Page 104 of Knockin' Boats
“Hey, you can hardly blame me. You’re my ex, and so is he. I’m picturingso manythings right now.”
I shoved her. “Well, stop it. This is all strange enough without my ex-girlfriend drooling over my—” I stopped short.
“Over your boyfriend?” she prompted.
“Too soon for the boyfriend label,” I said. “Way too soon.”
“But you want it,” she teased as we walked down the dock toward her boat. “Admit it.”
“I plead the Fifth.”
She laughed. “Okay, but that’s basically an admission of guilt.”
She wasn’t wrong. But I couldn’t go there yet. Not out loud, anyway.
It made it too real, and I knew I shouldn’t get my hopes up that there was a future beyond some sizzling-hot hookups.
This was a whole new world for Sawyer and me, and that was without taking our history and my major fuckup into account.
Apologies or not, I’d hurt him.
I’d do everything in my power to never hurt him again, but the one thing I couldn’t do was make him believe it.
Sawyer would have to take a chance on me for that to happen, and from everything I’d overheard him say to his brother the other morning, he didn’t take chances.
And maybe part of the reason he didn’t was because of what I did when we were teens. How was that for irony?
Or maybe it was karma.
I was setting myself up to have my heart broken by Sawyer, but then, maybe I deserved it.
CHAPTER 23
Sawyer
I knocked on Heath’s door, more than a little ticked off that I had to come over here after a day of scrambling to cover his tours.
Sick, my ass.
I’d made some calls last night, talked to some folks around town. Heath had gone on a bender, drinking late into the night at The Rusty Hook, and then given me a bullshit line about being too sick to work all week.
Heath’s wife, Tammy, opened the door. “He’s in the living room. Fair warning, though. He’s been drinking all day.”
I grimaced. “Am I wasting my time here? I came to talk to him about missing work, but if he’s not going to listen…”
“I need you to set him straight. I’ve tried, but he won’t listen. I know you’re well within your rights to fire him, but he needs this job.”
Iwastempted to fire him. Hiring a temp worker until Hudson got back would be the easiest way to handle this.
I’d hired Gray, so I could surely handle finding someone else to fill in for a while. But I hated to do that without consultingHudson—and I was determined not to ruin his and Fisher’s vacation.
Besides, Heath had been with the business for years. He’d put in a lot of time, and grumpy bastard that he was, he deserved a second chance.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Tammy stepped aside, and I entered their little house. The living room was small, just large enough to fit a couch and one armchair, but the place was tidy and neat.
I put that down to Tammy’s efforts since Heath was reclined up with a beer, staring in the direction of the TV but not seeming to see much of anything.
