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Then again, I did a decent job of turning half the town against him.
When the food was ready, everyone lined up to eat, and he waited. “Do you need me to grab anything else, Gage?” Sawyer hollered over everyone’s heads.
He was acting awfully nice.
“I’m good,” I called back.
He filled his plate last, including making sure I got something, and then he found himself a table with an obviously empty spot. “Mind if I sit here?” he asked the firefighters.
Clint was one of the nicest people here, and scooted aside to make room. His, “Not a problem,” was clipped, but not severely.
“Thanks.” Sawyer took a seat.
The entire table ate in an awkward silence, and I couldn’t look away. He had to be up to something. But what?
“You a gymnast, Clint?” Sawyer’s tone was friendly and warm.
I didn’t think anyone but Bonnie had introduced themselves, so he must’ve been paying attention to names.
Clint raised his eyebrows. This used to be a touchy subject for him, when we were younger. Like a lot of us, he’d learned to embrace who he was. “Former cheerleader. Current dancer.”
Was Sawyer about to stick his foot in his mouth? I didn’t know if I wanted that or not.
“That explains the leaps.” Sawyer stuffed a piece of burger in his mouth and swallowed before continuing. “During frisbee. You move like someone who’s used to catching air.”
Observant fucker.
“Do you watch all men that closely?” Clint’s tone was guarded flirting.
Sawyer shrugged. “I watch most people that closely. You can learn a lot by paying attention to the right things.”
“Yeah, you can.” Clint had a similar philosophy. Did Sawyer know that? There was no way he could.
Someone shouted my name, and I turned away to talk to them. When I was finished throwing more brats on the grill, I gave my attention to Sawyer’s table again. The entire group was laughing and talking.
That could be dangerous.
After lunch, a bunch of us wanted to play flag-football—police versus fire. But fire needed another person.
“Hey, Richie Rich,” Levi, the fire department chief, called.
Was I pleased the nickname was spreading? I was.
“We’re down a man. Come play skins with us,” Levi said.
Sawyer seemed to consider the request for a moment before nodding. “All right, I’m in.”
He joined his team, and tossed his shirt next to everyone else’s. I hated to admit, he looked as good shirtless as he had in Wendover. It was obvious why Evie had been drooling over him, and I was considering doing the same. His ink was paint on a canvas of muscle.
He also had the palest city boy skin ever. Not even sleeve tan lines. Did the man not spend any time outside?
We were maybe twenty minutes into the game when Kurt yelled from across the field, “Uncle Rohde. My plane broke.”
“Time out.” Rohde jogged away from the group to meet Kurt halfway. “What happened?”
Kurt held up the controller in one hand and the plane in the other. “I don’t know. It just stopped working. Make it work.” His voice was hard and angry.
“I don’t know how it works.” Rohde stayed calm. “We can take it to Evie later and see if she’ll look at it.”
