Page 44 of Icebound Hearts

“What’s up?” I ask, confused.

He smiles at me. “You fell asleep on the way home, so I took a little drive up to the mountains to let you get some shut-eye.”

It takes a few seconds for what he said to sink in, but when it does, I almost can’t believe it. Sawyer is busy as hell between his hockey career and taking care of Jake, so the fact that he took time out of his day just to drive me around so I could sleep stuns me a bit.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“But this was your afternoon off…”

“So? I didn’t mind. It gave me time to think about the houses, and we got to see some great views. Right, Jake?”

“Yeah! And we saw some mountain goats!” Jake says excitedly from the back seat. I’m really touched by the fact Sawyer did that for me, but I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, so I turn in my seat and smile at Jake.

“That sounds really cool. Bummer that I missed it.”

“Daddy took some pictures on his phone!”

“Yeah, I’ll show you later.”

“Thank you,” I tell Sawyer quietly, smiling, and he smiles back and nods.

“Of course,” he says and pats my leg. It’s such a little thing, but it makes my heart thud. “Let’s get out of this sardine can, yeah?”

“Sounds good,” I say, eager to put some extra distance between me and Sawyer. I climb out of the car and stretch my aching body, my mind racing with competing thoughts.

Is it a problem how much his hand on my leg just affected me? And what about him wasting time driving around just to let me sleep? Sawyer’s a nice guy to most people, so I try to convince myself it doesn’t mean anything more than that, but there’s a part of me that can’t help wondering. But that’s a train of thought I can’t afford to follow.

On our way into the house, my phone vibrates in my pocket, dragging me out of my head. I pull it out absently and my stomach lurches when I see it’s a notification from the dating app. Someone apparently liked me, but I don’t care to check it right now, so I swipe the notification away and drop my phone back in my pocket.

“You hungry?” Sawyer asks from the open refrigerator door. “I was thinking about cooking something.”

“Yeah, I could eat,” I say and slide down into one of the kitchen table chairs.

“Alright. Jake, why don’t you go watch TV while I cook? I’ll give you a bath after. It’s getting close to bedtime.”

“Okay,” Jake says through a yawn. Even after his little nap in the car earlier, the poor guy’s dragging after all the excitement of the day. He disappears without arguing, and a few seconds later I hear cartoons droning from the TV in the living room. Myphone buzzes in my pocket again, so I pull it out and find yet another “like” notification from the dumb app.

My thumb hesitates over the notification, unable to clear it. My eyes move to Sawyer, who’s standing at the kitchen island chopping some onion. He notices me looking, stops chopping, and raises his eyebrows at me.

“What is it?”

“Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if you’ve had any activity on your dating profile.”

Sawyer snorts and goes back to chopping. “I haven’t looked.”

“Not at all? Really?”

“No. They’ve been spamming me with notifications, but I just clear them. I highly doubt I’m going to meet anyone worth talking to on an app.”

“Not with that kind of attitude you won’t,” I say and stand to walk over to him, leaning against the counter beside him. “Where’s your phone?”

“In my pocket, where it’s staying.”

I hold my hand out toward him, wiggling my fingers expectantly. “Give it up. You aren’t ever going to meet a girl if you don’t try.”

“Violet.” He fixes me with a stern look. “Not now. I’m cooking.”

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