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Chapter Fifteen
Sawyer wasn't joking when he told me he was "flying in and out" and less than three hours later, as my neighbors were starting their days, I watched him slide into the back seat of a black passenger sedan on his way back to the airport.
During his visit, we cuddled as we talked, his affection for me was obvious by the way he held my hand, brushed my bangs out of my eyes, and tenderly cupped my chin when I felt shy.
Apart from some small kisses, he didn't make a move for more, which I was glad and mad about in equal measure because I'd missed him. I knew his restraint showed his respect for me.
After Sawyer came to see me, I had felt relieved and reassured he would stay in touch. He'd given me more than a reasonable excuse for his absence, and I was astonished he'd used his scarce free time to fly home to explain everything to me.
By the time he left, my thoughts about him had shifted from serious doubt back to hope. I knew in my heart that although the pace of our relationship had felt too fast, when he'd said I mattered, those had been his true feelings and not only empty words.
* * *
True to his word, Sawyer called me whenever he could and at least once a day. We had long conversations, usually late at night, once his concert had finished. Sometimes he'd call early in the morning before Colby woke up, if Sawyer was late to bed or too buzzed to sleep.
Those calls were great for me because it helped me to know him more without the pressure of being with him at the same time.
"Favorite band?" he asked one night as we FaceTimed.
"DisKord," I replied, grinning widely because it was his band and I had never heard them play.
"Good choice, and what about that lead singer? What's his name? Sawyer something?"
A chuckle left my lips. "Aren't you full of yourself?"
"I'd rather you were full of me," he replied, leaning forward and winking suggestively at the screen.
"Funny," I admitted, and where his sexual innuendo would have normally made me feel awkward, I laughed instead.
"Oh, baby, I'd wipe that smile off your face and reshape those pretty lips into one giant O if you were writhing around beneath me." My thighs had a mind of their own in that moment and squeezed tightly together. My smile instantly faltered.
"Gotcha," he chuckled, pointing at the screen. "I saw what you did there," he joked, intuitively knowing my mind had wandered. "Still five days until I get home. I'm missing Thanksgiving because we'll be in North Dakota. What're you doing for the holiday?"
"Home alone," I admitted, suddenly fighting a wave of emotion that squeezed my throat tight. "Colby is going on a cruise with Logan and his parents. It's their fortieth wedding anniversary and the trip was arranged before we broke up."
"When does he leave and come back?"
"He goes on the Monday before Thanksgiving and is away for ten days. I'm going to miss him," I admitted, my throat closing as my emotions stirred within me.
"Fly out and meet me. Our last tour date is the day after Thanksgiving. You can spend time with me, and we'll fly back together." Had I not been so devastated about Colby going away I would likely have said no to this, but I'd been dreading the separation and Tricia was spending the day at her parents.
"I'll do it," I snapped before I could talk myself out of it.
"You will? Fantastic!" I watched as he fist pumped the air, and again his action had made me feel old.
Sawyer then went on to make the arrangements for travel with me, and by the end of our conversation, I was excited to go watch him perform. However, I had more than a few nerves about meeting his bandmates.
* * *
Knots of anticipation formed in my stomach at the thought of spending time away from home with Sawyer. The thrill of a new relationship and taking such a leap of faith was something that felt both careless and reckless. Nervous energy I hadn't felt for years held a hint of danger when I compared it to how boring my life had been with Logan.
Then there were knots of a different kind that made my chest tighten at the thought of Colby not being with me for all of this time.
Pushing my concerns and emotions to one side, I told myself going to visit Sawyer provided me with an ideal opportunity to see how we felt without time constraints, and I took some small consolation that my son would be having a fun time with his grandparents.
Thankfully, Colby was excited and not distressed when he left to go on the cruise, and ten minutes after he'd gone, the car Sawyer had ordered arrived and took me to the airport.
It had been a little over a month since Sawyer and I had sat in the diner, and although the face-to-face time we'd had together was sparse, we'd spent many more hours on the phone and Skype, talking and texting, learning the little things about one another we otherwise may have missed.
