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Mariah sensedSawyer’s approach more than saw it. She’d been hyperaware of him over there against the wall with his mom. Uber-aware of his presence, his every move.
Damn man.
She tried to avoid a random conversation with him by heading over to the wall of windows, acting like she was looking for the awaited plane. Of course, nothing with him had gone the way she’d wanted from the start, and he followed her now.
She leaned her forehead into the glass and held on to the black metal that separated the panes, hoping to discourage him.
“Mariah,” he said in that low, delicious voice that did something to her whenever she heard it.
She steeled herself against that response. There was nothing left to discuss between them. “Excuse me.” She looked past him and headed toward the women’s restroom as a respite. She couldn’t hide from him forever, but standing here in the middle of everyone, acting like there wasn’t a problem… Not gonna happen.
Without looking back, she went into the restroom, relieved that it was nearly empty — not surprising since their gate was the last in a long terminal, and most of the traffic congested closer to the main part of the airport.
Mariah splashed water on her face, trying to regain her equilibrium. She’d been crushed by Sawyer’s decision Friday. Way more crushed than the situation called for. They’d only really started getting to know each other ten days ago. Should be low stakes.
“Should” being the key word.
Ridiculously, emotion balled in her throat, and her eyes teared.
Anger. That’s all it was. Anger and pride.
She went partway into one of the stalls and ripped off a length of tissue to dab at her eyes. Someone came into the restroom behind her, and she kept her back to the world as she regained her composure.
The person stopped behind her, she assumed at the sink or the mirror, and didn’t seem to have any intention of moving, so when her eyes were clear, Mariah straightened and turned around. She promptly fell into the stall wall.
“No way… What the hell, Sawyer?”
“I know you don’t want to talk to me, but hear me out. Please?”
“This is the ladies’ room.”
He glanced around uninterestedly. “We’re alone, at least for the moment. I screwed up, Mariah. Big-time.”
Oh, god. All kinds of things he could’ve said that wouldn’t break her down, wouldn’t soften her, and that was the one she couldn’t walk away from. She met his eyes, his beautiful, intelligent, chocolate-brown eyes that conveyed so much determination right now.
“I was wrong. So one thousand percent wrong,” he said.
“About?”
A woman sauntered into the restroom then, saw Sawyer, gasped, and froze in her tracks.
“Hi,” Sawyer said. “Sorry. Can you give us five?”
“There’s another women’s room just down the way,” Mariah told her, intrigued enough by Sawyer’s beginning to not feel too badly about taking over the bathroom. Without thinking about it, she moved closer to Sawyer.
“Well,” the woman spat. “I never!” But she turned on her heel and exited, leaving them alone once again.
“You were saying you were wrong about something,” Mariah prompted him.
Falling deeply into thought, Sawyer strolled to the long vanity and leaned against it. “I’m not sure where to start.”
“How about with your point.”
“You,” he said without hesitation. “You’re the point. I like you, Mariah. A lot.”
She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. “You have a strange way of showing it.”
