The end of that week saw us through to the last days of October. There was a bit of a chill in the air, which in Central Florida meant that compared to the summertime it felt like absolute heaven. Friday afternoon found me at the main shop, helping papa with the accounting for the month. Normally I'd have rather spent the evening hanging out with my friends or watching movies with Toni, but duty called.

And by duty I didn't mean the accounting books, I meant that from papa's office I could see Sawyer working hard over the hood of a car. I was thankful that he never wore the overalls up, preferring to don a white wife beater that was soaked through with sweat and clung to his body like a second skin. I blinked slow, committing the details to memory so that I could draw them after dinner. He was a living work of art as he turned a heavy wrench that worked the muscles of his arm and shoulder. The repetitive motion made me break into a sweat despite the air conditioning.

"Mija?"

I snapped out of the trance and looked at papa. He appeared to be waiting for an answer that I didn't know how to give.

"Sorry, papa. What did you say?"

He turned, about to see what else had me more engrossed than the numbers, but I reached out and pulled at his sleeve, which unfocused him before he was able to connect the dots.

"Did you add the new equipment for the second shop in the calculation?"

"Yes, absolutely," I said.

I cleared my throat and looked down at the numbers, pretending to be fully immersed in them. The truth was that I'd been so distracted looking at Sawyer that I completely forgot about the thousands of dollars worth of equipment purchases for the second shop. I made sure to add them and made a side list of all the other things I had to account for. I did end up focusing on the matter, and it chafed on my nerves when someone knocked on the door and interrupted. Except that through the glass I could see that it was He Who I Couldn't Stop Thinking About.

"May I interrupt for a quick moment?" he asked at the same time as a cacophony of noises filtered through the open door.

Papa motioned him in. "Yes, yes. Come on in."

Sawyer came in and closed the door behind him. Grey eyes met my brown ones, and I didn't imagine the way they held.

"What's going on, mijo?" papa asked.

I figured that by the way Sawyer was dragging his feet on getting to the topic, it meant he didn't want me here for the conversation. I rearranged the accounting books on the table so they were shut and neatly on top of each other and stood up.

"I'll leave you both to-"

Sawyer raised a hand. "No, you don't have to go. It's just-" He ran a hand over his tied up hair that left a dark streak. He addressed papa as he continued, "Well, I know I already asked you for the same favor before, but I was wondering if there's any overtime coming up."

Papa frowned. "Did you have any issues with the mortgage again?"

Again?

"No," Sawyer looked down and put his hands in the pockets of his overall. "I just thought there'd be more leftover to start November with, but..."

He drifted off, but the meaning was clear. He and his dad were in trouble. Seeing what I'd seen, I figured that it was more like Sawyer was the one in trouble, really. That Jack Logan demanded that his son pay for the household expenses either with green or with the red of blood. Sawyer's nose was healing okay enough and he looked a lot less like a Halloween costume had been permanently glued onto his face, but it was still obvious that his side hurt.

"Ah," papa started, his lips into a thin line. "Sorry, mijo. I'm not expecting a lot of activity for the first half of the month. But it's possible around Thanksgiving, you know."

Every time there were holidays, more people came to town and with that the population of idiot drivers always seemed to increase exponentially. It made sense that around that time we may have to pull some extra hours at both shops.

And then I had an idea.

"Papa," I said, catching both of their attention. "Didn't you say you wanted to get the baby's room ready before the holidays?"

He was slow on the uptake. He blinked at me and said, "Well yeah, but I meant Christmas..."

I shrugged like it was no biggie. "Why don't we get it done a bit early then?"

Papa snapped his fingers. "Ah, I see. That's a great plan."

My eyebrows shot all the way up. I didn't think I'd ever heard papa say something like that to anything that came out of my mouth, so I had to bask in the glory of the moment. It didn't matter that Sawyer looked sour as a lemon, I'd done a good thing for him without gaining something for myself, and somehow that landed me the small compliment of papa agreeing with me. To me that was huge. It was like, if you did something nice for others it might feel good to you. The sky was blue and the grass green. Who would've known?

As they coordinated on the details to get started this same weekend, it occurred to me that I was going to see Sawyer at home. And my room was a mess. Not that I expected him to go in my room. After all mama hated the very sight of him. So it was probably going to be a tense weekend instead, and it wouldn't matter that he'd be in the room next to mine if we could both feel mama's laser beams on us.

That settled me down to work next to papa again for a solid hour more without my eyes or my mind drifting away. By the time we had balanced the books, it was approaching time to close shop and head on home. I left the office to get some water at the fountain, looking from the corner of my eye to see if a lot of the guys had already left, and then I bumped into the back of the one that mattered the most to me.

"Sorry," I said, at the same time as Sawyer turned around and gave me an amused glance. My attention drifted to the package that he was holding in his hand and whom he was with. "Oh, hey Manny," I said.

He tipped his chin. "What's up, chica?"

I grabbed a paper cup and filled it up with water. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I also didn't want to run away from the scene as if I had something to hide.

Sawyer gave Manny the package and said, "Keep it safe for me, okay?"

"What's that?" I blurted out. So much for being discrete.

"It's a wad of cash, it's what," Manny said as he patted the package lovingly.

Sawyer smacked him up the head. "Shut up, moron. Do you wanna get robbed or something?"

"Nah, it's cool, bro," Manny said with a chuckle. "I promise you I'll go straight to the bank tomorrow morning and put this away safe and sound."

"You fucking better," Sawyer growled.

I cleared my throat. "So um, what's the money from?"

They both stared at me like I'd asked them if they'd seen flying pigs in a purple sky on the way to work.

"We robbed a bank together," Manny said in a deadpan. "This is my cut."

"Yeah, but that was after we sold all the crack we cooked together at Manny's house," Sawyer said. When it was clear I wasn't laughing he rolled his eyes.

"It's homeboy's entire life savings," Manny said with a shrug. "We want to keep them safe from-"

From Jack.

I took a deep breath. "I get it."

Manny's eyes flashed to his pal. "Does she know?"

Although the question caught Sawyer in the middle of a glare directed my way, he still said, "Yup, she does."

"Huh," Manny mused as he rubbed his nape. The look he gave us spoke so many volumes it could have made a set of old school encyclopedias. "I didn't know y'all were close."

Neither of us said anything, which I supposed also said a lot.

"Anyway," he said, giving Sawyer one of those bro shakes and half hug. "I'm outta this joint. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Sawyer said, watching his friend go with all his money.

We remained there, in silence for a while longer until it grew so thick it suddenly felt like there was a wall between us. I opened my mouth, about to say something, when Sawyer cut me to the chase.

"We're going to have to do something about that habit of yours."

Confused I asked, "What habit?"

"The one where you keep thinking the worst of me."

I put my hands up in defense and backed away one step. "Well, excuse me. It's not every day you see people giving others whole wads of cash. Most people have bank accounts and at least debit cards nowadays."

His smirk bothered me. "Yeah, most people whose parents won't beat them up to take their money."

I gasped.

Sawyer leaned closer to me, trapping me against the water fountain. It felt cold against my back and the machine vibrated as it worked, just as much as I felt like my whole body was.

"Did you know that under 17 you need your parents' consent?" He snorted. "Sure, that'd save me a few bruises but I don't really want Jack to take what I've earned."

I lifted up my chin, understanding that he'd left me no choice but to do this a second time and I said, "I'm sorry."

That leeched his irritation off of him. Suddenly he looked tired to the bone, like he could barely hold himself up.

"I'll try not to jump to conclusions so much." I bit my lip. An electric current ran through me as the movement drew his attention. There was no wall between us anymore, but a magnetic attraction of his north pheromones to my south ones. We were just about to do something stupid when I caught movement from the corner of my eyes. I shoved Sawyer away and turned around to get some more water as papa walked over.

"Hey guys," he said. "We're ready to close shop."

My heart was beating in my throat and I took large gulps of water to settle down.

Sawyer was smooth as a criminal as he said, "Yep, just getting some water here before the trip home but I'll be done in a moment."

Papa just nodded and looked at me in question. I said, "Be right there."

It didn't seem like he noticed anything out of the ordinary, and for that I sent a quick prayer of thanks above.

"Okay. And Sawyer?" he asked, pointing at the boy. "Tomorrow I'll be at the second store but don't forget about Sunday."

"Absolutely not, thank you, sir," he said.

Papa smiled, which was shocking enough except that he then added, "Don't thank me, thank Aurora. She came up with the idea."

Cheeky bastard that he was, Sawyer smiled my way as he replied with, "Oh, trust me. I'll thank her plenty enough."

I was sure I started blushing right there and it should have given papa some hint about what was going on. I didn't know how I was going to survive Sunday without my parents realizing I was salivating over Sawyer Logan. One thing was for sure, art was going to be the outlet for all of my emotions from here on out, otherwise I was at severe risk of exploding into a shower of butterflies where I stood.

Safe to say, I'd fallen pretty deep into Sawyer's trap and I didn't know if there was a way out from this.

but is she falling or jumping head first? 😂