Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 110113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
“Of course he will! Everyone disappoints you sometimes. But I think the difference is, Sawyer will never disappoint you by asking you to abandon who you really are.”
My heart squeezes. It’s true.
Deep down, I know Sawyer will let me be the free spirit I am in a way that Dan never, ever did.
Sawyer will show up for me without insisting I change first. Without the condition that I be smaller, sweeter, less.
Reading my mind, Dottie continues softly, “You’re assuming the worst, Ava. You think he’ll let you down and your relationship will implode because he’s going to wind up thinking you’re somehow deficient. But how about you tell yourself this story instead: that you love Sawyer for who he is, and he loves you the same way, and that is your happily ever after, full stop? Screw the picket fences and the joint bank accounts. It’s about y’all, and the two of you clearly mean a lot to each other. I know this whole thing started with some really hot sex—”
“The sex is so, so good, Dot.”
“So it’s true that everything really is bigger in Texas, huh?”
“No comment.”
“You lucky bitch. Anyway, y’all started as a one-night stand. But now I feel like you’ve somehow managed to become friends first, fuck buddies second? Like the whole thing’s been reversed but in, like, the best way?”
“Sawyer is a really great friend.”
“Dan never was.” Dottie chews. “I rest my case. It’s time to be brave, A. Dry your eyes, put on your dancing boots, and go tell your cowboy how you feel.”
“Even if I’m a blotchy mess?”
“Especially if you’re a blotchy mess. Something tells me Sawyer is gonna make you feel a hell of a lot better.”
CHAPTER 29
Sawyer
VIGILANTE SHIT
Ava is late.
She’s never late.
Glancing at my phone, I see that she hasn’t returned any of my texts. Makes me anxious. Everything okay? Something happen with June’s pickup? I know her ex was supposed to grab her earlier. She and I had plans to meet up here at The Rattler after Caroline came over to my house at six to babysit Ella.
“Dude.” Wyatt eyes me as he tips back his longneck. “It’s just half an hour. I’m sure she’s fine. Girls are late all the time.”
Mollie grins, putting a hand on her swollen belly. “I can attest to that.”
“Aw, honey, that’s the good kind of late.” Cash plants a kiss on her lips, smiling like a lovestruck idiot. “You’re so beautiful.”
She gently scratches his beard on the underside of his chin. “You’re so hot. You know how much I love you in that hat.” She reaches up to touch the brim of his Stetson.
“Wanna wear it later?” He smirks.
Mollie’s eyes flash. “Like you even need to ask.”
“Please don’t lock everyone out of the women’s restroom so y’all can bang in there,” Tallulah, the bartender, pleads. “We have a full house tonight.”
“That was only once,” Mollie replies.
Cash nods. “But we made it count, didn’t we?”
Setting my elbows on the bar, I hang my head. I love Cash and Mollie. They’re great together, and I’m genuinely happy for them. But they’re still in that lovey-dovey phase that kinda grosses out everyone around them.
Or maybe that’s just me being jealous, wishing my girl would show up already. ’Cause I miss her, even though I saw her yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that.
Really, we haven’t gone a day without crossing paths since our date last weekend. If I wasn’t addicted to Ava before, I definitely am now, looking up every time The Rattler’s door swings open in the hope that it’s her.
Mollie and Cash head to the dance floor. Sally is up onstage with Frisky Whiskey, the band she and her mom are in that performs at The Rattler every Friday night. They’re here again tonight by special request.
By that I mean my request. I may have bribed Patsy and Sally with quarts of my homemade tomato soup to play two nights in a row so Ava could see them. She’s a live-music gal, so I know she’ll get a kick out of Frisky Whiskey’s excellent country covers.
I check my phone. It’s almost quarter till seven.
Duke gently elbows me. “You all right?”
“I can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong.”
He frowns. “You think we should check on her? We can take my truck if you want.”
“Maybe.” My heart lifts when the door opens, then promptly falls when I see its Goody Gershwin, Tallulah’s wife. “This isn’t like Ava.”
“Y’all really know each other well, huh?” Duke eyes me as he sips his beer.
“Look, I get it. Ava and I are new. Really new. But I feel like we’ve covered so much ground in the time we’ve been together. I’ve never—”
“Connected with someone like that?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “You say that like you know what you’re talking about.”