Page 24 of Make Me Whole
He turned and gave me a sheepish look. "I was supposed to give a riding lesson today."
"I've got it."
"You sure? You might not—"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. "What time?"
Narrowed eyes and furrowed brows, he regarded me. Why did he have to think this over? He glanced over his shoulder before looking back to me. The debate he was having with himself written all over his face.
"Sawyer! What time?"
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
"You'll be nice?"
It was my turn to roll my eyes. "I'm never anything less than nice to guests and students."
A weird snort-laugh sounded from his throat, but he said nothing. There were a few more silent seconds before he finally gave in. "Eleven."
I grinned at him. "There. That wasn't so hard, now was it?"
He jerked his chin in my direction before spinning on his heel. As he stalked out of the barn, I could've sworn I heard him mumble, "I hope I'm doing the right thing."
Figuring his weirdness stemmed from his impending meeting with his incarcerated father, I returned to my duties without giving it a second thought. Not that I would've had any chance to think about anything other than what happened last night. Or rather what hadn't happened.
I'd cursed myself up and down from here until Sunday after I'd arrived home the second time. In my haze of madness, I'd stomped to Hailey's room; determined to shake her until she removed the spell, she'd cast on me.
Good thing my common sense returned before my knuckles touched the door. My shoulders had felt heavy, my stomach hollow as I trudged to my own room. As I knew it would, sleep didn't come easy and when it did my dreams were filled with visions of Hailey. My hands tracing every curve of her body. The silky feel of her skin beneath my fingertips. Soft, pliable lips meeting mine with the same need pulsing through my veins.
"Shit." The shavings fork dropped to the floor with a loudclank. My chest heaved as I desperately tried to get air to my lungs. I'd never wanted a dream to be more real in my entire life.
Correction: I'd never wanted a woman as desperately as I wanted Hailey.
I dragged my palm across my face. Tilting my chin, I stared at the ceiling in hopes to find some sort of answer to the confusion warring inside me.
The only thing I found was anger. Heaps of it. Directed at one person alone.
How dare she crawl so deep under my skin that I could feel her in my bones? Who gave her the right to scale every single wall I'd so carefully erected? And I wasn't just talking about feelings. With one look, she'd hijacked my thoughts. Had me wondering about the pain so evident in her eyes. Had me craving to know the secrets hiding inside her heart.
Scrubbing my palm over my chest, I begrudgingly admitted to myself how things have changed. Getting Hailey out of my system was not going to happen—at least not with another woman.
I was treading on new, unfamiliar ground and I didn't like it. The feeling of not knowing what would come next didn't appeal to me one bit. Inside my pocket, my phone buzzed; a welcome reprieve from the madness inside my brain.
Swiping the screen to life revealed a message from Sawyer.
Sawyer: About to go in. Don't forget the lesson and for the sake of all things holy, BE NICE.
Knowing he'd probably powered down his phone, I slipped mine back into my pocket with a chuckle. I made a metal note to ask him when he'd become so motherly when I checked in with him later.
With a quick flick of my wrist, I checked the time. Grateful that for the next hour my mind would be occupied with something other than Hailey, I headed for the horse pen. My steps faltered when a flash of dark hair caught my attention.
Suddenly, my friend's concern made a lot more sense. If I made it through the next hour without going completely insane, I was going to enjoy killing Sawyer Axon.
