Page 4 of Infinite as They Come
“And?”
“And I don’t think I wanna stay in New York forever.”
His brows pulled together. “You don’t like it there?”
“It’s nice and I love living with Sawyer, it’s just…” My eyes flew over to Sawyer who was in the middle of a conversation with Annie. “I think I want something else. I don’t know, maybe somewhere closer to home, somewhere less busy.”
“Me and your mother would love to have you back here again.”
“I haven’t told Sawyer yet, so don’t mention it to him please.”
He nodded. “I won’t.”
“He has his own life in New York. His art, his work. It’s not just up to me. I guess I just want… something quieter.”
“Well, I’ll be a lot happier if you’re back here. It’d be nice to have you closer.”
I hummed. I wanted to be closer to him and Mom too. I also wanted that next chapter of my life with Sawyer to get started: for us to slip into the life I had been dreaming of us having for the last few years. For a moment, I wondered if he remembered what I told him. About that house in the countryside, where it’d be just him and me. It was a dream I hadn’t been able to let go of. Us in that home, away from all that busy city life, where we’d be together forever and so in love. The promise he made me was still clear as day in my head. That he would give me that, that he wanted that too. I wondered if he still thought the same thing.
“You two will figure it out,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of my forehead. “It feels like you always do.”
His words sounded comforting enough as he held me close to him for a long moment. My dad and Sawyer had come a long way and I would be forever thankful for that change. It had taken him so long to finally be able to see what I saw, to understand that Sawyer was more than just how much money he had in his bank account.
Me and my dad got settled back at the table, the night carrying on with more toasts and tears and soufflés. By the time eleven o’clock hit, we called it quits, and I was so ready to get out of that restaurant. I was pretty sure I had spent a good twenty minutes saying thank you and goodbye to everyone for coming, and then me and Sawyer were hopping into his truck to make our way back to my parents’ place. We had been there for a good week, but tomorrow, we’d be heading back to New York.
“Tonight was good,” Sawyer said as we rounded a corner.
“It was,” I said. “Did you ever think there’d be a day where you and my dad could sit at the same table like that? With knives and all? No one got stabbed. Hurray, right?”
“I think I saw him reaching for a knife actually.”
“You did not.” I laughed, and soon his own laughter filled my ears, the sound deep and wonderfully familiar. “But seriously, tonight was nice. It was good to see everyone.”
“Yeah, I had fun,” he said lowly, and then there was a long pause before his next words came out. “I keep thinking about what your mom said…”
My eyes shifted over to his, his own concentrating on the road ahead of us. For a second, I let my mind go back to that moment. To my dad talking about how there’d be so many things for us to do now, and then my mom mentioningthat.
“They got a little excited tonight,” I said. “I apologize on their behalf.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, they did. But I liked what they said. About how there’s a lot we can do now. We’ve got time now since you won’t be busy with school…”
“But you’ll be busy with work.”
“Yeah, but I was thinking of asking for more time off. I built up a lot of leave. Jay and Audrey will be cool with it.”
My brows pulled together as he stopped at a red light. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe… Maybe we should do something. You know, to celebrate you finishing school and everything.”
“Tonight’s gigantic dinner with every person I’ve ever met wasn’t enough?”
“It was nice and you deserved it, but I meant… something with just us,” he said. His hand found mine and when I looked at his face, his eyes were on my hand. Just like earlier, he was using a finger to rub at that spot on my left hand. My ring finger. “Maybe we could…”
“Could what?” I asked softly.
“Spend some time together where we don’t have to worry about anything. No school, no work. Just us. What do you think? Just you and me,” he said seriously. “A proper road trip. Maybe one around Texas. You’ve never done that before, right? We can stop at a bunch of places. Ones we’ve never been to. I can hit the art supply store and get some stuff so I can paint along the way. I know I brought a couple things with me, but maybe I need to getsome more stuff if we’re gonna be gone for a while. And I know how much you love just driving around. Or, in other words, you love using me as your personal chauffeur.”
I giggled. “Well, I thought you liked it too.”
