AllFreeNovel
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“Okay. Yeah. It’s just...”
“Sawyer,” he interrupts me gently. “Don’t overthink it.”
“I can’t help it. Isn’t this weird for you? Having me and Mom move in here when they’ve only been together a few months?”
“They’re in love.” He makes it sound like that justifies everything.
“They can be in love and not live together. We could’ve rented an apartment or something after selling our house.” I glance nervously around the room, avoiding his eyes.
“This place is too big for two people. Besides, I like the idea. Now Pop won’t be alone when I go to college next year.”
“So, you don’t find this weird at all?” It’s hard to keep the skepticism out of my voice.
“Why, is it weird for you?” He cocks his head to the side.
“Yes.” I wring my hands in my lap. “I don’t like being a burden and now I will be.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know they’re going to make you drive me to school. And practice. You’ll have to share a bathroom now. And…” I can’t finish that thought, because I get sidetracked by the idea of sharing a room where we’re both naked. That feels way too personal. Dangerous even, considering the way my heart sort of races when Wes is around. I’m torn between praying he doesn’t walk out in just a towel and hoping he does.
“I’m going to school and practice anyway so driving you is no problem. Or you can now that you finally have a license. I still can’t believe you didn’t do that right when you turned sixteen.”
“I didn’t have anywhere to be.” Climbing the social ladder isn’t high on my list of priorities.
“That’s no excuse. Seriously though, you won’t be a burden.”
“Maybe not for hitching a ride, but all the things you used to have to yourself you have to share now.”
He lifts and lowers his shoulder. “That’ll happen at school next year anyway, might as well learn how to do it now. Does sharing bother you?”
“Never had to do it before,” I say offhand. “And it’s your space we have to share.”
“Let’s stop with the ‘yours’ or ‘mine’ stuff. Now it’s ours.” He gives me a reassuring smile, and this time it’s my heart that flutters. He needs to stop being so nice or these butterflies will turn into a full-on crush.
“Okay, but should we have rules or something? So, we don’t get in each other’s way?”
“Like a bathroom schedule?” He throws his head back and laughs. “You’re overthinking again. Come on, let’s go get the rest of your stuff.”
Wes pulls me up from the bed and slings his arm around my shoulder in what I think is supposed to be a brotherly gesture, but my body tenses involuntarily at the electricity I feel under his touch. Unfortunately, this body belongs to the guy who I’ll probably end up related to one day, which makes the electricity a dangerous reaction.
This is shaping up to be a long year.
Wes
"Youdon’twanttodrive?” I ask Sawyer as we grab our bags and head out the front door.
“Not today.” She shakes her head.
“What are you worried about?” I hear the hesitation in her voice. “Not that video still. I told you it’s taken care of.”
Over the summer, not long after Sawyer and I first met, a trespasser captured a private moment between our parents on video, and it went sort of viral. They were at a remote cabin in the woods, and shouldn’t have been visible to anyone. It was sheer luck the video didn’t catch their faces, so no one knows it was them. It’s long since been taken offline, but knowing it existed and that our classmates had seen it did a number on Sawyer. I thought she was over it, but maybe not.
“It’s not that.” She sighs as she opens the door. “I know people moved on to other news, butwe’regoing to be the news as soon as we show up together. I don’t like being the subject of everyone’s conversations.”
I want to reassure her that things will be fine, but she has a point. As a senior and a football player, I’m pretty well known at the school, and it won’t go unnoticed that I’ve got a new passenger. That will be news for a while, but it’s not the only thing that will make her anonymity disappear.
Sawyer somehow managed to avoid notice last year as a freshman who didn’t get involved in anything but the running team. That won’t happen this year, and not just because of me. She’s becoming one of the top runners on the team, her classes are no longer confined to the freshman wing of the school, and anyone who hears her last name will connect her to her father. But the biggest threat to her anonymity is the girl herself. She’s too beautiful to fade into the background, no matter how much she might want to.
