by Frankie Love
Sawyer shakes his head. “I’m not doing that. Hell, Cal thinks I’m dead, telling anyone before him that I’m still alive feels wrong.”
“You told me.”
“You’re not anyone. You are the one.”
My face flushes, I love it when he speaks like that. So damn sure.
“You are pretty smooth, you know that?” I tease, ruffling his hair with my hands. “But we need to figure out what we’re gonna do next. I mean, what’s the endgame? Are we just gonna wait around forever for my stepdad to show up and then begin the murdering?” I snort, not in a funny way; in a how-is-this-my-life way. “I want to watch him bleed, but part of me wonders if I am just asking for trouble. If I’m just being an idiot here—hell-bent and hardheaded. Would it be better for us to just get some passports and head to Mexico?”
“Would you do that?” Sawyer asks. I close the lid of the washing machine and turn it on, collecting my thoughts before I turn back around to answer.
“Maybe. My mom’s here now... but maybe she could stay and live in the cottage, work for Dusty?
Sawyer cuts me off. “Live in the cottage? Hell no, Dusty is smitten with your mom, if she’s living anywhere it’ll be with him.”
“Really?” My eyes widen. The idea is too good to be true. My mom could use a man like Dusty––loyal and strong. A man who would protect her and love her like she deserved.
“I swear it. He’s bending over backwards to make sure she’s okay. I saw him run out to get her ice cream the other day because in passing she mentioned wanting some. I swear he’s a different man.”
“Shit, really?” My face breaks out in a grin. I realize it’s been a long time since I’ve smiled about something related to my mom. Maybe forever.
“You know how we were wondering if everything happens for a reason?” I say. “I think it does. How else do you explain you and me and my mom all showing up in Resting Hollow of all places? It’s like we all found what we didn’t realize we were looking for, and we found it in the most unlikely of places.
“I know exactly what you mean,” Sawyer says. “I can’t help but wonder if the night Cal was here at Dusty’s bar, if the universe wanted me to go talk to him. Make my peace with him.”
He runs his hand over his jaw. “I don’t know if fate is real or not, but it seems like I shouldn’t have turned my back on him that night. I was just so damn scared. And now I wonder if I missed my chance. Maybe the universe brought him here for a reason. For me to come clean with my oldest friend.”
Pushing a hand through his hair, he looks so fucking stressed out that it kills me to see him this way. He’s tormented in ways I can’t fix.
Still, I know other ways to ease his pain. I wrap my arms around his neck, and press my mouth to his softly.
“Look, you can’t have a do-over for everything in life, but with this? Maybe you can. You can always call them. Cal and your parents. You don’t have to be gone if you don’t want to be. I know it might be terrible. But feeling like this is terrible, too.”
He pulls me up onto the washing machine. The spin cycle vibrates under my ass, my hands pressed on the lid.
“What do you want to do?” I ask him.
“I want to make it right. I don’t want a life in Hollywood again. It’s a lot of flash without a lot of substance. I want more than that for you and me. So, whatever happens next, I know I’m not going back down that path. But I think not trying harder with my parents was the wrong decision.”
“You can do something about that,” I tell him. “Most people don’t get second chances like that. Most people die once and that’s it. But, Sawyer, you can. You’re still breathing.”
He shakes his head. “Can you just imagine the shit storm that would happen if the press got word that Sawyer Bennett was actually fucking alive? There’s been more than enough television specials and articles written about my career, about my life and my death. I can’t imagine the flak I’d get if they found out I faked my own fucking demise. It would be career suicide.”
“I know,” I tell him. “But Sawyer, you’ve already died according to the papers. So, what? Let them kill you all over again. What do you have to lose?”
He smirks. “You’re right about that. I said I was over the fucking attention; so why should I care if the press has a heyday with my reputation? At the end of the day, none of those strangers matter. All that matters are the things that are real.”
I wrap my arms around his neck. “Exactly. And this? This is real.”
Sawyer kisses me softly, then pulls back, his arms around my waist. “I’m getting a little stir crazy here,” he tells me. “Are you?”
“Hmmm, I can think of a few ways to pass the time.” My hands reach for the hem of Sawyer’s T-shirt and I ease it over his head. Then my fingers fumble with the button of his jeans, and I push them down. I love the sight of him. He is so fucking tall, so strong and chiseled. And he’s so big that his cock is right at my pussy. My legs spread wide open. All my panties are getting washed right now, so all I have on is a tiny little sundress, my bare pussy beneath it.
“It’s the Fourth of July today,” he tells me, his hands on my thighs, his fingers inching closer to my wet cunt. “There’s a Fourth of July parade going on downtown later..”
“And are there any fireworks this afternoon?” I ask coyly. “Because truthfully, Sawyer I don’t think I can wait until tonight for them.” I pull up my skirt, offering him my pussy. I run my fingers against my opening, getting excited, the vibrating washing machine doing its fair share to help me.
And Sawyer, with his jeans off, his cock hard, he’s doing his fair share to get me excited, too.
“Fireworks, huh?” he asks, he runs a hand over his jaw, his biceps flexing, his eyes dark, looking me up and down as if he wants to devour me.
“Yeah, I want an explosion,” I tell him giggling. The tip of his cock inches toward my pussy and I scoot my ass to the edge of the machine. He strokes himself, his long massive cock so fucking hard.
“I miss your tits,” he tells me, reaching behind my neck and untying the halter top of my dress. It falls down and my breasts are revealed. My nipples are so hard, and he draws his mouth to them, sucking the dark nub. He runs his palms over them both pulling them together and kissing them completely. His other hand reaches between my legs to stroke my slick pussy.
“Oh baby, you’re so fucking wet.”
“And you’re so fucking hard.”
I love it when he touches my tits, and I arch my back, giving him more of myself, wanting to give him everything. This tortured man is mine, and his wounds are mine to heal. Being the only woman who can do that makes me feel like a goddess, makes me feel like a queen.
It makes me feel like I’m his.
“Damn, girl, that feels so fucking good,” he says as I stroke his long cock up and down.
His balls are tight and his shaft is rigid. “I need you in me, Sawyer.”
He growls in my ear, his tongue against my skin causing every hair on my body to stand on end.
“Give it to me now, baby,” I beg.
He does as I ask, he puts his cock inside me hard and swift. He fucks me into oblivion on that machine, sliding my ass off it until I’m wrapped around his body. He holds my ass cheeks, my tits bouncing in the air as he fucks me hard, with abandon. With intention. He fucks me like he’s telling me there’s nothing in this world that’s going to come between us.
Like there’s nothing in this world but us.
I moan in pleasure as an orgasm starts building inside me, and when he thrusts inside, over and again I inch closer and closer to release. My hands run underneath his T-shirt, his ladder of abs so slick and sweaty, so perfectly mine.
“Fuck me, baby,” I murmur, running my hands through his hair, my mouth crashing against his. I kiss him hard, biting his bottom lip until I draw blood as I bounce on top of his rock-hard cock. As he fills my pussy, my body explodes in orgasm.
Forget the fireworks,
Sawyer’s cock is more explosive than any Independence Day celebration. And with Sawyer’s cock inside me, it feels like fucking freedom.
“God,” I whisper, shaking against him as my body pulses with pleasure from head to toe, totally undone as his come shoots deep inside me. My pussy is filled with his seed just how I wanted. How I begged him to give it to me. I’ve always been on birth control, and I love having that protection because, with his cock unsheathed inside of me, it’s like a pleasure trove more abundant than any other man could ever give.
Sawyer is more than any man.
He is my man.
And when he comes in me and fills me with himself, I forget to think, forget to breathe, forget myself completely.
My forehead falls onto his chest, as I relish our midday love-making. He kisses my tits again—then my neck, my chin, my mouth, my nose. He kisses me on the lips, his tongue against mine, connecting in perfect harmony. Our bodies still reeling from the pleasure we just shared. The love we just accepted.
“Are you still feeling pent-up here in Dusty’s basement?” I ask.
He laughs, shaking his head while looking down at me.
“Baby, there is no such thing as pent-up when it comes to fucking you.”
“Even so, let’s go to the fireworks tonight. It’ll be dark out and no one will see us. I think it sounds romantic.”
“Agreed. It can be a proper date.”
“I don’t need anything proper, Sawyer Bennett. I just need you.”
17
Holding her hand as we walk down Main Street makes me feel a goddamn king.
Maybe it’s something about this town. It’s charming as fuck, Jules was right about that.
There are vendors selling cotton candy and a fucking Ferris wheel is setup on the edge of town. Sugary sweet elephant ears are purchased and kids eat ice cream cones even though it’s ten o’clock at night. The whole town is in celebration mode. Bales of hay are placed along the sidewalk, lights are strung across the light posts, and American flags wave in the evening breeze. Everyone seems to be smiling and it’s contagious.
My ball cap is on, and my hair is getting pretty long and shaggy. No one’s gonna notice a guy with his head down and his hand held by a woman like Sadie. Besides, Sadie’s the person everyone’s going to be looking at.
She looks so fucking cute today. She braided her hair and wears a short denim dress, showing off her legs and her perfect set of tits. She’s wearing flip-flops and looks as wholesome as a summer day.
But I remember her at the Small Town Fuck Club, the way she got down on her knees in the shower and sucked me off until I came all over her round breasts. She may look innocent, but she is more than sugary goodness.
But that just makes you want her all the more. There are many sides to this woman. She’s more than good and bad, filthy and sweet. She’s fucking everything in between.
“Everything here is so perfect,” she says. “It’s like we landed on a movie set.” Then she looks up at me, as if the words ‘movie set’ require a trigger warning. “Sorry, Sawyer. I shouldn’t have said that.” She shakes her head and bites her bottom lip.
“That’s not true, baby, you don’t have to censor yourself with me. But a movie set isn’t exactly perfect. It’s mostly angry directors and high-strung assistance. Bitchy costars and crabby producers. I wouldn’t exactly say paradise. But this place? This farming town in the middle of nowhere? This is something I call heaven.”
“Would you want to stay here?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” I tell her honestly. We stop and get ice cream cones. She chooses chocolate, I get salted caramel. Watching her lick her cone gets me hard. Right about now I have something she could lick. Something she could wrap her pink lips around. “The hardest part of staying here, or anywhere really, is figuring out what I’m going to do with my life.”
“You could work at Dusty’s with me.” She elbows me as we walk. “Or hey, you could be a sex club bouncer with Teddy.”
“I’d hate to be in a sex club without you,” I say, laughing. “And can you really see me working behind a bar? I’m not sure I have the right personality.”
“But what would you do, like if you could do anything?”
“I’m always writing those journals. Part of me thinks I could do that. Be a writer.”
Sadie stops and turns to face me. “Maybe if you ever let me read some of those writings I could tell you if you’re any good,” she teases.
“I know,” I tell her, raising a hand in defeat. “I hold my cards close. But damn, you want to read my journals? You’ll think I’m even more touchy-feely than you already do.” Laughing, I grab Sadie’s waist and pull her to me. “See, I can’t help but touch you.”
“There’s nothing wrong about being a touchy-feely guy, especially when you have a body like this, and a cock like that,” she says pointing down. “Besides, there is something special about being with a man who is in touch with his emotions. Everything we do together is heightened because I know you feel things deeper than the average man. You feel things to your core. Way past your heart. You feel with your soul.”
Her words give me strength, make me feel like the man she believes me to be. Capable and mighty and more than I ever see in myself. My parents never thought I was enough, but it isn’t like that with Sadie. She sees me, really sees me. And she loves me anyway.
I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Alright, so you’re okay with me being a writer out here in the farmlands. What would you do, Sadie?”
She shrugs as we start walking again. The brass band stops playing and everyone, including us, congregates at the edge of town to watch the fireworks display.
“I guess I could keep working at Dusty’s. Honestly, I like working there. And I want to be near my mom. She’s my only family. I want to hold onto that, you know?”
I nod, knowing exactly what she means.
“Looks like we’ve got it all figured out. You’re gonna keep working at the bar, bringing me tater-tot nachos as I write the next Great American Novel.”
“I like that idea. But I don’t think we can stay in Dusty’s cottage forever.”
“We can always build a place for ourselves. The land next to him is for sale.”
Sadie looks up at me, laughing again. “And how exactly do you know that?”
“I looked it up,”
“Wow,” she says exaggeratedly. “You really want to put roots down here in Indiana.”
“Is that bad?” I shrug again. “Because from where I’m standing, it’s looking pretty good.”
We stop as fireworks begin shooting into the sky. The crowd around us claps in excitement. The place is alive, this town picture perfect. And I have Sadie. Damn, for a moment I forget the mess from before and all I see is the perfection of the future.
But then, everything changes.
I thought I may have disappeared completely. But nothing is ever that easy. And sooner or later I think I always knew my past was going to catch up with me.
I just wasn’t expecting it right here, right now.
But here it is.
Here he is.
Levi Callahan Mallone.
My oldest, dearest friend.
The friend I betrayed and the friend I tried to protect.
“Sawyer?” he says.
Cal was my best friend. A man who’s been a brother to me. The man I lied to, the man I left behind.
The man who picked up the pieces of my broken life, who took one step in front of the other because he knew there was nothing else to do.
“Sawyer? What the fuck?” Cal is freaking out front of me. Juliana behind him, covering her face with her hands.
“Oh my God,” she cries. “What is happening?”
Sadie holds me back, holds onto me. But I tell her it’s okay.
Tonight, there’s nothing left to do but face my fears.
“Sawyer?” Cal says again.
“I’m sorry,” I manage. My word
s are a tangle of emotion. I’m sorry is the only way I know to begin. “I am so fucking sorry.”
Sorry for running. For hiding. For not telling him the Goddamn truth.
“What the hell,… what the hell?” Cal runs his hands through his hair, he’s shaking, trembling. He’s a fucking mess
I did this to him.
“Can we go some ––” People are turning to look at us. And I drop my head to the ground, a fucking cluster of emotion as more fireworks explode in the air, eliciting oohs and ahhs from everyone around us. The crowd is thick as the entire town stands watching the fireworks go off.
Sadie reaches for my arm pulling me back and Juliana reaches for Cal’s dragging him toward us as we run through the maze of people.
I have an impulse to keep on running. Forever. Fucking forever.
But it’s not just my life anymore. My life is attached to Sadie’s, and where she goes, I go. And where I go, she goes.
And she still has business to attend to here in Resting Hollow.
And maybe I fucking do, too.
My past is catching up with me.
Maybe we all ended up in this town for a reason. Maybe this is the moment that will define me.
I sure as hell know what I don’t want it my life to be. A wasteland of regret, a story of me giving up when I should have given in.
Given in to the love around me.
We’ve run far from the downtown area and are at the end of an empty road, no one is around us.
The sky above shimmers with fireworks lighting up the night sky. The four of us standing on what feels like the very edge of the earth.
The edge of everything.
“What the fuck is going on? Cal asks. He is the same Cal, the same defined features, and classic good looks. But there’s something different about him. There’s this hope in his eyes I don’t recognize. The belief that life could be more than you planned. I look at Jules standing beside him, and I know he loves her the same way I love Sadie. The kind of love that spans beyond doubt and fear and anger and regret.
The kind of love that washes it all away.
I hope it’s strong enough to wash away this next part too.
