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Of course it was. Once again, I was reduced to being Nate Sawyer, son of Jim Sawyer—may his soul suffer eternally—and nobody looked twice at a Sawyer unless they were a cop, a debt collector, Old Man Hank, or their last name was Kane. I knew my place in the hierarchy. I never used to resent that because Xavi made me feel important, but now… a split was on the horizon, and it made my insecurities even more insecure about themselves.
“What about him?”
“Well, I was wondering if… wait. Do you remember me?” she asked.
I looked at her harder, trying to figure out where I recognized her from. I wobbled my head to say yeah and nah together, and she laughed.
“In grade nine, you stood watch behind Nina Brigham’s barn while—”
“You blew Xavi for the first time!” Iah-ha’d. “Fuck yeah. I knew you looked familiar.” I laughed. How could I forget the night my bestie got his first blowie? “Callie, right?”
“Yeah.” She smiled, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I moved away after that, but I’m back now.”
And threatening my position with Xavi. Enemy status, engaged. “And interested in Xav, I take it?”
“I hear he’s single.”
He’s mine, bitch.“Yeah.”
“How would you feel about making the re-introductions less awkward?” she asked.
Honestly, babe, I’m feeling pretty nope about it. But mature me would always be Xavi’s biggest supporter, and the last thing I wanted to do was love-block him. If she was his person, it’d crush my soul and turn me into a Jim Sawyer, but the price would be worth it for Xavi’s happiness.
“How about now?” I held out my hand for her. He’d always liked thick thighs.
Probably why I was so self-conscious of my own.
CHAPTER6
XAVI
Fuck Natefor conning me into a dinner with a blast from my past. He’d dropped her off in front of me, chased off my company, and then abandoned me. All I’d wanted to do was go after him, but I was Xavi, and I’d never been allowed to be the asshole in the family. Maddox claimed that title without asking my opinion on it, so I’d stayed to chat with her so I didn’t come across as a dick.
Somehow, that led to dinner, and now that dinner was ending, and she seemed to be expecting things, and I was not overly enthused about doing them.
It was damn near ten on a random weeknight, and Callie was waiting for an invite back to my place. No time like the present to start acting mature to prove I wasn’t some irresponsible prick who didn’t take anything seriously.
“I gotta work early.”That’s what responsible people said, right?“We own the shop now, and you know how it is, you know?” Shit. I really did need to find a new way to end a sentence. “But this was fun, yeah?”
“Yeah. It was nice to catch up. Maybe we can do it again sometime?”
Fuck, she was pretty. But her brown hair wasn’t Nate Sawyer blond, and her dark eyes were so far off his bright blue ones, and yeah, I’d always had a thing for thick thighs, but Nate’s lean, toned ones were…Snap out of it, Xavi!
“Sure.” I gave her my number and called myself a liar. With an awkward hug and a smile, I hopped in Nate’s truck and tried to act cool. Which didn’t work because the damn thing wouldn’t start, and Callie stood there judging me.
“She takes a few tries,” I rambled between attempts. “She’s a temperamental old girl, but we love her.” I put her into neutral and tamped down on the accelerator a few times.
“We?”
“Oh, it’s Nate’s truck. I sold mine when…” Yeah, probably not the best ending to a date to talk about my brother’s time in prison. “A while back. Haven’t gotten around to getting a new one yet.” Couldn’t afford one. We were still new-business poor. Actually, despite how busy we were, none of us understood how expensive it was to run a business. Plainly put, we had jobs, but still struggled for financial stability. Some months were better than others, but spare change wasn’t a constant luxury.
“You two always were a package deal.” Her smile was smaller.
Still were.“Yeah. He’s…”Everything.
With another tiny smile, she said, “Well, thanks for tonight. It was nice seeing you.” With a wave, she walked to her car and left before I even got the truck going. I knew she took something more from my lack of admission than I meant for her to take, but I wasn’t mad about it. That went from ‘let’s do this again’ to ‘goodbye’ real quick.
Finally, with her gone, I pulled off my shirt—because fuck shirts—and kicked off my slides to lean back and give the truck a break. While she calmed down, I did the thinking I should have been doing on the rum and moonshine night.
