And gave their daughters a great example of what you could do if you put your mind to it and kept at it.

He’d been texting his parents pictures all day, wanting them to see Kelly and what she did through the lens of what they already knew. How fantastic their granddaughters were. That was the key, he felt, to bringing his mother around.

Mother to mother.

When he’d left the ranch the day before, he’d had a very strong sense that his mother would really think about everything he’d said. His mom was fierce, hell yes. Always in defense of her family. Kelly had triggered that—rightly or wrongly—from the start.

His mother was also, to her core, loving. Smart. Vaughan trusted she’d find a way to make things right.

In the meantime, he’d continue to have his brothers and their women in his and Kelly’s life. The fact that she was already friends with Tuesday was a positive. It gave them opportunities to hang out and get more comfortable.

He hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to Kelly in detail about any of the stuff that had happened the day before but he’d spoken with the girls and had arranged for their regular sitter to come over that night so he could take Kelly out to dinner.

“Can I help you?” One of the employees came over. He smiled, flirting an automatic reaction.

“Thanks, but no. I’m waiting for Kelly. We’re supposed to meet her here.” He tipped his chin to Maddie and Kensey.

The look she’d been wearing cooled immediately. “Oh. You’re him. She’s here. Just came in through the back.”

He laughed. “I don’t know if I should be flattered or insulted.”

She gave him a long up and down and then shrugged. “Little of both. You do make pretty kids, though.”

“We really do.”

“Mommy! We had so many dumplings at lunchtime.” Maddie ran over to Kelly, who emerged from the back.

Vaughan froze in place at the sight.

The woman he’d been talking to snorted a laugh. “You dumped that. Damn, that must suck.”

Kelly had been working so she looked every inch the part. Model, businesswoman, lover of fashion.

He’d gotten used to her in a ponytail, or even how she dressed when she worked at her Portland store. Put together and beautiful, definitely. Sexy as fuck the night they’d gone out to dinner.

This version was pretty similar to the one he’d first seen.

“The first time I saw her she wore a dress a lot like the one she has on.” This time, too, she showed a great deal of leg. Which was good because she had fantastic legs.

She caught sight of Vaughan and smiled. “I did a resort wear thing for sunglasses and sandals. Got to keep the clothes.”

Her hair had been pulled from her face, but was free in the back and hung in a riot of curls.

“Did you get the curls, too? Will those stay?” Kensey petted Kelly’s hair.

“No, baby. Sorry. They made this with curlers, a ton of product and then a curling rod. I felt bad for the hair people because it took so long.”

“I like it.” Vaughan managed to tear himself free and join them. “You and I have a dinner date. The sitter will arrive in about ninety minutes so we should get going.”

Her smile brightened about a hundredfold. “Sounds good. I still have the car they sent for me earlier. It’s circling around.” Kelly said her goodbyes and they headed back to the apartment.

* * *

KELLY WAS GLAD her makeup looked so fantastic because it suited the dress Kami had given her just a few hours prior. She switched out the headband for a set of pretty pins with red enamel accents.

The dress was done in various tones of gold with the tiniest oxblood-red thread accent at the waist. It wasn’t a dress that played coy at all. The front had a keyhole neckline that dipped low enough that a bra would be impractical. Thank heavens the dress was made for her specifically, because on anyone else, a wrong twist might mean a wardrobe malfunction.

On Kelly, though, it was perfect. Sexy. It showed a great deal of skin, but they’d done some sort of rub-on tan stuff earlier that day so her skin tone was warm and worked with the shades of gold in the dress.

The shoes were the same red as the pins. She might be eleven years older than when she first met him, but she wanted him to always have that look he’d had earlier in her boutique.

This entire outfit was her way of saying to him, don’t you ever forget this is what you have.

Of course, when she got back downstairs as they were getting ready to leave, he’d come down wearing a fucking suit and looking good enough to eat right then and there.

“You guys look so pretty you could be on a book!” Kensey slid past in her socks.

His hair had been tamed back on the sides, but it threatened to do whatever it wanted. She knew in an hour or so it would be messy and yet look utterly calculated by some three-hundred-dollar haircut.

Kelly slid a hand down his tie. “Wow. So this is your A-game, huh?”

He grinned. “How’d I do, Legs?”

“Love this suit. Did you have it in your suitcase?”

“I have a place here, too. We stopped over to grab some of my clothes. You look gorgeous. For real.”

Kelly smiled, warmed by the compliment. It was weird that he had a place in town and she didn’t really think about it until right then. But really nice he’d put his things in the closet.

They kissed the girls and headed out.

“What brought all this on?” she asked as they finally arrived at the restaurant.