Page 123 of Sawyer

“That was only once,” Mollie replies.

Cash nods. “But we made it count, didn’t we?”

Setting my elbows on the bar, I hang my head. I love Cash and Mollie. They’re great together, and I’m genuinely happy for them. But they’re still in that lovey-dovey phase that kinda grosses out everyone around them.

Or maybe that’s just me being jealous, wishing my girl would show up already. ’Cause I miss her, even though I saw her yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that.

Really, we haven’t gone a day without crossing paths since our date last weekend. If I wasn’t addicted to Ava before, I definitely am now, looking up every time The Rattler’s door swings open in the hope that it’s her.

Mollie and Cash head to the dance floor. Sally is up onstage with Frisky Whiskey, the band she and her mom are in that performs at The Rattler every Friday night. They’re here again tonight by special request.

By that I meanmyrequest. I may have bribed Patsy and Sally with quarts of my homemade tomato soup to play two nights in a row so Ava could see them. She’s a live-music gal, so I know she’ll get a kick out of Frisky Whiskey’s excellent country covers.

I check my phone. It’s almost quarter till seven.

Duke gently elbows me. “You all right?”

“I can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong.”

He frowns. “You think we should check on her? We can take my truck if you want.”

“Maybe.” My heart lifts when the door opens, then promptly falls when I see its Goody Gershwin, Tallulah’s wife. “This isn’t like Ava.”

“Y’all really know each other well, huh?” Duke eyes me as he sips his beer.

“Look, I get it. Ava and I are new. Really new. But I feel like we’ve covered so much ground in the time we’ve been together. I’ve never?—”

“Connected with someone like that?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “You say that like you know what you’re talking about.”

Bringing his beer to his lips, he just grins and shrugs. “Just sayin’, it’s cool to see you finally get what you want. Because you’ve always known what you wanted, Sawyer.”

“What do you think I want?”

Duke gives me a look. “Don’t be a dick.”

“No, I’m genuinely curious. Because that’s where I keep getting stuck with Ava. All my life, I’ve wanted to get married, have a family. Do things the right way, in the right order. Which I clearly haven’t done so far, but you gotta start somewhere. But Ava … she doesn’t want to get married.”

“Who cares what order you do things in, as long as you get to do them?” Duke sets down his longneck. “When you really think about it, Sawyer—when you dig into why you’d want to get married and have a family—I think what you’ve always been looking for is a sense of home. Of safety.”

I blink. “That’s … awfully insightful of you.”

“Dude, shut up.”

“I mean it.”

He turns, leaning his hip against the bar. “You run around always making sure everyone else is safe and taken care of. Ever think you might want that for yourself too?”

I turn my head to wipe my eyes on my sleeve. At the same time, I laugh, because he’s right.

My younger brother is fucking right.

“Hey.” Duke presses his fingers into my chest. “None of us is safe from heartbreak and loss. I think we learned that lesson early.”

“Too early.”

“No shit.” Duke’s eyes are wet now too. “But damn, have you tried to keep us all from hurting that way again. Which we never asked you to do, by the way.”

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