Him

by Carey Heywood

  Sawyer gasps, and he stops.

  I look at him, putting my hand on his leg and squeezing it. "Jake and I were never together, Will. I was helping him find a silly present for Sawyer that day. He was her boyfriend at the time."

  "I still have that monkey," Sawyer grumbles from the back seat.

  That monkey’s a running joke between Sawyer and me now. Even though she and Jake had broken up years ago, she couldn’t bring herself to throw it away.

  "When I saw you together, how happy you looked, I thought…I just figured you had moved on."

  When he looks at me, I shake my head. Of all of the times for him to have seen me. It was unfair.

  "She never moved on.”

  "Sawyer!"

  "What? It's the truth. You buried yourself in school and then your business and half-heartedly dated when I forced you to, but you never moved on."

  Will parks in front of his house and turns to me, taking my face in his hands. "I never moved on either."

  He leans forward and kisses me. His lips don't leave mine until we hear Sawyer clear her throat from the backseat. "Will."

  He glances at her through the rearview mirror. "Yeah."

  "I know people. You ever, even unintentionally, hurt Sarah, and there will be no place you can hide from me."

  I turn around and gape at her. "Holy shit, Sawyer."

  Will puts his hand on my leg and shakes his head before meeting her eyes again in the mirror. "Thank you for taking care of my girl. All I plan to do is spend the rest of my life making her smile."

  Sawyer looks at me. "Okay. I approve."

  I roll my eyes. "And you call me crazy." I reach my hand back to squeeze hers. "I love you."

  "I love you too, babe."

  When we get to his house, Will takes her bags up to her room while Sawyer and I talk by his car. Will is staying the night at my house, and my mother is driving us to the airport tomorrow. Well, today. When Will comes back out, he gives Sawyer keys to the house and lets her know there is a list of important numbers and things on the kitchen counter for her.

  I pull her into another hug. "Thank you so much for doing this."

  She shrugs. "Mama bear and I will be just fine."

  It's late, so Will and I are quiet as he drives to my parents’ place. He follows me up to my room, shrugging off his clothes before collapsing onto my bed. He tries to watch me undress, falling asleep before I finish. I crawl into bed and snuggle up to him, smiling as his arm curls around me, pulling me closer.

  ~*~

  I wake before Will and am sliding out of bed when his hand wraps around my wrist. He tugs me back into his arms and kisses my neck.

  "I love waking up with you," he murmurs into my ear.

  I sigh and wrap my arms around him. "Mmmmm me too."

  "I'm looking forward to seeing your place. Never been to Colorado before."

  "I still can't believe you're coming home with me. This is crazy."

  He lifts his head and looks in my eyes. "Good crazy or bad crazy?"

  I smack his shoulder. "Good crazy. Definitely good crazy."

  He covers me, his lips on mine. I want nothing more than to lose myself in him, but it’s my last day at home, and my parents are downstairs.

  I break our kiss, laughing at his pout. "Come on, Will. I want to spend some time with my parents before we leave."

  He groans as he falls to the side of me. I lean over and give him a chaste kiss before getting up.

  "I'm going to take a quick shower. You," I point as he starts to get up with an impish gleam in his eyes, "wait here."

  He flops back on to the bed. "At least you aren’t kicking me out this time."

  I think back to my first day back. So much has changed since then. I shake my head, grab my toiletries, and head to the bathroom. When I come back into the room, I shiver when Will comes to stand behind me. He holds my arms and bends down to lick a drip of water I missed on my shoulder blade. I push him in the direction of the bed, ordering him to sit and behave. He winks at me and pants like a dog.

  "You are such a dork."

  "Whatever. You think I'm hot."

  He groans when I drop my towel and walk over to my bag. I look back at him like, what? He somehow remains seated, eyes never leaving me, as I dress.

  Once my summer dress is on, his eyes lift to mine. "I'm going to make you pay for that."

  I walk over to him, ghosting my lips over his before I lick the side of his face from chin to brow.

  His mouth drops open as he watches me walk out the door.

  I look over my shoulder at him. "Bring it. Oh, and the shower’s free."

  He jumps towards me. I squeal and race down the stairs before he can catch me. I'm giggling when I walk in the kitchen.

  "It's good to see you so happy." My mother beams up at me.

  I blush and strain some orange juice before I go to sit next to her. She leans towards me and kisses my cheek. Will comes down not long after, his hair still damp from his shower. He kisses the top of my head before walking out back to call Sawyer and see how their first morning alone went together. He's laughing when he walks back in.

  "What happened?" I ask, lifting a brow.

  "I didn’t know your friend spoke Italian. I feel bad for laughing, but after my mom called her a bunch of names thinking she wouldn’t understand, Sawyer told her off. In Italian." He shakes his head. "Man, I wish I saw it."

  "Are they going to be okay? That doesn’t seem like a good start," my mom asks.

  "Nah, they'll be fine. I think Sawyer might be just what my mom needs."

  Our flight is leaving at one. We need to be at the airport at least an hour early. We spend the morning hanging out around the kitchen table, catching up with my parents and uncle Chip. My mom is going to drop us off at the airport.

  "Are you going to move back?" my mom asks once we're in the chair.

  I look at Will and smile. "Maybe."

  Her face breaks into a wide grin. Will laughs when she pulls his face to hers to give him a kiss on the cheek. "You bring my girl home, Will."

  She doesn’t park, dropping us off at the departures. She kisses both of us, her eyes wet. We stand on the curb and wave until her car is out of sight before going in and checking our bags. They print our tickets there, and my mouth drops when I see we're both now first class.

  Will laughs at my expression. "Sawyer wanted us to sit together."

  I shake my head. We get through security and wait at our gate. Once we're boarded, I laugh, thinking how this all started a week ago. But not really. Will and I started that day he walked into my English class and stole my heart. We're landing before too long. Once we've collected our luggage, I pull Sawyer's parking ticket out of my purse. She had written down the row she parked in so we wouldn’t have to try and find her car. Will laughs when he sees her Hummer.

  I shrug. "She figures if she gets in an accident she'll just drive over the other car."

  "What is her deal?" Will asks as he loads our luggage.

  I pause. "She never told me the whole story, but she doesn’t seem to worry about money. It's not something she ever talks about."

  As we drive to my condo, I point out places along the way. Mountains, the office of the first business I signed in Colorado, Sawyer’s and my first apartment complex, my office, and finally my home. I pull into my parking spot, suddenly nervous that Will is going to see my place. I wonder what he will think, if he will like it. Once we're inside, I don’t have any time to worry about it before Will has my back pressed up against the inside of the front door.

  "Well hello," I breathe as his lips move to my neck.

  "Hey," he chuckles, pulling my dress up.

  "I have a bed, you know."

  "Here's good," he says, unbuttoning his shorts.

  ~*~

  Will comes in to work with me the next day. It's surreal introducing him to all of my employees. At lunch, I drive him back to my condo. He tries his best to convince me to stay with him fo
r the rest of the afternoon. He has ample powers of persuasion, but I want to have a meeting to discuss my move to Atlanta. I want their input. There are multiple ways this could go. I could keep the office intact and work remotely from Atlanta. I could forgo renewing the lease on the office space and let everyone work remotely, or I could sell the entire company and my new business pipeline to a competitor. I don’t see the last option happening. I don’t want to give up my baby.

  When I get back to work, I call everyone into our conference room and discuss my plans. We discuss all my ideas and everyone getting to work remotely is the clear favorite. I was hoping it would be because with the money I would save on office space, I could afford to hire someone to take over the travel aspect of my job. In the past I used travel as a way to escape settling down and avoiding relationships. Now that I have Will in my life, I want nothing more than to wake up in his arms every day.

  The End…or is it?

  Coming Soon

  Her

  You know her side of the story, now learn his.

  "It was useless, I felt branded beneath my skin by a girl who left without even saying goodbye."

  When Will Price was assigned a partner for a sixth grade class project he had no idea she would become his best friend. She eventually became so much more, and then, one day left with no explanation. Floundering without her, what does Will do during their time apart? And now that she's back home what will he do to make her his again?

  Acknowledgements

  First and foremost to my readers, thank you for taking the time to read something I wrote.

  The idea for this book started on a plane ride to Tampa Florida. It was early and our flight was super turbulent because of all this random wind up and down the east coast. It would have been a miserable flight if it wasn’t for Kelli Rae. We clicked and talked nonstop the entire flight (probably annoying the crap out of everyone around us!). We shared our life stories and I am blessed to now call her my friend. Our conversations over rekindling old flames inspired me to write this book. To go from being the person sitting next to me on a plane to one of my biggest supporters, thank you so much. Muah Kelli!

  My Betas, ohmygod my betas, Amy Surrey, Kristy Jamieson, Judy Greco, Elly Ruzgal, Lisa VanArsdale, Kate Dixon, Jenny Lopez, Angelique Miller, and Vanessa Brown (aka eagle eye). You guys mean so much to me and everyday make me a better writer.

  Jennifer Short Benson, your love for my words and your passion made this book what it is today. I cannot thank you enough for everything you have done for me. You are like a one woman publicist, ahem scene whisperer, and indie author ninja.

  Miranda Sue Johnson at Mommy's a Book Whore, you're my person. I'm pretty sure we were sisterwives or conjoined twins in a past life. We can have entire conversations in stickers. You are so generous with your time and support. I <3 you!

  Yesenia Vargas, this is our fourth book together. You are the sweetest editor a writer can have. I am so lucky I get to work with you. Thank you so much for polishing my words.

  Sarah Hansen with Okay Creations, your covers are amazing. Sometimes I just sit and stare at them. You truly have a gift and I am honored to work with you.

  My family, you still love me even when the voices in my head distract me from things like; making dinner, cleaning the kitchen floor, or even holding a conversation. Thank you.

  To my proofer, Rachel Ryan, thank you so much for giving me the peace mind to share Him.

  To my writer friends; Nikki Mahood, Helen Boswell (amazeballs), Gareth Young (Spartan), Penny Reid, Karen Bynum, Rachel Walter, Emma Hart, Ross McCoubrey, Melissa Collins, Antoinette Candela, S. Moose, and Renee Carlino, and L. Chapman, your friendship and support mean so much to me.

  To Maryse with Maryse.net, Kathy with Romantic Reading escapes, Jeannette and Kris and Nicole with I Heart Books, Mindy with Talkbooks, Kendall with Book Crazy, Louise with Hooked on Books, Cara with A Book Whore's Obsession, Danielle with Just Booked, Britney with Living Fictitiously, Emily with Rate my Romance and any other blog or page that supported me along the way.

  Summary

  HIM

  Sarah Miller hasn’t been home in seven years. She thought she could stay away forever. If it wasn’t for her big brother's wedding, that is. Part of her even feels silly for staying away this long. It's not like anyone even knew what happened. Well, except for him.

  That guy. The one she compared all others to. The one who set the bar so high no other guy after him could even compete. The one who made her feel like anything was possible. The one she thought she would never be good enough for. The one she spent the last seven years trying to forget.

  All she needs to do is make it through the next week without running into him.

  About the Author

  Carey Heywood lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, three children, and nine-pound attack Yorkie. In her spare time, she transports her children from one extra-curricular activity to another while maintaining her day job in the world of finance. Right now, she is probably eating Swedish Fish.

  I'd love to hear from you!

  www.carey.heywood@blogspot.com

  @Careylolo

  www.facebook.com/CareyHeywoodAuthor

  Other Books

  A Bridge of Her Own

  Uninvolved

  Stages of Grace