Page 29 of Fight for You (Flirting with Forever 2)

She answers for both of us. “We’re doing great tonight. Especially Hadleigh, here.” She pats my hand where my fingers are pressing into her so hard, I’m surely going to leave marks on her leg. “I’m Madison—we met briefly at school during your tour—and this is my boyfriend, Shawn.”

Sawyer’s deep voice sets a tremor rolling through me. “Hey, man. I’m Sawyer. I’m student teaching with Hadleigh right now.”

With a deep breath, I open my eyes and give Sawyer a tight smile. “Hi.”

Our gazes connect for a few seconds before he drops his head next to mine and whispers in my ear. “I think we had a misunderstanding. Can we talk?”

I ease back so I can see his dark eyes glittering at me. “Um. Yes.” I nod.

Chapter 19

Sawyer

I place one hand on the small of Hadleigh’s back, take one of her hands in my other hand and help

her down from the stool. With a nod at her friends, I assure them, “We’ll be right back.”

Along with the buzzing of thoughts in my head about what I need to say to her and the murmurs of her friends from behind us, I can also sense a fire building within me. I hope I can make her understand because she may be the only one who can soothe the burn. I guide her down the back hallway until we get to the end where a staircase goes up to the left. I encourage her to sit down on one of the steps before I crouch in front of her, putting my hands on her jean-clad knees.

“So.” I expel a drawn-out breath that ends on a chuckle. I look directly into her beautiful brown eyes. “Like I said, based on your last text to me, I think we’ve had a misunderstanding.”

My teeth clamp down on my lip as I wait for her to say something, but when she doesn’t right away, I go ahead and continue. “You haven’t answered your phone or responded to a text since that last one you sent about me and Willow looking good together.”

Now it’s her turn to bite her lip. “I turned my phone off. I needed a quiet night with my friends.”

“Do me a favor and turn it on.” My voice sounds gruff to my ears.

She lets out a controlled yet shuddery breath. “Why?”

“You’ll see.” I squeeze her knees, glad that she’s at least letting me touch her.

She shakes her head, but pulls the phone out of her bag and powers it on.

Notifications for a ton of text messages and missed calls light up the screen. “What the hell?” she mumbles under her breath.

“Yeah.” My tongue darts out to lick my lower lip. “I’ve been trying to reach you.” I hate that I’ve upset her unnecessarily. Stupid, annoying spider. “Go ahead. Read through them.”

She thumbs open her text app and cringes when she sees all the messages.

I squeeze her knees with my hands again and murmur, “Read them.”

She bows her head and begins to read, her eyes flicking quickly back and forth. Hadleigh glances up with a sniff, a soft look reaching her eyes before she looks down to finish reading.

I remember every damn word I’d sent her and what she’s seeing on her screen. It’d gone something like this:

Me: Hadleigh, I don’t know what made you think Willow is my girlfriend, but she’s not.

Me: She’s been my best friend for a long time.

Me: She’s the one I told you about, the one I’m living with while I’m student teaching.

Me: I cook, she cleans. Remember?

Me: Please talk to me.

Me: I feel like when we got interrupted by Willow’s spider freak out that you were expecting me to say something about what had just happened between us.

Me: I don’t want to question it. I know what I was feeling. I wanted it to happen—I wanted to kiss you again.

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