Page 71 of Break My Heart
‘I do. I don’t want you thinking—’
‘Gina, just forget it. It’s none of my business who you go out with.’
Miles, one of the servers, walks by and smiles at me. ‘Hey, Gina.’
‘Hi.’ I smile back.
Sawyer glances at Milo, then walks over to the sink and rinses out the bar mop.
‘Hey, Sawyer, I need to head out,’ a girl says, coming up next to me at the bar. She’s a tiny blonde, wearing a short skirt and tight red sweater that reveals a lot of cleavage.
‘See ya, Maci,’ he says, looking back at her.
‘Let me know about this week. I’m free on Wednesday, or we could go out next Friday.’
He nods. ‘I’ll let you know.’
When she’s gone, he turns back to the bar and starts collecting dirty glasses.
‘Who’s the girl?’ I ask.
‘Does it matter?’
I wait until he’s picking up the glass next to me, then lean over the bar, lowering my voice. ‘Would you please talk to me?’
He pauses for a beat, then yells over at Wade. ‘I need to go in back. You okay out here?’
‘Yeah, boss, I’m good.’
‘Let’s go.’ Sawyer sets the glasses down and we go in the back to his office. He leaves the door open and remains standing. ‘Go ahead. Talk.’
‘Ryder and I aren’t together. We broke up months ago. I didn’t even know he was coming to town.’
‘You skipped out on dinner to be with him. That has to mean something.’
‘It doesn’t.’
Sawyer folds his arms over his chest and looks me in the eye. ‘Then why’d you do it?’
‘Because .?.?.’ I look away, not sure I should tell him Ryder was helping me with the cider. Sawyer might consider that cheating and tell the judges. I don’t think he would, but I can’t risk it. Ryder’s comments about being careful around Sawyer got into my head and now I’m hesitant to reveal too much.
‘Because why? What’s the reason?’
I look back at Sawyer. ‘Because he knows the business better than I do. He’s been doing this for 15 years. He offered to look over my files and make sure everything was good.’
‘It didn’t look like he was going over your files when I was there.’
‘We’d just finished. He wanted a beer before he left.’
‘How long did you date him?’
‘A couple years.’
‘And you lived with him?’
‘For six months.’
‘Sounds serious.’
