Him by Carey Heywood (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

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 grills 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 parents’ 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