Page 51 of Karma's Kiss

They go all around, and with Sawyer being so much heavier than me, I can hardly keep my footing.

“Stop double-bouncing me!”

“I wouldn’t be double-bouncing you if you weren’t just standing there. You’re supposed to be jumping.”

My knees buckle and I go down flat. Sawyer doesn’t ease up. Suddenly, we’re both ten-year-olds on a trampoline playing crack the egg. “Sawyer! I would be jumping if you weren’t—”

“Everything all right over there?” David calls to us.

“Great!” Sawyer lies with a false smile.

“All good!” I add with a cheerful wave from where I’m being rattled on the floor of the bounce house.

The second David turns back around, we drop the act, but Sawyer’s right. I need to give it my all with Cruz if I expect him to fall in love with me and say sayonara to “Say-ya” forever. Witha herculean effort, I get back to my feet, and then I’m bouncing my heart out, really giving it everything I’ve got when a twinkling laugh filters across the backyard. I turn just in time to watch Charlotte arrive through the side gate, and I bounce over to the netting as she strolls in carrying an obnoxiously huge teddy bear.

Oh come on!It’s almost taller than she is! She’s tied a pink ribbon around its neck that matches her cute pink sundress and…a familiar pair of ballet flats.Gasp.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I whirl around to face Sawyer, gripping the netting to keep my feet underneath me. “CHARLOTTE told you about Kendra’s plan?Charlotte’sthe rat?!”

I didn’t think she had it in her to be so diabolical!

Sawyer’s unfazed. “Charlotte did me a favor.”

“Charlotte didnotdo you a favor!” I whisper-hiss. “She did the exact opposite! She should have kept her mouth shut because she hasno ideawhat she’s talking about and—andshe really needs to stop eavesdropping on people’s conversations in the bathroom and just focus on, you know, peeing and getting out of there!”

Cruz laughs. To him, this must seem like one big joke, but it’s not. This is serious. We bounce, bounce, bounce. Sawyer gets too close on purpose, and I tip backward. If not for the netting holding me up, I’d be toppling back into the grass.

“She wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” he insists, defending her. “She said anyone in the bathroom could have heard you talking on the phone during our date.”

I toss my hands into the air and try—unsuccessfully—to heave myself off the netting. Sawyer keeps jumping too close to me. I can’t even move. It’s infuriating!

“She doesn’t know the whole story! She should have come to me first before running to you! She did it to sabotage our relationship!”

“No, she told me the truth because Charlotte’s a real friend. And this wasnevera relationship.”

Nail, coffin—whack.

“Where’s my birthday boy?” Lindsey asks from across the backyard. “You’ve got a lot of people eager to see you!”

Cruz claps excitedly. “Ma-ma!”

“He’s all ready to go, Linds.” Sawyer walks over to the mouth of the bounce house and delivers Cruz to Lindsey. For a second, I think he might stay behind in here with me so we can hash this out, but clearly, he’s eager to be rid of me. He shoves himself through the opening of the netting like his life depends on it and leaves me in the dust.

“Hey, Sawyer!” Charlotte croons as he walks over to join the party.

My eyes sting.

Well this is just great. I almost feel like I might cry in this bright red Elmo hellhole.

I can imagine Lindsey’s friends asking, “Who’s the weirdo in the bounce house?”

Sawyer and I avoid each other like the plague through the remainder of Cruz’s party. I stick near Queenie and David, he chats with Charlotte and Hunter. In fact, Charlotte is his little shadow. Wherever Sawyer goes, she follows. Not that he seems to mind. I catch him smiling and talking with her, having a great time from the looks of it. I try to focus on enjoying Cruz—spending time with him is all that truly matters—and there are a lot of highlights. I love watching him go after his little smash cake. He fists his tiny fingers, his eyes alight with power once he realizes he has the entire cake to himself. It doesn’t take himlong to figure out that grabbing fistfuls isn’t efficient enough, so then he just leans down and plops his face into it, eating with gusto while we all watch on laughing.

Sunday rolls into Monday and I’m still annoyed by my situation with Sawyer. I stayed behind to clean up after Cruz’s party and then I crashed early, exhausted from the weekend. I’m glad Wildflower Weddings has a full docket—I’m eager to dig into work—right up until Queenie tells me we’ve got a rehearsal at Starlight Vineyards this morning.

“A rehearsal on a Monday?” I ask incredulously.

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