“Sawyer,” she interrupted him. “We knew better than to toy with these kinds of feelings. So...we made a pact.”
“What sort?” he asked.
“To keep things strictly friendly. No romance. No romantic settings. No hand holding or hugging, or...anything that would make our decision harder to stick to.”
It all started to make more sense now...the distance between them when they’d needed each other most.
“Ah... No hugging. Even in the hardest of times.”
“Yes,” she said, and tears misted her eyes. “Even when it broke our hearts. No hugging.”
“Okay.” He eyed her uncertainly. “So, what’s happening now?”
“I guess it wasn’t just about a shared history,” she said.
Sawyer let out a long breath. “I can’t... I mean, I shouldn’t—” He winced. “I need to be a good dad, Olivia. I don’t think any of it comes to me real naturally, but I’m determined to do better by my girls now than I did in the past.”
She was silent and dropped her gaze to her lap.
“I know I started something earlier today, and I’m sorry about it. I’ve got to get myself straightened out, and starting up a romance when I don’t even remember who I am—”
“Sawyer, you don’t have to explain,” she said quickly. “It’s the same for me. I can’t just reverse course and come back to Beaut. I wasn’t happy here, and I’m not willing to fight idiots like Eddie for the rest of my life. I know what I need, too.”
“And it isn’t this.” He waggled his finger between them.
“No, it isn’t.” She smiled sadly. “We’ve had this conversation before. You just don’t remember it.”
“Right.” He nodded.
“And for the record, we had no trouble with our attraction to each other during your marriage. You were in love. You only had eyes for her. I promise you that.”
That did help. “So how do we handle this, then?”
“We...um...follow our rules.”
“No hugging. No touching. No romantic anything,” he said.
He could still remember that isolated scene in his head—Olivia in the dark jacket, her eyes filled with anguish and his longing to hold her... The memory was so stark that it still sent a shiver through him.
Hard work. That’s what had worked for them in the past to clear his head, and they’d come out the other side okay, it would seem. It was his plan for being a better dad, too. No one could fault him on his work ethic. This time, he’d apply it to the right things.
“I won’t do that again,” he said. “I’ll keep my hands to myself.”
“Me, too,” she said, then laughed softly. “We’ll get our balance back. I promise.”
“I’m just going to do the dishes,” he said. “You turn in or whatever you want with your evening.”
“Do you need a hand?” she asked.
More time with her wasn’t going to help this. Not tonight.
“Nah. I’m fine,” he said.
“Okay, well...” She smiled hesitantly. “Good night, I guess.”
“Good night.” He met her gaze once more, and she looked so soft and gentle that turning and walking away was harder than it should have been. But he was glad they’d cleared this up. Doing the dishes would give him a chance to think by himself, to shake that image of her upturned face out his head and get himself back on track.
She was here to help him remember, and she was doing that. Whatever was tumbling around in his heart wasn’t her problem.
Olivia lay on her bed that night, long past the time she heard the gentle clatter from the kitchen go silent. The house was quiet, and her mind was still reeling. Why couldn’t things be easier with Sawyer? She’d truly thought that their chemistry would be different if he didn’t remember her. They’d become friends under such odd circumstances that she’d often thought if they’d met at a different time, they’d have politely nodded and walked in different directions. It was the strange timing—her loneliness, and one quiet evening at the diner where she was working.
When she told Mia about meeting Sawyer and how he’d suggested that cowboy movie marathon, Mia had encouraged her to go.
“So what if it is a date?” Mia had said with a laugh. “Is that so bad? If I stumbled across a cute cowboy asking me out, I’d be going.”
When Sawyer dropped her off at home that night, he had kissed her cheek. It was sweet—but she’d known it couldn’t go anywhere, and she knew that her heart couldn’t take a fling. She wasn’t the kind of girl who recovered that quickly when her emotions were involved. So she made it clear.
It had seemed so easy and logical then. When it started to seem like she might fall for Sawyer in spite of all the reasons not to, Olivia invited Mia along for one of their movie dates, just to ensure things stayed strictly friendly between them.
And the rest was history.
So why was that chemistry charging between them again? Was it just more odd circumstances pushing them together? They were both a little vulnerable right now. Why was it that that they couldn’t seem to come back into each other’s lives when they were both doing just fine? Was Sawyer her crutch in times of need? Very likely—she could admit it.
Sawyer’s current attraction to her could be explained—he was lonely, and he couldn’t remember any other women. Give him options and maybe it would lessen. It sure worked when Mia was in the picture.
But her feelings for him...she knew better. Or she should, at least. Why was she letting herself soften up toward him? He belonged in Beaut. And even if she wanted to come back—which she didn’t—she couldn’t afford to. The city hospital paid better, and she needed the money now more than ever.
She needed her own emotional equilibrium more than ever, too.
As she lay on the bed, flicking through the pictures on her phone, she looked down at those two sweet little
