6. Hallie
HALLIE
“ A girl could get used to this,” I tease, watching Sawyer plate the most perfect waffle I’ve ever seen. He’d spared no expense, topping it with fruit, whipped cream, and powdered sugar.
“Yeah, well, it’s no trouble and I’d rather know you’re getting actual food instead of something from the freezer section.”
I’m just about to argue when his phone lights up on the island between us.
What in the world?
“Is that…an update for a pregnancy app on your phone?” I ask in half disbelief, half amusement and an obvious caffeine deficiency. “Do I even want to know why you have this?”
“My sister is pregnant.”
I have to rack my brain for a minute, sifting through years of details before landing on the one I think is right. “Indie?”
“Yeah.” He nods. “She’s about your age and we’ve never been really close. I was already living my life and had moved here when she was in high school so it made it hard to really connect with her.”
“That makes sense,” I tell him, stabbing a bite of waffle before adding, “Beth and I weren’t always close growing up, hence why I asked you to pick me up from that party. Did you ever tell her?”
He smirks, leaning a hip against the opposite counter and staring at me. “No.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because you asked me not to.”
My heart flutters a little in my chest because I hadn’t wanted to go to that party but my sister had called me boring and told me to live a little. The irony isn’t lost on me, especially with how she ended things with Sawyer and went on to find herself.
It was messy, and secretly I’d been thankful I wasn’t like her.
I didn’t know everything back then but I knew enough to realize I didn’t want to follow in my sister’s footsteps.
“Can we circle back to the part where you’re tracking your sister’s pregnancy?” I ask, resting my chin in my hand as I wait for his answer.
He looks away for a minute, his tongue peeking out to wet his lips. It’s not a sexy reaction but it is telling.
Raw.
He’s nervous, clearly trying to determine whether he wants to share, and I hate that I’ve put him on the spot.
I’m just about to change the subject when I hear him speak, low and almost pained. “I found out by accident.”
Blinking, I try to make sense of what he just said. “You found out what by accident?”
“That my sister is pregnant. She hooked up with a guy at a wedding and needed some time adjusting,” he says slowly. “It was tough to hear like that. Indie had already told Jensen, so he was less surprised about her inviting us to her wedding.”
“I’m sorry, that must have really hurt.”
Nodding slowly, he exhales. “I made a promise that I’d try harder for them.
Jensen has a daughter too, and I want their kids to know me, and that means I need to do better with my brother and sister first.” He motions toward the phone.
“That means learning what fruit Indie’s baby is measuring at each month. ”
“You’re something else, Sawyer Kade.”
“And what about you?”
“What about me? I’ve been traveling the country—loving all the different places and people—doing my best to make a difference in their lives. But I needed the reset,” I admit. “When the job opened up here, I jumped at the chance to come home.”
“Is it everything you dreamed it would be?”
“Yeah, but my roommate forces me to eat homemade waffles and calls my frozen ones an abomination.”
“Yeah, he sounds awful.”
“I don’t know,” I muse, sliding my empty plate toward him. “Throw another waffle on there and we’ll call it even.”
“Deal.”