The Vincent Brothers (The Vincent Boys #2)(17)

“Sure, I’d love to go tonight. I’m about to see Ethan so I’ll tell him myself.”

Sawyer’s head whipped around to stare at me and I flashed him an innocent smile and said my goodbyes to Ashton before hanging up.

“Ashton and Beau have other plans for the day. She said to tell you thanks though.” If he wanted to know about Ethan he was going to have to ask.

“What did she want you to tell Ethan?”

I opened my mouth to respond almost automatically but snapped it shut quickly. That wasn’t his business. Just because he asked me didn’t mean I had to tell him. The old Lana would have blurted out whatever he wanted to know. This Lana didn’t do that. This Lana wasn’t a love struck puppy... okay, maybe I was but he didn’t have to know that.

“If I’d have wanted you to know the details of my conversation, I’d have put Ashton on speaker phone,” I finally replied.

“Ouch. I was just asking.”

Maybe I’d gone a little overboard with my snarkiness. I did want Sawyer to like me and he had invited me to go out skiing with him.

“Sorry. It was nothing of your concern. I didn’t mean to sound so snappy.”

Sawyer didn’t respond and silence engulfed the truck.

Once Sawyer pulled into the parking lot at the boat launch, I’d had enough time to decide how to handle his silence. Spending the day on a boat with an annoyed Sawyer didn’t sound like fun.

“I really am sorry I was so rude. It was nothing, really.”

Sawyer turned the engine off and turned to meet my gaze. He studied me a moment then finally nodded. “Okay. I shouldn’t have stuck my nose in your business. I just thought we were friends. I didn’t really think about it when I asked.”

Great. Now, I felt as low as the dirt on the bottom of my shoes.

“We are friends. I don’t know why I snapped at you like that. I guess I was embarrassed about the topic.” Which was partially true.

A frown puckered his brow, which was ridiculously hot. “Why would Ash ask you to tell Ethan something embarrassing?”

Perfect. I’d backed myself into a wall. I couldn’t exactly shut him out again. I didn’t like having him go all surly and quiet on me. The best course of action would be to lie.

“I’ve never been on a date before. Ethan asked me to go with him to a concert tonight. Or he asked Ashton to ask me if I’d go with him.” OR I could just blurt out the whole truth and look like an idiot. Dangit! I needed to work on my lying skills. I had none. I’d opened my mouth to lie and out came the truth instead. I forced myself not to grimace and reached for the door handle. The complete surprise in Sawyer’s eyes was humiliating. I was eighteen years old and I had never been on a date. It was sad. And now Sawyer knew just how pathetic I was.

“Wait,” Sawyer’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm to stop me before I jumped down out of the truck.

Sighing, I turned back around to look into his sympathetic eyes but found that they weren’t exactly full of sympathy or astonishment. Instead, he looked... frustrated. Well, that’s interesting.

“Do you like Ethan?”

Yes, I liked Ethan. He was nice, thoughtful, funny, sweet, and he was attracted to me. There was no ex-girlfriend he was hung up on standing in my way. But he wasn’t Sawyer.

Nodding, I didn’t say anymore. Instead, I waited.

Sawyer opened his mouth to say something then shut it and closed his eyes tightly before shaking his head and letting go of my arm. “Never mind. Come on, let’s go.”

He opened his door and stepped out. I’d give anything to get him to say what it was he stopped himself from saying just now. But the conversation was over. His curiosity had been cured and I had an entire day to dwell on the fact that I may have just killed any chance I had with him. Ethan was his friend and after the mess with Beau, I doubted Sawyer would ever make a move on a girl that had dated his friend first.

Chapter Eight

Sawyer

If Ethan whispered in her ear one more time, I was going to throw his ass off the damn boat. The only reason he’d managed to stay on it this long was because Lana didn’t look all that happy about his attempt at flirting. She wasn’t laughing and smiling at him like she had been at the restaurant. Instead, she appeared a little uptight about something. Had she decided in the light of day that Ethan wasn’t all that interesting? God, I hoped so. I didn’t want her for the right reasons and that was making it very hard to be selfish and calculating. Lana was so freaking sweet and in no way did I want to hurt her. If Ethan made her happy, I wasn’t sure I could stand in the way just to get Ash all worked up.

“Should I warn E to step back?” Jake’s voice broke into my thoughts and I jerked my gaze off Lana and Ethan and focused on driving the boat.

“From what?” I asked in a bored voice.

Jake let out a snort, “From the murderous glare you’re shooting his way.”

Since when did Jake decide to start paying attention to the world around him? Shaking my head, I turned back and checked on Kayla and Toby. They’d been out there trying to out-do each other for over twenty minutes. If I didn’t make a sharp unexpected turn they’d both stay up for another twenty minutes. I needed a distraction.

“Hold on, I’m about to sling them,” I called out loudly. My eyes immediately found Lana and she had a tight grip on the side of the boat watching Kayla and Toby with a worried frown.