6. Sawyer
Sawyer
Owen is the absolute worst at ring toss. If he suddenly became a master I’d be highly suspicious, though. It’s kind of his thing.
“Come on, you bastard,” he mutters, bouncing another plastic ring off the neck of a glass bottle. It clatters to the ground with all the others. “This is rigged.”
“It’s absolutely rigged,” I agree, leaning against the booth’s counter. “Or maybe you just don’t have what it takes.”
He turns and narrows his eyes. “How dare you?” Then he slaps down another five dollars, and the attendant is all too happy to provide him another three rings. “Tenth time is the charm.”
We’ve been at this for twenty excruciating minutes.
Owen’s determined to win me the legendary giant stuffed unicorn hanging from the ceiling.
It’s so aggressively glittery and neon that you could probably see it from space.
I swear that same one has been here our entire lives.
I’ve never seen a single soul carrying one around the park in all these years.
“You don’t have to do this,” I plead with him, more for myself than him at this point. “I don’t even really want it.”
“Yes, you do. You’ve been staring at it since we were fourteen.” He lines up his shot, poking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.
He’s not wrong. There’s something about that stupid unicorn that’s always caught my eye. Maybe because it’s so absurd and so tacky and just so perfectly Wonder World. Or maybe I just want what I can never have.
Owen tosses the first ring. It bounces off the rim and lands in the graveyard below.
“Fuck,” he says, somehow still cheerful. That man has the patience of a saint.
I watch him line up his next shot, hoping, for him, that he does it this time. He needs this way more than I do.
And the second ring doesn’t even make it to the bottles. I hold in a sigh.
“Okay, that one was the wind.”
“Owen…there’s no wind. We’re inside a booth.”
He examines the last ring, like he’ll find some kind of flaw in its circular form. “Fine…atmospheric pressure, then.”
I shake my head and let out a small laugh.
“You wanna kiss the ring.” He holds it out to me. “For good luck.”
I scrunch up my nose. “Eww, do you know how many booger-picking kids probably touched that thing today alone? Hard pass.”
“Thanks for that,” he says with a laugh. “Okay, fine. This is the one. I feel it.”
You said that ten minutes ago.
“I believe in you,” I say instead.
He rolls his shoulders back like he’s prepping for a Hail Mary in the last seconds of the Super Bowl and lets it go. It bounces off the side of a bottle, spins in the air for one breath-holding, hopeful second, and then lands on the ground with a sad little thud.
“Goddammit.” Owen laughs, adjusting his cap. “Okay, I give up…for now.”
“Finally.”
“But next time,” he points at me, then at the unicorn, “I’m winning it. That monstrosity is coming home with us. I promise.”
“Sure you will.” I pat his shoulder and try not to crack a smirk at the sweet, expectant look on his face.
“I will.” He closes the space between us, tilting my chin up to meet his gaze. “I don’t break my promises to you, Sunny.”
His hazel eyes are burning with an intensity that’s so different from the carefree way he was just playing the game. In a way that’s rare for Owen. It makes my throat tighten and stomach flutter.
“It’s just a stuffed animal,” I say quietly.
“It’s not about the unicorn.” His thumb brushes along my jaw. “It’s about...I don’t know. Proving I can give you what you want.”
“Owen, you already—”
“Do you remember the night after Hailey’s wedding?” he interrupts, softening his tone. “When I asked you to make it official?”
My heart stutters. “Yeah. Of course I remember.”
“I was so damn nervous, I’m embarrassed to think about it.
” He lets out a breathy laugh, moving his hands to my shoulders.
“I kept thinking you were going to say no. That you’d want to keep things casual, that it would ruin our friendship…
or that you’d—” He pauses and glances to the side for a second.
“That I’d what?”
“That you had a thing for Knox instead.”
I try to breathe normally, but it’s so hard. What is he saying? Why is he bringing this up now?
“I used to worry about all of that. Like when we were younger…he was always the exciting one, you know? The one who made you laugh harder, who got you to do crazy shit. And I was just...the best friend, the reliable one. The safe choice.”
Breathe. Don’t react. Just breathe.
“Owen, that’s not…What are you saying?”
He moves to push a strand of hair behind my ear, sending a shiver down my arms. “But you didn’t pick him. You picked me.” He smiles and it’s so genuine, so full of gratitude it just about kills me. “And I never take that for granted, Sunny. Not in these last two years together, not for a second.”
Waves of guilt crash over me. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. I have no words.
“I know I’m not always exciting. I know I burn pancakes and lose at ring toss and probably talk too much about football stats…”
“Stop.” I press my hands to his chest, finally finding my voice. “You’re perfect. You’re…You’re everything, okay?”
He beams down at me. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” And right now I mean it. How could I not?
He pulls me into a kiss, and it’s sweet and warm and tastes like the cotton candy he ate after lunch. When he pulls back, he’s grinning.
“You know what I was thinking about earlier?”
My pulse speeds up as I wonder what other perfect thing he’s going to say. “What were you thinking about?”
“Us.”
“Really? Us as a concept…That’s pretty vague there, buddy.”
He takes my hand and pulls me along to an empty bench, and I’m grateful for the reprieve from his weighted gaze. I’m barely seated before he goes on.
“We should get a place next month. I know we’ve been holding off until your lease is up, but we’re ready.
We’ve been ready for a while. Something small, maybe a fixer-upper…
with your student loans and my shitty entry-level salary, we’ll have to see what we can afford, but it’ll be ours.
” He starts talking faster, like he’s picturing the two of us as a movie reel in his mind.
“We could get one of those tiny balconies, grow herbs or something. You’d probably kill them all, but still. ”
I laugh even though my eyes are stinging. “I’m not that bad with plants.”
“You killed a cactus, Sunny. A cactus.”
“That was one time.”
“It’s literally the hardest plant to kill.” But he’s smiling, and sliding in closer. “And we’ll come back here every summer. Keep up with tradition. And maybe…fuck it. Not maybe…I know I will win you that damn unicorn and it’ll sit in our living room for the rest of our lives.”
“That sounds perfect,” I whisper, and I think I mean it. My chest hurts, and I kind of need to vomit, but shit…does that mean I really do mean it?
He twists to face me and pulls me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear. I rest my head on his shoulder and breathe him in. His cologne mixed with sunscreen and just a tinge of sweat. He smells like comfort.
“I love you, Owen.”
I do and I need him to know it. Again…every day. He needs to know it always.
“I love you too.” He says it like there’s no doubt in the world.
We sit there for a moment, just breathing together, while I try to commit this all to memory.
A moment in time that I’m so incredibly lucky and loved, that here, in this place, everything is the way it should be.
Even the sound of kids screaming on rides in the distance and the questionably sticky bench we’re sitting on.
Even with Knox here getting under my skin, and the looming dinner date with their parents.
I want to keep all of it.
Until his phone buzzes in his pocket, breaking the spell.
“Sorry.” He pulls it out, his brow furrowing as he reads the screen. “It’s Ella.”
“What does she want?”
“She’s asking where we are.” He types something back quickly. “We’re supposed to meet them soon, maybe she wants to meet earlier. Should we go to Velocity?”
The mention of that ride, and by extension, Knox, makes my stomach clench. All those bubbles of happiness I was just experiencing float up into the atmosphere. I shift away from Owen, needing space to breathe.
“Hey.” He looks at me with those concerned puppy dog eyes that always get me. “You okay? If you really don’t want to ride it—”
“No.” I straighten up, and force confidence into my tone. “No, I want to. I told you I would.”
“You sure? Because we can just do something else. I don’t care about the stupid ride.”
“I’m sure.” I am. I think I am. I don’t know anymore, but I can’t back down now. Not after Knox’s challenge earlier. Not after everything.
“Okay, then.” He grins, standing and pulling me up with him. “Let’s go face your fears, Sunny.”
We start walking hand in hand across the park toward Velocity. I try to keep my gaze focused directly in front of me and not at the giant metal monstrosity that makes my palms sweat and knees weak.
Owen’s phone buzzes again.
“Jesus, what now?” He stops to read the message, then scrubs a hand over his face, blowing out a breath. “Actually, Ella needs help with something real quick. I guess her bag strap broke? She’s freaking out about losing her stuff.”
“Oh. Okay.”
I want to ask why her boyfriend isn’t helping her, but Owen already dropped my hand to text her back.
“Can you meet us over there? I’ll be like five minutes, I swear.”
I blink at him, at a loss for words. “Okay. Yeah. Go help her. Meet you there.”
That gives me five minutes alone to digest our last conversation. I’m afraid the longer he’s out of my sight, my drowning pessimism will suffocate what lingers of his optimism and I’ll spiral into an existential crisis.
“You’re the best.” He kisses me quickly, his lips warm against mine. “Fifteen minutes max. And don’t let Knox talk you out of riding before I get there, okay? I know how he gets in your head.”
If only he knew the extent.
“I won’t,” I promise.
“That’s my girl.” He squeezes my hand once more before jogging off in the direction of the exit, his backwards cap bouncing with each step.
He weaves through the crowd, apologizing when he bumps into people, polite as always. And the longer I watch, the more this feeling crawls up my spine. This urge to call him back, to take his hand and not let go.
But I don’t.
I watch until he disappears.