Chapter 12: Sawyer Just Makes My Heart Go Ba-Boom

       The sound of the stables door sliding over roughly was what woke me up from my sleep though I didn't bother to open my eyes yet. After being woken up in the middle of the night and staying up for a while in the stables, I just wanted to continue sleeping.

       Apparently, the person who opened the door to the stables didn't get that I wanted to continue sleeping. 

       "Sawyer, Jamie," Trey said and as much as I wanted to ignore him, I didn't think it would be too polite since he was letting my family live with his family in the first place.

       When I opened my eyes, I realized that my head had been resting on Sawyer's shoulder. I didn't even remember falling asleep, to be honest. I just remember staying up for a while after Sawyer and I decided to stay in the stables since Paint wouldn't allow me to leave.

       Once Sawyer woke up and looked over at Trey as well, Trey asked, "Why did you two sleep here?"

       I was going to make some sort of innuendo but I, surprisingly, had some self control when it came to it, knowing it wouldn't be the best for Sawyer's dad to hear what I say about his son.

       Thankfully, Sawyer was the one who answered the question anyway. "The storm last night freaked Paint out. He broke out of his stall again and when Jamie brought him back, he kept panicking whenever Jamie tried leaving so he had to stay in here. I stayed too so he wouldn't be alone."

       Trey sighed. "He broke out of his stall again?"

       "Yeah," Sawyer said. "He really doesn't like storms, I guess. I'll get started on fixing it."

       "No, I'll get one of your siblings to help me with it," Trey said. "You and Jamie should head inside and get some proper sleep, even just for an hour or so. It must have been tiresome sleeping like that."

       "It wasn't too bad," Sawyer said. "But I am still a bit tired so I will go get some more sleep."

       "Me too," I said.

       Sawyer and I stood off of the hay bale and I dusted the straws of hay off of my pants as Sawyer placed the blanket back to where he got it from. We then headed back to the house where everyone was now awake, all being in the dining room.

       "Where did you two get off to?" Beth asked. 

       "The stables," I said. "Paint had a major freak out last night and broke out his stall and apparently, that's not the first time it happened."

       "Yeah, it's not," Beth said. "He doesn't do it often but it's still not something new whenever he does. Did you two sleep there? Because I was the first one awake and didn't see you two leave the house."

       "Paint wouldn't let Jamie leave so we just stayed in there," Sawyer said. "And now, we are going to get a bit more sleep since we were up for a while in the stables."

       He was totally setting me up to make an innuendo but I didn't want to say it with Beth listening. I didn't think I could say any innuendos about Sawyer with Trey and Beth around so I was trying my hardest to keep my mouth shut.

       Mom knew me so well and must have known I was wanting to say an innuendo because she gave me a harsh look, one that I knew my mother gave me whenever she wanted me to shut up.

       It was a hard thing to do.

       But I was able to stay quiet as Sawyer and I went to the bedroom. As soon as we were there, I flopped down onto the mattress, covering myself with the blanket on top. "Wake me up in a hundred years."

       "Will do," Sawyer said, climbing into his bed. "It feels weird going back to bed at this time. I'm a morning person and hate sleeping in but I'm actually exhausted from spending the night with you in the stables."

       Finally, a chance to be a pest without anyone else listening.

       "That sounds kinky," I said.

       Sawyer sighed. "I feel like I can't say anything without you making it sound so sexual."

       "You're the one making it sound sexual. I just point out how sexual it sounds. Not my fault."

       "You literally don't even have to point them out at all."

       "I know. I just like being a pest."

       "Of course you do. Hey, I've been meaning to ask you. How's sleeping on the air mattress every night? I know it's not the most comfortable thing in the world."

       I shrugged. "It's fine. I still get sleep. I don't mind."

       "Are you sure?" Sawyer asked. "Because we could switch off every night if you want so you could get an actual bed for once."

       It would be nice to sleep on a bed and not an air mattress but I also didn't want to make Sawyer sleep on the air mattress. That wouldn't be fair to him. He was already letting me stay in his room and making a mess of the place.

       I was surprised he hasn't gotten mad at me for leaving some of my clothes all over the place.

       Then again, he probably was avoiding it because he knew I could already think of an innuendo for my clothes being on the floor.

       Now I wanted him to get mad at me for the clothes just so I could make that innuendo.

       "I'll be fine here," I said. "Besides, it shouldn't be too long before the guest house is ready for my family. I hope."

       Sawyer sighed. "Sorry about that. It's taking longer than we thought to fix it up. It was in need of some serious renovation which we kept holding off until my parents offered for your family to stay here. But we completely forgot about exactly what had to be done and we've been so distracting with everything else on the farm."

       "Don't apologize," I said. "We're more than happy that we have a place to stay. It doesn't matter that I have to sleep on an air mattress. We were close to having no home so it's really fine."

       "Jamie, I seriously will let you take the bed every other night if you want to," Sawyer said.

       Why did he have to be so nice?

       "No, that won't be fair for you," I said. "This is your room. Not mine. I can't take your bed from you."

       "Uh, it's not taking it from me if I'm offering," Sawyer said.  

       "Well, I'm still not taking it from you."

       "Fine. Then I'll just go to bed before you so I could take the air mattress."

       "Now that you said that, I'll make sure I definitely go to bed before you so I get to keep the mattress."

       "Will anything I say convince you to take the bed at least one night? Or even right now? You should sleep on here now since you had to sleep sitting on a bale of hay." 

       "So did you, Sawyer. Or did you forget because you were too busy thinking of kinky things that we were doing at night?"

       "I really can't say anything without you making it sexual."

       "I know."

       Sawyer was silent for a few minutes before he sat up to look at me. "I have a compromise."

       "I get to stay on the mattress?" I asked. "Good idea."

       "No," Sawyer said. "Look at my bed. It's big enough for two people. If you're okay with it, why don't we just share the bed?"

       "I really want to say something sexual."

       "You're unbelievable. You can't take anything seriously, can you?"

       "Probably not. But... Are you sure? About sharing the bed?"

       "Why not?" Sawyer asked. "It's big enough. It would be better for you so you don't have to sleep on that air mattress every night. There's nothing wrong with two friends sharing a bed."

       Friends.

       Right.

       I know Sawyer was right about nothing being wrong with sharing a bed but I still didn't want to get to close to him. Even though I slept last night with my head on his shoulder. And I told him about my ex, someone I hated talking about. And I was constantly checking him out.

       Okay, the last one wasn't as big of a deal as the first two but still. I kept telling myself that I shouldn't get too close to Sawyer all while doing things that only brought me closer to him.

       I was a huge mess.

       In the end, I ended up making a decision I was probably going to regret in the near future. 

       I agreed to it.

       "Are you sure you're okay with it?" I asked.

       "Jamie, I wouldn't be offering if I wasn't," Sawyer said. "You deserve to sleep on a bed, especially after last night. It would probably help you get a few extra hours of sleep right now."

       "I don't know," I said, getting off of the mattress to get onto the bed with Sawyer. "You might distract me."

       "Please don't me already regret this," Sawyer said as I laid down, getting under the blankets.

       "Okay, I'll refrain from all my innuendos and sexual comments," I said. "At least while we're lying in the bed today. It was hard enough for me to stop myself twice today."

       "We just woke up probably five minutes ago and you've already thought of two comments?" Sawyer asked.

       "More than two," I said. "Those two were just the ones I didn't say because your parents were around and I'm considerate enough to not say anything like that while they're listening."

       "Yes, you're such a considerate person," Sawyer said sarcastically.

       "You know, that sarcastic tone actually hurts me," I said. "When have I ever done anything to you that deserves you being sarcastic towards me?"

       "I could think of numerous things. The innuendos. The sexual comments."

       "Basically the same thing so that's only one thing. One thing isn't numerous things."

       "Why am I friends with you?"

       "Because I'm amazing and can make anyone smile just by look at them because I'm that amazing."

       "Add conceited to the list."

       "To what list? The list of reasons why you're friends with me? Because that was what I was listing so are you saying you like when I'm conceited? I'll totally crank it up. Make it ten times worse."

       "Please don't."

       "Awe."

       Even though I was purposefully annoying Sawyer, he still gave me a smile. "You're such a great person to be around. I don't think I could ever be sad around you."

       "What if I dump a smoothie on your head?"

       "I try complimenting you and this is what I get?"

       "I'm kidding. You're a great person to be around too. I'm actually able to tell you things I'm not able to tell other people. I haven't talked to anyone about my ex. I didn't even tell my mom the real reason why broke up. I just told her things weren't working out."

       "I really am sorry about what happened with your ex. You're probably the most amazing person I know and he's an absolute idiot for treating you that way. You deserve a lot better. You probably even deserve the whole world."

       I couldn't help but smile softly at him. Sawyer was always able to put a smile on my face and he always said things I wanted to hear that nobody has ever told me before. 

       "Thanks," I said softly, feeling that I was only getting in a lot deeper with my feelings for Sawyer.

       And right now, in this moment, I actually didn't mind. I liked being this close to him. I liked talking to him.

       I really liked him.

_________________

i've been updating this book every day because there's a chapter i really want to write and post and i'm so excited. i don't know what chapter it will be. i'm trying to hold it off a tiny bit longer so i don't make things happen to early oof

i mean what?

(also you could all probably tell sawyer is so in love)

(i mean what?)