Page 12 of Wrong Number Right Cowboy
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m—” A small box rolls free from the folded sweatpants, dropping to the floor.
“Sawyer?”
“I have a lot of PTO. Just text me the dates. Got to go.” I hang up the phone, hoping my sister doesn’t get any more suspicious than she already probably is. I crotch down to pick up the navy blue felt box. Tears sting the corners of my eyes.
I know what’s inside that box.
He kept it.
My heart pounds violently in my ears.
How could I have been so stupid to walk away from this man? I want to believe this is a sign, but what if I’m too late?
You know it’s always been you. Only you.
“Sawyer?” Boone’s voice echoes down the hall.
Shit.
I shove the box back in the drawer, under a pile of boxers. In my desperate attempt to close the drawer and simultaneously pull on the pilfered sweatpants, my towel falls away. Thunder pounces to the floor, stealing it.
“Thunder!” I hiss.
The door swings open, and Boone stops one step inside the room.
“Fuck me,” he mumbles, scrubbing a hand through his unruly hair.
“I need to borrow some clothes,” I say, a sheepish grin on my face.
“Get dressed,” he says, turning on his heel. “Dinner’s ready.”
8
BOONE
It’sno fucking surprise I’m hardagain.
Damn Sawyer and her effortless sexiness.
I grip the edge of the kitchen counter. The image of her wearing a pair of my sweatpants and nothing else will forever be burned into my brain. Long after she leaves.
Convince her to stay.
I force myself to focus on dinner. I pull plates from the cupboard, silverware from the drawer, and napkins from the holder. Everything is still in the same place it was when Sawyer set up the kitchen.
When I asked her to marry me, I never thought she’d say no.
We’d officially been living together for a couple of years. She moved in with me right before her mom’s cancer took a turn for the worst. This ranch was Sawyer’s sanctuary. I thoughtIwas her home.
If I’d had it my way, I would have proposed the day we graduated college. I knew since I was a teenager that I was going to spend the rest of my life with Sawyer Rose. But one life event after another kept putting off my proposal.
I waited a year after Annette’s passing to pop the question.
I thought Sawyer was ready.
I was wrong.
