Page 21 of Infatuated as They Come
“I know.”
“We’ll pick Brodie up quick and—”
“Sawyer, it’s okay.” She cut me off with her soft voice. Soft, but strained. I could hear it in her words, that tiny crack, and I hated that he had made her feel even the tiniest bit of worry or fear. “I promise it’s okay.”
“Let me call Brodie and see where he is. He can’t come back here when my dad’s this pissed. Then we’ll quickly drive to the restaurant and you can get whatever you want.”
“We don’t have to go. I won’t be mad or anything.”
“It’s your birthday. I don’t want him to ruin that.” My fingers moved to the steering wheel, gripping it tight. “He ruins fuckin’ everything. I don’t want him to ruin your night too.”
“Today was amazing and I loved every second of it,” she said. “I mean, beforethathappened. That was more than enough for me. We can have dinner at the hotel.”
“Motel, Holly. You’re not paying.”
“We’ll have dinner wherever you stay.”
I looked ahead of me. The trailer park was pretty busy. It was nice weather and some of the kids were playing outside. I wondered if Lindsey’s kids would be coming out soon; they usually liked to hang out the frontwhen it got hot. My eyes moved everywhere but to Holly’s face. To the old, chain link fence to my left that had way too many holes and then to the white trailer further down that Earl used as his office and the trailer further down that had all the washing machines and dryers. A big part of me was gonna miss it and the people. How will I even get to say goodbye to everyone now if I was leaving so soon? I’d have to come back tomorrow or something.
“I love you, Holly,” I said as I turned to her. “Love you a lot.”
She tucked her face into my neck, her skin all soft against me. “I love you too.”
Chapter 5
Holly
I didn’t blame Sawyer in the slightest for not wanting to spend our last few remaining days in Dallas at his place. There was no way I’d let him go back in there, anyway. Not with his dad back. And I had only been around to witness them interacting for a minute or two. Sawyer had been dealing with that his whole life. What about the last nineteen years Sawyer had spent with him? What about every other fight? The really bad ones?
“The vending machine loves me. Paid for one, got two,” Brodie said, big grin on his face as he stepped into the motel room. In his arms were a couple bags of chips. “Do you want it?”
I sent him a smile. “No, thank you.”
Brodie placed the chips down on the bedside table, giving the bag a soft pat. “Will save these for tomorrow.” Then he kicked his shoes off and joined me on the bed.
“Where’s your cousin?”
“He went to buy us dinner. I couldn’t wait, though.”
“Oh.”
“You okay?”
“Mhm.”
“Was it his dad?” Concern drenched his usually cheerful voice. “Did he do something to you?”
“Not to me, no.”
“Yeah, his dad has always been like that. Both our dads fucking suck, butat least mine never…” His voice trailed off. “… They’re both really shitty dads.”
I sighed. “You guys deserve better than that.”
“You got a nice little introduction to another Westbrook family member today, I guess. Some pretty fucked up genes on our side, but now we get to say goodbye to them for a little while.”
“I’m really proud of the both of you. And I’m so glad you got your scholarship.” I gave him a nudge. “You deserve it.”
“Aw, thanks. Pretty sure I might be the first person in my family to ever go to college. Feels weird.”
