AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’ll head back to your place. You leave first and wait for me by my car. I’ll be there soon and drive you home.”
“Because we don’t want anyone to see us, do we?” Birdie said as a heavy pain settled in her chest.
“It’s best this way. Go. I’ll be there soon.” He opened the door and nudged her out.
Birdie walked out of the Circle Left and into the parking lot.
“You heading for home, Birdie?”
She found the Matildas heading to their car.
“I am, but I’m not sure how I’m getting there,” Birdie said. “I know it’s the opposite way for you, but could you—”
“Of course. We’ll take you,” June interrupted her. “Get in the car, dear.”
She was soon driving away from the Circle Left with June and Bart and a heavy heart. Because she cared for Sawyer Duke, and he could never reciprocate.
When her phone rang, she saw it was him. Rather than answer it, she texted him she was getting a lift home with Bart and June. Then she turned it off.
It was time, she thought when she was home and settled on the sofa in her pj’s. Time to leave Lyntacky for a while, or at least until she could look at the man she loved again without wanting to cry.
She needed to do this because finally she was thinking about herself, and no one was going to change her mind.
Chapter32
Fear had been Sawyer’s instant reaction when he’d reached his pickup and Birdie wasn’t there. Her text told him she was safe which eased some of the tension inside him, but not all.
Sawyer had gone back into the Circle Left and spent another hour with his family to tell himself that Birdie McAllister wasn’t important to him.
He even danced with Nina, who was well gone on whatever she’d been drinking and falling all over him. He felt nothing.
If Birdie ended this, he’d walk away and get on with his life. In fact, it was probably better if she did. Sawyer was thinking about her far too much.
“Don’t turn your back on something if it’s good, Sawyer. Don’t have regrets because of what happened in LA.”His brother’s words were on repeat inside his head.
Birdie had called herself a dirty little secret. She’d never be that to him, but then what was she? He was none the wiser when he finally headed home after dropping off his drunk-assed brothers and Nina.
It was now 3:00 a.m., and he was back in his pickup driving to her cottage because he couldn’t sleep and needed to see her. Refusing to analyze what that meant, he parked in his usual place outside her house.He had a usual place.Then headed up the front steps. Opening the door, he shot a look at the lock that had no key.
If I was her man, I’d do something about that.
He found Birdie curled up on the sofa with her cat, sleeping. So small and vulnerable, she made him ache for something he hadn’t ached for in a long while. Something he’d promised himself never to want again.
She was too sweet for someone like him.
A lamp was on, and he saw a bottle of aspirin and another full glass of water on the small table before her. There was also a notebook and pen, plus her laptop.
“Birdie.” He touched her cheek, and her eyes opened.
“Sawyer? What are you doing here?” She rubbed her eyes, looking like Ally did in the morning when she stayed at his house.
“Why didn’t you wait for me to take you home?”
“The Matildas offered.”
“I was worried about you.”
“Why? I texted you a reply when you asked where I’d gone.”
