I’m caught so off guard that I spill some soup. Broth splashes, then begins dripping off the edge of the table. I catch it with my hands. “Oh no! Napkins, hurry!”
Sawyer chuckles softly and retrieves some paper towels. He carries them over and helps me keep the spill from dripping over the side of the table.
“I’m sorry. Clumsy. I didn’t sleep well.”
“It’s fine.” He finishes cleaning it up, then tosses the towels into the trash can and takes his seat. “Why didn’t you sleep well?”
Aside from dreaming about you all night? “As if you don’t know. Seriously, Sawyer, prank calls are juvenile, even for you.”
A line forms between his brows. “Prank calls?”
“Yeah. Two last night, one the night before. You hung up before I could even answer.”
His expression never shifts toward the humorous ‘I got you!’ that I expected. “I didn’t call you,” he says.
“You didn’t?”
He shakes his head. Sawyer and I have rules of engagement for any pranks. They were necessary after the rotting eggs fiasco a few years ago, when I’d hidden hard-boiled eggs in his shop. The stench was so bad that it even dropped business at my coffee shop. Ever since, when one of us calls the other on a prank, we have to admit it, then assist with cleanup.
So if he says he didn’t do it, then I know it wasn’t him.
“Fantastic. More spammers then. They’re getting desperate.”
“Do they say anything when they call?”
I shake my head and take a bite of soup. “By the time I answer, there’s no one on the line. Likely just bot callers. They do that to test your number’s validity.”
“Hmm.” Sawyer eats some soup.
I take a moment and study him in the bright lights overhead. In the past six months, his body has changed slightly, giving him more muscle definition in his arms.
“So, listen. About the other night. I was upset. Jack leaving hurt, plus I felt so guilty for letting the relationship go on as long as I did, and I took all of that out on you. That wasn’t fair.”
“I was the closest target. And I hurt you. It wasn’t on purpose, but I take responsibility for that.”
“Still, I shouldn’t have treated you the way I did. I should have given you the chance to explain yourself, and I’m sorry.”
I shouldn’t have gotten so close that all I’ve been able to think about is your lips on mine.
I shouldn’t have stoked what I’d hoped was between us, only to weaponize it the way I did.
“I should have explained why I was taking a step back when I did it. After everything Jack risked for us, it felt unfair for me to keep pushing the way I was.”
“Pushing?”
Sawyer takes a deep breath and removes his backward baseball cap to run his fingers through his hair. “I felt like our being so close was putting a wrench in your relationship. I only ever want you to be happy, Anastasia. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Then tell me how you feel. Because I’m starting to believe I won’t be happy until I’m with you.
Chapter 7
Sawyer
She’s here. Finally.
“Well, for the record, you not being in my life doesn’t make me happy,” Anastasia says. There’s still hesitation in her tone, still a wall between us, but it’s thinner now. And that’s progress.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I tell her truthfully. Short of death, there is not a single thing in this world that could tear me away from this woman. Never again. Even if I end up having to stand aside and watch her fall in love—I’ll break my own heart before I break hers again.
