“Which year?”
Abruptly, I stand. “I’m going to get a box. Need one?” I leave before he can answer.
When I get the courage to head back to the table, Neil Ford from our year is standing there, talking to Sawyer. Not wanting yet another unwanted interaction, I hang back until he goes to the counter to order.
The thing is, Neil Ford wouldn’t even look my way if I were alone. Mr. Clarke would have never noticed me ifnot for Sawyer. Or, more likely, I never would have come here.
I peer around the market. It’s almost empty, but the spotlight is as bright as ever this afternoon because now there are two. Mine and Sawyer’s.
I’m glad Sawyer found his peace in returning to Blue Ridge, but I never could.
I have to get more applications out.
CHAPTER 40
BRIE
The following week,Sawyer backs into a parking spot and hops out of his truck. “Stay here.”
I’ve never been inside the gates of the drive-in theater, and I don’t know what’s better: that I’m here for the first time, or that we’re away from peering eyes.
When Sawyer and I are at school, it’s like our own little world. We eat lunch with Tess most days, and while it’s professional, I’ve had fun developing our friendship.
But as soon as we’re in the community, my anxiety climbs. The town’s attention makes me sweat, but then there’s the mortification every time Sawyer’s forced to defend me.
He’ll be relieved when I’m finally gone and he no longer has to.
I slam the door on it all because it’s irrelevant tonight.
My gaze is drawn to the hill outside the gates. I would’ve never spend my hard-earned pennies to enter the grounds properly. Besides, neither Dev nor I had a car todrive in. The experience was a luxury I couldn’t afford in multiple ways. But on those rare occasions I wasn’t working, Dev and I would sit up on that hill, a radio tuned to the movie between us.
I rarely paid attention to what was on the screen, watching the people below instead. Sawyer’s big red truck was there every time I went, backed in just like now. Even then, I wished I was down there with him. I hated him, but would have accepted an invitation. Not from Ethan, not from Rich. Not from anyone else. But if Sawyer had asked, I would have gone. After some arguing.
Several minutes later, my door opens, and he leads me to the back of the truck. He’s laid down blankets and placed pillows against the cab. To the side are a couple sodas and a huge tub of popcorn from concessions.
He grins as he helps me onto the bed, the skirt of my dress billowing as he pulls me up like I weigh nothing.
We settle against the pillows and stretch our legs out in front of us. I lean back against his chest. He threads his fingers through mine and I feel his lips on the top of my head. My pulse leaps in my throat, just like a teenager with a crush.
“You know,” he says, as if reading my mind, “when I used to come here, I always wished it was with you.”
“You looked like you were having enough fun,” I blab.
It was meant to be teasing, but my heart jumps to my throat when I realize what I just admitted.
He leans to look at me. “I don’t remember ever seeing you here.”
I shake my head, heat climbing up my spine. “That’s because you didn’t.” I swallow. As casually as I can, I say, “Dev and I sat up there. Just a few times.”
“Too cool for the rest of us, huh?” Sawyer smiles as he offers me a soda and plops the popcorn between us.
I make a sound I hope he mistakes for a laugh. “Yeah.”
He looks at me for a long moment before leaning against the pillows again. He knows better than anyone how untrue that is. Even though it was years ago, there’s still a little twist in my stomach at the reminder. The same feeling I had about not having tasted those Chateau Brume sodas before. A wistfulness for something I never had.
If this were just about differences in our upbringing, I could move past it, meet him where we are. But it’s broader than that, extending to the here and now. Maybe because, as much as Sawyer and I have both changed, this town hasn’t. It forces us to travel back in time whenever the spotlight catches us.
Why couldn’t I have met you anywhere else?I want to ask.
