Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,48
the coffee shop, unwilling to meet his eyes. Even though she was certain she would see sympathy, that wasn’t what she wanted to see from him. Cole gave her sympathy; he gave her enough sympathy to last a lifetime and for that she was endlessly grateful. That was his role in her life – not necessarily the role that either of them would have chosen, but nonetheless the role that he had taken on.
This man, this huge powerful man beside her – she didn’t know what she wanted from him but she knew that it wasn’t sympathy. Indeed, she had no right wanting anything from him when she knew she could never give him anything back. But she knew with absolute certainty that she definitely didn’t want him to leave her life just yet. Absolutely not.
Chapter Fourteen
They got back into Vaughn’s car and Elise was surprised to see him turn towards town rather than follow the coast road back to Indigo and her car.
She looked across at him suspiciously. “Where are we going? My car is back at Indigo.”
“Don’t worry,” he replied “I’ll drop you back for your car later. I thought we could go to my place, it’s not far from here and I thought you might appreciate the peace and quiet. I also figured you probably didn’t want to be alone right now.”
Amazed at the intuition of this man she leaned back in her seat, content to let the hum of the engine and the motion of the car lull her and calm her after her outburst. Relief swept over her as she realised that he was not going to push her out of his life just yet and she became aware of just how drained she was. The way that she was feeling now was way beyond anything that she had ever experienced before. It was like she was watching her life unfold in front of her; powerless to control it, stop it or change it. It was unbelievably scary but in many respects it was hugely liberating. For the first time in nearly five years, she allowed herself to hope. Hope that perhaps things could change for the better and that maybe, with this beautiful man at her side, her life could turn around completely.
Abruptly she stopped her train of thought; she was getting way ahead of herself. Yes, Vaughn desired her - he had said as much - but he really only knew a fraction of her life. He had never mentioned anything other than wanting her and that was always only ever going to be temporary. She was sure that the level of desire they had experienced couldn’t last indefinitely and if she allowed herself to get sucked into his life on that basis, she would have nobody left when it all went wrong. She would have burned her bridges with Dale and she would be left with nothing. She had to remember that. Vaughn was only a band aid; he would never be the cure.
As far as she knew, Vaughn was still single and that concerned her slightly, as she wondered what the reason for that was. Whilst she didn’t know exactly how old he was, she suspected he must be mid thirties and given his looks and money, he surely by now would have been snapped up? On the basis that he hadn’t been, she could only conclude that he wasn’t a forever-type of guy and she needed to realise that if she was going to change her life, she had to do it for herself and by herself. Because she wanted to – not because of anyone else.
Besides which, she was married. Now even she was beginning to forget that fact.
Vaughn glanced at her periodically but chose to remain quiet. Heaven only knew what he was thinking. As they turned onto a lighted street, she looked across at the play of light on his face. This was the second time she had been in a car with him and the second time she had been far too distracted by him. This was getting to be a bit of a habit. What had happened to the girl who only a few hours earlier had been planning to have a sensible conversation with him, sort out their differences and press forward with a working relationship, all the awkwardness forgotten? She had left the building – clearly.
There was no way she was going to feel anything but awkward around him for a while considering