CHAPTER 8

Sawyer

 

We pulled into the lot of The Lighthouse. Jackson’s usual pick for a night out. The owner liked our music. We’d go there pretty often when we first moved here, heading there after recording sessions for food and drinks. Once the band grew in popularity and he saw the people crowd around us while we were trying to eat, he blocked off a certain booth in the back of the place for us to eat in peace.

After the shit storm from Mari and Cole’s time on TMZ, most of us expected to have people following us everywhere. I think a few of the guys were disappointed when the crowds died down around us. At least most of us. Mari still had a decent following always trying to get pictures of her and Cole together. Sometimes they even tried to get them alone talking to others. The tabloids were sleazy as fuck. But Mari and Cole knew that and avoided them most of the time. Me, on the other hand, preferred to stay out of the limelight. The less the camera focused on me, the less likely it would be for me to slip up. Not that I didn’t have years of practice keeping my mouth shut.

“You guys don’t get harassed when you go out all together?” Reagan asked as we got out of the car.

I shut the door and walked around to the front where he was standing. “Not here. The owner loves our music and blocks off a table in the back. He felt bad when we were getting interrupted all the time for autographs.”

We made our way across the lot to the front door. “That didn’t happen last night.”

“Nope. Thankfully, it’s Mari who’s the recognizable one. When they see her with us, they know who we are, but not usually when we’re on our own.”

“Well, that sucks,” he said, reaching for the handle of the door.

“Not at all. A lot of times people will recognize me, but sometimes they have no idea from where unless I’m with her. Benefits of hiding behind the kit. Wait until she shows up tonight. Things won’t be very quiet. And that’s without Cole. Luckily he’s got an away game this weekend. The two of them together are the paparazzi’s wet dream.”

He opened the door, letting me lead him to the back and our normal booth. I slid all the way to the back of the circular booth, loving how Reagan sat next to me.

“Think it will be like that forever?” He grabbed a menu from the middle of the table.

“No. Right now I think we’re lucky. As our music gets played on more stations and our popularity grows, I’m pretty sure we’ll all be in Mari’s situation one way or another.”

“Sawyer! Great show tonight.”

I looked up to see Max, the owner of the bar.

“Thanks, Max.”

“Just you tonight?”

“Nah, everyone else is on their way. But we can get drinks before they get here.” His eyes darted to Reagan and back. Almost like he was trying to protect me from my own friend. “Sorry, I forgot to introduce you. Max, this is Reagan, one of my closest friends growing up.” I turned to Reagan. “Max owns the place and is awesome about giving us peace to eat.”

Max reached out to shake Reagan’s extended hand.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too, Reagan. I hope you’re ready.” Max laughed. “Tonight might be a little more wild than usual. I already know there are a few people from the show at the bar. And a few of the guys know Cole is out of town with the team.”

“Shit,” I grumbled, my eyes shooting to the bar.

“What’s wrong with that?” Reagan asked.

“They think they’ll be able to pick Mari up tonight and steal her from Cole. And they are relentless, even when she tells them she’s not interested.”

Reagan nodded. “I get it. She’s fucking gorgeous.”

I did my best to keep the grimace off my face. Mari was beautiful, but it didn’t mean I wanted him to notice.

“Doesn’t mean they have a right to be assholes.”

I looked up at Max. “Look, if we’re gonna cause too much trouble, we can head somewhere else.”

“Fuck that,” Max said. “Just ’cause you make music for a living doesn’t mean you deserve a meal without all the bullshit any less than someone else. If they can’t behave they’ll leave.”

“Thanks, Max. Just remember my offer stands.”

He smiled. “I know it does. Now, what can I get you to drink?”

We ordered our beers and Max left the table to get them. “You know I think it’s my turn to call you a cocky bastard.”

My eyes snapped to his. “And why would you say that?”

“You don’t remember saying a few minutes ago that when the band gets more popular. You didn’t say if.”

It was my turn to shrug it off. “Simply stating the truth.”

“Fair enough. If I hadn’t heard you play, I might have to disagree with you. Keep doing what you’re doing and you guys are going to kick serious ass.”

“How are you the first one here?” Monty’s voice carried across the room.

“Dipshit’s gonna put more attention to us yelling like that.”

If there was one other band member of Jaded Ivory that commanded attention, it was Monty. The crowd knew him for his ridiculous antics on and off stage. He never backed down from the crazy-ass challenges people suggested on social media. Monty was definitely the class clown of our group. Most people were shocked to learn that he wrote a good number of our songs. The rest of us had a few in the lineup, but the majority were his.

Monty slipped into the booth on my right followed by Jackson. Heath and Mari were still nowhere to be found.

Monty dipped his head at Reagan. “Hey, man, how’d you like the show?”

“You guys were fantastic.”

“Thank you,” Jackson said at the same time Monty spouted out, “Of course we are.”

Reagan glanced at me. “I see you’re not the only one who isn’t modest.”

I laughed. “Monty wouldn’t know what that was even if you wrapped it in a bow and hand delivered it.”

Monty lifted a shoulder. “What’s the point in that? We’re great. Why not admit it?”

Jackson lowered his gaze to the table and shook his head before lifting it to look at Reagan. “Ignore him. He also has no manners.”

A waiter came back with our beers. Reagan took his and brought it to his mouth. I caught myself staring at the way his lips wrapped around the bottle. So many images instantly popped into my head. It wasn’t until I noticed Monty trying to snag my beer out of the corner of my eye that I stopped looking.

I snatched it from his hand. “Order your own.”

“What?” he asked innocently. “It’s not like you ordered us any even though you knew we were on our way.”

“Like you ever drink the same thing. If I ordered you something, you’d only bitch about how it wasn’t what you wanted. Last week you were on a tequila kick.”

“’Cause that shit tastes amazing.”

I noticed Reagan’s shoulders shaking and I knew exactly what he was remembering. Tequila and I weren’t friends.

“I doubt Sawyer would agree,” Reagan said between laughs.

Monty propped his elbow on the table and leaned forward. “Oh, really? Do tell.”

Reagan peeked at me out of the corner of his eye. “You didn’t tell them about you and tequila?”’

Jackson spoke up. “He hasn’t told us much of anything about before college.”

For the briefest of moments, I saw a look of hurt pass over Reagan’s eyes, but as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared, replaced by a spark. Shit. I had a feeling tonight was going to turn into Sawyer’s dirty secret night. I guess that was my punishment. Whatever, nothing that bad ever happened. Mostly I didn’t talk about the times before college because all my antics included Reagan and I wasn’t ready to talk about him.

Reagan set his bottle down and rubbed his hands together. “I guess I’ll have to catch you up then.”

“Catch us up on what?” Mari sat down, sliding over until her shoulder was touching Reagan’s, to make room for Heath.

“On Sawyer’s sordid past.” Monty let go an evil cackle.

Heath caught my eye and lifted a brow. “Sounds interesting.”

I lifted my beer to my lips, trying to hide how uncomfortable I was with the conversation. It had nothing to do with the guys knowing all the stupid shit I did as a kid. It was the reason why they didn’t know. The waiter came back and took everyone else’s order. I noticed Max at the bar talking with a guy pointing at our table.

“Heads-up.” I tilted my chin in the direction of the bar.

Mari glanced over her shoulder. Her eyes practically rolled into the back of her head. “Not this shit again.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Apparently they know Cole is at an away game.”

She dropped her head onto the back of the seat. “They’re going to be unbearable tonight.”

“Max said he’ll keep them away. Besides, we can just ignore them.”

She lifted her head, a twinkle in her eye as she turned her attention to Reagan. “You’ll help me keep them away, right?” A slight pout to her lips. Devious little… When I got my hands on her. She knew exactly what she was doing. I had to remind myself she was only doing it to get a response out of me and there was no way in hell I was going to let her win.

“Um…sure,” Reagan offered.

She slid closer, looking at Reagan from beneath her lashes, like she was some shy little thing. Under the table I dug my fingers into my own thigh, probably leaving bruises, to keep from letting her have it.

“Sawyer says you played football in high school?”

“I did. Nowhere near as good as your boyfriend, Cole.”

“I’m sure you did.”

Man, was she pushing the advantage she thought she had. At least she had to keep her hands to herself if she didn’t want pictures of her and Reagan all over the gossip blogs in the morning.

Reagan gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. It wasn’t the half smile that always drew my attention. He was uncomfortable with all her flirting, which made ignoring it even easier.

“I doubt that. He’s one of the best high school players I’ve seen. Too bad about his leg.”

“Yeah, it sucked. He loves what he’s doing now, though.”

“That’s good. I haven’t gotten a chance to see a game since he took over the offensive coaching duties. I hope to change that some time this season.”

Now that Mari had stopped trying to get Reagan to flirt with her, I sat back and watched the conversation happen. The two people in the world who meant more to me than anyone. It was rare that I thought about Reagan ever coming back into my life. But him getting along so well with Mari was more than I could have ever asked for.

“Well then. I’ll have to talk to Cole about getting you seats on the fifty-yard line.”

“Wow…just wow. I’m not really sure what to say.”

She leaned up and pressed a light kiss on his cheek. And right there, I was jealous of Mari’s lips. I wanted to be the one pressing my lips to some part of Reagan’s body. She’d be lucky if no one snapped a shot of that.

Conversations broke out around me after that. My focus solely on the man beside me. One thought after another flashed through my mind. We’d ordered a bunch of appetizers to share and were digging in when suddenly the conversation came back around and Monty wanted his question answered.

“So, what was Sawyer like growing up?”

Reagan rubbed his hands together, like the villains in the movies would do. “Crazy outspoken. Loud.”

Monty looked over at me. “Yeah, I never would have guessed that.” The bored tone so convincing, I almost burst out laughing. Monty brought his attention back to Reagan. “No seriously. Tell us about the crazy shit he did.”

Reagan appeared to mull the question over. “Well, there was the first time he drank tequila.”

Everyone at the table burst out laughing. Not surprising. Every one of them had seen my fun with tequila and I used the word fun loosely. Let’s just say tequila and I didn’t really get along.