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“You love to make this about my dad, about me. You want me to believe you let me go because of my priorities. But the truth is, you were never confused. You’re just mad I called things off first.”
Sawyer dared to laugh. “What?”
“Hunter told me at Thanksgiving dinner that you haven’t ever had a serious relationship, but you’ve never turned down a date with any of the pretty girls in Grass Lake, either. He said you were the love-’em-and-leave-’em type…until me.”
“Hunter shouldn’t have been talking to you about that stuff.”
“Was he telling the truth?”
Sawyer turned his head and averted his eyes. That was all the answer she needed.
“Tell me who’s more untrustworthy, Lana, me or Sawyer? Someone who was afraid things were moving too fast and that the timing was off, or someone who breaks hearts all over Tennessee?”
Lana didn’t have to reply. Sawyer wasn’t interested in commitment; he was only sore about being rejected.
“I’m going to jump in the shower and get ready,” Piper said, leaving the two of them standing there in silence. “We’ll leave in thirty minutes.”
* * *
SAWYER ORDERED A drink at the bar. The after-show party was in full swing by the time he and Piper arrived. They had walked in hand in hand for effect and quickly went their separate ways.
She had put him in his place tonight, and he was still sore about it. Piper wasn’t wrong about him. He had issues. But she had issues, too, whether she wanted to believe it or not. It was both of their issues that were causing the trouble between them.
“You aren’t making the rounds to say hello to everyone with the soon-to-be missus?” Hunter asked, sidling up next to him and adding a beer for himself to the order.
“Nah, she’s throwing this party, not me.”
“Everything all right? I heard there’s been some tension. The tour rumor mill says that the happy couple had their first fight today.”
Just as Sawyer had suspected. People loved to gossip. Heath would have his head for this. “We’re fine. It’s been a stressful day. And it didn’t help that you thought you should run your mouth to Piper about my previous dating habits at Thanksgiving.”
“Is that what you were fighting about? I didn’t tell her that to make her mad at you. If she’s going to get all bent out of shape because you’ve dated a lot of women, maybe you need to rethink what you’re doing.”
Hunter had no idea what he was talking about, and if he kept this up, there would be nothing but trouble.
“I don’t need to rethink anything. I need you to be quiet.”
The bartender came over with their drinks. “Here you go, boys. Let me know if you need anything else,” she said with a wink.
“We will, thanks,” Hunter said, leaving her a couple dollars as a tip.
Sawyer grabbed his drink and turned around to look over the crowd. Boone hadn’t been kidding when he said Piper employed a lot of people. This wasn’t even everyone. There was a whole crew back at the arena breaking down the stage and packing it up in the trucks.
Piper had rented out the entire restaurant for this soiree. A bunch of tables were pushed together to form a horseshoe for them to sit around. The staff was busy setting up a buffet-style meal along one wall while the guests mingled and hung around the bar.
“Did you see how she just looked at you?”
“Who?”
“The hot bartender. Man, I hate that you’re so much better looking than I am.” Hunter messed with his hair in a poor attempt to make it look tousled like Sawyer’s.
“What are you talking about?” Sawyer glanced back and caught the bartender staring. She quickly looked away and poured a drink for someone else.
“You must really be in love to not notice when gorgeous women are practically throwing themselves at you.”
Love, love, love. He was tired of that word.
“You’re ridiculous. She was only doing her job.” He peeked over his shoulder, and she smiled back at him from the other side of the bar. Sawyer’s head snapped forward. Maybe Hunter wasn’t totally off base.
“This would have been the first day of a very different experience if you hadn’t gone and fallen for the headliner. You could have had no-strings-attached fun all across the country.”
