The bald bodyguard with sloping shoulders and no neck appears behind Vaughn, holding up the ice cream. Her face lights up like he just presented her with a Harry Winston necklace.
“Oh, I thought we abandoned these.” Vaughn grabs hers. “Thank you so much.”
Daniel, I think, grunts a you’re welcome and then retreats to the second Escalade. Ty holds open the back door, but I can’t move.
My feet are stuck to the ground as I watch Vaughn curl her tongue around the tip like a kitten, scooping the soft serve into her mouth. She closes her eyes, savoring the creamy mix of chocolate and vanilla.
And it might be the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. So hot it melts the ice cream in my own hand.
“You’re leaking,” she says.
“What?”
“Your ice cream is melting and leaking all over your fingers.”
I look down to see that I’ve crushed the cone in my hand and the ice cream is oozing out, just as Vaughn said. Ty reaches over and takes the cone out of my hand.
“You better get in the car.” His words are a warning, but his tone is full of humor. He’ll be mocking me over this for a long, long time.
Vaughn dives inside, somehow managing not to smash her cone against the leather seats. I follow behind her, and Ty has us on the road before Vaughn can get upright and buckle her seat belt. So I reach over and do it for her.
Not because I want to touch her. Nothing like that.
HER
Oakley’s eyes are on fire. Or maybe that’s my skin. The minute his hand touched my hip to grab the seat belt, I swear my entire body lit up—like I’d been dark my whole life and someone just plugged me in.
I hold my breath as he pulls the seat belt across my waist and clips it into place. Did his fingers linger before he pulled away or was that my imagination?
“You’re the one who’s leaking now,” he says in an amused tone. His thumb swipes across one trembling finger to catch a drop of ice cream and then—and then!—he sticks his thumb in his mouth and sucks it clean.
A strange sound—a squeak, really—escapes my throat.
He licks his thumb one more time before settling on his side of the SUV. “I didn’t realize birthday sprinkles were so tasty. I might have to try that topping next time.”
My eyes dart to the back of Ty’s head. “Ty, I—I need to go home. I—I just forgot that I have to be there when the twins get home because they need...permission slips signed for...a field trip.” I turn to Oakley, who’s staring at me from under hooded eyelids. His lower lip looks damp from where his thumb had pressed against it.
Feeling faint, I lean against my window. “I’m sorry about this. I forgot. I’ll make it up to you. I can do another daytime date tomorrow. I’ll even Google some suggestions. Maybe the skate park at Boyle Heights. No, that’s too busy. Um, we could hike somewhere. There’s a place near Griffith Observatory where Paisley likes to run when she wants a change of pace.” The more I babble, the more relaxed Oakley gets.
“Nah. It’s fine, Vaughn. Eat your ice cream before it melts all over your hand.”
Too late.
“Why’d you let that guy take a picture of you?” I ask, providing myself a much-needed distraction from the stomach-curling, toe-numbing feeling that should only be stirred in the presence of W.
“Because I owe it to him and to every other fan who wants my picture. Without them, I’d be Dustin Ford’s kid.”
“You hate it, though.” I could see it if no one else did. The strain around the corners of his fake smile. The tension in his shoulders. The way he tried to avoid the grip of the ice cream server only to have three others descend on him. But he stood patiently without complaint.
And then he waited, as the crowd started moving toward us, for the bodyguard to bring our ice cream. I’d given up on that, figuring it would be another aborted attempt at getting food.
Then he’d looked at me in a way I’d never seen anyone look at me. It scared me and drew me at the same time.
“You gotta do stuff you don’t like sometimes. The life of a celebrity isn’t all glamour and good times.”
No, I guess it isn’t.
At some point in the forty-five minute drive, I finish the cone, and a wet wipe appears miraculously in front of me. I snatch it away from Oakley before he can offer to do the wiping for me. When Ty pulls up to the curb, I open the door but can’t get out. It’s not until Oakley reaches over and unbuckles the seat belt that I realize the harness is restraining me. His palm grazes my thigh as he takes his hand back.
I tumble out in a hurry, trying to avoid those long musician’s fingers of his from touching me again. I swear I hear him laugh when the door closes.
“Thanks, Ty,” I mumble and then run inside the house before he can say a word.
I slam the door shut and lean against it, chest heaving as though I’d just run that Griffith trail Paisley likes so much. I don’t understand where those...flutters came from. Up until the other morning, I’d viewed Oakley as a smug, self-absorbed jerk. And then he called me up and sang to me, and suddenly I’m getting all warm and gooey over him like one of his fangirls.
I want the conceited Oakley back. The one who mocks me about how good he is with his tongue and takes me to a club only to snap at me and ignore me. That Oakley I can handle.
But this one? The one who smolders at me and writes me apology songs? I’m so out of my element here.
“Hey.” Paisley wanders in from the kitchen with a mug in her hands. “How’d the ice cream date go?”
“He touched me,” I blurt out.
She stops abruptly and swings toward me. “Like assaulted you?”
“No. No.” I wave my hand. “My ice cream was melting and he caught a drip of it on his thumb and then he stuck his thumb in his mouth.” I recite the act as if detailing some serious act of pornography. It was R-rated, though.
Paisley looks at me with great concern. “Are you okay? Did you get too much sun?”
I don’t know how to explain this to her. I can’t even explain it to myself. All I know is that Oakley’s rough-tipped fingers brushed my hip. Touched my hand. Skimmed my thigh.
And I liked it way too much.
17
HER
Oakley Ford Verified @VeryVaughn Best ice cream ever today. They should make a flavor called Vaughn. I’d order it every day.
Vaughn Bennett @OakleyFord Would you get Kale sprinkles on it?
Oakley Ford Verified @VeryVaughn Nah, I want the pure Vaughn, straight up, not shaken or stirred.
Vaughn Bennett @OakleyFord Sounds boring.
Oakley Ford Verified @VeryVaughn No way. I had a taste of it today. It was delicious. .1
Oakley Ford Verified @VeryVaughn How about you? Favorite flavor?
Vaughn Bennett @OakleyFord Is this where I say Oakley Ford?
@rubyred342 @OakleyFord I want a flavor called OAKLEY!
@jj_warren33 @OakleyFord @VeryVaughn Get a room
Oakley Ford Verified @VeryVaughn Only if you mean it. Otherwise you’ll hurt my feelings.
Vaughn Bennett @OakleyFord Are we still talking about ice cream?