Chapter One

One Year Later

Sawyer rested his hand on my thigh under the crowded table while I thanked my lucky stars that he picked a firm spot. A few inches up and it would have been more like Jell-O with a massive dollop of whipped cream. While his touch made my heart skip an entire song’s worth of beats, I stared up into his amber eyes that always managed to play between mischievous and charming schoolboy. I resisted reaching up and running my hands through the curls in his dark hair that danced above his ears. As if he knew I wanted to, he flashed me his pearly whites that tinged in the low lighting of Sage Café, one of our favorite hangouts. For a few blissful seconds, only he and I existed. What I wouldn’t have done to stay in our own little world. We could have called it Sawma, Emyer, or Semma. Any combination of our names would do, as long as it was only a population of two.

Sawyer gave my thigh a little squeeze. “How was your day, Em?”

Instead of my fingers frolicking through his beautiful locks, I ran my hand through my sweaty, matted down hair that was once referred to as the color of dirt by a date. The hard hat required at work and then soccer practice in the summer sun hadn’t done much for my medium length mop. “It was—”

“Y’all are so cute,” an alluring Southern accent interrupted. The new office manager at the eye center where Sawyer worked, with her perfect figure and gorgeous blonde hair, sat across from us. Sawyer had invited her to our monthly dinner with friends, to my dismay. “How long have you two been together?” Shelby, I believed was her name, asked with a hint of disappointment.

Sawyer removed his hand from my thigh in a hot second and without even thinking we both scooted our chairs away from each other.

Kellan, Sawyer’s best friend since high school, grabbed his midsection and laughed. “They aren’t a couple.” He pointed between Sawyer and me. “But for siblings they’re pretty cute.” Kellan smirked.

Jenna gave me a sympathetic grin from across the table while I tried to hide my cringe.

“Brother and sister?” Shelby, who now was getting excited, asked.

“Stepbrother and stepsister.” Kellan was happy to clarify for her through his fits of laughter.

Sawyer cleared his throat before reaching for his ice water. “Em and I are friends.”

Ugh. The dreaded F-word. The past year’s events had landed me smack dab in the middle of not only the friend zone, but also the twilight zone. All I could say was my last name had struck again. This time with a freaking vengeance.

I flagged down our server. “More Dr. Pepper, please. And keep them coming.” I needed a sugar coma, stat. Might as well waste all the calories I’d burned during my five-mile run earlier this morning and the running I’d done with my girls during soccer practice.

Shelby leaned forward and put her hand on the table in front of Sawyer. I took notice of her long, tan, delicate, and manicured fingers. One finger stuck out. The wedding one had a stark white tan line around it. Huh? Was she recently off the market? She wasn’t exactly acting like it.

“So, Sawyer.” She flashed him some seriously white teeth. I almost reached for my sunglasses, except I had forgotten them at home.

Sawyer gave the epitome of Southern charm his attention. With her free hand, Shelby tossed her golden tresses and batted her baby blues. Oh, she was good. I had to wonder, though, if her eyelashes were fake. Those lush babies made it look as if two beautiful black butterflies landed on her eyes and were flapping furiously.

“You know, I just moved to town.” She bit her lip in that sexy don’t-you-want-a-taste way. “And I was wondering if you would be willing to show me around?”

I grabbed my tall, cool glass of Dr. Pepper and began to down it while watching the man I loved get stalked by a jungle cat in heat. Okay, she was lovely. But that made it worse.

Sawyer cleared his throat and stretched his neck from side to side like he did when he was thinking. What was he waiting for? She was absolute perfection, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I could tell she was nice. Like, I would have tried to get to know her if she wasn’t eyeing my man like he was a sundae drenched in the deepest, darkest fudge and she wanted to swim in it before tasting every drop. Get in line, sister. I’d been standing on the diving board for almost a year waiting to take the plunge. Me and every single woman in Edenvale. I wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. He obviously had unrealistic expectations. I’d seen him turn down every beautiful woman this side of the mountains in the last year. Maybe this Southern Belle would catch his fancy.

I began gulping the Dr. Pepper to help me cope. Too bad my chug fest didn’t account for the carbonation. My favorite beverage went down the wrong way. It was all I could do not to spray the table with my backwashed drink. I began to splutter and cough violently, all while praying it didn’t come out my nose. It had happened. Jenna had it on video.

Sawyer turned his attention from Shelby and jumped into action by patting my back. “Em, are you okay? Lift your arms,” he said through his smile. This, unfortunately, was a pretty regular occurrence around him.

When I didn’t raise my arms, Sawyer took the liberty and lifted them for me while shaking his head. “Maybe you should start seeing Mr. Pibb again; he doesn’t have as much kick.”

It took me a moment to catch my breath before I could respond. “You know how I feel about the doctor.”

Sawyer placed my arms gently by my sides; his eyes were smiling.

As I did all too often, I found myself gazing into those pretty amber orbs wishing he knew how I really felt about the doctor and that he could find it in himself to reciprocate. By doctor, I meant the optometrist staring at me, not the tasty beverage. But Sawyer had never made a move after our first meeting.

Sawyer tapped my nose in a brotherly fashion. “I know you’re hopelessly devoted to him.” Truer and more disturbing words had never been spoken.

I swallowed and smiled. “Maybe we should order.”

“Good idea.” Sawyer picked up his menu. “Do you want to order the cilantro lime quesadillas and I’ll get the caprese grilled cheese sandwich so we can share?” He knew me so well.

“Perfect.” I turned from him to meet several sets of eyes staring at us with interest, especially the beautiful blonde who was eyeing us carefully.

“Did you two grow up together?” Shelby asked.

Sawyer and I both vehemently shook our heads while I silently begged her not to ask any more questions.

Jenna saved the day. “Hey, Em, are you still up for doing our gender reveal party next week at the club?”

“Yes!” I flashed a grateful grin at my best friend. “Wait until you see what I’ve come up with. Wear something you don’t mind getting dirty.”

Brad and Jenna scrunched their faces at me.

“Believe me, it will be mild compared to what you’re going to see come flying out of your baby.”

Brad turned green. Poor guy had the worst gag reflex. It only took someone pretending to vomit for him to toss his cookies. Jenna rubbed her husband’s back. “Breathe.”

I couldn’t believe my best friends were procreating. Jenna had had a tough time convincing Brad that they should. Brad had some serious reservations, as he himself was a big kid, and that gag reflex thing. But he loved Jenna and they babysat Jenna’s sister’s baby last year for the weekend and survived. Brad only threw up twice. So Brad agreed they could try. Honestly, I think the blizzard we had back at the beginning of February when we were snowed in for a few days had something to do with it. I expected a huge baby boom in Edenvale come November.

“Y’all are having a baby?” Shelby beamed at the pair. “I love babies.” She turned her sights back on Sawyer with her unnatural lashes flapping again as if she were asking him to father a few for her.

Sawyer gave her an uneasy smile and clapped his hands together. “Is everyone ready to order? I’m starved.”

Goddess Divine’s smile faded with confusion as if this sort of thing had never happened to her before. I was confused on her behalf. She was like cotton candy perfection in her baby blue off-the-shoulder sundress. Why Sawyer didn’t want to devour her and let her melt in his mouth I had no idea.

I felt so bad for her, I swallowed my pride—not that I had much left after my soda incident—and decided I should help her to feel included. I didn’t want her to think us Westerners lacked hospitality.

“Where are you from, Shelby?”

She sat up straighter, which I didn’t think was possible. I had already noted her impeccable posture. My guess was she had been to finishing school and was probably a debutante. Which made me wonder why she was an office manager for an eye clinic. Whatever she was, she made me feel like a slouch. I tried pulling my shoulders back like hers, but that expended way too much energy.

Some of Shelby’s enthusiasm returned. “I’m from Roswell, Georgia,” she said in her refined Southern drawl.

“What brings you to Colorado?”

She swallowed hard and smoothed her dress out while avoiding any eye contact. “I . . . needed . . . I wanted a change of scenery.”

Right. I tilted my head and studied the Georgia Peach who was now sipping her strawberry lemonade as if she was filming a commercial. How did she do that so daintily? The better question was what was she hiding, and did it have anything to do with my man, I meant my friend? You know, the one I was sort of related to. I downed some more Dr. Pepper. This time I remembered to breathe between swallows.

Miss Perfection set down her drink and found her dazzling smile again. “So, Sawyer, about that tour?”

Dang Dr. Pepper went down the wrong way again.

“Arms up, Em.”