Page 47 of Infinite as They Come
“Sawyer,” she said, her laughter all loud and pretty.
“I thought you said you could beat me in a fight,” I said, tossing her to the mattress, her smile big and her eyes bright. Her hair was sprawled around her, her locks thick and long, her cheeks red as she raised a leg and pressed a foot to my chest.
“That wasnotfair,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “I wasn’t prepared.”
I caught her ankle and dragged her to the end of the bed, her giggle so bright and beautiful. “Fights aren’t fair, baby,” I said, leaning down to press my body to hers. I had her caged in, my hands finding her wrists, pinning them either side of her head. “But I’ll go easy on you and let you win.”
She smiled and pressed her lips to mine. “Such a gentleman.”
I laughed, the sound muffled as her tongue slipped into my mouth. My hands let go of her wrists and she wasted no time sliding them up my arms and to my shoulders and then to my hair where she slid her fingers through the strands. A soft tug from her was all it took to make me groan. We stayed like that for a good while. Just kissing, my tongue moving against hers, her little whines in the air and my grunts mixing in with them. My girl. My forever. Forever sounded really good as long as she’d be there too.
“I love you, Holly,” I said against her lips. “I promise I’ll take care of you. I will. I’ll do everything I can to make sure I look after you.”
Blinking slowly, she lowered a hand, letting her soft fingers stroke against my jaw. “I know, Sawyer. I love you too.”
She didn’t know what was on my mind. I didn’t need her to know. Not yet. It was my thing to deal with, my problem—but I’d get there in the end. For her and for us, for me and for the future I wanted us to have. Us in that house. Together, in love, so fucking happy. I just wanted to make her happy.
Her eyes suddenly lit up. “Guess what?”
“What?” I could feel her shifting a little underneath, and I took it as my cue to roll off her.
She sat up, snatching her laptop up from the bedside table and typing away for a few seconds before turning the screen around to me. “You’ve had so many enquiries about your paintings!”
There it was, my name scrawled across the top of some website in big bold letters. Holly tilted the laptop her way a little, clicking some more, and then I was looking back at row after row of little photographs of my paintings. My brows rose a little. Part of me had forgotten I had made so many.
“People are interested?” I asked.
“Mhm.” She nodded eagerly. “A lot of people are reaching out, asking about prices. I wasn’t sure how much you wanted to charge for each one. Ifyou let me know, I can tell them.”
It never failed to amaze me that people were interested in my stuff, that they actually wanted something that I made on their walls. “I’m happy with whatever,” I said with a shrug, but what I really wanted to say wascharge them extra, charge them each a million dollars, because then I’d be a little bit closer to buying you your dream home. “I guess we’ll have to deal with that when we get back to New York.”
Her throat cleared. “Yeah, I suppose so.”
Part of me was only saying that to see the look on her face. I wondered if she wanted to go back, if she was ready for some fancy ass skyscraper job now that she was done with college. Maybe she wanted that to be her life. It was the kind girls like her got. But it was her words from all those years ago that replayed in my head every damn day. That little old house. All that open air. The lemon tree. Our home. A place I could picture so perfectly. Her writing, me painting, us in love. Did she still want that house? The question stayed there on the tip of my tongue as I stared at her, wishing I could read her mind.
“Thanks for making that, baby,” I said, nodding towards the laptop. “It looks great. You did a good job.”
“Well, the girl who made the website did a good job. I just paid her.”
“Either way, thank you for setting that up.”
When we went to bed that night, I held Holly tightly to me, her head on my chest, our bodies fitting together so perfectly it was like we didn’t belong with anyone else but each other. Once again, I could see it. That dream that felt so close and so far away all at once. It would have been nice to skip right to it, but that wasn’t an option for guys like me. There was no money to throw around, no connections to give me a helping hand, no phone calls I could make. It was my cross to bear, my role to take: to be that man that could keep a roof over Holly’s head, to keep her safe and tucked away from any and all dangers. I gave her forehead a soft kiss, feeling her stir in my arms, my own wrapping around her a little firmer.
It was my job to do that. To look after her. And I’d do it for the rest of my life.
Chapter 12
Holly
My eyes lifted up from my notebook on the desk to my laptop screen, lips murmuring out the words I had taken down a few days ago. Clara had been right about Martha being an interesting character. She had been a resident at the Melrose Motel for nearly a decade now and got to use the little kitchen in the main office to whip up all her fancy meals. She used to work at one of the busiest restaurants in Austin until things went “a little upside down” according to her. It sounded like a sensitive subject, one I didn’t want to broach, and instead we talked about her love for cooking and all her favorite recipes, and there were some I definitely wanted to try.
I zeroed in on her story, her words, typing them up as my foot tapped against the carpeted floor. I liked this. I liked talking to people and learning about their pasts. Where they went to school, where they used to live, what they were doing when they were my age. There was something fascinating about finding all of that out, something intriguing about delving into their histories I never would have known otherwise.
The sound of the shower running distracted me for a second. I looked over to the open door. Sawyer was in there, which meant he was back at the motel, thankfully. He had been gone all day “checking the town out”—his words. It would have been nice to check it out with him, but I knew he needed that space after everything. I let my mind drift back to that lunch. It had been hard. Uncomfortable. But still… natural. Like being with Linda and Kurt and Spencer was a place where Sawyer could belong, but that final step was still up to him.
It was all too overwhelming. I got that. And it was no wonder that he needed time on his own to just think and let all those feelings settle, but I hated not seeing him. I hated that he was out wandering around with a million thoughts overtaking his brain. It was too much for one person, and he didn’t have to do any of it on his own. I didn’t want to push him, though. He was back, and that was all that mattered. Back with me, in our room, and I was too thankful for that.
A little notification in the corner of my screen stole my attention, and I narrowed my eyes when I saw who it was from. Universal Magazine. I clicked on it, already knowing what my response to their enquiry would be: no.No, I don’t want to go back to New York. No, I don’t want to be stuck in a stuffy office all day. No, I don’t want that life.
