18. Sawyer
SAWYER
- Swollen feet
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Olivia asked, handing me a set of glasses fresh from the dishwasher. “I’m an excellent listener.”
“You’re an excellent yapper,” I sighed, reaching up to put them on the top shelf. “I don’t know how many more times I have to tell you that I’m okay.”
I wasn’t. Not even close. But I couldn’t say that.
The problem with your boss being your only friend was that she knew the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I’d spent the majority of my day thus far assuring Liv that everything was fine and dandy between Beckett and me.
And every time I did, she rolled her eyes and mumbled something under her breath about my pants being on fire.
“I’m just saying. If he did something to upset you, I’m not afraid of spending a night in the county jail.”
“Olivia!” I exclaimed, turning to pop her with my towel. “Why is that where your mind goes?”
“Because I picked your ass up from his cabin at eleven at night days ago, and you didn’t say a single word the entire ride home.
You were more chatty after finding out you were pregnant, which is saying something considering I could only manage a handful of words from you that weren’t yes or no.
” She turned to me, hands on her hips. The cutting glare she shot my way was nearly enough to have me confessing all my secrets.
But not quite.
Beckett and Liv clearly had some kind of business together. Regardless of what happened, I couldn’t let my feelings jeopardize that, no matter how badly I wanted to tell someone about what happened. The moment she found out the truth, she’d have his balls as a trophy on her mantle.
Beckett’s reaction, while disappointing, was not altogether surprising. I had months to come to terms with my pregnancy, he had hours at most. Combine that with the fact I’d all but told him I thought he was a baby snatcher… Well, I understood how hard it might have been to process.
My disappointment didn’t come from a place of resentment, but hope.
No matter how many times I told myself I was raising this baby on my own, there was some stupidly foolish, hopeless romantic compartment of my brain that perked up the moment I saw Beckett standing in this bar again.
Questions I had no business asking formed at the tip of my tongue.
What if he knows?
What if he decided to stay?
What if I didn’t have to do this alone?
What if, what if, what if. It didn’t matter in the end because the answer was a resounding no. The quicker I learned that, the quicker I could pick myself up off the floor and forget Beckett Montgomery ever existed.
Unfortunately, the man in question just strolled through the front door at Frank’s with a bouquet of wildflowers in one hand and a twelve-pack of Cherry 7UP in the other.
Liv and I traded a look, staring in confusion as he set them both on the bartop and took a seat. “Olivia,” he said, with a polite dip of his chin. When his warm, chocolate brown eyes swung to me, my grip on the towel tightened. “Hello, Sawyer.”
It was my fault, you know, for falling into bed with a man like Beckett. The smile he gave let loose a swarm of fluttering wings in my belly, reminding me of baby boy’s first movements. If Liv hadn’t been beside me, I might’ve gone for a full swoon looking at the soda alone.
“Beckett, what’re you doing here?” I asked, stepping toward him. Thankfully for both of us, Liv didn’t follow. I did, however, feel her keeping a close watch on me as she touched tables around the room.
He patted the case next to him. “You promised our son one of these bad boys if he moved for me the other night. Seemed rude not to pay up.” He paused, glancing around nervously. “I’m just sorry it took so long.”
Our son.
Those two words nearly sent me to the ground. They were nothing new, nothing I didn’t already know, but hearing them fall so easily from his lips was another thing entirely. It got that pitiful part of me perking back up as I took in his earnest expression.
“Y-Yeah,” I stammered, clearing my throat. “He doesn’t play when it comes to his soda. It’s one of the few things other than water that doesn’t make him angry.” I placed my hand over my belly. “Thank you. I was actually going to pick some up at the store after work.”
“Don’t mention it. I was getting those,” he said, pointing toward the flowers, “when I remembered your little bargain.”
I glanced toward the bouquet, admiring the fresh foliage. Roses, chrysanthemums, a handful of lilies, and delphiniums blended together in a beautiful blend of pinks and purples. I leaned in, inhaling the sweet aroma, and sighed.
During my twenty-four years of life, no one had ever bought me flowers.
I’d never minded before. Why waste all that money on something that was going to die in a matter of weeks?
But now, as I watched Beckett nervously shift in his seat, I understood they were just as much a gift for the other person as they were for me.
This was an olive branch of sorts. A way to break the tension after a less-than-ideal ending to our night.
It seemed like such a silly thing to grow emotional about, but tears lined the rim of my lashes. I blinked them away before they fell, but Beckett saw all the same.
“They’re beautiful,” I said, lifting the corner of my lips. “Delphiniums are my favorite.”
A flush of color came back into his cheeks as he blew out a breath. The self-assured version of Beckett was hot, but seeing him unabashedly show the barest hint of vulnerability was sexier than it had any right being. If I weren’t already pregnant, I would’ve been at risk.
Rubbing the back of his neck, he said, “Thank god. This old woman found me standing in front of the flower section at the store like an idiot and offered to help. She seemed a little…” he paused, furrowing his brows. “Uh, how do I say this nicely? Eccentric?”
“Oh, you met Margaret,” I said, chuckling. That was one of the perks of living in a small town. If you hung around long enough, you could name someone after only hearing a few words. “She has a heart of gold, but she can be a bit overbearing at the best of times.”
“I thought she was never going to let me leave. How does she know so much about flowers? It was like listening to a poorly put-together dissertation.”
“She used to own a flower shop on Main Street. Forget-Me-Not.” My smile faltered as I remembered driving down the strip and seeing the closed sign for the first time.
The whole town seemed to mourn right along with her, but there was nothing to be done.
Rent increases and a lack of business had put the final nail in the coffin, just as they had half the business on the same street.
“That shop was Margaret’s whole life. She inherited it from her father and worked with her daughter until the very last day. ”
“What happened to it?” Beckett asked.
I shrugged. “Same thing that happened to most of the businesses around here. People wearing suits came in, bought out leases, and raised rent to astronomical levels that no small business could feasibly manage. It’s the same old song and dance small towns everywhere are subjected to.
No one's bought it yet, but it won’t be long now. ”
Beckett pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. His fingers tapped against the worn wood in quick rhythmic succession before he shook his head and forced a smile. “Well, hopefully her knowledge still bears weight. If you don’t like them, blame her.”
“I’ll be sure to tell her how quickly you threw her under the bus.”
“Don’t do that. I don’t want her coming after me with that cane of hers.” He leaned forward, lowering his voice. “Did you see the thorns carved into the wood? One whack with that thing and I’d be a goner.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time she’s threatened to take someone out with that thing,” I confessed.
“Even Duke caught her wrath when it came to the flowers for his and Liv’s wedding.
Liv’s brother had to carefully extract the weapon from Margaret’s hand in this very room when she realized he hadn’t asked her to help. ”
“That would’ve been a sight.” Beckett grinned. “Something tells me Duke doesn’t scare easily.”
“I don’t,” the man in question said. He came up behind Beckett and clapped him on the shoulder. Hard. “But that woman scares the shit out of me. Just like that one over there.”
I glanced over my shoulder, smiling as I realized he was pointing at Olivia. She had her hand planted on the back of a customer’s chair, head thrown back in laughter at something one of our regulars said.
Duke might have been a man of few words, but he used every single one of them to shower Liv and their girls with more love than most could ever dream of.
“Hello to you too, Duke,” Beckett muttered, wincing as my boss squeezed tightly before letting go.
He took the seat next to Beckett, gaze skipping between the two of us. “Is this going to become a regular thing? I can’t have you disrupting my staff during working hours.”
I struggled to keep my eyes from rolling back in my head.
He had the best of intentions, but my overbearing boss was about to find out how disagreeable I could become if he started breathing down my neck.
“Duke, it’s two in the afternoon. We’ve had a grand total of ten people come in, all of whom have been checked on by your very capable wife. ”
“We could get a rush,” he grumbled.
“Thank god you’re here to cover if we do,” I shot back sarcastically, leveling him with a glare.
Beckett raised his hands. “I’ll go. I just wanted to pay up on a bargain Sawyer struck.” There was a small twinge in my chest as I watched him stand and push in his stool. He paused, glancing between Duke and me as we all stood there in a weird stand-off.
I waited for Duke to get the hint, but he just sat there, glaring at Beckett like he had just run over Margaret’s prize-winning roses. It was only when I raised my eyebrows to the damn ceiling that he sighed dramatically and took his leave.
“Sorry about him. He’s—”
“Protective?” Beckett finished, and I nodded.
“Unfortunately so. He can be a bit overbearing. I swear, they treat me more like their daughter than their employee some days.”
I expected him to laugh, but he didn’t. His expression was tight as he stared in the direction Duke had disappeared. “I’m glad you’ve had them, Sawyer,” he finally said after a long pause. “Especially when you don’t have… Well, when you didn’t have the partner you imagined.”
His words were heavy and sorrow-filled. A direct opposition to how he’d been when he walked in, giddy and nervous with my favorite soda and flowers. We may have had a lot of things we needed to work out, but hearing the dejection in his tone was more than I could take.
Blame it on the pregnancy hormones, but I couldn’t let him leave like that.
“Beckett,” I called out. He paused, turning over his shoulder to stare at me. I tapped my palm against the countertop, summoning the courage to ask for what I wanted. “Um, could we maybe do the other night over again? I know there was a lot we didn’t get to discuss, and it was kind of a mess, but—”
“Yes,” he rushed out before I’d finished my sentence. “I would really like that. I won’t even flirt with you. Scouts honor.” He held up his hand like he was swearing an oath before a jury.
“I think you mean this,” I said, reaching out to correct him. The moment my fingers touched his, it was like an electric current sparked through both our bodies. Our eyes met, wide and full of shock, as I gently pushed down his pinky and thumb to form the three-fingered salute.
“Of course,” he murmured, letting his hand fall to his side. “Guess that shows how much I learned from Boy Scouts.”
“You were in Boy Scouts?” I asked, covering my smile.
He shook his head. “No, but I know what it is and that should count for something.”
“I’ll take it into consideration,” I said. “Are you free over the weekend?”
“Name the time and the place. I’ll be there.” I waited for him to throw out a cheeky one-liner or insist on picking me up, but he didn’t. He slid his hands into his pockets and slowly backed away.
“Careful what you wish for!” I called out.
I tried not to let my disappointment show as he disappeared out of the front door, and I got back to work. Or when Liv came up to grab the flowers and the soda to put them in my cubby. Or when another nameless face sat where he’d been only moments ago.
Because after that touch? Maybe I wanted him to flirt with me, which was only a disaster waiting to happen.