Page 83 of Sawyer

“In a nutshell.” Aaron glances in her direction, then forces himself to look away quickly. “Plus, I heard she’s leaving for college in January.”

“That’s true,” I say. “In Anchorage.”

“So what’s the point? She’s a kid. She’s the boss’s little sister. And she’s leaving. I’d have to be a total and complete masochist to ask her out.”

Good point, I think.But then again, we do crazy things in the name of love, don’t we?

Neena and Ivy come back to the table. While Ivy sits down in the empty seat beside me, Neena taps Aaron on the shoulder.

“Hey, Aaron. Um. How ’bout a dance?”

Aaron looks at Neena over his shoulder and smiles politely. “Okay.”

As they head to the dance floor, Ivy watches them with interest.

“What just happened?”

“Well, apparently, Neena’s in love with Wyatt.”

“What? Her sister and Wyatt practically have a common law marriage. They’ve been together for years.”

“Yep. And all three live together, which seems like a recipe for disaster,” says Ivy. “I told her she should get her own place, but money’s tight with her daughter in daycare. She’s saving, but it’s going to take a while. Anyway, I said that maybe it would help if she found someone else, you know? Wyatt’s taken. She needs to move on.”

“Move on to…Aaron?”

“Why not?” asks Ivy. “He’s super nice. And cute. And he’s half Sun’aq like Neena and Layla, so they have that in common.”

“Neena’s older than Aaron. And she has a kid.”

“Not that much older. Besides, Moms need love, too.”

Parker and Reeve return to the table, and Reeve’s eyes immediately land on Aaron’s empty seat before zipping to the dance floor. When she sees him dancing with Neena, her face falls.

“Sheasked him,” I whisper to her gently.

“Shut up, Sawyer,” she snaps at me. “I couldn’t care less.”

Yeah, right.

“Hey,” says Ivy, nudging my knee, oblivious to my sister’s drama and her part in it. “Any chance you’re almost ready to get out of here?”

“With you? Absolutely.”

“Then, let’s go.” She smiles at me. “I have something to show you.”

***

Ivy

We leave the Happy Endings, zipping up our parkas and pulling on our mittens.

“Where are we headed?” asks Sawyer. “How about to my truck and then back to my place?”

“Nope,” I say. “Come on.”

I lead him down 4thAvenue to Broadway and tug his hand to go right when we get to the hardware store, which has festive lights roped around its picture windows. We pass a dozen gift shops, galleries, and jewelry stores that are closed for the season. At 2ndAvenue, we turn left, away from the Purple Parsnip, and toward the White Pass & Yukon Route train station that bustles with tourists all summer long.

“Where in the world are we going?” he asks again.

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