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“I’ve known Sawyer since he was in high school. I moved next door to his family to help take care of my ailing father.”
Yikes. Were they having an affair all those years? I did know Sawyer’s parents had only been divorced for three years.
She turned my way. “I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no.” Her head lowered. “For many years we were only friendly neighbors. Sawyer used to mow my dad’s yard when he was in high school and when he came home for the summers during college. He was a sweet kid. He would never let me pay him. I didn’t know Josephine well; she spent a lot of time away from home. And Warren and I . . . well . . . he was helpful with doing minor repairs around the house. He knew Dad didn’t have a lot of money and what I earned mostly went toward my dad’s medical bills. We never meant for any of this to happen, though we know we are to blame.” She rubbed her lips together. “We were both lonely and dealing with loss. My father was dying, and his marriage was. We let our emotional connection go too far. For that, I’m ashamed. As far as how long we’ve been together, that’s a hard question.”
I tilted my head. How hard could it be? The math had to be simple.
She looked up and tucked some hair behind her ear. “We only had one, uh . . . physical encounter while he was married.”
That was a nice way of putting it.
“The guilt was too much for us to take,” she continued. “He confessed to Josephine right away. As you can imagine, it spelled the end for them. This sounds awful, but it was a relief for Warren to be out of his marriage. But it devastated him to lose his relationship with Sawyer. Those two were very close. Ashton has been more forgiving, but Sawyer wanted nothing to do with his father. That ate at both of us, so we decided it was best not to see each other. We both hated that our relationship caused so much damage and I think we both wondered with his marriage gone and my father passed away if what we had was even real.”
“Did Sawyer know you broke things off?”
“Warren told him he would do whatever it took to make things right between them, even if that meant not seeing me, but the damage had been done. That was a few years ago.” She gave me a small smile. “You must wonder why we are together now.”
I nodded. Did it make me bad that I was so curious?
“I moved out of my dad’s house after he passed away, but last year, Warren and I literally ran into each other on the ski slopes. I lost my footing and ran smack into him on a black diamond run.”
They must be good skiers to navigate black diamond slopes. I preferred the intermediate blue slopes. “Sounds like something that would happen to me.”
She grinned and nodded. “If you’re not willing to be embarrassed, you’re not really living, right?”
I tilted my head. “That sounds like something my mom would have said.”
Bridget patted my knee. “It’s funny how we still hear them after they’re gone, isn’t it?”
“I hear my mom talking to me so much, sometimes I think I’m crazy,” I admitted.
“I don’t think so. I think the connection between a parent and child is strong, it supersedes death and it feels like death when it’s severed in life.”
Bridget spoke to my heart. I felt that way about both my mother and my father respectively. I glanced at Sawyer and his dad. They must be feeling that same pain. “It must be hard for you and Warren to be together.”
“More than you know. We discovered that day on the slopes and the days after that what we had was real. The best relationship either one of us has ever had, but there were consequences for our wrong choices early on in our relationship. Our happiness will never be complete until we have Sawyer’s blessing.”
My brows raised. “I think that’s a tall order.”
“Maybe impossible.”
“I don’t know. Give it some time. Sawyer has a good heart.”
She squinted, studying me. Then her eyes lit up in an ah-ha moment. “Warren and I would love it if you two would come have dinner with us.”
“Do you live together?” My hand flew to my mouth. “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.”
She wasn’t upset at all, in fact, she smiled. “Don’t apologize. You’re protective of Sawyer. I respect that.” She leaned toward me. “But the answer is no, we don’t.” She blew out a deep breath. “We have no intention of marrying until we can make things right with Sawyer.”
“What if that never happens?”
