Page 21 of Karma's Kiss

Wow, this is so well thought out. What’s next from here? Will a trail of rose petals lead me straight to a bed?

“Do you always bring your dates here?” I ask as I allow him to pull out my chair for me.

“Dates?”

“Yeah, the girls you see…”

He scrunches up his face, confused. “Who?”

“Justthe girls.” It’s infuriating that he acts like there’s not a line of them he’s left in the dust. “Charlotte, for example.”

He laughs at this. “I’ve never dated Charlotte.”

I roll my eyes and disregard his comment with a wave of my hand. “Whatever you want to call it then.Hooked up with,flirted…god, what is it with guys and labels?”

“There’s nothing to label between Charlotte and me.” I frown at how sincere he sounds. Even more so when he tacks on, “Sorry if that’s disappointing.”

I realize I’m being too conspicuous. I’m showing him my cards, and if Kendra were in my ear, she’d be shouting at me to stop jeopardizing the mission.GET IT TOGETHER, MCCALL. YOU’RE TAKING THIS TOO PERSONALLY!

“Right. Of course.” I smooth a napkin onto my lap. “Well this is really nice. I can tell you’ve gone to a lot of effort.”

Better.

Now, how would a normal date act? Charlotte, for instance, would be beside herself if Sawyer had set up a candlelit vineyard picnic for her. She’d be chatty and complimentary, so I’m chatty and complimentary. She’d be touchy-feely, using any excuse at all to brush her hand against Sawyer’s arm, so I do the same. I hate to admit it, but of course his muscled forearm is divine.

Sawyer leans back in his chair, and with the vineyard behind him, he looks like the king of grapes. He doesn’t need the sunset to cast him in golden light, but it sure doesn’t hurt.

“What?” he asks after I’ve been staring too long. He has the audacity to wipe at his face likethat’sthe problem.

“Why’d you ask me out?”

The question springs out of me before I truly consider the consequences of hearing his answer.

He unfurls a secretive smile. “Why do you think?”

Probably: he has a mild interest in getting into my pants, and/or I’m an interesting conquest for him because I’m David’s little sister. Either that or I’m just the newest, shiniest object in town.

The answer I give: “I can’t even guess. To be honest, you didn’t really give me the time of day back in high school.”

He laughs like this isn’t the cold hard truth, and I almost want to push him on it. Hedidn’tnotice me back then. He had his hands full—quite literally—with senior girls like Summer Collins and Layla Hendricks. Kendra only caught his eye for a few weeks because she was so obvious about it, hunting him down between classes, leaving love notes on his car. I thought the mixed CD she slipped into his locker was one step too far, especially adorned with all the hearts and XOXOs, but I was proven wrong. The day Sawyer asked her out or agreed to go out with her—the details are fuzzy—Kendra ran into our pre-calculus class and started screaming so loudly Mr. Garcel threatened her with detention. She didn’t care.

“This is it,” she exclaimed once she reached our table. “Destiny!”

“What is?” I hissed, trying to be quiet now that I knew Mr. Garcel already had his detention notepad locked and loaded.

“Sawyer and I aregoingout. We’re going to fall in love, get married right out of high school, and have so many babies we can field our own football team.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Surely that’s too many kids.”

She laughed, which drew Mr. Garcel’s attention, and webothended up serving afternoon detention.

“You were too busy to notice,” Sawyer tells me now.

I can’t hold back my sarcastic laugh. “Yes. That makes sense. As a lowly freshman I would have been too busy to notice the hottest senior boy in school. A tale as old as time.”

He doesn’t even gloat about this title I’ve given him. He pushes forward with his point. “You were already running track, heading up the debate team, studying every second of the day. And if I remember correctly, freshman year you were dating Cory Keller.”

“Nope. I didn’t ever date Cory. We just went to homecoming together.”

---