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“Gwennie, you have closed yourself off for the past year, ever since that… that jackass broke your heart. Don’t take that out on a nice guy like Sawyer. He’s different. It’s obvious. Stop being so stubborn and give him a chance.”
“We don’t even know each other, Gram.”
“So get to know each other, Gwen. Let him in.”
“We have half a week left,” I protest, shaking my head.
Gram tuts at me and rolls her eyes. “You act like you’ll never see him again when the cruise ends. You live two hours away from each other. You have phones. You have cars. You’ll figure it out.”
An announcement echoes through the ship that we’ll be able to disembark within an hour. Gram pushes herself up with help from the arms of her chair. “I just want what’s best for you,” she says, shuffling toward the door.
“And you really think that’s Sawyer?”
She shrugs. “You’ll never know if you don’t give him a chance.”
Gwendolyn
Let him in.
Gram’s words (and her sudden frustration) stick with me throughout the morning, through a quick shower, getting dressed, and lugging my beach tote, with Gram’s smaller tote nested inside, down the stairs to Nancy’s room so we could all walk together to disembark.
What I didn’t tell Gram is that I’ve tried—twice now, apparently—to let him in. Like last night, when I invited him into my room, but he kissed my head instead and walked away. I could tell Gram he’s just not interested in me, but I don’t want her and Nancy to harass him, so I’ll let it go and deal. I can’t force him to like me, and I don’t think I can get much more obvious than telling him he’s hot and holding the door to my room open at midnight.
Speaking of hot. Sawyer steps into the hallway in a breezy, half-buttoned white linen shirt and navy swim shorts with little sunglasses and pineapples printed in neon colors all over them. The shirt pulls and twists as he reaches for my bag; the stark white looks great against his tan.
“Morning,” he says, and he slides the bag onto his shoulder and shoves his hands into his pockets.
“I can carry that,” I tell him. Nothing says Come on in! I’m a great person! You’ll like me! like not appreciating the help he offered without being asked. He looks over and down at me, a subtle shift in his gaze, and I feel the tips of my ears burn. “Thank you. It was heavy.”
“Anytime.”
We’re swept up in the wave of guests rushing down the stairs. Gram and Nancy are waiting for an elevator with what seems like a million other people and wave us onward, so we decide to take the stairs down to Deck Two. We wait for them outside so we can all head to the cabana together, and Sawyer is absolutely silent.
“Listen,” I start, clearing my throat. “I’m sorry if I made things weird last night.”
He readjusts his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose and crosses one ankle over the other. “It’s fine.”
“It doesn’t seem like it is.”
He shifts again, his eyes trained on the exit ramp. “I’m just confused, Gwendolyn. I don’t know what we’re doing here.”
Those two extra syllables on my name make him feel so far away. “I thought we were getting to know each other.”
The huff he lets out tells me how he thinks that’s going.
“Okay,” I admit. “Maybe I’ve been a little confusing. But what if today we actually try to get to know each other better? I’ll be nice, but not inappropriately nice.”
The side of his mouth that I can see quirks up. “Why the sudden push to have a normal interaction?”
Gram and Nancy emerge on the pier, and I gesture my head in their direction. “I’d like to not be murdered by my grandmother on this vacation.” His smile fades and he uncrosses his ankles, looking straight ahead. “Plus,” I add, trying to be cautious with my words, “I think we could actually be friends. Or something.”
“Or something,” he repeats.
Sawyer
For all my trying not to think about her after thinking about her in a way I shouldn’t have been thinking about her, I can’t help but think about her. She’s taken up residence in my brain, and I was taking solace in the fact that we know nothing about each other so nothing will happen, but now she wants to get to know each other, and I’m screwed.
Also, damn, she looks incredible in a black strapless bikini, with a floppy hat and movie-star sunglasses and a sheer black cover-up cascading down her legs and billowing in the breeze. She might be some hot-shot author who loves touring the big cities, but this woman is in her element on this island.
