was a big huge fake. He deserved to know what a fake I was, but how did I go about explaining to him I put on a show for him, for my parents, for the whole dang town? I couldn’t tell Sawyer anything. Word got around fast in a small town. My mother would be devastated. My dad would be furious. I’d hurt them both and for what? A guy who didn’t even care enough to respond to me when I broke things off with him? My heart had been breaking and he had been texting someone. Probably Nicole. The thought of Beau with Nicole made me nauseous.
Picking up my phone for the thousandth time since I’d left Beau’s, I checked to see if he had texted me. It was pointless. He wasn’t going to. I’d seen the look in his eyes. He hadn’t fought me. It didn’t make sense. Before I’d pushed him away he was ready to tell Sawyer himself, and he knew how Sawyer was going to react. Had he just been trying to ease my guilt? Had I just given him an easy out? Had he realized he wasn’t really in love with me but the idea of me? Tears welled up in my eyes. Pulling my knees up to my chest I buried my head against them and cried silently. Nothing would ever be the same. I’d ruined myself. My heart would always belong to someone who didn’t want it and Sawyer would be wasting his love on someone who didn’t deserve it. He deserved so much more than a girlfriend who wanted someone else.
The doorbell rang and I sat there listening as Sawyer came inside and talked to my father. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I headed to the bathroom to clean myself up before I went downstairs to greet him and pretend like I was okay.
“Here, let me clean this up. You haven’t seen Sawyer in weeks. Go on ahead and go. I know you want to spend some time together.” This wasn’t my dad. He normally wanted us to stay right here under them or at least out on the front porch. Rarely did he encourage us to go off and spend time together. Apparently he was more worried about Beau than I’d thought. But then he had reasons to be worried about Beau. Maybe it was parents’ intuition.
Sawyer stood up with his plate and cup in hand, always the gentleman. Not only does he clean up his spot at the table, he also loads his used dishes in the sink. Samantha Vincent had trained her son well. Or at least that was what Mom always said.
“Thank you both for dinner. It was delicious.” Sawyer smiled at both my parents then turned to me and winked before taking his dishes to the dishwasher. He wasn’t as tall as Beau. I’d never really paid attention to that before. They had so many similarities in their appearance but then they were so different. Sawyer’s dark brown hair was long enough that it brushed his collar and curled along the ends. His lips weren’t as full as Beau’s but his shoulders were broader. They’d always joked that he had the stronger arm when it came to throwing a football but Beau had the stronger arm when it came to throwing a punch. I glanced down at Mom who was smiling the silly happy smile she gets when Sawyer’s around. The guilt in my chest grew. She would never smile over my being with Beau.
“Such a good boy,” she said.
I forced my hundredth smile of the night and nodded. Sawyer walked up beside me and took my hand.
“I’ll have her home by eleven, sir,” he said, looking at my dad.
“Oh don’t worry about the time. I know you two have a lot of catching up to do.”
Sawyer appeared as surprised as me. If I didn’t know better I’d think Dad was popping some of Mom’s anxiety pills.
The moment Sawyer closed the door to his shiny one-year-old Dodge truck he reached over and took my hand to pull me up beside him. There was no stick shift in the way in Sawyer’s truck.
“God, I’ve missed you,” he whispered before grabbing my face and kissing me softly on the mouth. It was just as nice as I’d remembered. Sweet and gentle and very comfortable. I reached up and threaded my fingers through his thick hair and tried out some of my new kissing moves on him to