Delayed Call Read online

  When Vaughn looked up to check on Wren’s status, he saw her coming toward them before she threw the receipt on the table and glared. “You can go wait for the food.”

  She sat down slowly, and he noticed she was a bit pale. “You okay there, Wrenny?”

  Annoyed, she let out a long sigh. “My nickname stayed in Colorado. Leave it there, please.”

  He grinned as he leaned on his hands. “But I love it, so hush and tell me when we’re getting married.”

  Jensen gasped beside him, and Vaughn laughed as Wren rolled her eyes. “He does this all the time. He ‘thinks’ we need to get married because we fight like a married couple, but that’s because he’s annoying as fuck,” she explained to Jensen, but he wasn’t listening. Jensen was pissed at him, but Vaughn didn’t care. Wren was his buddy, and he liked messing with her.

  “Oh.” Jensen looked away just as their number was called.

  “I’ll get it.” Jensen stood, and Wren watched him walk away before looking back to Vaughn.

  “What’s up with your butt buddy?”

  “Um, whoa, we aren’t butt buddies. We are besties, duh,” he corrected, and she rolled her eyes once more. He was starting to hope her eyes would get stuck. That’s what she deserved. “He’s adjusting, and he doesn’t like me flirting with you.”

  She scrunched up her face. “You flirt with rocks. No one takes you seriously.”

  Vaughn paused. “Really? And no, I don’t.”

  “You flirted with the ninety-year-old aunt of my best friend just to get an extra piece of cake.”

  “Wren, it was strawberry. I love strawberry cake,” he said simply, and she laughed as Jensen came to the table, setting the food down. “Who got soup?”

  “I did, loser. I’m not feeling well.”

  Jensen looked up at them, concern filling his eyes. “Are you okay, Wren?”

  She shrugged. “My gut is acting up, and I feel like roadkill.”

  “Ew, get your disease away! I’ve got a game tomorrow.” Vaughn then covered his food as Wren laughed, stirring her soup slowly. He found that weird; Wren wasn’t the kind of girl to skip a meal. She loved food the way he did.

  “I was going back to my place, but you told me to get your food. So now, I share my death with you.”

  “You’re mean,” he called to her, and she grinned as she sipped on her soup.

  “Not the first nor the last time you’ll say that to me.” With a grin, she looked over to Jensen. “So how’s life, Jensen?”

  Vaughn scoffed at Wren using his full name; no one used Jensen’s full name. “Wren, it’s Jenny. Come on.”

  She shot him a bored look. “What is with you and making everyone a ‘ny’? Wrenny, Jenny, Welly. Why don’t you just call us by our real names?”

  He shrugged as Jensen cleared his throat. “’Cause that’s how Nathan did it.”

  Vaughn didn’t have to look up to know that Wren regretted her question. He knew she did, especially when she muttered, “Yeah, I forgot. Sorry.”

  Looking up, he smiled. “No big. But to answer your question, Jenny has no life.”

  Jensen scoffed even as he nodded. “He’s sort of right.”

  Meeting her gaze, Jensen looked like an eager puppy, begging for a bone or at least some scraps. Why he couldn’t just tell her how he felt would always be a mystery to Vaughn. Jensen had known her as long as Vaughn had, and he had no problem professing his love to his friend. It wasn’t the same way Jensen felt, but still, they were friends. Though, Jensen wasn’t a very touchy-feely kind of guy. He kept a lot of stuff locked up inside. He hadn’t even really liked Vaughn until he gave him no choice but to love him.

  That was how it usually went with everyone, though.

  Why was he thinking of Brie?

  Damn it.

  Shaking his head, he looked up as Jensen smiled at Wren. “How’s your life?”

  “Well, I’m alive, and I’m working like mad.”

  “Don’t overwork yourself.”

  She laughed. “Yes, Father. He said the same thing.”

  “Smart man.”

  “You always had a thing for my dad.”

  “He’s a good man, but your mom is my favorite. Her apple pie is perfection.”

  Vaughn nodded. “Best apple pie ever. Think we can get her to make us some when we go to Colorado?”

  “I’m sure. You know she spoils the hell out of you guys. It’s annoying. I’m her only daughter, but she loves the hellion down the road and the billet kid more than me.”

  “That’s ’cause we love her apple pie,” Vaughn insisted, and Jensen laughed.

  “What he said.”

  “Losers.”

  They both grinned as she rolled her eyes. Biting into his chicken, Vaughn couldn’t wipe the grin off his face as he chewed. Wren never wanted to hang out. She was a homebody, and that was very annoying. He would go over to her house, but she would never invite him. They hardly saw each other unless they were on the Assassins’ compound, which wasn’t even that much except when she forced him into therapy. “So what’s going on with you?”

  Looking up, she shrugged. “Nothing.”

  “Dating anyone?”

  She glared at Vaughn. “No. I don’t date.”

  Her words visibly deflated Jensen. Though, Vaughn was sure she didn’t notice. “You’re weird.”

  She shot him a look. “Because you’re dating?”

  “Hey, I embrace my weird.”

  Laughing, she shook her head. “I don’t have time.”

  “Jenny thinks there is something wrong with us.”

  Her brow perked at that, and Jensen looked at Vaughn like he’d grown seven more heads. “What do you mean?”

  They both turned to Jensen, who basically wanted to die. But if no one did anything to get the guy to talk, he would be mute. Stuttering, he cleared his throat and then shrugged. “I figure, by now, we should all be settled down. Wells is with someone. Meanwhile, we three are just floating through life, my failed attempt at marriage notwithstanding.”

  Her brows pulled together. “So? People are dumb, and love is complicated.”

  “But sex is great,” Vaughn said before pointing at her.

  “I can get sex without the love or even talking to anyone.”

  “And she called me a playboy,” Vaughn muttered, and Jensen scoffed.

  “You are,” they both said at the same time, which Vaughn glared at.

  “If I am, then Wren is a slut.”

  “She is not,” Jensen disagreed, but Wren shrugged.

  “Hey, if that’s what you want to call someone who doesn’t want a relationship but loves to bang, then that’s me.”

  Leaning on his hand, Vaughn held her gaze. “Then why don’t we bang?”

  He could feel Jensen glaring but ignored him as Wren laughed. “Because, despite how I act otherwise, I care about you. I love you as a brother, and I wouldn’t ruin that with sex.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I wouldn’t sleep with you.”

  “Yes, you would,” they both said, and Vaughn laughed.

  “Probably.”

  “Because you’re a playboy, just like Brie said,” Jensen said, and Vaughn was pretty sure he said it just as a jab. Jensen was tiptoeing the line of getting his ass beat by his best friend.

  Wren’s ears perked up at the name as she looked to Vaughn. “Brie Soledad?”

  “Yeah, I think she’s my new neighbor,” he grumbled and Jensen smiled.

  “She doesn’t like him.”

  Wren laughed. “I knew I loved that girl. She’s awesome.”

  “She’s a bitch.”

  “See, she’s my people.”

  “He just doesn’t like that he likes her.”

  Vaughn glared over at Jensen. “What the fuck, dude?”

  “Aw, does Vaughny have a crush?”

  He scowled at her teasing. “One, my name doesn’t sound good like that, and second, Wrenny, I don’t crush on anyone but you, my love.”

&nbs