Page 37 of Sinful as They Come
It was obvious Sawyer thought highly of loyalty and family, but I had to do my best to fight back an eye roll. He was being dramatic. Maybe he was embarrassed I had heard that argument. Some pretty mean words exchanged between father and son.
“I didn’t mean to start anything,” I said softly. “I just came over to… It doesn’t even matter, you won’t believe me.”
“You’ve never given me any reason to believe you about anything, Holly.”
For some reason, those words hurt. I never cared about our stupid, superficial arguments. They weren’t upsetting, they wereannoying.But what he said halted me for a moment. “I’m just gonna go.” I held up my hands in defense. “I’m sorry about what happened with Brodie. Really. Tellhim I said hi.”
“I’m not gonna do that.”
That time, I rolled my eyes. I didn’t even try and hide it. I just crossed my arms over my chest and made my way to my car. There was no point trying to reason with Sawyer. He didn’t want me to see that moment with his dad. I understood that. But he had no right treating me the way he did. He had the wrong idea of me. I was not some classist, snobby, ex-private school girl. I wasn’t. I was more than that, but he didn’t care to find that out.
“Whatever,” I whispered to myself as I left the trailer park behind me. Sawyer didn’t want to see any good in me. That was his prerogative. I was pretty sure there was no good inhim, anyway.
Chapter 11
SAWYER
Jesus fucking Christ.
Who the fuck did Holly think she was showing up at my place out of nowhere like that? I glared at the back of her fancy white car, watching as she drove away, until she was nothing but a spec in the distance.
I was nothing but a fucking charity case to her. Me and Brodie. She didn’t care. I knew she didn’t really care. She felt bad for her fuck up and came over to make amends. Too bad Brodie wasn’t home. Too bad she got me.
The smell of her stupid, sweet perfume stayed in the air as I turned around and stormed back into my house. My feet were heavy as I swung open the door, coming face to face with the man I had come to hate, the one I had just been fighting with: my own father. He had enjoyed destroying one of my paintings just minutes ago.
“Who the fuck was that?” Dad asked with a snarl.
“Who?”
“That fucking girl that was out there. Who was that?”
“Some girl from school.” I tried to make my way past him, but he held a heavy hand to my shoulder. “What?”
“That your girlfriend?”
I had to genuinely laugh at him. Probably the first time I ever genuinely laughed at something he said – and not out of fucking pity or sarcasm.
“No,” I told him slowly. “She’s not my girlfriend. She was droppingsomething off for Brodie.” I showed him the notebook, holding it up for him to see.
Why did he look at me like he didn’t trust what I was saying? He was always like that. He thought every word I said to him was a lie. It had been like that since I was a kid. Since I was old enough to string some words together and he was strong enough to punch the taste out of my mouth.
“Huh… Brodie’s girlfriend then?”
“In Brodie’s head, yeah, they’re married and have three kids.” I tossed my cousin’s book to the small dining table.
“She’s pretty…”
I rubbed the back of my head. “And? Her big fucking mouth ruins that.”
“Not like you have a chance with a pretty girl like that, anyway,” he finally grumbled out his insult.
He had gone a good ten seconds without putting me down. A personal best for him. I chuckled, though, shaking my head at the idea of Holly Sutton ever being someone I could ever fucking like.
“I’m not interested in her.”
“You’re not interested or you scared she’d fuckin’ run away if you ever asked her out?” He grinned. “Like I said – you don’t have a chance with her.”
“I don’t want a fuckin’ chance with her,” I muttered, turning my back to him. I wasn’t in the mood to argue. Holly had never seen where I lived before. I mean, everyone at school knew I called Mills Mobile Home Park home, but none of them had ever been over besides Owen and maybe a couple other guys. The last person I ever wanted showing up was Holly, so I was still trying to process that she had seen my place.
