For Seven Nights Only - Sarah Ballance Page 0,52
saint that he was, but he was clearly ready for her to move on. He clearly wasn’t one to let the sweat dry. Silly her for forgetting it. “And you,” she said, “wanted sex. And you got sex, and well before the seventh date. You said yourself, you don’t go back for seconds, and I don’t want to cramp your style. People might start thinking you’re in an actual relationship or something. And with someone with zero girlfriend potential.”
His eyes burned dark and cold. “Yeah, heaven forbid anyone make the mistake of thinking I goddamned cared about you.”
Hot tears tore at her eyes, but she forced them back.
“I think you’re right,” he said as she stood there, dumbstruck because he’d mentioned her and caring all in one sentence. “Screw date seven. Screw all of this. You clearly don’t need anything else from me.”
“Oh, that’s interesting,” she said, suddenly angry all over again. “Because I don’t know what I’ve gotten except screwed. Dog park? Granted, I hadn’t thought to look for a guy there, but I would have eventually. I proved I’m a damn good dancer, handled the rock wall—and, I might add, you to your great satisfaction—and you braved the opera only to tell me my taste in men sucked and I should only go for guys like you. Then you take me to meet your family, but you didn’t let me talk to your single brothers. But you sure as hell talked to them, didn’t you? Because if I recall correctly, you told them I’m a total waste of time.”
Sawyer paled visibly, but he stood stoically, without saying a word.
As if he had a damned thing to say.
“So you tell me. What exactly have I gotten other than the standard Sawyer Chase fuck-’em-and-leave-’em treatment?”
He didn’t move, his face a damned concrete mask.
“I will give you one thing,” she said. She stomped over to the oven and, using a mitt, snatched the roast from the oven. “This is the best damned roast I’ve ever made, so do me a favor and thank your mother for me, would you? At least she did something for me.”
“I’ll do that.” He leaned to dig through the sofa they’d torn apart and came up with his jacket. “I’m sorry for wasting your damn time. Good-bye, Kelsie.”
“That’s it? No trophy for me for being the most screwed of all your playthings?” Even as she spat the words, she knew she was wrong. She knew there was more. But he didn’t want it, so it didn’t count. And she wasn’t about to fight for a guy who had only ever fought for the right to run.
“Yeah. That’s it.” He spoke quietly. Stared hard. Made it look so final. And over. “That’s all I am and all I do, or have you forgotten?”
“I haven’t forgotten anything, Sawyer. I have no idea how I ever will.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Me, too. Bye, Kelsie. It’s been real.”
Me, too? What the hell was that supposed to mean?
She didn’t get to ask. By the time she’d blinked through the tears that made the room swim and her glasses fog, he’d walked the short distance to the door. He left without a backward glance, slamming the door so hard, the wall shook.
The roast hit the door seconds later. Marmaduke trotted over to sniff it. Then, instead of digging into a very expensive cut of beef, he nudged it aside and sat by the door.
Whimpering.
When it hit her that Sawyer was really gone, Kelsie dropped to the floor and did the same.
Chapter Fourteen
By the evening of Jana’s bachelorette party, Kelsie hadn’t forgotten Sawyer, but she’d at least managed to push him from the forefront of her mind. Mostly. Sort of. Okay, so she thought of little else, but at least the logical side of her brain had come to the conclusion that the sooner she found something else to do, the better.
The problem was she didn’t want to do anything else.
She only wanted to do him.
Which had her thinking she needed to focus a little less on finding something perfect and a little more on living for the moment. Having an eye on her future was one thing…keeping both hands gripped on the wheel and being too terrified to look five degrees to the left was another. She’d been uptight her entire life, and as an adult that had made it almost impossible for her to have any fun. Sawyer made her realize how much she’d missed and that maybe she’d had her eye