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“I mean, a thousand dollars for some fancy new thing or free off the side of the road?”
“You’re financially responsible, and it shows.”
His hand was now on her lower back as he moved closer, smiling down at her as if she was the best thing since sliced bread.
“That’s the yard,” she said, gesturing out the window. “If you can call it that.”
Sawyer nodded. “A bit smaller than the ranch.”
“Just a bit.”
“Though I’m sure Indy and Clyde would fit in there. They’re lazy, and they don’t move much. And there’s grass, so I’m sure they’d be thrilled.”
Josie’s thoughts circled back to just before Sawyer had knocked on her door.
“I want a dog,” she announced. Which, honestly, if you didn’t know her train of thought for the last several hours, was a wildly off-topic thing to say. Sawyer, though, didn’t even bat an eye at the statement.
“What sort of dog would you get?” he asked without missing a beat.
“An Australian shepherd.”
“Why one of those?”
“’Cause they’re cute.”
“That’s it?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “That’s the criteria? Being cute?”
“Why do you think I keep you around, huh? You fit my criteria.”
“Ha-ha. You’re hysterical.”
“Thank you for acknowledging it. A lot of people don’t appreciate my genius and wit.”
“A lot of people need to do a lot better, then,” he said, his teasing morphing into something more genuine that made heat prickle up the back of Josie’s neck. She elbowed him in response.
Their bickering morphed into more teasing over a variety of different subjects, each of them winning and losing in equal measure. It felt very… well, very much like how you’d spend an afternoon when you were in a relationship. Simple and easy. Easy in the way she didn’t have to make an effort or make conversation or try to entertain Sawyer. He was just happy to be there with her, watching brain-dead TV shows all afternoon because that’s what she’d been planning to do before he showed up at her door.
Josie needed to go grocery shopping and had planned to have cereal for lunch until she went tomorrow to stock up. Sawyer didn’t complain, happily eating a bowl of chocolate rice puffs with her, his only protest coming when Josie sat beside him and not on top of him, which he quickly fixed by once again scooping her onto his lap. They didn’t even talk that much, and Josie was curled up by his side, feeling more comfortable than she could ever remember being before. Occasionally they’d lose track of whatever was going on in the TV show when their lips would meet, or their hands would start exploring, and they’d come back to reality and a whole new character would be on screen talking about something they’d never heard of. The whole afternoon passed that way. It was lazy, and it was perfect.
The sun was starting to dim, streaming through the window and warming up the sofa to a delicious degree, and Josie was grateful that she didn’t have to go to work a shift at the diner that night because she honestly didn’t think she could move. Her body was so floppy and relaxed. Then her phone buzzed on the coffee table in front of her, the melody of an incoming call obnoxiously loud compared to their quiet afternoon.
Sawyer started, blinking rapidly, having fallen asleep without Josie noticing and looking like a bear crawling out of a cave after hibernating. She broke into giggles at the sight of him.
“I was resting my eyes,” he said.
“Sure. Resting as in sleeping.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
The phone call ended before Josie could peel herself out of her little cocoon beneath Sawyer’s arm, but as she looked at the screen, she saw that it was Luke who’d been trying to call her,and she’d already missed texts from him as well. The texts didn’t even explain what he wanted; he just kept asking her to call him.
Weird. He never tried to get ahold of her that urgently unless something was wrong. Otherwise, he’d just wait until she got back to him. Sawyer noted the shift in her shoulders, the slight crease between her eyebrows.
“Something wrong?” he asked, concern making his voice lilt.
“Luke’s been trying to get ahold of me. Hang on.”
She pressed the button to call him back and held the phone to her ear for all of two rings before he picked up.
