Page 148 of One Night with Number Nineteen

My throat goes tight. “We should stay out here with Ollie.”

“He’s covered,” Sawyer says. “I asked Gray to keep an eye on him until we’re done.”

“You asked him?”

Sawyer’s lips curve. “Yeah, Pages. I did. So…can we talk?”

“Um…” I whisper, but I let him take my hand, tug me lightly to my feet, and draw me inside the house.

Then down the hall and into my office.

He shuts the door, leans back against it. “I need to apologize to you too, sweetheart.”

I wave my hand. “It’s fine. I was upset and⁠—”

“No, Pages.” He sighs, scrubs his hands over his face. “When I left yesterday, all I could think about was all the things I needed to do to fix this.”

Insides twisting, I open my mouth.

But he just closes the distance between us, presses his finger to my lips.

“It wasn’t until Leo slapped me up the side of my head today that I even started to consider that me rushing out for flowers and toys for Ollie and bringing you dinner and cleaning out your gutters may not be what you need.”

Despite the tension between my shoulder blades, I smile.

But it doesn’t last long.

He sighs. “I think…hell, I don’t know what I think. I just know that I can’t keep doing what I’m doing with my mom, with the team, with you and Ollie.”

My heart convulses. “Sawyer⁠—”

“You know a little of what happened with my mom, know that things were hard after my dad died.”

I nod.

“But the truth is that things were a lot worse than hard.”

“How?” I ask, taking his hand.

“She forgot about stuff—small stuff like buying groceries and paying bills⁠—”

I frown.

Because that doesn’t sound very small.

But he keeps talking.

And it gets worse.

“—and big things like taking care of herself. She wouldn’t shower, wouldn’t eat. I…” A deep breath. “I did what I had to. I stepped in, made sure she was eating and drinking, was cleaning herself. I found her the job with my off-ice training facility, made sure that things were arranged when I was traveling with the team. I thought if I just managed it all perfectly, nothing would go wrong.”

“Oh, Sawyer.” I step closer, wrapping my arms around him. “That must have been so hard.”

“The thing is…it wasn’t.”

I lean back so I can look at him.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he whispers.