Page 75 of Crossed Lines

“Yeah, you better not fuck this up for her,” he says.

“I would never do that. I want her to be there. I want her to finish school and find a job wherever she feels is best. I would never want to hold her back or influence her decisions. I’ve told her that I want her to do what’s best for her. But you were in there trying to get me to hook up with someone, and I can’t do that when my mind and my heart are with Willow.”

He reaches his hands into his hair and tugs on the ends. “Shit, this is so messed up. I trusted you.”

“You can still trust me, Sawyer. I would never hurt Willow.”

He drops his hands and stares at me. “I’m not sure I can trust you at all anymore.”

“Sawyer—”

“No. I need to go. I can’t talk to you right now.”

He doesn’t let me say anything else before he leaves me standing in front of Roadside.

I let him go. I understand that he needs to be away from me right now so he can process this information on his own.

I pull my phone out and call Brooks for a ride. Beck picked me up, so now I’m stranded.

It takes Brooks fifteen minutes to pull up in front of the bar. I climb in, but he doesn’t say a word until I break the silence.

“Sawyer knows about me and Willow,” I say.

Brooks sucks in a breath. “How’d that happen?”

“I told him. He kept trying to get me to hook up with someone, and I just couldn’t.”

“I’m guessing he didn’t take it well?” he asks.

“No, he did not.”

“I’m sorry, man. He’ll come around eventually. Just give him time.”

I nod, but I’m not sure if I believe that. Not after the look I saw on Sawyer’s face.

I need to let Willow know what happened. The last thing I want is for Sawyer to take his frustration out on her. Especially if she doesn’t know where any of it is coming from.

I pull out my phone and click on our text thread.

Beck: Hey baby. I hope you had a good night with your friends. I need to talk to you about something so please call me when you see this. Doesn’t matter what time.

Part of me hopes she’s still awake so we can talk this out together, but looking at the clock, I know I won’t hear from her for awhile.

Brooks pulls up to my house. I quickly thank him for coming out this late to get me.

“No problem, man. I’m here if you need anything, alright? Keep your head up.”

“Thanks, Brooks.”

I know I have a lot of friends. There are plenty of people in my corner. But Sawyer feels like family, and knowing that I’ve hurt him really fucking sucks. Maybe I should’ve kept my mouth shut. Maybe I should’ve flirted a little bit with a random woman just to get him off my case for a bit. But it didn’t feel right. Even if this goes nowhere with Willow, it’s not fair to any other woman for me to lead them on for nothing.

How did I go from having a simple life, just me and Jade, to falling in love with a woman I shouldn’t want and losing my best friend forever? I never would’ve expected this a few months ago, and now for the first time in a long time, I don’t know what the hell to do.

CHAPTER 27

Willow

I’ve been on edge since I woke up and saw Beck’s text. Of course I immediately called him, worried that something had happened to him. He answered after only a couple of rings and gave me the breakdown of what happened with Sawyer the night before.