“Because I’m doing something strictly for revenge,” she said. “That’s not very nice.”
Sawyer grinned. There was that innocence he liked about her. “You’re mainly saving face. The fact that you get revenge at the same time is just a bonus.”
“I don’t know if that’s true though. If Daisy wasn’t the editor ofSlipper Magazine, I might have been satisfied with rebutting the article like a normal person. You know, talk shows, interviews, social media posts. But no, I had to go get the guy we both wanted and use him to make her jealous.”
“The guy youbothwanted?” The comment reminded him of what his mom said—hewas the common denominator.
Betzy swatted his arm. “Oh, stop it. You know we wanted you all through school. Along with every other girl. Daisy was just the one who got you. And she threw it in my face every chance she got.”
Sawyer’s heart thumped out of rhythm. Ca-clank, ca-clank.
All through school? No, he hadn’t known that at all. “I didn’t date Daisy until high school. I figured you stopped liking me by the time we hit puberty.”
Betzy only shook her head. “Nope.”
“So…through junior high?”
Cheek still resting against his chest, she shook her head subtly. “Past that.”
“Into high school?” His voice went tight again.
“More likethroughhigh school,” she corrected.
A rush of heat pulsed through his chest. He only hoped she couldn’t feel the sudden racing of his heart. She’dlikedhim during that time? It didn’t seem possible. Had Sawyer known that she actually liked him the way that he was back then, would he have bothered going to New York?
Yes. Liking him was different from marrying him.
“Does that mean…” Sawyer ended the question there to rephrase it. “So when I kissed you at the farewell party—did you still have feelings for me then?”
Betzy lifted her face off his chest once more, eyes wide and worried. “No.” It sounded more like a denial than an honest answer.
Still, his once-swelling ego shrunk like a freshly popped balloon. “Yeah, right,” he teased just the same.
He was closer to Betzy than he’d been in years, and now, she’d dropped a huge bomb by saying she’d had feelings for him. To top it all off, the feel of her fingers tracing down the front of his chest, as absent as it might be, was pulling his mind in an entirely different direction.
“Well,” Betzy said with a shrug, “you’rethe one who kissedme.So who wasreallythe one with a crush that day?”
Sawyer was very glad she hadn’t lay back onto his chest. Bolts of lightning were clashing in hot, flustered succession. Now it was his eyes that had gone wide. He held her gaze, cursing the expression that no doubt gave him away.
Say something!
Only he couldn’t. There wasn’t anything to say. Denying it would make him look like a liar.
Betzy’s smile began to fade, softly, slowly, until she narrowed her eyes at him in question. “Whydidyou kiss me?”
His heart thundered harder as the answers rolled through his mind.Because I was in love with you. Because—from the time we wrote that silly contract—I wanted to make you mine. And to this day, I want you more than ever.
Betzy tipped her head to one side, seeming to read the answers in his eyes. Slowly then, her hand moved up the side of his neck, causing heat to flare low in his belly once more. Her touch—it was magic.
At once it felt like they were back in that place and time. Like they’d been given a chance to relive the moment. Sawyer gulped past the tightness in his throat, dared himself to wrap a hand around the warm curve of one hip.
Yes.This was what he’d been waiting for all these years. For a moment like this to happen naturally, all on its own, to show them that they were meant to—
“How’s little Mario doing?” The sound of his mother’s voice put a fast stop to the action. And there was no mistaking—therewouldhave been action. Had Mom walked through that door thirty seconds later, he and Betzy would have been smack in the middle of a dang good kiss.
Betzy shot off the couch and onto her feet. “Fine. He’s fine. We’ve just been sitting by him.”
Sawyer shot her a questioning look. It wasn’t like they were back in grade school.
