She ignored it at first, but as she rounded the corner to go into her room, a thought came to mind. What if Kellianne needed him for something? He’d probably kept it on in case of an emergency. It wouldn’t hurt to at least check.
With that, she snatched the extra slippers from her dresser and hurried into Sawyer’s room. There, glowing face up on the side table, the device let out another chime.
Quickly, Betzy hovered over the screen to read the text that had popped up.
Ryan:I’ll take your silence as confirmation. Hopefully you can at least work up to holding hands before then.
Holding hands?
She knew that it was a very bad idea to tap on his phone and read the texts leading up to it, but her curiosity had been piqued.
As quickly as the thought came to her, Betzy swiped the screen, hoping it wouldn’t require a password.
It didn’t. With that one touch, Betzy had opened the text interactions between Sawyer and his uncle. She set her eyes on the first one she could see at the top of the screen and read from there.
Ryan:That’s what I’m talking about, you lucky dog. Same room?
Sawyer:Separate rooms. One thing at a time, my friend.
Ryan:Yeah, yeah. Sounds thrilling. 2 grand says you don’t even get past 2ndbase.
Sawyer:10 grand says she agrees to marry me by Christmas.
Ryan:Sounds like she’s more of a prude than I thought if you have to put a ring on it first.
Betzy brought a hand to her mouth. A mean ache settled over her as she read over it once more.One thing at a time, my friend.That’s what Sawyer had said.
It was obvious that his uncle didn’t know about the plan. Perhaps this was Sawyer’s way of warming him up to the idea. But why hadn’t Sawyer defended her after Ryan’s ugly comment?
She glared at the phone. “At least work up to holding hands?” Sure, Marcus was right about what he’d said in the article. Betzy hadn’t wanted to go that far with him. In fact, she didn’t want to go that far withanyonewho didn’t truly love her, and she didn’t plan on changing that now.
Was that really all men worried about—how far they were going to get?
First the warning from Grandma, then the comment from Duke, and now this? Perhaps Sawyer was more like the rest of them than she thought.
Fine. She’d consider herself warned.
If she were smart, Betzy would invalidate every ounce of affection she got from Sawyer. Chalk it all up to men taking what they could get. Then, she’d shift her focus back to her plan instead.
And though Betzy hated the idea, she could already feel herself doing that very thing. It was time to put her focus back on the plan.
Chapter 15
Sawyer tossed and turned in his bed, thoughts of Betzy and that morning kiss heavy on his mind. He was tempted to knock on her door, wake her in the night, and see if she wanted to join him in front of the fireplace once more. Maybe he’d grab a few logs from out back and strike up a wood fire in the double hearth, recreate the moment beside a real crackling fire.
It started out as a playful musing at first, but just as he began to fully entertain the idea, a knock came to his own door. Soft, almost indecipherable.
“Sawyer?” Betzy whispered from the doorway. “Are you awake?”
“Depends on who’s asking,” he said. “Is this the girl who wants to lay in front of the fireplace with me and kiss?”
She giggled, and he could tell by the gentle sound of footsteps that she’d entered the room. “It’s the girl who wants to talk about what you’re going to say, at the proposal.”
Oh.If he were honest, Sawyer didn’t like to be reminded of how, well, fake all of this was.
“Doesn’t the guy usually come up with that?” The last thing he wanted to do was recite some spoon-fed lines while the camera rolled.
“Mind if I sit?” He could tell, by the sound of her voice, that she was approaching the foot of his bed.
