Page 31 of One Night with Number Nineteen

Nor from clipping out, “Goodnight.”

It’s a dismissal. A bitchy one at that.

Sawyer just nods, and says, “Lock up behind me, Pages.”

I nod, dry my hands on a towel.

But by the time I make it to the door, he's already gone, his car pulling away.

Heart squeezing, insides twisting, I flip the lock.

I’m exhausted and I want to go up to bed, want to sleep for twelve hours straight…or maybe for an eternity.

But the whole reason Ollie’s sleeping over at Veronica’s is so I can get ahead of the Christmas prep.

So, I spend the next hours wrapping presents from me (and from Santa), and prepping the dough for cinnamon rolls I’ll bake off tomorrow, and making sure I have gifts for everyone in the Grizzlies family. It’s my first big holiday with them and I want it to be special for them too, want to show them how much it means for me and Ollie to be so welcomed.

But even as I finish with all of that, I move on to a hundred other unnecessary things—I plot a book that I'm never going to write, I dust the ornaments on the Christmas tree, I scrub at nonexistent dust on the baseboards, fluff pillows that don’t need fluffing…

I just generally keep myself busy until I'm so exhausted I fall into bed.

And just as I'm about to close my eyes, I remember that my car is still at the bookstore.

Dammit.

But exhaustion is pulling heavily at my mind, my body.

So, I decide that's a Tomorrow Lainey problem.

Unfortunately, Tomorrow Lainey doesn’t realize how many more problems she’s going to face.

Nine

Sawyer

“Yo, Cupcake!”

I jerk, nearly brain myself on the steering wheel and look out the window…

And realize I’m fucked.

By the looks of it, half my team—and their women—are standing outside my car, peering in through the glass…where I was sleeping outside Lainey’s house.

Shit.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Get your ass out here!” Smitty booms.

Mistakes were made last night after I took care of my mom. When I Ubered home after dropping off Lainey’s car here, I should have stayed home.

Instead, I kept thinking about the fear in Lainey’s eyes as I reached for the door handle…and the mania in the man’s from the parking lot.

And somehow, instead of going home, I drove back here.

And stayed here.

Instead of doing the sensible thing like letting Gray and Faye know what happened and⁠—