Page 70 of Infatuated as They Come
“No,” he said, the word flying out of his mouth fast. “You come first.”
“It’s not a big deal. Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t do that.” He cupped my face with one hand and I stilled, noticing how his eyes never left mine.
“It’s just cheerleading. It’s not important.”
“It’s important to you so it’s important to me. Stuff you love is important and tonight meant a lot to you. And it meant a lot to me too…”
“So, what happened?” I gave him a weak shrug.
He sighed deeply. “I thought I had enough time to finish something up at work and make it here on time. I messed up tonight. I’ve been messing up a lot lately. I know I haven’t really been around.”
Hands rubbing at his chest, I shook my head. “You’ve been busy with work and your art. You have your own life here too. It’s okay.”
“You’re in my life and you’re the best part. The biggest part. The part I love the most. I don’t ever want you to feel lonely,” he said. “As soon as I get out of bed, I miss you, and then when I’m at work I miss you, and then when I get to leave all I feel is relief, and then when I finally get back it’s so late and you’re tired and I’m tired too. I know it’s not a good excuse. I want to spend every single minute with you, Holly. I’d be the happiest manin the world if I could do that.”
“Then let’s do it,” I said with a sad laugh. “I’ll drop out tomorrow and you can quit your job and I’ll buy us a house wherever you want.”
He smiled at me. “That sounds real nice. And I wish we could do that…”
“But?”
“Your dad would have a lot of fun killing me if you dropped out. I don’t want you to stop going to school, and I know you don’t really want that either. Dropping everything and running away isn’t the option. We don’t have to do that. I just… I just need to fix this and make it better. I love making you happy so much, but I haven’t really been doing much of that lately, have I?”
“You do. You’re working so hard, Sawyer. I know that. I understand,” I said, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.” He closed his eyes, and when he opened them back up, I saw determination looking back at me. “Dinner. Tomorrow night. Just you and me. It’ll be like summer. We can go back to that. We’ll go some place fancy. How does that sound?”
I tugged at his shirt a little. “It doesn’t have to be fancy…”
“No, we’ll go somewhere nice. Just us.” He nodded. “We’ll have dinner. We’ll do it. Tomorrow, I’ll take you out some place nice, and it’ll just be us two for a few hours. You can get all dressed up and look beautiful like you always do, and it’ll be like old times. Sound good?”
He drew me closer to him and I buried my face in his neck, loving how I seemed to fit flawlessly against his broad form. He squeezed at me and I got lost in the feeling of him—of his arms and the way he smelled and how he always managed to hold me just right, with me pressed to his chest and his fingers stroking through my locks. Like it was right where I belonged, and I never wanted to belong anywhere else but with him.
Chapter 16
Holly
I had been sitting alone at a booth in some restaurant called The Gidlow for nearly an hour. Sawyer was beyond late and I was pretty sure one of the waiters was going to kick me out any second now.
I tapped an impatient heel against the floor, my chin in my hand, sitting all by myself like an idiot. I felt stupid in my red dress and salon fresh hair—all that effort just to sit at a table alone while the waiters sent me awkward little stares.
My eyes fell to my phone again. To Sawyer’s words.
Can’t wait to see you tonight. I miss you.
Just gonna be running a tiny bit late. Work got crazy today.
I’m sorry, will be later than I thought.
Will be there soon.
I blew out a breath of air and tossed some of my hair over my shoulder. The music in the restaurant was soft and gentle, the kind that was supposed to help keep you relaxed, but the sound of the violin just put me on edge. My nails toyed with the napkin on my unused, bare plate, the spot across from me just as empty.
“Hey.”
There was a voice to my right, and I peered up to see a man looking back at me with a grin that I instantly didn’t like.
