That’s when I abandoned all common sense, scooped a big bite of my cake onto my fork and brought it to his lips. “Open up, big boy. One more bite.”
Sawyer started laughing, his lips parting long enough for me to shove the forkful into his mouth.
Then I got the joy of watching him savor another bite.
After that visual feast, I put the plate down on the edge of the hot tub, where Josie couldn’t reach it.
His brow furrowed. “You didn’t finish your cake.”
“I ate ten pounds of French fries. I’ll have the rest later.”
He closed the distance between us, his sexy eyes still latched tightly onto me as he rumbled, “At least have your raspberry.”
He plucked the lone raspberry off the top of the cake, then fed it to me.
My tongue accidentally licked his fingers as I took the raspberry from him.
Sawyer rumbled out a satisfied laugh at that, his eyes dancing in delight.
Then I broached the topic that had been rolling around in my head all night. “What really happened with Avery?”
She was a pretty young thing who worked at Bookish, the local bookstore in town. The last I heard, the two of them were getting serious. I’d dreaded the day I’d get a wedding invitation in the mail. The gossip mill had been working overtime about those two for a while.
And the worst part was, she was sooo much younger than me. I’d always been afraidIwas too young for him. But there was only four years of distance between us. Those two had a decade at least. I hadn’t been able to contain my jealousy when I’d found out they were dating.
He gave a gentle shrug. “Avery’s really lovely. We’re still friends.”
“You’re not together anymore? Matt thought you were getting serious about her.”
His eyes flicked downward, trouble wrinkling his brow. “Serious is a relative word. I cared about her, but…”
“But what?”
I was curious what could possibly cause one of his relationships to implode. If I had that man, I’d never let him go again.
He quirked his lips to one side, then sighed. “I don’t want to talk bad about her. What I will say is, I really didn’t know how young she was when we first got together. And I thought we were just messing around. But… she got other ideas in her head and told the whole town we were in love. The truth is, from my perspective, we weren’t even dating. We just hooked up a few times.”
“Oh.”
He scrubbed a hand across his jaw, obviously upset. “I didn’t mean to hurt the girl. When I found out about our misunderstanding, I let her down as gently as I could.” His gaze drifted away from me and out into the night around us. “I was never in love with her. I’ve only ever been in love with—”
He clammed up fast.
That stung.
At least Sawyer was honest. He’d only ever been in love with one woman. And whoever she was, he obviously wasn’t with her now, so she must have broken up with him.
It put tonight into perspective for me, though. Whatever happened between us, it would just be a casual ‘cuddle’. Nothing serious.
Could I live with that? Of course. I’d take whatever scraps this man was willing to throw my way; I wasthatin love with him. But I wanted to know as much as possible about this woman who’d stolen his heart and refused to give it back.
So I asked, “With who?”
Sawyer let out a light laugh as snow drifted slowly down from the sky, framing him in snowflakes that melted as soon as they hit the steam of the hot tub.
But he didn’t answer the question.
Instead he said, “It’s complicated, Rissy. Look, I was fond of Avery. And I could have settled, but… she probably deserves someone whose heart skips a beat when they look at her. And that wasn’t me. It was best to let her go so she could try to find a real match. Someone who could be there for her more than a few Friday nights a month.”
