“Close? That’s an understatement. The girl’s ready to pop. Her due date’s comin’ up in less than a week.”
“Making Travis crazier than normal?” Mack asked.
“I hadn’t thought it possible, but yeah,” Sawyer agreed.
It actually made perfect sense for Travis and Gage to be home with their wife. Who knew when she would go into labor, and Sawyer couldn’t imagine Travis finding out she was having the baby on the kitchen floor without him there. The guy would likely be declared clinically insane at that point.
“It’s a good thing Gage is there to keep him in line,” Mack told him as he wiped down the bar in front of Sawyer.
“He seems to be the only one who can,” Sawyer replied.
To Mack’s point, it was good that Gage was there for Travis. He somehow worked magic over the man, keeping him as calm as was possible for Travis. Legally, Kylie was Travis’s wife, but for all intents and purposes, Gage was also Kylie’s husband, as well as Travis’s husband, although gay marriage wasn’t legalized in Texas.
Then again, neither was a three-way marriage.
No one said Texas was perfect.
When Mack headed down to help another customer, Sawyer twisted on his bar stool and glanced around the bar, taking stock of who was there now that his brother had so kindly pointed out who wasn’t. Not that Moonshiners could ever be considered busy, but tonight there were more people than he’d thought there would be. It was Thursday after all. Went to show how preoccupied he’d been because Sawyer had no idea that they’d started attracting the riffraff during the week, too.
Giving the faces he recognized a quick once-over, Sawyer stopped abruptly on the one face he had a love-hate relationship with.
Kennedy Endsley.
The bane of his existence.
When the hell had she arrived? And how had he missed it?
Not that he was watching for her.
Okay, that was bullshit. He was watching for her.
Since the very day she stepped foot back in Coyote Ridge eight years ago after going off to college for that same number of years, the woman had gotten under his skin. Then again, the nerdy girl who’d gone off to college certainly wasn’t the same one who came back. Not only had she degreed up and shit while she’d been gone, the girl who’d left had grown up. And by that, Sawyer meant she’d gone from four-eyed and mousy to smoking fucking hot. And since that first day he realized who she was, no matter how damn hard he tried, Sawyer could not stop thinking about her. On top of that, it didn’t matter how many attempts he made to ignore her or the effect she had on him, he always came back to one conclusion . . .
He wanted the one damn woman who wouldn’t give him the time of day.
That was all there was to it.
Rather than getting up from his seat—that would require far too much energy—Sawyer waited until her soft charcoal gaze met his and he nodded in recognition. Just as he expected, she pretended she was bored as she stared at him for a fleeting second before turning away. As much as he wanted that to piss him off, it didn’t. It actually amused the fuck out of him. He liked that she had to actually put forth the effort to pretend she wasn’t affected by him. Lord knows he had the same problem when it came to her. Although he didn’t pretend.
Sawyer never pretended. He was who he was and if people didn’t like it, well, they could . . .
Maybe that hadn’t always been the case, but it certainly was now. There had been a time in his life—namely high school—that he looked back on and felt a strange pang of regret. It’d taken him some time to realize that he’d been a complete asshole in high school.
Shaking off the thought with a forced smile on his face, he returned his attention to his now empty beer bottle and contemplated ordering another one. If he were smart, he’d just march his happy ass right out the door and go home. Sleep was actually in high demand these days, although he was getting very little of it.
With Alluring Indulgence Resort open and handling an influx of guests over the last few months, he knew he wouldn’t be getting much shut-eye in the near future, either. But, he wasn’t going to go home. Not yet. Buster, his nine-month-old cocker spaniel, also known as the new love of Sawyer’s life according to his asshole brothers, would probably appreciate a little time to himself. As it was, Sawyer dragged that dog everywhere, including to the resort every day.
Other than Buster, there wasn’t a damn thing waiting at home for him, and as he stared at Kennedy, he had to wonder just when he’d started wanting someone to be there.
Shit. He was getting way too melancholy in his old age. Then again, he was thinking of himself as old, and at thirty-four, he had some time before senility actually kicked in. If he was lucky, anyway.