CHAPTER 13
Garrison
My t-shirt is drenched by the time I run up Cuzzo’s driveway. It can’t be more than four or five miles from Sawyer’s place to his and I left her place about a half an hour ago. If I wasn’t wearing these combat boots and jeans, I probably could have been even faster. Pulling off my shirt, I walk into Cuzzo’s house, heading straight for the kitchen to get a drink. I open the refrigerator and grab a bottle of water, downing it in mere seconds.
What the hell was I thinking getting that close to Sawyer, not just physically but emotionally, too? I know better than to do that shit yet I threw caution to the wind dancing with her. Hell, I might as well have screwed her without a condom, that’s how dangerous it was to dance with her. I’m so fuckin’ attracted to her that a small touch from her will send me into a frenzy, much less a fuckin’ kiss. I have to keep my distance, even if it means letting her search for her father on her own. The thought of her going to visit the other two men without me makes me less than thrilled. I crumple the empty water bottle in my hand and barely hear the front door open as I do.
“Cuzzo?” I call out, looking toward the kitchen door.
“Nope.” She stands there with her hands on her hips, wearing a tiny t-shirt that barely covers that peach bra she had on earlier and those skin tight leggings that drive me nuts. “It’s Sawyer, the girl you just ran out on.”
She narrows her eyes in an accusatory fashion and I have no words. Like a mannequin, I stand there, shirtless with the fridge door open, not moving. Hopefully, if I stand here long enough, she’ll just leave but judging from the look in her eyes, I don’t think that’s going to work in my favor. Sawyer takes a step closer, her hands reaching out to touch me which I know is a very, very bad idea. I dodge her, closing the fridge door and walking to the opposite side of the room.
“I forgot that I had to be somewhere.”
My back is to her but I can still feel her gaze locked on me. “Where? Cuzzo’s? Why didn’t you take the car?”
I glance over my shoulder and I stop when I see the look in her eyes. This isn’t some kind of argument between a husband and wife who are keeping secrets from each other. Sawyer has no one here, no family, no friends, just myself and Cuzzo and I ran out on her. I turn around and face her.
“I’m sorry, Sawyer. I didn’t mean to run out on you like I did.”
Slowly, she crosses the room until she’s standing directly in front of me. She glances up in my eyes, swallowing before she speaks. “I’ll forgive you but…”
She licks her lips and turns her head slightly. I know exactly what she wants and I want it to but it’s a bad idea for both of us. She reaches out, her hands lightly touching my chest as she continues to stare deep into my eyes. Yep… definitely a bad idea. If she kisses me, she’ll end up flat on her back on Cuzzo’s kitchen table beside us.
“Thought you two were going to visit ‘ole Sam Ellington today?”
Cuzzo interrupts our tension and in a rare moment, I’m grateful that he’s blind. Sawyer jumps at the sound of his voice and spins around, stepping back and leaning against me. Her back to my chest drives my pulse into high gear and my hands involuntarily go to her waist.
“Um… we haven’t discussed plans yet,” Sawyer stammers.
Cuzzo pauses, picking up on the stress in her voice. I move my hand to Sawyer’s, taking the keys from her and absent mindedly kiss her cheek. “I’ve got to run an errand but I’ll be back,” I whisper with no other explanation. I make a quick exit, grabbing a t-shirt from the basket of laundry at the foot of the stairs. Kiss or no kiss, this isn’t looking good for Sawyer or me.
Sawyer
My body tingles where Garrison’s hands sat on my waist. I long for them to return to that spot or anywhere else that I knew he was close and wasn’t going to run. The man is my security blanket in the town where I grew up and now feel like the outsider while he’s the one who knows no one around here besides his grandfather. I learned from my mother to never depend on a man but in the short time I’ve been with Garrison, it’s the only thing that brings me solace during this difficult time of saying goodbye to my mother and seeking out the only blood relative that I still have. The front door clicks shut and I let out an exasperated sigh, knowing that Garrison is no longer in the house.
“What did I miss?” Cuzzo asks, not beating around the bush.
“I don’t know…” I mutter.
Cuzzo chuckles and pulls out a dining room chair. “I think you do. Take a seat and tell me what you two are feuding about.”
Following his directions, I sit down. Immediately, my fingers begin to fidget with the placemat before me, unsure what exactly to admit to Cuzzo. I look up at him, seeing so much of Garrison in him and I smile.
“Tell me about Garrison. I want to get to know him better.”
Cuzzo smiles. “Wouldn’t we all? The boy pretty much keeps to himself these days.”
I giggle when Cuzzo calls him a boy. “Why is that? Why is he so guarded?”
Cuzzo stares off into space through his sunglasses. I lean over and touch them gently. “Do you mind taking these off?”
The elder nods with a smile on his face, pulling his sunglasses off and setting them on the table. He reaches over and pats my hand, showing me his gratitude for not being scared to see him as he is. Now, I can see his whole face and that makes me smile even more. The man may be my grandfather’s age and completely blind but he’s still handsome.
“Now, tell me about Garrison.”
Cuzzo smiles and nods. “Alright, alright… what to know about Garrison? Why is he so jaded, is that what you asked?”
I nod, forgetting the blind man can’t see me but somehow, he still manages to know what I’m doing.
“Well, I guess my grandson changed after he entered the Navy.”
“War can change a person…” I wonder what exactly it was that Garrison experienced that made him so emotionally shut down.
Cuzzo laughs, his head bobbing up and down. “It sure can but this wasn’t war that changed Garrison. This was here in the U.S., on his home turf.”
“Oh,” I mutter, feeling like an idiot.
“Garrison joined the Navy right out of high school. His parents weren’t too pleased that all the money they’d spent on his private school education wasn’t going to send him to an Ivy League school. Or the fact that he passed up on both athletic and academic scholarships to go to college but they saw the Navy as a stepping stone for Garrison’s political career.”
“He was going to run for office?!” I ask incredulously. “I can’t imagine him being able to get people to vote for him with his attitude.”
Cuzzo chuckles. “Nowadays, you’re right but back when he was younger, Garrison was quite the people pleaser. As you know, no amount of money bothered his parents when it came to… well, anything. Garrison had the best of everything growing up and he was grateful for every opportunity that he was presented. The Navy was his passion and if it meant running for office at some point down the road, he would’ve done it for his parents because that’s the kind of man Garrison Cocuzzo used to be.”
“What happened?” I ask, not realizing that I’m actually on the edge of my chair in anticipation like this is some kind of R.L. Stine story.
“His heart got broken.”
I hear myself suck in my breath, shocked by Cuzzo’s sentence.
“I’ve never seen a man so thrilled to go on his first deployment, keep in mind that I’ve lived through every war since the Korean War. Garrison was ready to serve his country.”
I wave my hand to usher him along, again, forgetting Cuzzo can’t see me. “Who was the girl?”
“Clarissa Ladue, his high school sweetheart. Their parents basically raised the two of them to get married so their wealth would double and their social statuses would rise even higher. Her parents were ‘new’ money as they developed websites while Garrison’s parents were ‘old’ money meaning they inherited it from his maternal grandparents.”
“So, it was like an arranged marriage?”
Cuzzo shrugs. “Sort of, except that the kids truly did love one another… at one time. Garrison went off to the Navy while Clarissa attended Dartmouth, keeping up her appearances and spending lots of her daddy’s money.”
“Ugh,” I grunt. “I already don’t like her before you even tell me anymore.”
Cuzzo laughs, patting my hand again. “Good, you have loyalty… something Clarissa didn’t.”
I gasp. “She cheated on him!? Who in their right mind would cheat on a man with a body like Garrison’s?”
Cuzzo pauses before he answers then shrugs his shoulders. “Well, your guess is probably as good as mine but Clarissa found someone else with more money and maybe as good of looking as Garrison, I don’t know about that last part for sure.”
I scoff and shake my head. “I doubt it.”
Cuzzo’s smile gets bigger. “I knew I liked you, kid.”
My cheeks heat up and I look down sheepishly, touched by Cuzzo’s comment.
“Garrison came home from his first deployment and walked in on Clarissa in a, um… comprisable situation.”
“She was screwing the rich kid!?” I blurt out, forgetting that I’m talking to an elder and showing off my lack of ability to filter anything that comes out of my mouth.
“Something along those lines, yes. Now, we both know how Garrison is today and when he saw Clarissa being unfaithful, that Garrison came to. He tried to break up with her but Clarissa and their parents wouldn’t allow it to happen. All of them were more concerned how their break up would look to those in their social circle than the effects it had on Garrison’s heart.”
“So, how’d they end up breaking up?” My stomach sinks. “Or… are they still together?”
Cuzzo shakes his head. “No worries, Sawyer, Garrison is as single as can be. Clarissa wouldn’t let him out of her sight while he was home but the second he got off U.S. soil, he stopped communicating with her. He’d come back to the States and come visit me, not even telling his parents he was home. Eventually, Clarissa took the hint and she’s now engaged to some other socialite’s son.”
“Wow,” I mumble.
“You’d think if his parents haven’t heard from him in one, two, hell five years, that they’d reach out to him or myself to find out how he’s doing but they haven’t. They continue to tell their friends about him and how he’s serving their country and will one day run for office but the reality is that Garrison probably won’t ever speak to them again. They made their choice clear that money was more important to them than their own son.”
My lips drop into a frown and I feel awful for Garrison. I know what it’s like to lose your family, to have no one in your corner. We both have family that is alive and, well, want nothing to do with us. Then, my heart breaks even more him after hearing how that slutty Clarissa cheated on him, on Garrison Cocuzzo, a sexy man with a kind, caring heart. What the hell was she thinking?
Standing up, I take Cuzzo’s hand and bring it to my lips, kissing it softly. “Thank you, Cuzzo.”
He nods. “No problem, just don’t tell him I told you anything.”
I shake my head. “No, not for telling me… for taking care of Garrison.”
His lips slide into a proud grin and he nods. I head outside, feeling the sun hit my skin and I start the walk back toward my mother’s. Looks like I can’t protect Garrison from getting hurt, just like he can’t do the same for me, but boy, does he try.