Page 55 of A Play For The Heart
“Everything okay?” I ask. I don’t understand the sudden silence, and the idea that I might have made her uncomfortable by grabbing her hand makes me nauseous. I didn’t think it was a big deal but based on the way she’s staring at our hands, she’s thinking about something.
“Oh, yeah,” she says. I go to pull away when her thumb strokes across the back of my hand. The innocent touch sends tingles down my spine and my heart does a small pitter patter in my chest. She looks out the window as I drive back towards her apartment, her thumb continuing to move back and forth while she quietly sings to the music on the radio.
All the while, one word bounces through my head.
Love.
This is what I’ve been waiting for. The quiet moments of love. A smile. The holding of hands. I don’t think she’s at the same place as I am, but this is the love I want. With her.
I pull up to her apartment building, push the hazard button, and hop out of the car. I round to the other side of the car and open her door. The last thing I want is for the night to end, but I have film early in the morning, and then have to spend the night at the hotel with the team before our game on Sunday.
Sawyer steps out, grabbing my hand as we stand on the curb.
“I had a great time,” she says bashfully.
“Even though I lost at Mario Kart?” I ask, laughing.
“Becauseyou lost at Mario Kart,” she responds, winking. “I think you earned your goodnight kiss, though.”
She pulls me towards her, closing the space between us. I lean down, my face inches away from hers.
“Oh, did I?”
“Mhm…For being the world's greatest boyfriend.”
I close the space between us, placing a gentle kiss on her lips. Her hand leaves mine, and she wraps her arms around my torso as I pull away. Gently grabbing her face in my hands, I kiss her one more time. For good measure.
“I lo—” I cut myself off before I can do something incredibly stupid, like tell her I love her only days after we officially started dating. “I’ll see you on Sunday,” I say, doing my best to recover.
Luckily, it doesn’t seem like Sawyer noticed my small slip-up, kissing me one more time before she peels away.
“See you later, Henry,” she yells as she walks into the lobby of her apartment building. I watch her walk away and into the elevator. As the elevator doors close, I slip into my car and lean my head back against the headrest.
Fuck, that was a close one.
The more time I spend with Sawyer, the harder it's going to be not to say anything.
CHAPTER 23
“I used to call you my best friend way back before you were my everything”
Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat—Del Water Gap
Sawyer
“Mom,don’tcry,”Isay into my phone, exacerbated. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”
I’m totally underplaying it, but I really don’t think I can handle her crying on Facetime, because it will make me cry. Even if they are tears of joy.
“You know how your Mom gets when she’s happy. The emotional floodgates open,” my Dad teases, but the look he gives her when he says it is full of love. He’s looked at her that way ever since I could remember. Full of love and admiration. Even when they fought, the love between the two of them never dimmed.
“I just always hoped,” my Mom says through sniffles and tears, “that you two would end up together. You know how much I love Henry.”
I can’t help but smile because I do know how much she loves Henry. She talks about him any chance she can and asks about how he’s doing constantly. I can’t count the number of times she’s bragged about him to someone as if he’s her child. She has a blow-up of his roster photo in a frame in the living room and the photo of the two of us at the NFL Draft is hanging in the living room. According to Heather Jones, Henry is already a part of the family, but the knowledge that we’re dating probably made her year.
I hadn’t planned on telling them yet since it’s so new, but they called and it just tumbled out. Part of the reason I’ve been avoiding calling them since I moved to Seattle. I didn’t want to explain what happened with Declan and then I didn’t want to share my feelings about Henry. The two of them seem to have an effect on me that causes me to spill my deepest darkest secrets to them. I am withholding the date though, because I know if I tell her about it, I’ll never get off the phone. Not that I could blame her. The date was perfect. I’ve always loved hanging out with Henry, but that was different. Better.
“Yeah, I know. He’s great.”
