Chapter 13
Autumn
F inally, alone.
Spending the last two weeks with Alice has been great, but we need time apart. I am starting to forget what it is like to be by myself. I also relish time alone; in fact, I crave it. I love to listen to an audiobook while cooking or sit down with my e-reader for some dark mafia romance. I can’t help it. It’s my jam.
I may be perpetually single, but I still have needs. Needs that are usually met by my battery-powered friends, and whatever book I am reading at the time.
I shower, bundle my hair on top of my head, and chuck on some spandex shorts and a far-too-big-for-me rugby shirt. I am looking forward to cooking for myself this evening. Alice and I lived on quick meals or takeout for the last two weeks, and I just want to be in the kitchen, creating food.
As I round up the ingredients I need, I set down my old, falling apart cookbook and flick to the recipe for creamy garlic chicken and pasta. It's delicious and can be cooked in under thirty minutes.
Jed is asleep in his bed in the living room, and watching his paws move, I can see him running in his dreams. He looks so peaceful when he is asleep. Seeing him sleeping happily reminds me of my urge to eat, then go to bed and sleep. I want to forget about the embarrassment of my reaction to seeing Sawyer again. My mind and body react differently to being in his presence.
I plate up my dinner, sit down at my dining table, take one mouthful of chicken and there is knocking at my front door. Assuming Alice has come to collect some of her things, I take my plate with me, stuffing more food in my face as I go. As I swing open the door with far too many pieces of pasta in my mouth, I am not greeted by Alice but by Sawyer.
How the hell does he know where I live?
I swallow and cough at the same time, but my ability to speak seems to have been taken from me. I gaze up at this man while dreaming about eating him for dessert. After making some very unattractive and indistinguishable noises I finally process that Sawyer is standing in my doorway. Well, filling my doorway would be more accurate.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in, Sugar?” He looms over me with a grin on his impossibly handsome face and it makes me want to punch him. He glances down at my thankfully covered chest. I chew my bottom lip, half from worry, half from excitement, with what I’m sure is the most ridiculous look on my face. The sleeves of my shirt are now swallowing up my fingertips. I look like a toddler wearing their dad’s clothes.
Since I opened the door, I have wondered multiple times, why he couldn’t have come to my house about half an hour earlier, when I looked presentable.
Without hesitation, I step aside and let this practical stranger into my house, forgetting all about my overprotective dog, asleep in the living room.
I stand in silence in the hallway for longer than I care to admit as Sawyer makes his way further into my home. This cocky asshole.
“Shit! Jed!” I yell as a panicked feeling spreads across my chest, and I sprint down the hallway into my living room.
Sawyer is sitting on the couch with Jed spread eagle over his lap, receiving tummy scratches.
“Nice to see you again, boy.”
Jed is a traitor.