Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“I guess you have a problem with liking me so much. I don’t blame you.” It was clear he was working to lighten the mood.
“God, sometimes it’s so easy to see that you and Cam are related,” I said with a laugh. “There’s this practical part of me that keeps wondering what happens next. The guy who never wanted to settle down kind of worked his way into the perfect job to never have to worry about doing just that, as we’ve seen the past few weeks.”
“I don’t want to make you feel like we have to do anything more.”
“That’s not what I meant. I want to do more. But we both know our careers make it difficult. I might have to go to Thailand for three weeks on short notice, and you have to stay in Fever Falls since you’re running a business that can’t function without you.”
“It’s tricky, but the more I think about it, manageable,” he said, which gave me hope too. “If we want to manage it, that is.”
And that was what I’d needed to hear.
Because I felt like it was my career that was the inconvenience, and it would have been cruel to ask Sawyer to be okay with sitting on his ass, waiting for me to return every time I had to go away.
“I want to see where this goes,” I confessed. “But I don’t want to wake up and discover that I’ve lost one of the few friends I’ve managed to make over the last few years.”
Sawyer reached out to me and cupped my cheek. “That’s not gonna happen, Carter. You know that.”
I really did. He wasn’t anything like the kind of guys I’d been with in the past. He was a genuinely good man, without even trying to be. He wasn’t perfect, no. We were both a bit of a mess, but maybe that was why it worked.
I glanced down at the package of meat still in my hands. “So you like me, huh? What does that make us, then…boyfriends?”
As my eyes shifted back to him, he smiled. “I hate that word so much,” he noted. “Boyfriends makes it sound like we’re gonna make out in the restroom after third period. But yeah, boyfriends…if you want to be my boyfriend.”
That sensation I was experiencing intensified much more, and I gulped. “Well, unfortunately, I can only make out with you after fourth period,” I teased, “but I guess we can work it out.”
It was evident he knew what I was really saying, and he set down the knife in his hand and crawled across the blanket to me, taking a much-needed kiss.
That chemistry we so easily worked up together surged through me as I found myself on my back, my hand on his face as he pushed up close to me.
I kept pulling closer and closer for our kiss when he said, “Ow, ow.”
“Oh, fuck, your head, sorry,” I whispered.
He snickered. “It’s fine.” He pulled back to glance down at me.
“Just be open with me,” I said. “If it does get too hard, or I’m gone too much, I don’t want to be the last to know that you can’t do it.”
“And I feel the same way, obviously, after my time with Julian. If you need to be with other guys, I get it. But I don’t want to be a fool again.”
He sounded like he’d almost choked up at the word fool, and I could feel his hurt from his past, his fear of ever having to relive that again.
“I would never make you feel like a fool, Sawyer. I would be honest with you, regardless of where things went.”
“I admit I’m not an expert, but from what I’ve read, it’s all about communication. We’re both practical, and we know what we’re getting into, so I think as long as we talk and are logical about what we can and can’t make work, we’ll be fine.”
“Agreed,” I said, relieved we were on the same page. “I just want to make sure we do what’s best for both of us.”
“Okay, enough about logic. I came out here to have a picnic with my boyfriend, and goddammit, we’re going to have a picnic.”
I enjoyed another laugh.
“You’re blushing,” he noted.
“Of course I’m fucking blushing. I thought we were just making out in the locker room after third period, and you fucking asked me to go steady with you.”
“Ooh, a locker room… There’s some role-play I could get behind.” He studied my face, adding, “You know, I have a feeling I’d like you even with your old nose.”
“I think you’re just trying to get in Dumbo’s pants,” I teased, and he seized another kiss. “God, the guys are going to give us such hell over this,” I said between kisses.
He chuckled, and I inhaled the breath that pushed into my mouth. “Well, between the two of us, I think we’re pretty good at putting up with all their shit. And before, we were doing it on our own. Now we’re a team.”