A smile spreads across his face. “Hadleigh, did you know that falling in love produces several euphoria-inducing chemicals? It’s almost like being on certain drugs. Twelve areas of the brain are stimulated all at the same time.” His eyes twinkle.
“You definitely stimulate me, Sawyer.” In a lightning-quick move, I throw my body against his and hold on for all I’m worth.
He chuckles roughly into my hair, his strong arms wrapping tightly around me. “You stimulate me, too, Hadleigh.”
I look up at him and see my future before me. A single tear falls down my cheek, and he brushes his lips past it, kissing it away. “Sawyer, I never would have guessed when you showed up at school the first day that you’d be the one teaching me a lesson. But you have.”
“And what lesson would that be? Knowledge of assorted weird trivia aside.”
“That I’m worthy of love. That I can have what so many others do. That I’m not broken. I’m more alive and myself with you than I’ve ever been with anyone before.” I swallow past the lump in my throat. “I’ve never said this to anyone before—I love you, Sawyer Rivers.”
He smiles down at me, and I swear there are tears in his eyes, too. “Had, I think I’ve been waiting for someone like you. You’re the one I want to create my history with—the history of us.”
Epilogue
Piper
That’s just about the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. Hadleigh just told us how she finally told Sawyer she loves him. I’m so happy she’s found someone like him. He’s been good to her, and good for her, despite the stumbling blocks right at the beginning. I just hope everything works out with the Ed issue. That hasn’t been fully resolved yet, and I’m a little concerned.
“He asked if it would be okay to move in with me once he’s done with his placement. He says he doesn’t like being apart from me and it’s hard sleeping without me.” Hadleigh sighs, a completely giddy, lovesick smile on her face.
Quinn snorts beside me. “Oh, I bet it’s hard when you’re sleeping next to him, too.”
“It sounds like it’s hard all the time,” Madison laughs.
Hadleigh giggles. “Hey, those are my kind of lines.”
Sophia looks up from Hadleigh’s book choice—the erotic romance Sawyer discovered in Hadleigh’s bag a few weeks ago. We’d been discussing it before our conversation went off the rails again. “And everything went okay where you-know-who is concerned?”
You-know-who is Ed, but we’ve made a pact not to bring up his name again after all the trouble he’s caused Hadleigh.
Zoey shrugs. “I tried to ask Mi—Mr. Steele about it, but he said he wasn’t at liberty to discuss it.” She grins, her cheeks glowing pink. “But then he winked at me, so I figured everything was okay.”
“When Mr. Steele called Sawyer into his office again on Tuesday morning, I thought we were really in trouble.” Hadleigh raises her hands palms facing outward. “I guess after what Sawyer said to him, you-know-who wouldn’t discuss his broken nose, especially after he was informed that the surveillance footage outside the gym very clearly showed him punching Sawyer twice first. He refused to say anything else.”
“But did Mi—Mr. Steele say anything about you being together?” Zoey eyes Hadleigh curiously.
“He tiptoed around the subject. I’m pretty sure he knows. He urged us to have caution in how we relate to each other at school because it’s obvious that we’re ‘good friends.’”
Sophia snickers. “Friends. Right ...”
Hadleigh gives a wicked grin. “And then he requested to have Brian Schmidt sit in on a few of Sawyer’s classes and check over my reports that I turn in to his advisor. He said he’d make a note that it was because Sawyer is the first student teacher I’ve had, but I’m pretty sure it’s to cover all of our asses, just in case you-know-who decides to cause trouble.”
I cross my arms in front of me. That guy is an asshole. He’s lucky a broken nose is all Sawyer gave him. “Well, I’m just glad that he’s finally gotten a clue and has stopped texting you photos.”
“He kind of had to.” Quinn laughs and sneaks a glance at Sophia. “Should we tell them?”
I squeak out, “Tell us what?” Madison, Zoey, and Hadleigh’s eyes go as wide as my own.
Sophia looks around before lowering her voice. “We had Heath go in and ask him some bizarre wrestling match scoring question. While you-know-who was busy explaining it all, Quinn and I snuck into his office and found his phone just sitting out in plain sight on his desk. We were ready to steal it if we had to, but the idiot doesn’t have a lock code set on it. So, we literally just went into his camera roll and deleted all the photos of Hadleigh, then deleted the text message thread where he’d sent them to her.” She can’t stop the wicked laughter that erupts as all of our mouths drop open.
Quinn shakes her head with a sly smile. “I doubt he had them anywhere else. And if he’s not smart enough to put a lock code on his phone, he definitely won’t be able to figure out a way to get the photos back. That should be that.” She snickers behind her hand.
Hadleigh’s expression is priceless. “Oh my God, you are the best. Really.”
The relief in the group is palpable, and the girls keep talking, but I’m distracted. I hadn’t wanted to mention it to anyone just yet, but I signed up for a new dating app last week called Tryst. I’m a smidge embarrassed that it’s come to this, but I can’t seem to find the right guy. I wonder if maybe I’m missing out on someone in the next town over who might be so close, but so far that we haven’t met. I’d even thought maybe there is someone right here in Newberry I’m overlooking.
So, I’d set up my profile with a username that
