wanting his own life, one where he was independent like me, and it used to gut me. I promised him the world, and I intended to give it to him. He was my best friend, my biggest fan, and I loved him. But when I got this awesome full ride to Nebraska, I almost turned it down. Even though I knew I needed it to give Nathan the world, I still couldn’t leave him.” He paused, shaking his head. It all seemed like yesterday, but it was really eons ago. “Jensen and our best friend, Wells, got in too. They pushed me to go, and so did my dad, and even Nathan. He wanted me to go because he wanted his NHL jersey with our name on it. Everyone promised he would be taken care of, but—”

  When he paused, it was because his throat was closing up. The only other person he had shared this with was Hazel, and…

  But Brie wasn’t Hazel.

  “I was almost done with my freshman year when I got a frantic phone call from Dawn. Nathan had been in an accident. My dad wasn’t handling him right, and he had a horrible outburst, which resulted in him taking off into a busy road.”

  Her eyes widened, and he had to look away. “Oh, God.”

  He nodded as her hand took his, gripping it. “He was hit and killed instantly by a bus. When I came back, it was to bury him. I wasn’t there for him. I hadn’t cared for him the way I should. I trusted my dad to do that. My dad let me down, and because of that, Nathan was dead.”

  “Vaughn, please, you know it wasn’t your fault.”

  “I know, and it’s taken me a long time to let go of that guilt, but sometimes, it flares up.”

  “I’m so incredibly sorry, but he would be so proud of you. You’ve done so much for people with his condition, and you’re so kind to them,” she whispered, her eyes full of compassion. “I’ve never in my life seen someone like you love these adults the way you do. You are amazing with them. I promise you that. I know that what you do can’t bring him back, but know you are honoring him in the best way possible.”

  “I do it for him.”

  “And it’s a beautiful thing, Vaughn, it is,” she urged, her eyes filling with tears, and he smiled.

  “Thank you, but that’s not why I’m telling you this. No one knows about Nathan but the people who experienced it with me—and my ex.”

  Her brows rose as her head tipped to the side. “Your ex? I thought you didn’t do relationships.”

  He nodded, sucking in a deep breath. “That’s why I brought you out here. I wanted to share Nathan and my mom with you, but above all, I wanted to share the reason why I don’t do relationships—or haven’t wanted to do them until now.”

  “Now?”

  “Now.”

  And as he held her gaze, he wasn’t sure what would happen once he opened his mouth. The fear in his heart was something he had never experienced in his life.

  He was about to put it all out there.

  Take off the shell he wore so damn tightly.

  He just prayed it didn’t hurt.

  Brie wasn’t ready.

  Not even in the least.

  His eyes. Lord, his eyes. It was like she was seeing who he truly was, and she had never seen this side of him. The real side of him. While she found him dazzling in his own right, she was scared. His eyes were the windows into his soul, and they were cracked. So very damaged. As she held his gaze, a piece of pizza hanging from her hand, she realized she was holding her breath as he sucked in a long breath of his own.

  “I met her, Hazel, when I was twenty. It was after I had been drafted, and I was a rookie, on the road to the big leagues. I just had to do my time in the minor leagues, and then I would be up there. She was beautiful, amazing, and, now I know, extremely manipulative. But I needed someone, someone to take away the pain of losing Nathan, and she did that.” He chuckled and shook his head. “I thought I loved her, and she claimed to love me. So when my first check came, I blew it on her, spoiling her. And then when the second one came, I told her I wanted to build NateWay One. She was a little hesitant, saying it would be a lot of work, but I wanted to do it. So with the help of Jensen, Wells, and Wren, we built NateWay One. Hazel claimed to have to work all the time, and she cried that she wanted to be there for me. So I asked her to be the manager of the organization because she had a business degree. She jumped at the chance, and I thought we were good.”

  Leaning on his legs, he lowered his shoulders as he stared at the ground. “For three years, she worked for NateWay, and I thought she was doing a good job. But Dawn hated her, and Marl wanted to kill her half the time. I ignored them because I was blind and I loved her. They would tell me she was rude to the residents and that something was off, but I didn’t listen.”

  “You were in love.”

  “I was. She made me feel special, she fooled me into believing she cared about what I was trying to do, and she came to every game to support me. I thought she was in it for me.”

  Slowly nodding her head, she whispered, “But she wasn’t, I’m guessing?”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “Oh, no, not even in the least.”

  “And you never knew?”

  “Nope, not even when Jensen told me she was bad news. I hate when that guy is right.” He let out a breath, sitting up as he sucked in another one. “First, I found her ID, and it was her name, but the birthdate was wrong. Or so she said when I asked her about it. It said she was ten years older than what she had told me. That didn’t matter, I loved her, but she insisted it was a misprint and she’d get it fixed. She never did, and then I started catching her in lies about her past. I found out she was married twice before and that she had kids she’d never told me about.”

  “What in the world…?”

  “Yeah.” He shook his head. “Then she lied about where she was going during the day because when I called the office, she wasn’t there, but she claimed she was. We stopped having sex, and that concerned me. When I brought it up, she told me that she