Him (27 page)

We check the arrivals display once we're in the airport. Sawyer's flight
had landed ahead of schedule so we hurry over to baggage claim to look for her. I spot her cotton candy pink hair from across the floor and run over to hug her.

"Hey
, babe." She laughs, dropping her bag to hug me back.

I pull away to look at her
. "Thank you so much for this. I just…" I can't finish without crying.

"Please, it's nothing
." She pauses and squints at me. "Getting laid looks good on you, babe."

I blush and shush her as
Will walks up to us. Her mouth drops when she gets a good look at him. He holds out his hand, and she pushes it away and gives him a hug instead.

When he isn’t looking
, she mouths, "He's hot" at me.

Will looks at me when I laugh so I stick my tongue out at him and grin.

Sawyer lets Will carry her bags and links her arm through mine as we walk to his car. "I'm not sure if I've ever seen you look this happy, Sarah."

I shrug and look back at Will to see if he heard her. He meets my eyes and winks at me, grinning.
I offer the front seat to Sawyer, but she refuses and climbs into the backseat.

"Before I forget
, here's my parking ticket," she says, passing me a slip of paper. Since Will and I will be arriving the next day in Colorado, she had just driven to the airport and left her car there. That way, we can just use her car instead of getting a cab. The cost of overnight parking isn’t that bad.

Sawyer grill
s Will about us and his mother most of the way back to his house. I freeze when she asks a question I have always wanted to know the answer to.

"Why didn’t you go after Sarah when she went to New Jersey?"

He glances over at me when he feels me tense under his hand. "I did."

My mouth drops
. "What?"

He
nods, eyes on the road. "I was a wreck after you left. My dad almost canceled the trip to Italy, but my mom talked him out of it. I barely remember the trip. I was in this fog of worrying about what happened to you." His fingers tighten on the wheel. "You just disappeared, and Brian wouldn’t tell me right away where you went. I didn’t even know you went to your uncle's until after I got back. The day I found out, I drove up there. I had to stop and stay in a shitty motel on the way ‘cause there was construction happening on some bridge, and it took forever to get over it. I just couldn’t wait to see you, to hold you, to bring you back with me. I didn’t know why you left, but I knew I could get you to come back. When I got to your uncle's place, no one was home. I just sat in my car and waited for like two hours. I was just thinking about driving to get some food when I saw you pull up with some guy in a truck." He pauses, chewing his lip before going on. "You were laughing. You both got out of the truck and walked around to the back to take out a giant stuffed monkey."

Sawyer gasps
, and he stops.

I look at him, putting my hand on his leg and squeezing it
. "Jake and I were never together, Will. I was helping him find a silly present for Sawyer that day. He was her boyfriend at the time."

"I still have that monkey
," Sawyer grumbles from the back seat.

That monkey
’s a running joke between Sawyer and me now. Even though she and Jake had broken up years ago, she couldn’t bring herself to throw it away.

"When I saw
you together, how happy you looked, I thought…I just figured you had moved on."

When he looks
at me, I shake my head. Of all of the times for him to have seen me. It was unfair.

"She never moved on.
”

"Sawyer!"

"What? It's the truth. You buried yourself in school and then your business and half-heartedly dated when I forced you to, but you never moved on."

Will parks in front of his house and turns to me, taking my face in his hands
. "I never moved on either."

He leans forward and kisses me
. His lips don't leave mine until we hear Sawyer clear her throat from the backseat. "Will."

He glances at her through the rearview mirror
. "Yeah."

"I know people. You ever, even unintentionally
, hurt Sarah, and there will be no place you can hide from me."

I turn around and gape at her
. "Holy shit, Sawyer."

Will puts his hand on my leg and shakes his head before meeting her eyes again in the mirror
. "Thank you for taking care of my girl. All I plan to do is spend the rest of my life making her smile."

Sawyer looks at me
. "Okay. I approve."

I roll my eyes
. "And you call me crazy." I reach my hand back to squeeze hers. "I love you."

"I love you too
, babe."

When we get to his house
, Will takes her bags up to her room while Sawyer and I talk by his car. Will is staying the night at my house, and my mother is driving us to the airport tomorrow. Well, today. When Will comes back out, he gives Sawyer keys to the house and lets her know there is a list of important numbers and things on the kitchen counter for her.

I pull her into another hug
. "Thank you so much for doing this."

She shrugs
. "Mama bear and I will be just fine."

It's late, so Will and I are quiet as he drives to my parent
s’ place. He follows me up to my room, shrugging off his clothes before collapsing onto my bed. He tries to watch me undress, falling asleep before I finish. I crawl into bed and snuggle up to him, smiling as his arm curls around me, pulling me closer.

~*~

I wake before Will and am sliding out of bed when his hand wraps around my wrist. He tugs me back into his arms and kisses my neck.

"I love waking up with you
," he murmurs into my ear.

I sigh and
wrap my arms around him. "Mmmmm me too."

"I'm looking forward to seeing your place
. Never been to Colorado before."

"I still can't believe you're coming home with me. This is crazy."

He lifts his head and looks in my eyes. "Good crazy or bad crazy?"

I smack his shoulder
. "Good crazy. Definitely good crazy."

He covers me, his lips on mine. I want nothing more than to lose myself in him
, but it’s my last day at home, and my parents are downstairs.

I break our kiss, laughing at his pout
. "Come on, Will. I want to spend some time with my parents before we leave."

He groans as he falls to the side of me. I lean over and give him a chaste kiss before
getting up.

"I'm going to take a quick shower. You
," I point as he starts to get up with an impish gleam in his eyes, "wait here."

He flops back on to the bed
. "At least you aren’t kicking me out this time."

I think back to my first day back. So much ha
s changed since then. I shake my head, grab my toiletries, and head to the bathroom. When I come back into the room, I shiver when Will comes to stand behind me. He holds my arms and bends down to lick a drip of water I missed on my shoulder blade. I push him in the direction of the bed, ordering him to sit and behave. He winks at me and pants like a dog.

"You are such a dork."

"Whatever. You think I'm hot."

He groans when I drop my towel and walk over to my bag. I look back at him like
, what? He somehow remains seated, eyes never leaving me, as I dress.

Once my summer dress is on
, his eyes lift to mine. "I'm going to make you pay for that."

I walk over to him, ghosting my lips over his before I lick the side of his face from chin to brow.

His mouth drops open as he watches me walk out the door.

I look over my shoulder at him
. "Bring it. Oh, and the shower’s free."

He jumps towards me. I squeal and race down the stairs before he can catch me. I'm giggling when I walk in the kitchen.

"It's good to see you so happy." My mother beams up at me.

I blush and strain some orange juice before I go to sit next to her. She
leans towards me and kisses my cheek. Will comes down not long after, his hair still damp from his shower. He kisses the top of my head before walking out back to call Sawyer and see how their first morning alone went together. He's laughing when he walks back in.

"What happened?" I ask
, lifting a brow.

"I didn’t know your friend spoke Italian. I feel bad for laughing
, but after my mom called her a bunch of names thinking she wouldn’t understand, Sawyer told her off. In Italian." He shakes his head. "Man, I wish I saw it."

"Are they going to be okay? That doesn’t seem like a good start
," my mom asks.

"Nah, they'll be fine. I think Sawyer might be just what my mom needs."

Our flight is leaving at one. We need to be at the airport at least an hour early. We spend the morning hanging out around the kitchen table, catching up with my parents and uncle Chip. My mom is going to drop us off at the airport.

"Are you going to move back?" my mom asks once we're in the chair.

I look at Will and smile. "Maybe."

Her
face breaks into a wide grin. Will laughs when she pulls his face to hers to give him a kiss on the cheek. "You bring my girl home, Will."

She doesn’t park, dropping us off at the departures. She kisses both of us, her eyes wet. We stand on the curb and wave until her car is out of sight before going in and checking our bags. They print our tickets there
, and my mouth drops when I see we're both now first class.

Will
laughs at my expression. "Sawyer wanted us to sit together."

I shake my head. We get through security and wait at our gate. Once we're boarded
, I laugh, thinking how this all started a week ago. But not really. Will and I started that day he walked into my English class and stole my heart. We're landing before too long. Once we've collected our luggage, I pull Sawyer's parking ticket out of my purse. She had written down the row she parked in so we wouldn’t have to try and find her car. Will laughs when he sees her Hummer.

I shrug
. "She figures if she gets in an accident she'll just drive over the other car."

"What is her deal?"
Will asks as he loads our luggage.

I pause
. "She never told me the whole story, but she doesn’t seem to worry about money. It's not something she ever talks about."

As we drive to my condo
, I point out places along the way. Mountains, the office of the first business I signed in Colorado, Sawyer’s and my first apartment complex, my office, and finally my home. I pull into my parking spot, suddenly nervous that Will is going to see my place. I wonder what he will think, if he will like it. Once we're inside, I don’t have any time to worry about it before Will has my back pressed up against the inside of the front door.

"Well hello
," I breathe as his lips move to my neck.

"Hey
," he chuckles, pulling my dress up.

"I have a bed
, you know."

"Here's good
," he says, unbuttoning his shorts.

~*~

Will comes in to work with me the next day. It's surreal introducing him to all of my employees. At lunch, I drive him back to my condo. He tries his best to convince me to stay with him for the rest of the afternoon. He has ample powers of persuasion, but I want to have a meeting to discuss my move to Atlanta. I want their input. There are multiple ways this could go. I could keep the office intact and work remotely from Atlanta. I could forgo renewing the lease on the office space and let everyone work remotely, or I could sell the entire company and my new business pipeline to a competitor. I don’t see the last option happening. I don’t want to give up my baby.

When I get back to work
, I call everyone into our conference room and discuss my plans. We discuss all my ideas and everyone getting to work remotely is the clear favorite. I was hoping it would be because with the money I would save on office space, I could afford to hire someone to take over the travel aspect of my job. In the past I used travel as a way to escape settling down and avoiding relationships. Now that I have Will in my life, I want nothing more than to wake up in his arms every day.

The End…or is it?

Coming Soon

Her

You know her
side of the story, now learn his.

"It was useless, I felt branded beneath my skin by a girl who left without even saying goodbye."