Chapter 50 Sawyer
Chapter fifty
Sawyer
Aloud pounding on the door startles me, making me jump and nearly drop my mug.
When it starts up again, I peek down the hall.
Someone’s at the front door.
I slowly make my way toward the sound, not sure I actually want to open the door. This is Noah’s house, after all. But the snow has resumed, and it’s coming down hard again. If someone’s here, it would be best not to leave them out in the cold.
Mercer emerges from his room and follows me, placing a hand low on my back. He’s shirtless—yum—and wearing his big noise-canceling headphones around his neck. “Is someone here?”
“I guess. Should we wait for Noah?”
The knocking starts up again, making me wince.
“I’ll get it,” Mercer skirts around me to take the lead.
As we approach the foyer, Tytus rounds the corner from the living room looking freshly showered. He’s got gauze and medical tape in hand, like he was preparing to rebandage his incisions.
“I’ll help with that,” I say softly, folding into his side as Mercer punches a code into the alarm panel by the door.
“Jesus H,” he mutters when another round of knocking begins. “Hold on.”
Heavy footsteps echo behind us, and Noah appears, wearing sweats and an unbuttoned flannel that shows off his thick chest.
Damn. I’m certainly not going to complain about the state of everyone’s undress.
Cursing, Mercer finally swings the door open. We’re met with a whole crowd of people, all bundled up in hats, scarfs, and hoods. My heart lurches. The winter gear makes it hard to discern the identities of our visitors, but as I look closer, I find faces I recognize.
Cam. Kai. Bryant. Arjun.
A few hockey players—Swayzee, Haas, and Tanvers.
Then smack in the middle, a face I probably know better than my own.
Atty.
“Get inside the house.” Noah shoulders past Mercer and ushers the group in. “It’s freezing out here, and the stairs are still covered in snow. Last thing I need is someone else getting hurt on my property.”
The gang dutifully files into the foyer, with Atty bringing up the rear.
“Do I want to know why almost everyone in this house is shirtless?” Arjun jokes.
Cam snorts.
Bryant presses his lips together, but his eyes dance with laughter.
I pull a face, about to protest, but then I look to each of my guys. My shirtless or mostly shirtless guys. Okay, fine. He has a point.
The foyer is crowded and chaotic as our friends kick off their boots, remove their gloves, and unzip their jackets.
Atty homes in on me where I stand by the stairs to stay out of the fray. He shifts around the group, shouldering past everyone until he’s standing by my side.
“You’re here?” he demands, agitation rolling off him. “Have you been here the entire time?”
I’m here? Why is he so worked up about that? Honestly, I should be asking him why he’s here.
Refusing to cower to him, I cross my arms and straighten. The two of us stare each other down, though his attention is quickly stolen, his eyes going wide.
“You’re both here?”
Tytus shuffles closer. He puffs out his cheeks and releases a long breath. “Yeah. Sorry, man. I meant to check in.”
Oh, he didn’t check in. I suppose I didn’t either. Is that what all of this is about?
“My phone died yesterday,” he tells my brother. “I don’t have a charger with me.”
Mercer sidles up and nudges Tytus. “I would have lent you a charger. All you had to do was ask.”
Atty’s brows shoot up into his hairline, his eyes darting back and forth between the two men.
“What are the rest of you doing here?” I ask over the rising chatter. The question may be for the group, but I zero in on Cam. “You knew I left the party with Noah, Mercer, and Ty. What’s with the cavalcade?”
Cam plants one hand on her hip, side-eyeing Bryant. “The ice arena is closed because of the storm and the water main break.”
We knew that.
“So these guys decided to have a little party of their own last night. Beer Olympics: the Rink Crew vs. Hockey Players.”
I snort. That had to be one hell of a party.
Cam shakes her head, silently confirming I don’t even know the half of it.
“Atty mentioned that he hadn’t heard from Ty since Saturday night. That he was worried. Then everyone started to panic.”
“By panic,” Kai says, “she means develop outlandish conspiracy theories. That one over there started crying,” they reveal, pointing to Haas.
Aw. Poor guy. Wesley Haas is a freshman, like Atty and Ty, but he’s a literal, just-graduated-from-high-school-a-few-months-ago eighteen-year-old freshman.
“Bro.” Swayzee rubs his hands together and blows warm air between his palms. “You can’t just ghost us like that.”
“Seriously,” Tanvers adds. “You’re gonna get the whole team in trouble. We swore to coach we’d look out for you. Kinda hard to do when you fucking disappear.”
Beside me, Ty’s cheeks have gone pink, but he only grunts and shrugs. He may act indifferent, but he’s remorseful under that facade—he cares that they all care.
“Bryant had access to the department van keys and knew it could use a tank of gas,” Cam explains. “He mentioned it to the group last night, and here we all are.”
“Hey now.” Bryant holds up both hands. “We are fueling up on the way back to campus, just like we said on the sign-out form.”
Noah hovers on the last step, lording over everyone. “How were the roads?”
“Mostly clear,” Bryant responds. “They’ve got Main Street and Summit torn up because of the water main break. But most of the snow has been cleared.”
“Don’t worry, Sawy. You were my top concern,” Arjun declares. “Once we figured out no one had heard from you either, I made it my personal mission to scour the campus and township.”
I chuckle, shaking my head. The township. Classic Arjun.
“I even went as far as to research off-road and all-terrain vehicles. I was fully prepared to rent a Sherp.”
“A what?” Mercer presses.
With a dazzling smile, Arjun stands a little taller and wags his eyebrows.
“It’s something I saw on Reddit. This guy lives on an isle in this big mansion with, like, four other people.
They use watercraft to get to and from the mainland most of the time, but in an emergency, they have this underwater all-terrain special-forces vehicle called a Sherp. ”
Atty grimaces.
“That can’t be real,” Tanvers mutters.
“I swear it’s legit! The guy even shared the details, down to his routine for maintenance and upkeep and everything. Dude’s intense.”
“That’s gotta be AI bullshit,” Kai hedges.
Arjun crosses his arms and huffs. “In username StandardDeviantKW I trust.”
“Enough,” Mercer says, using his stern professor voice to quiet the crowd. “You’re all here to check on Sawyer and Tytus. Is that correct?”
General murmurs of agreement rise up from the group.
“Okay.” Mercer looks around the foyer. “You’ve located them. They appear well. Will there be anything else?”
The room falls silent. It’s an awkward, noxious silence. As eager as I am to get everyone out of this foyer, I highly doubt Atty is going anywhere without answers.
“We need to talk,” I tell him, then give each of my guys a quick look in turn.
When I meet Noah’s gaze, understanding registers, and he dips his chin.
“Listen up,” he tells the group. “I just put on a fresh pot of coffee, and there are two kinds of pie in the fridge. Help yourselves, but also clean up after yourselves, understood?”
Murmurs of agreement and gratitude float around us as they file down the hall.
Cam trails behind, grabbing my hand once she’s close enough. “You’re good?” she asks, concern marring her face.
I can’t hide my smile. “I’m so, so good.”
She wags her brows and subtly eyes the guys. We have a lot of catching up to do.
“I’m sorry about all of them,” she adds. “That was the last time I ever sanction a hockey team and rec crew get-together. Arjun and hockey players do not mix. Text me when you’re back on campus this week, okay? We’ll do lunch.”
I squeeze her hand as she takes off after the others, then I turn to face my guys.
Atty looks around the foyer, noting who’s left. “So when you say ‘we’ need to talk, this is the ‘we’ in question?”
My stomach sinks. Good grief. He’s not going to make this easy on any of us. Gnawing on the corner of my lip, I glance at Ty to gauge his opinion.
“It’s your call,” he murmurs.
Last night, Mercer confessed his devotion and told me the only way through was by leaning in with love. It would be easier to talk to Atty alone. Or to sit him down with Ty by my side. But that wouldn’t be the most honest representation of our dynamic.
So I focus on my brother, then tip my chin toward the living room. “Yes. We all need to talk. Let’s go.”