AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The good news is,” Miller looked up to me. “You’ll be fine. Your pulse is a little high. My guess is that you have a mild concussion at the most. You can get your head scanned at the ER in Bellville if you want a second opinion.”
“I think I’ll be all right,” I said, already feeling better.
“What’s the bad news?” Finn came around to stand on the other side of the bed.
Miller kept his eyes on me. “The bad news is that you’re in Finn Hollis’s bed when you should be in mine.”
r /> We both chuckled. I couldn’t say the same for Finn.
Miller packed up and Finn walked him out, leaving the door open. They were talking in hushed tones by the door. Finn periodically glanced up and over to me and I found myself staring at his lips.
The lips that had been on mine.
I wondered if everyone’s first kiss felt that way. Like they were going to jump out of their skin because suddenly a simple touch wasn’t a touch anymore, but something that penetrated deep down beyond the surface.
No wonder kissing was such a big deal.
Because IT FELT like a big deal.
Finn was a lot of things. Highly irritable. Exasperating. A complete storm of negativity. But he was also selfless when it came to rescuing me and great at distraction.
So great in fact, that while he was kissing me, I’d almost forgotten that he hated me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Finn
I’ve met lot of girls in my life.
A. Lot.
Yet there was something so different, so distinctive about Sawyer.
I hadn’t slept. I couldn’t. I couldn’t stop thinking about her body and the way it fit perfectly against mine. She smelled like the lavender fields my grandfather used to own.
She was fragile but strong as nails all at the same time. There was a strength in her fear. A determination I admired.
And I’d kissed her.
Twice.
I’d wanted to do a lot more.
Her lips. Fuck. Her beautiful pink lips against mine made me ache to taste more of her. All of her.
Her slight hesitation and obvious inexperience only made me want to teach her.
Show her things.
The first time I kissed her, I told myself it was just supposed to be a distraction to ease her shaking. To keep her awake. The second time was for no other reason than because I couldn’t NOT kiss her again. When her body softened against mine, a caveman style surge of triumphant desire pumped through my veins.
I had to resist this overwhelming need to claim her. Mark her.
Make her mine.
She’s not yours. She can never be yours.
And it wasn’t just a need to take her body that I was fighting. It was a different kind of desire that made me pause.
The desire to want to live.
The connection between Sawyer and I was like this tangible thing around us. I’d never felt anything like it.
Not even with Jackie.
Jackie.
Then came the inevitable guilt that usually twisted my gut until I felt real physical pain at the thought of moving on without her.
Most of the time it was paralyzing, but in bed with Sawyer it wasn’t screaming in my ear as it usually did. Instead, it was merely a whisper in the background.
Josh had said Sawyer had been through a lot. I didn’t know what, but the way she acted like I was going to hurt her in her camper that first night gave me a good idea.
Yet, Sawyer was still out there doing all she could to have a life. In a strange town. With strange people. All alone.
And then there was me. Doing all I could to throw my life away and forget I ever had one.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sawyer
When I woke up in Finn’s bed the morning’s first light had yet to make an appearance.
I’m alone?
My lips were still swollen from Finn’s kisses. It was the only way I knew what had happened was real.
My stomach flipped. My mind raced.
I sat up slowly, holding the sheet over my breasts, tucking it under my arms.
Finn’s room was small, just large enough for the simple queen-sized bed and a tiny dresser. The sheets were navy blue and soft and so was the matching blanket.
There was no closet, just a stack of folded clothes, mostly jeans and undershirts on the floor next to the dresser.
Thin strips of white slatted wood made up the walls, running horizontally around the room. Some of the strips were broken in places. Some were missing completely exposing the sheets of wood separating the inside of the house from the outside.
I got up slowly, taking the sheet with me, waiting for a moment before attempting to take a step.
No pain.
No dizziness.
I grabbed one of his shirts from the pile and tugged it on. It was huge, covering my thighs completely.
The coffee table had an empty whiskey bottle laying on its side. The walls were the same slatted wood as in the bedroom which was the only bedroom from what I could see.
A small three cushion sofa sat in the middle of the room. There was no TV, but in the corner, was a stack of well-read paperbacks right next to a shotgun and a tall fishing pole leaning up against the wall.
There wasn’t a single picture or knick-knack to be found. Nothing personal at all. The old hard wood floors were stain and polish free. They creaked as I stepped over them through the tiny kitchen that could barely be classified as a kitchen with only a two-burner stove and a mini fridge on top of a base of cabinets with no doors and a few drawers. A single shelf lined the wall above and the only thing it held was dust.
Unlike my camper which was…
My camper!
I sprinted to the front door and ripped it open. The sun had just peeked above the tops of the trees, a big beam of its first rays illuminated the pile of twisted metal that used to be my home.
“No!” I darted across the lawn and slid to a stop before I crashed right into it.
All around the camper was everything I owned. My new clothes
