Sawyer was quick to move his legs. “No, go ahead,” he said, giving it a blind pat in the darkness.
“Thanks. I think, considering the circumstance, that it might be better to have it scripted. Just to avoid…”
“Avoid what? Me messing it all up?” A bout of irritation stirred in the pit of his stomach. This was the very thing that kept popping up during their time together. One moment he was confident Betzy was on the same page, feeling the same things, and the next, she’d bring up the plan like it was the only thing on her mind.
“Trust me,” he said under his breath. “I know all the right things to say.”
She stayed quiet, seeming to look for some benign approach to getting her way. There wasn’t one.
Of all the things he’d been asked to do in life, this task was meant for him, and him alone.
“Betzy Benton,” he said softly. Sawyer reached for her hand, found it resting over her knee, and sandwiched it between his own. A rush of emotion pushed its way to the surface, fusing his words with all the tenderness he’d use if the moment were real.
“I have loved you since we were eight years old, when I taught you how to wink. To this day, that wink of yours makes my heart skip at least two full beats.”
He paused there, the raw truth in his words causing his throat to tighten.
“I wanted my time in New York to be like that wink, fast and fleeting, so that I could come back to you and make you mine.”
She sniffed, and suddenly her hand was trembling.
Sawyer cradled her wrist gently, and dared himself to say more. But Betzy beat him to the punch.
“That’s perfect,” she said with another sniff. Already she was climbing off the bed. “I changed my mind. I guess youdoknow what to say.” With that, Betzy hurried out of the room, closing his door behind her.
Her door closed a moment later.
Sawyer exhaled a breath, heavy with the unspoken words in his heart. He didn’t want to lie back down and swallow his thoughts back into the depths they’d lived in for all these years. Instead, Sawyer wanted to burst into Betzy’s room, drop onto one knee, and confess it all right then and there.
Adrenaline coursed through him at the mere idea, hot and restless, pushing at him from every inward angle.
I’m not mad about the contract, sweetie. I think it’s cute. And we love Sawyer too, trust me. But you’re a Benton…
And there it was, his mighty, title-holding friend—fear. Ready to stop him once again from going after the woman of his dreams. Ready to pull him back to reality and remind him that, while he’d accomplished a lot, it still wasn’t enough.
Sawyer had been certain, while pouring his heart out to Betzy just then, that she felt the same. He wasn’t so sure of that anymore. In fact, it was possible she’d known how very real it was for him, and that she’d wanted to avoid the awkward moment of turning him down and bringing him back to reality.This is just for pretend, remember? You know that, right?
Yes. He knew. But Sawyer also knew that Betzy felt something for him. She was simply afraid to admit it. Of course, if she felt the two couldn’t really have a future together, what would be the point?
But he wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Sawyer had accomplished a lot over the years, and he wanted to still believe that he had a chance at scoring the thing he wanted most—a life with Betzy by his side.
* * *
Betzy lay in the center of her bed, a blanket draped over her head to stifle the tears. Sawyer was so sweet to try and flatter her like he had, to give her a taste of what a meaningful proposal would look like. But she knew, as kind and beautiful as his words were, she’d never hear them in the way she hoped. That text with his uncle said it all; this was no more than a game to him.
And the more Betzy considered it, the more she realized that everything in that article was true, all the way down to her fanatical need to be in control. She’d wanted to have control over the proposal as well. She’d written it up, thought she’d nailed it, only to discover that it was vanilla bland compared to Sawyer’s.
A deep, aching sigh passed through her lips. She just had to get through this. Then she could move on. But her plan didn’t seem as easy as it had days ago.
When it was all said and done, Grandma Lo would be furious, Sawyer would be gone, and Betzy would be left with nothing but her revenge.
Suddenly, that revenge seemed like a hollow prize.
Chapter 16
Sawyer kept his eyes pasted on the big screen before them, but he couldn’t repeat what was happening on that screen for the life of him. This wasn’t the first time the family had gathered in the cabin’s theater for a movie night.
He’d enjoyed the other features just fine. But tonight—though the title was one he’d wanted to see—Sawyer was too distracted to focus.
