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I started with spreadsheets since that tied into my job and all the data I constantly analyzed that for some reason brought me ridiculous amounts of joy. From there we moved on to soccer, which turned into a full-blown sports conversation. He was more of a football and hockey guy. We ended up talking about lots of different subjects, including our families. He had an older brother and his parents were divorced. Like me, he was also a lover of the great outdoors and his favorite food was pancakes. I could get on board with that. He sounded intelligent, unmarried, and supposedly had never been arrested, which made me wonder what was wrong with him. But the more I talked to him the more I liked him, even at two in the morning when I could barely keep my eyes open, but neither one of us was in any hurry to end the call. For me it was like talking to your best friend who you never knew existed, and all you wanted to do was catch up with him.
However, I did have to be at the plant at six. I hated to end our marathon call that was only paused when I had to pee—twice. Eight hours is a long time. “I suppose I should tell you the secret to walking on water and let you get some sleep.” I yawned, already curled up in my bed. I had even brushed my teeth while he seduced me with tales of disgusting eye appointments, like removing parasites from patients’ eyes.
“Wait,” he sounded panicked.
“You don’t want to know?”
“I do . . . but I want you to tell me in person.” He paused. “Would you like to go on a date?”Chapter OneOne Year Later
Sawyer rested his hand on my thigh under the crowded table while I thanked my lucky stars that he picked a firm spot. A few inches up and it would have been more like Jell-O with a massive dollop of whipped cream. While his touch made my heart skip an entire song’s worth of beats, I stared up into his amber eyes that always managed to play between mischievous and charming schoolboy. I resisted reaching up and running my hands through the curls in his dark hair that danced above his ears. As if he knew I wanted to, he flashed me his pearly whites that tinged in the low lighting of Sage Café, one of our favorite hangouts. For a few blissful seconds, only he and I existed. What I wouldn’t have done to stay in our own little world. We could have called it Sawma, Emyer, or Semma. Any combination of our names would do, as long as it was only a population of two.
Sawyer gave my thigh a little squeeze. “How was your day, Em?”
Instead of my fingers frolicking through his beautiful locks, I ran my hand through my sweaty, matted down hair that was once referred to as the color of dirt by a date. The hard hat required at work and then soccer practice in the summer sun hadn’t done much for my medium length mop. “It was—”
“Y’all are so cute,” an alluring Southern accent interrupted. The new office manager at the eye center where Sawyer worked, with her perfect figure and gorgeous blonde hair, sat across from us. Sawyer had invited her to our monthly dinner with friends, to my dismay. “How long have you two been together?” Shelby, I believed was her name, asked with a hint of disappointment.
Sawyer removed his hand from my thigh in a hot second and without even thinking we both scooted our chairs away from each other.
Kellan, Sawyer’s best friend since high school, grabbed his midsection and laughed. “They aren’t a couple.” He pointed between Sawyer and me. “But for siblings they’re pretty cute.” Kellan smirked.
Jenna gave me a sympathetic grin from across the table while I tried to hide my cringe.
“Brother and sister?” Shelby, who now was getting excited, asked.
“Stepbrother and stepsister.” Kellan was happy to clarify for her through his fits of laughter.
Sawyer cleared his throat before reaching for his ice water. “Em and I are friends.”
Ugh. The dreaded F-word. The past year’s events had landed me smack dab in the middle of not only the friend zone, but also the twilight zone. All I could say was my last name had struck again. This time with a freaking vengeance.
I flagged down our server. “More Dr. Pepper, please. And keep them coming.” I needed a sugar coma, stat. Might as well waste all the calories I’d burned during my five-mile run earlier this morning and the running I’d done with my girls during soccer practice.
Shelby leaned forward and put her hand on the table in front of Sawyer. I took notice of her long, tan, delicate, and manicured fingers. One finger stuck out. The wedding one had a stark white tan line around it. Huh? Was she recently off the market? She wasn’t exactly acting like it.
