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“Hey,” he called, and the sounds stopped so suddenly that it sounded like a TV being paused rather than real life.
“Luke?” Sawyer called again, starting to feel a lick of real worry enter his brain now. Sandy was at work tonight, so it had to be Luke in there, but apparently he was still ignoring him.
“Hey, man, I’m sorry I didn’t respond. I had my phone on silent all afternoon, and I didn’t even realize. My bad.”
He entered the kitchen, and despite the warmth of the lights, the atmosphere was as cold as ice. Luke was standing against the countertop, drying off his hands on a dishcloth, radiating pure and utter fury. His face was pinched and pale, and when he finally deigned to set aside the towel and look at Sawyer, his expression could have made every pane of glass in the windows crack. That was when Sawyer started to panic.
“Are you okay?” Sawyer asked. “Is Sandy okay?”
“Sandy’s fine,” Luke said, his voice so soft and quiet that the contrast with the look on his face made his whole demeanor somehow worse.
“What’s going on?” Sawyer asked, wanting a straight answer, wanting all the dramatics to go away, just wanting to travel back in time a few hours to when he was dozing in Josie’s arms.
“Well, Sawyer, I really want to ask you the same question, actually. What’s going on, man?”
Sawyer said nothing right away because he honestly didn’t know what to say. But then he couldn’t take the silence.
“Are you going to tell me what’s happened, or am I supposed to guess?”
Luke smiled, and it was a small and fierce thing. “I had a call earlier today,” he said in an eerily calm voice. “From the realtor. There had been someone looking to make an offer over the last week, and a really, really good one at that, basically the entire asking price. Some rich guy from out of state. Apparently hisgood buddy had bought himself a ranch recently and he liked the idea of it. He liked what he’d seen.”
Sawyer’s stomach turned cold like a fist made of ice had punched him right in the gut. He went very still all over, as if he were in the presence of a very large and very hungry lion. The desperate desire to go back in time only doubled in strength.
“So,” Luke continued. “Me and Sandy were really excited about it, obviously. But we were keeping it to ourselves, not wanting to jinx it or anything. But then I got that call this afternoon, and it turns out that the potential buyer had heard that the place wasn’t actually ready to sell. That repairs weren’t finished, or something along those lines. Said his buddy had heard it from theguy at the hardware store.”
“And…” Sawyer prompted, wanting to know everything that Luke knew before he even dared react, though he knew now that whatever happened it was going to be bad. Very bad.
“And,” said Luke, getting visibly more tense with every passing word, “I called Mathers at the store to ask what the heck he knew about this and he gleefully told me that you had been the one to tell him that renovations weren’t finished. That the place was nowhere near ready to be sold and that it might be months before it was up to scratch. Months.”
Sawyer said nothing. As soon as he answered, things were going to change. He’d been so happy this afternoon. The last few weeks he hadn’t realized how much happier he was out here and he knew, deep in his soul, that the second he said anything, it would all change. Because he didn’t have any option but to tell Luke the truth.
“Sawyer,” Luke said. It was a command, really. Speak now or forever hold your peace.
“He’s exaggerating,” said Sawyer. Whichwasthe truth. Sawyer hadn’t been that ridiculous. But that wasn’t going to matter too much to Luke whose face flushed from pale to bright red in an alarmingly short time.
“So youdidsay something?”
Sawyer couldn’t look him in the eye. He felt about two inches tall and it was all his own fault.
“Yes but—”
“Butwhat?!”hissed Luke, more furious than Sawyer had ever seen him, angrier than maybe anyone he’d ever seen in his life. “Why would you go around saying that the place wasn’t ready? What possible reason could there be to do something like that?”
“Because I was stupid, and I’m sorry,” said Sawyer, forcing himself to look Luke in the face. He wasn’t afraid of much, but he was afraid now. He could practically feel the tectonic plates of his life shifting into new positions.
“I promise, though,” Sawyer insisted, “that he’s blown it out of proportion to what I said. I never said it would take months. All I said was that the repairs weren’t done yet, that’s all.”
“That’s fine, as long as you said that when it wasn’t already up for sale.”
Sawyer said nothing, his heart beating so slowly he wondered if it was still working at all.
“Was it already up for sale, Sawyer?”
He nodded, once, and that was pretty much the beginning of the end. Some of the color from Luke’s face was fading again, his icy outer coat returning, and Sawyer couldn’t figure out which version of him was worse than the other.
“I don’t know why I even bothered to ask for your help,” Luke said, and Sawyer nearly flinched.
“I made a mistake,” Sawyer said.
