“Your mother’s going to be here, right?” Grandma asked as she retouched her lipstick.
“Yes,” Betzy said. “And Camila too.”
“Good, good.” Grandma tucked her lipstick back into her purse and smoothed a hand over her blonde hair. Mid-seventies as she might be, Lorraine Benton was beautiful as ever.
The women arrived soon enough. Camila sat next to Betzy, Rachel sat on the other side, and Mom plunked beside Grandma with a sigh.
“You’re not going to believe what Kellianne just brought me.”
Betzy’s heart pumped a clumsy beat out of rhythm. Kellianne, as in Sawyer Kingsley’s mom. She and her mom had been close since Kellianne started cleaning house for their family years ago. “What was it?”
Mom dug into her bag, pulled out a magazine, and plopped it on the center of the table next to the decorative butterballs and bread bowl.
Betzy’s eyes shot to the headline:
Most Eligible Bachelors From East Coast to West.
“Again?” Betzy was the first one to snatch the magazine off the table and pull it to her chest.
“This one’s withSlipper Magazine,”Mom said. “Last time it wasWorld’s Way.”
Quickly, Betzy flipped page after page, not bothering to look at the index in front.
Advertisement.
Another advertisement.
Portland’s Bachelor.
Makeup tips.
Washington’s…Tampa’s…
Him.Sawyer Kingsley, one of New York City’s top real estate moguls, right there in black and white. And what a stunning picture it was.
Betzy steadied her breath; it felt like a jackhammer was going off inside her chest. The photographer had opted for the night-after-a-long-day look. His white, button-up shirt hung open, revealing a generous view of his sculpted pecs and chiseled abs. The ends of a skinny black tie dangled at either side. In the photo on the left, Sawyer looked off in the distance, his squared jaw and furrowed brow giving him a pensive expression.
She knew that expression well. Loved it.
“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me about this,” Betzy mumbled.
“Maybe he’s humble,” Camila said over her shoulder.
Rachel hovered over the other side. “No onethatgood looking knows humility.”
Betzy grinned, partly amused by their dialogue, and partly wistful as she recalled the walking contradiction of Sawyer Kingsley. He played a cocky male as well as the next guy, with his flirtatious ways and bold, charismatic smile, but beneath that, there was a humble quality. An endearing one at that.
Her eyes drifted to the photo on the right. He was looking straight into the lens in that one, running a hand through his hair with a smile that made her heart quiver and ache.
She’d earned a whole lot of those smiles over the years, but that thought only added to the hurt.
How? How after all this time was she not over Sawyer? She’d sent a piece of her heart with him when he left to New York, secretly hoping he’d come back and marry her. But as the years passed, Betzy realized he’d never promised any such thing.
She gulped past a shallow breath, cursing the heated longing deep in her chest. It reminded her of the incident she tried very hard to forget. The one that forced Betzy to snatch that part of her heart back and bury it. Bury it deep like a worm in the ground.
But all too often, her mind became the beak of a bird, piercing through the soil to snatch it up and devour it whole.
Not right now, Betzy. Don’t revisit that right now.She wouldn’t. What shewoulddo is send Mr. hot, sexy bachelor of NYC a text. Just to prove she could. How many women ogling his spread could do that? Not many, ladies. Not many.
