The Choice - A Small Town Love Triangle (5 page)

They were all smiles as they dried each other off, and that was pretty much the end of Traci’s escapade with Cash. They dressed, he hooked up his trailer, and he dropped her off at the bar. Not much more was said beyond a simple goodbye. She waved while his truck stirred up a small plume of dust as he turned out of the bar parking lot leaving her standing there staring, wondering if it had all just been a dream.

Then she had driven home.

Her thoughts on how he was gone, and that it was over just like that. She relived the night over and overlooking for something she could have done differently to entice him into staying or at least so she could see him again. She knew he had to go, but wondered if she should have asked for his number or something. He hadn’t asked for her number. If he wanted her to have it, he would have given it to her. That was it. Cash was gone. Back to her regularly scheduled boring life.

As she relaxed on her bed her thoughts had somehow drifted to Sawyer. Why hadn’t he told her he was Cash’s brother? He hadn’t lied to her about it, he had just withheld information. He could have easily said ‘Oh that’s my brother’ when they were talking about him at the bar, but he hadn’t, instead he chose to pretend like he barely knew anything about him. Maybe she should be mad at Sawyer instead of the other way around, but she had lied to him. About a lot. Including a rather big one, her name and she honestly felt awful about it.

If Cash ever came back and the two brothers talked about it, Sawyer would be hurt that she’d fucked Cash. She liked Sawyer enough not to want him to find out like that, she had already caused him enough trouble. Traci decided that she would go to Sawyer and apologize for all the lies, and come clean about everything, including Cash.

He’d be hurt, but it would be worse if he found out from Cash. At least that is what she told herself. Then again Sawyer hadn’t called her, he probably wanted to have nothing to do with her. Once she’d explain he’d understand. She just hadn’t known him at the time, it was a defensive mechanism, it was a reflex, and she hadn’t known that she’d leave the bar with him and fool around. That hadn’t been her plan… that had just sort of happened.

She hopped off her bed and got dressed. It was still early, a few more hours of daylight left, surely he’d be at the farm somewhere working, she’d try to catch him and just take a few minutes of his time. She grabbed her purse and left the house.

CHAPTER SIX

As she drove down the bumpy road to Sawyer’s house she argued with herself about telling him about Cash. It would only hurt Sawyer, way more than her lies had, he wouldn’t be able to forgive her and really they’d only fooled around the one time, it’s not like she owed him anything. She hadn’t even known they were brothers… it wasn’t her fault! He should have told her right away.

She would apologize for the lies and explain, but she’d keep her night with Cash a secret. He never needed to know. Cash wouldn’t ever talk to him about his one-night stands, and there were too many of them to count she told herself. If he would talk about it, Sawyer wouldn’t make the connection it was her out of all the girls Cash had taken home. She’d bet money Cash wasn’t the type of guy to kiss and tell anyway.

Sawyer was probably over it. Over her. But she still felt she should apologize for lying to him.

Cash knew her as Jane. Sawyer knew her as Jane, but now as Traci. Would he even think it was the same person if they talked about it? Which they wouldn’t. At least that’s what she hoped.

She decided, she’d apologize for the lies, but that’s it. Cash would remain a secret. It wasn’t his business. She committed to that plan fully as she turned down his drive and saw his truck parked up next to the house. He was home.

Traci parked her car next to Sawyer’s truck and checked herself in the mirror. She took a few deep breaths to prepare herself. She told herself it would be fine, he’d totally understand. He’d forgive her and eventually they’d be friends and everyone would be happy. Sawyer didn’t seem like the type to hold a grudge. He was so kind and warm and a real gentleman.

She started to open her door without looking and smacked it right into Sawyer as he was about to knock on her window.

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry Sawyer! Are you OK?” Traci jumped out of the car, putting her hand on his muscular forearm.

“I’m OK,” he said with a cough, “mostly, you just surprised me.”

“I should have looked first I’m so sorry. What can I do?” she said closing her door and slamming her purse half inside, which jerked her back. She steadied herself, and released her purse, surely something inside had gotten broken, she’d check later. “Well shit! This is not going how I imagined at all! I’m not normally such a klutz.”

He was still holding his lower abdomen, but he laughed seeing her so out of sorts. Her nerves were getting the better of her, she hadn’t considered this during her pre-planning stages. “What are you doing here anyway?” he asked not sounding rude but more surprised than anything else.

“I’m sorry for showing up like this and, well, slamming my car door into you. I would have called, but I didn’t have your number, and well I knew where you lived, so I just came because I wanted to, well, say, I’m sorry,” she said, “for everything and now the car door too.”

“Jane, you didn’t have to apologize. I got the message loud and clear. I know what it means when a girl uses a fake name.” He glanced down at her for a brief second before turning to look back at his barn.

“It’s Traci,” she said correcting him and feeling embarrassed.

“Right, Traci… shit. Anyway, Traci, I get it, you didn’t have to go to any trouble to come and explain it to me.” He sniffed all tough-guy style and glanced back towards the barn.

“You’re busy, I can let you go, I just wanted to apologize for the whole name thing. I just hadn’t expected to run into anyone I’d actually like.” Now it was her turn to avoid eye contact. “I mean that’s why I did eventually tell you my real name, I was kind of thinking maybe…” she trailed off.

“Maybe what?”

“That we could have gone out again, or something, I mean, I didn’t know, but I didn’t mean to close the door completely on anything like that. It all just took me by surprise, you know?” she said forgetting about Cash. He just didn’t matter, he had left, not the other way around.

“I don’t. I’ve never lied about my name before.”

“OK, yeah,” she fished out her keys from her purse which thankfully hadn’t been crushed by her car door, “I came to apologize, now I did, and I should let you get back to your work. Sorry again.”

Traci opened her car door carefully and started to slip down in to her seat.

“Wait, Traci! I’m being a jerk. I’ll be honest here,” he said leaning on her car door, “I was hurt, I thought we had made a connection or something, but I’m a grown man and can accept your apology. Maybe we could still go on that date? I know I’m a fool, but I haven’t really been able to stop thinking about you. I won’t even tell you how many times I almost called you, but I just couldn’t hear myself saying anything other than ‘Jane’ when you picked up, so I talked myself out of it. I should have just sucked it up and made that call.”

She smiled, “Yeah I wish you would have.” Traci was surprising herself. Her plan was to come here and apologize, not schedule a date. Just being around the tall, muscular farmer made her feel warm and fuzzy. Something she was not used to at all.

“Hey you know, I’m almost done here, you wanna stay and watch a movie or something?” he asked sounding very excited at the idea and hopeful she’d say yes.

If she left now, after all this and not stay for the movie, she knew the door to Sawyer would be forever closed. She didn’t want that, at least she didn’t think she did. Cash was gone, and that was a dead end, so what harm was there in watching a movie? Yeah, Cash and Sawyer were brothers, but she didn’t have to let anyone know she knew that. Cash had seen them sitting together at the bar but he didn’t know it was anything more than that and Sawyer had no idea she knew Cash. All that mattered to her was that they just happened to be two guys she met roughly around the same time. One of them she dry fucked and one of them she fucked, but at the time she hadn’t known they were brothers.

She didn’t do anything wrong.

“I’d love to,” she smiled and stepped out of her car.

“Well OK then! Here let me show you around real quick, you can make yourself at home while I finish up, promise it won’t take long.”

She followed Sawyer up his front stairs and into his beautiful three story home. It was immaculate and beautifully decorated inside. He was either amazing at interior decorating or he had hired someone to help. There was a staircase that led to the next floor, then off to the left was a gigantic dining room and to the right an even bigger living room.

“This way,” he led her into the living room. He had a large shelf stuffed with blue-ray discs, “Why don’t you see if you can find something for us to watch?”

“Sure,” she said starting to scan through the titles, “Wow you have like every movie ever made!”

He laughed, “Not quite, but yeah lots to pick from. So bathroom is that way,” he said pointing to a hallway next to the stairs, “And if you need anything at all I’ll be in the barn, don’t hesitate to get me. Oh and really, make yourself at home,” he grinned from ear to ear. He seemed so happy and thrilled to have Traci in his home.

“OK.” She started making mental notes of movies she’d like to see, but still scanning to make sure there wasn’t something better. She had time to burn, might as well make the most of it.

“Be back shortly,” he called as he walked out through the dining room towards the kitchen, and she assumed there must be a back door.

She was tempted to snoop around the house, but was too afraid of getting caught that she just stuck to the living room, except for also checking out the bathroom. Even though she didn’t even have to go, she still wanted to see it. It was so large ten people could have fit inside. The room was probably bigger than her bedroom. It was well lit and beautifully decorated with light blue and white tiles and black tile trim. Plush bathmats on the floor and a bowl of potpourri that smelled fresh. It was actually kind of modern for this country style home.

In the living room, the couch faced the TV, and off to the side of that was a big window that displayed his beautifully maintained front yard as if it was a landscape painting. The view itself was a work of art. He had several shelves packed tight with books and knick-knacks. There were two recliners on each side of the couch, all of them complete with a hand-crocheted afghan. The room just felt warm and inviting.

She grabbed one of the Lord of the Rings movies and sank down into the silky-soft marshmallow couch and waited for Sawyer to finish whatever he was doing. She took her phone out of her purse and tried to busy herself, so she didn’t just lie down and take a nap on his surprisingly comfortable couch.

The back door opened and there was rustling around before Sawyer emerged. He’d taken his boots off at the door and was unbuttoning his shirt, “I’m just going to hop in the shower real quick, I got some popcorn in the microwave, be back in a jiffy!” He disappeared down the short hallway and she’d heard the shower start.

Less than five minutes passed when he walked back out wearing only a fresh pair of jeans. Traci had forgotten how muscular he was. He slipped into the kitchen, and she heard him pouring the popcorn into a bowl. “You want something to drink, Traci?” he shouted from the kitchen, her name sounding a little strange as if he was practicing saying it.

“Sure.”

“Beer? Diet soda? Something else?”

“Oh, um, whatever you’re having is fine.”

He walked back out with two bottles of beer and a huge bowl of popcorn. He set each beer down on a coaster and put the popcorn down in between the bottles. Traci slipped her phone into her purse and took a sip from the beer and smiled at him, unable to stop herself from admiring his glorious farmer’s physique, he didn’t seem to notice.

Sawyer dimmed the lights and disappeared back down the hallway. He returned seconds later with a red and black flannel shirt on. He hadn’t bothered with shoes, and somehow it felt more intimate because of it. She almost wished he would have kept his shirt off, but she wouldn’t have been able to focus on the movie, she was already afraid she might have trouble concentrating.

“Ready?” he asked, “Of course you are, you’ve been waitin’ on me.” Sawyer’s smile was so lovely. There wasn’t anything she could do to stop herself from smiling back.

“It’s not a problem, you were fast.”

“Either way glad you stayed. This is nice,” he said as he grabbed the remote and the movie started playing. He moved the popcorn between them on the couch and dove in.

After what felt like it had to have been an hour into the movie, he moved the empty popcorn bowl back to the coffee table, kicked his feet up and rested his arm on the back of the couch. He seemed to really be enjoying the movie. Traci on the other hand was having a difficult time getting into it. All she could think about was seeing Sawyer with his shirt off again.

She debated back and forth with herself about whether or not she should just scoot over and sit next to him. After what had happened he probably was still angry with her and wanted to just be friends. Then again he had invited her to a movie, he had said he couldn’t stop thinking about her, and he hadn’t sent her away, so really how mad could he be. Traci took a breath and slid down the couch until their bodies touched. He didn’t look away from the movie, and neither did she, but she could sense he didn’t mind her being there, so she cuddled against his warmth. Sawyer took his arm off the back of the couch and wrapped it around her. She smiled.