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“Oh, well, I hope they can help you. Not that we won’t miss your Elvis impressions at the weddings here.”
He laughed. “I’m trying to find something that will allow me to do both.”
“Great.”
He reached around me to get the door.
“Wait. I wanted to talk to you about something.”
He gave me his full attention. “Shoot.”
I bit my lip. “This might be kind of awkward.”
He gave me a devilish smile. “I love awkward.”
“All right then. It’s just, I noticed at the family barbecue a couple of weeks ago that you and Macey left together and—”
He placed his hands on my shoulders. “Let me stop you right there. First of all, she’s my stepsister,” he smirked, “not to mention she’s a kid.”
I’m glad he recognized that. I nodded.
“She came back to the bunkhouse with me because I had an old vinyl of Frank Sinatra she wanted to borrow.”
I didn’t even know Macey knew who that was. Maybe she was using it for some inspiration for this godforsaken dance I was thinking about not attending. “Oh, okay.”
He patted my shoulders. “Don’t worry, sis, I would never do anything to hurt this family or make it awkward.” He gave me a wink.
Yeah, I suppose dating your stepsibling would be the definition of awkward. Too bad that was one awkward situation I would never find myself in.Chapter FourteenI sat outside of Sawyer’s dad’s house in my car waiting for Sawyer to show up. I was so embarrassed. Who had forgotten that she said she would bring a pasta salad? That would be me. So now I was late and bringing store-bought pasta salad. Sawyer was late too, which, on top of being embarrassed, had me worried. He was never late, and he wasn’t answering my texts or calls, which had never happened before either. I was hoping he’d run long with a patient and that’s all it was. I knew he wasn’t thrilled about coming back to his old home, but surely he wouldn’t just not show up or let me come by myself. Besides being worried that he was lying dead somewhere on the highway, I thought maybe his mom had gotten ahold of him and tried to convince him how awful I was. I wouldn’t put it past her. Because of her, my sisters were turning their backs on me.
I’d cried forever last night at Mom’s grave after talking to Frankie, who was on the brink of quitting. Josephine had decided to hire a catering company out of Edenvale to take care of the food for the black-tie affair in the barn instead of Frankie. She’d obviously never had one of those raspberry lemon filled cupcakes of Frankie’s. It was a shame. Maybe if she ate some sugar, she’d be nicer. Doubt it. Frankie mentioned that Josephine had been prancing around the Ranch calling herself the Lady of Carrington—not just of the Ranch, all of Carrington.
I stared out the window of my car and it hit me how the house Sawyer grew up in was quite simple and in a very middle-of-the-middle-class neighborhood. The house was a one-story brick rambler. It was cute with yellow shutters and a well-kept yard with peonies and pansies. It looked cheerful, the exact opposite of Josephine. It looked more like my mom. Looking at the house made me wonder how Josephine came off all high and mighty. She’d acted as if where she lived now was a downgrade. As far as I knew, she was living in an apartment before she met my dad. I had to say I found it odd that she hadn’t ended up with this house.
I picked up my phone to call Sawyer again. I was sure I had seen Bridget peek out the window. Before I could press his pretty face on speed dial, my phone rang. It wasn’t Sawyer, but the eye center number. I immediately answered.
“Hello.”
“Hey, sugar, it’s Shelby.”
Oh, good, my favorite peeing partner. I’d had to take her like four times our last day camping. For some reason she felt more comfortable if I was there.
“Hey, Shelby.” I tried to keep any derision out of my voice. After all, Sawyer said she wasn’t his type and he had seemed to rebuff her advances on Sunday by declining a walk with her into the woods. The same woods where Jenna and Brad had become one with nature. So maybe the goddess really hadn’t caught his eye. I know that didn’t help my chances, but it would be much easier to be friends with someone who wasn’t going to get my happily ever after.
“Sawyer gave me your number. He’s real sorry but we have had a day here and it’s still going on. We’re dealing with an infection, a foreign object or two, and some double vision. Sawyer wanted me to tell you that he will meet you as soon as he can for dinner, but it’s going to be awhile.”
