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two words, Josh was telling me we could move on. All of us.
Together.
“Are you going to try this?” I nodded to Sawyer’s wine glass.
She looked down into her glass and sniffed it. I knew she hadn’t been lying about never having tasted wine before when she picked up her glass with two hands and lifted it to her mouth.
The three of us watched her intently.
It was damned adorable the way she looked at me over the rim of her glass like she was asking me if she was doing it right.
I offered her a reassuring nod.
Sawyer took a large gulp and swallowed. She made a face like she’d bitten into something unexpectedly sour. “This,” she looked down into her glass and grimaced, “is really disgusting.”
We all laughed, including Sawyer, and the sound carried over the table and struck me right in the chest.
“You’ve really never had wine before?” Josh asked, pouring herself another glass.
“Nope,” Sawyer said, taking another small tentative sip. “This would be the first time.”
“Oh really? What else haven’t you done before?” Miller wagged his eyebrows suggestively. Josh and I exchanged knowing side glances, Sawyer frowned, not fully understanding his unique brand of innuendo.
“There are a lot of things I haven’t done. Some days I feel like I haven’t done MOST things.” Sawyer leaned forward in her chair.
The breeze picked up and blew a lock of hair in her face and I was mesmerized by the pure beauty that was Sawyer.
Then, as if she was reading my mind, she tucked the strand behind her ear.
“What is on your list? What would you like to do?” Josh asked, steering the conversation back into the PG zone.
Sawyer bit her bottom lip and her eyes lit up. She looked whimsically at the stars as she thought over her answer. “Mostly it’s little things.”
“Like what?” I found myself asking. I sipped my beer, staring at Sawyer over the bottle.
“Well, I’d like to read any book I want without it being approved. Which is why I wish the library was still open. “
“If it were, I’m pretty sure you and Finn would be the only people going there,” Josh said.
“Finn?” she asked, glancing up at me.
“Didn’t you know? Finn here has read like every book ever,” Miller said, stabbing his fork into a cheese cube.
“At least he knows how to read,” Josh muttered.
“I know how to read,” Miller argued, pointing the cheese at Josh. “Maxim has more than just pictures, you know.”
“What else?” I prompted, curious as to what else she could possibly have on her list. What else I could give her.
How else I could make her smile.
“Well, now that I’ve tasted wine…” Sawyer chuckled, taking another sip and grimacing all over again.
“It’s an acquired taste,” Josh assured her.
She smiled and sucked in air through her teeth. “Everything. Everything is on my list. I want to taste and experience everything life has to offer. It’s too short to waste and I’ve spent twenty-one years wasting it.”
“So, you’re saying that you want to commit crimes and rob banks?” I teased.
“Sure, why not?” she answered back. Holding her wine glass without drinking from it.
“Nah, I don’t think you’ve got it in you,” Miller said, with his beer paused at his lips.
Sawyer’s smile was spreading, she set her wine glass down. “I did steal.”
“Really? Oh, this is going to be good. What did you steal?” Josh asked, pouring herself another glass.
Sawyer smirked, popping out the dimple on her cheek. “I stole money from my father. Technically it was the church’s money. I took it before I left.”
“So, what? You took like twenty-bucks from the collection plate?” Miller scoffed, belching loudly.
Josh kicked him under the table.
“Ouch, baby. Next time you’re going to hurt me make sure you do it when we’re naked.”
“Try nineteen thousand dollars from the weekly church donations,” Sawyer corrected, sitting straight in her chair.
I tightened my grip on the arm of my chair and almost spit out my beer.
The table was silent until Josh chimed in. “No way. You’re lying.”
“It’s true. He asked me to make the deposit. Instead, I took it when I left.”
“What did you do with the money?” Miller asked curiously, hanging on Sawyer’s every word.
“On the way here, to Outskirts, I stopped and donated half to a battered women and children’s center and the other half to a suicide prevention call center.” Sawyer started to giggle midway through her sentence, by the time she was done she was in a full-blown bit of laughter.
“Bad ass!” Miller exclaimed, raising his beer in salute before finishing it and slamming it back down on the table.
“What’s so funny?” I asked Sawyer. Laughing along with her although I didn’t know why except that Sawyer’s laugh was infectious.
“I made the donations in my father’s name.”
Then we were all laughing along with her. The sound of Sawyer’s laughter carried straight to my heart where nothing but joy and pride were causing it to beat erratically.
Noticeably absent, was my old friend guilt.
“Wow, that’s ballsy.” Josh gave Sawyer a fist bump, which she awkwardly returned.
Sawyer’s eye caught mine like she was waiting to hear my response to what she’d done. “I’m impressed,” I said.
She beamed.
And I was. My innocent girl had done something that took a hell of a lot of guts. Come to think of it, everything she did took a hell of a lot of guts.
I reached out and grabbed the arm of her chair, sliding it as close to me as possible. I planted a soft but firm kiss on her plump pink lips and looked her right in her eyes, cupping her cheek in my hand. “That’s my girl.”
A throat cleared. “Your girl, huh?” Miller asked, raising his eyebrows.
I answered without breaking eye contact with Sawyer who was still smiling up at me.
“Yeah. MY girl.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Sawyer
My girl.
I was downright giddy when I excused myself to go inside to grab the pie I’d baked. When I came back out onto the deck the three old friends were laughing about some memory from their childhood and although I had no idea what they were talking about I smiled and laughed right along with them. I couldn’t remember ever having this much fun during a meal.
