Page 14 of Infatuated as They Come
“I want him to get it now. You don’t seem to have any problem with Sawyer. Why can’t he be the same?”
“He wasn’t expecting you to fall in love with someone like Sawyer. I guesshe’s still not quite used to you growing up either. You know he’s never been good with change.”
“I just want him to see what I see,” I said. “I don’t want Nate. I don’t want some other rich guy. I want my boyfriend.”
“Your father can be too old fashioned sometimes. You’ll always be his little girl, and he’s really not ready for that little girl to become a woman who makes all her own decisions. The one who wants to make a life with a guy he’s… not so fond of. It’s hard for him. I’m not excusing what he said, I just want you to know what he’s feeling.”
“I know it’s hard for you guys with me moving away and everything, but… Mom, it’s more than that. It’s more than just him having a hard time with change. I just wish…” I chewed at my nail some more. “I just wish things could be easier. Sawyer barely got to come to our place over the summer. It would have been nice for us to have dinner together a few nights.”
“Those dinners at his place were lovely.”
My heart warmed at the memory. Sawyer had invited me and my parents over for dinner a few times, only for just me and Mom to show up. There we had sat at his dining table—Sawyer, Brodie, Mom and me—sharing a meal Sawyer had cooked from scratch, with a bouquet of fresh flowers sitting in the center of the table and an empty seat by my side that should have been filled by my father. Sawyer had tried to appease him with dinner again another night, and then another night, and then one more, only for us to get the same result.
“I really loved those nights,” I said softly. “They could have been a lot nicer, though…”
“I know. If only your father wasn’t so stubborn.”
“You mean judgmental?”
She sighed. “Yes, that too.”
“I wish he was more like you sometimes.”
“One day, he’ll get it. He’ll understand why you love him so much. It’ll take a while, but he’s going to wake up one day and understand exactly why you can’t live without Sawyer. I see the way you look at Sawyer, but Ialso see the way he looks at you,” she said, and all of a sudden, there was fondness there in her voice. “That boy’s so in love. I don’t know if you notice, but sometimes it seems like he can’t get his eyes off you.”
I blushed a little, a smile stretching across my lips at her words. “He always makes me feel really beautiful.”
“I’m sure he’s painted you a million times by now. I suppose that’s why he’s always staring at you. But I can see how much he loves you just from how he looks at you. If I can see it, your father will be able to see it one day too. God, he probably already sees what I see and is just in severe denial about it all.”
My eyes closed, letting a long breath out. “I’m really going to miss you when I’m gone. I might call you every day. Be prepared.”
“I have no problem with that.”
“Can you yell at him while I’m gone?”
“I will. I mean, I already did, and I also threw all the pancakes in the trash, so he’s not getting any.”
“A deserved punishment.”
Mom squeezed at my knee. “He just needs time, darling. Unfortunately, he needs a lot of it.”
It didn’t make all that much sense to me. Time for what? To see how in love I was? To see how I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Sawyer? My hand reached up, grasping the pendant of the necklace he had given me yesterday. It must have taken him so long to save up for it, and I had never really had anyone do that for me before. So much work, so much effort, so much thought.So much love.
How much more time would it take?
* * *
The August sun was hot on my skin, but I was going to soak in as much as I could before me and Sawyer moved to the East Coast. My head rested on his thighs, my legs outstretched and my toes curling against the soft red and white gingham picnic blanket below us. I could feel his gentle fingerson my arm as he traced little invisible patterns.
Sawyer had surprised me with the best possible spot for a picnic. The air in Granbury was almost completely silent, with just a few birds softly cawing and the sound of the wind brushing the leaves on the nearby trees in my ears. It was blissfully secluded, just the two of us out there, a good hour away from Dallas.
We had already eaten the lunch Sawyer packed, and with my stomach full, it felt like a good time to have a little rest under the sun.
“This is so nice,” I said with a happy sigh. “So quiet and peaceful. Exactly what I needed.”
That dumb fight with my dad was something I desperately wanted to forget. His cruel words lingered in my head and I hated that I couldn’t fight them off. I didn’t need a ring. I didn’t need a thing from Sawyer except for what he already gave me.
I was beyond thankful when Sawyer surprised me in the morning with a cooler in his truck stocked with food and drinks. He didn’t tell me where we were going and I was okay with that as I rested my head on his shoulder and he kept his hand on my thigh, the low hum of the engine in the air as he drove.
