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7
The knock at the front door carried in through the open bedroom door. The frantic, insistent knock.
“Sawyer! Open up!”
“Oh, my god!” Mariah hopped out of bed. “Is that your mom?”
Sawyer was about point-two seconds behind her, rushing around the room in search of their clothing.
“Your clothes are in the living room,” he said.
Mariah was in the next room before his words were all the way out, and then she was darting into his bathroom and slamming the door. Sawyer pulled on the first clothing items he found — a pair of dirty jeans from the floor and a T-shirt from the top of the clean laundry pile. Underwear at this point was unnecessary. Déjà vu.
“You about done?” he said in a low voice through the bathroom door.
“Getting there.”
“Sawyer! I know you’re home! I saw your car!” His mom attempted to beat down the door.
“Stay in the bathroom,” he told Mariah. “I’ll get rid of her. Coming,” he said more loudly as he headed to the front door.
He opened it with his eyebrows raised. “Is your phone broken?”
“Is yours?” Jackie Culver rushed past him. “Ramon Tennyson has been trying to call you for the past hour plus, Sawyer. It doesn’t look good that he can’t get ahold of you to offer you a job.”
“He didn’t offer me a job.” Sawyer was caught between trying to make sense of what his mom said, making sure Mariah stayed put in the bathroom, and coming up with an explanation if she did come out.
“He’s trying to! Where’s your phone?”
His mom’s words sank in, and he looked around for the phone. He rushed into the kitchen and picked it up off the counter. The screen was blank. “Battery must have died. Are you sure he plans to make an offer? I gave up when he hadn’t called by noon.”
“His daughter-in-law has been in the hospital all week. I ran into him in the hall when he was visiting her this afternoon, and he mentioned he’d been trying to call you. I knew you didn’t work today, so I was a little concerned.”
“I might’ve been taking a nap, you know,” he said, purposely misleading her.
“You always answer the phone when you’re not on duty.”
“Except when my battery’s dead.” He opened a kitchen drawer and pulled out a phone charger, then plugged it in. It took several seconds for the phone to register that it had juice from the outlet.
“There. It’s plugged in. I’ll call him in five minutes, as soon as I have a little charge,” he told his mom.
“I’ll wait.” She was all grins, proud as punch that her slacker son was finally about to go places.
“Really, Mom. Some privacy?”
She managed to look crestfallen, which jabbed at his conscience more than a little.
“Please,” he said. “I’ll call you as soon as I have details. I’ll take you to dinner to celebrate sometime.”
His mom laughed giddily, as if she were the one getting a job offer. Sawyer wondered briefly why he didn’t share the elation. Must be that the news hadn’t sunk in yet. Or that he was too preoccupied by the woman hiding out in his bathroom.
“That’s fine,” his mother said. “You’re right. This is your moment, and you can handle it the way you want. I’ll leave you in peace.”
“Thanks.” He led her toward the door, shoulders relaxing slightly, but he wouldn’t let his guard down all the way until she was gone and Mariah was undiscovered. The last thing he needed was for his mom to discover he’d had an afternoon screw with a girl he barely knew. Even if she was almost family.
“If I don’t hear from you within thirty minutes, I’ll hunt you down,” his mom said in a falsely threatening voice. “Understand?”
“You’ll hear.” He opened the door for her. “Thanks for the heads-up. Good-bye, Mom.”
