The Outliers (The Outskirts Duet #2)

I laughed took another puff of my cigar. Forever was exactly what I wanted with Sawyer. But I’d already taken so much from her. How could I ask her for forever right now when she’s experienced so little out of life?

“Does Sawyer know how you feel? How deep this runs for you?” he asked, like he was reading my mind.

I shrugged. “I think so, but her life’s…complicated. This is all new for her.” I looked up at the sky. “New for me too.”

“I can see that. You never looked at Jackie that way. She was a good kid and all. I miss her like she was my own daughter, but she wasn’t your forever factor.”

“No, she wasn’t.” I waited for the familiar sting of guilt to follow those words, but it never came.

“So, you don’t want to scare Sawyer off with the enormity of your feelings. Then tell me son, how’s your woo?”

“My what?” I asked, choking on the smoke. I reached down to the beer on the deck next to my chair and took a healthy gulp.

My father cocked an eyebrow and gave me a side glare that was so heated it could melt metal. He shifted toward me in his seat. “You’re a Hollis, son. Please tell me that you’ve been wooing the girl and not just practicing marital relations. Tell me you know how to woo.”

“You do have a way with words,” I chuckled. Also, he had a point.

Dad rolled his eyes. “You want to lock her down on forever but you’re not wooing her? Have you even taken her out on a proper date?”

“I…shit,” I said, leaning back and taking another puff on my cigar. “No. No I haven’t.”

My dad scoffed. “You best get to it. If you don’t want to dump your load of feelings on your forever girl without scaring the bees out of the hive then you, son, are gonna have to woo her first.” Dad blew out a perfect smoke ring.

I glanced back to this house. My eyes met Sawyer’s briefly met through the window. She blushed and went back to listening to whatever story my mom was telling.

I loved that blush. I loved that her entire body turned pink when she was turned on.

I didn’t love that my dad was right.

“I hate it when you’re right,” I grumbled, not imagining how I’d been so naive. Between rejoining society and all the shit going down with Sawyer’s parents, I’d skipped right over dating her.

I felt a blunt slap on the back of my head. I turned to find my father setting a rolled-up newspaper down on the deck. “What the hell was that for?”

“She’s never been on a date before, right?” he asked. “You’ve taken up with her. Practically living together and you ain’t took her on one single date.” My dad rolled his eyes and whistled through his disappointment. “Not a movie not a dinner. Nothing. You even my son or should I get one of them fancy DNA tests of the internets?”

“Shit,” I muttered, wiping my hand down my face and scratching the stubble on my chin.

“In case you were still wondering,” my dad said. “That slap was for picking the apple before it had time to fall from the tree. Raised you better than that, son.”

“Yeah, you did,” I agreed.

My father turned upward and looked to the stars, reclining in his creaky lawn chair. I did the same.

“Whose side are you on anyway?” I asked after a few moments of silence.

Dad chuckled and I knew exactly what he was going to say because it was how he always answered the question whenever I talked to him in the past about my mother or even Jackie.

“Hers, son. Always Hers.”



Finn

I’d been a selfish prick.

Which was fitting because when it came to Sawyer it seems that it’s also what I’d been thinking with instead of my brain. My father was right. I’d put the apple before the falling tree or whatever garbled mumbo jump he said that broke through to me.

She’s never been on a date.

I’d been inside of her and never taken her on a date. Sure, I’d slept with plenty of women I’d never actually dated before, but Sawyer was unlike anyone I’d ever met, which was why the date I had planned was far from traditional.

With everything that’s been going on I hadn’t realized we’d completely skipped a step. Actually, we’d skipped several steps. We went from the occasional kiss to keep her from freaking out to having her in my bed every night. I was over the moon happy but I hadn’t stopped for one single second to think about all the things she’s never experienced. All the things she’s missed out on.

Sawyer had never so much as experienced high school or prom or a football game and at the first possible moment I’d claimed her as mine and somewhere in all the beautiful chaos of falling for her I’d forgotten to actually date her.

I did deserve that slap my dad had given me.

I needed another one when every impure thought known to man crossed my mind as Sawyer stepped out of the bedroom wearing a white sundress that hugged her every curve.

“Did you get a haircut?” Sawyer asked as she met me on my parent’s front porch. She smelled like lavender and vanilla. My favorite scent since I'd come to know her and one I now uniquely identified with all things Sawyer.

I made a note to thank my mother for taking Sawyer shopping in town today. Her dress was the kind that tied behind her neck and put her fantastic tits on display with just a hint of cleavage. I was already flexing my fingers to keep myself from untying it and letting it fall open. It hugged her small waist and perky ass then flared out just enough to gently swishing against where the material stopped on the middle of her thigh.

I swallowed hard.

Sawyer nervously tucked one side of her auburn hair behind her ear, shuffling under the scrutiny of my gaze as I took in the magnificent creature before me.

“You are stunning,” I finally managed to say. Clearing my throat and trying to get my head back in the game. She blushed under her freckles and I coughed because my heart literally skipped a beat. "The most beautiful thing I'd ever laid eyes on."

"You know. When we first met you used to be kind of…"

"Mean?"

She shook her head. "No, what's the word Josh would use?" she snapped. "And asshole. You were such an asshole."

I bent over with laughter. "Is it wrong that I find you swearing to be hilarious, adorable, and a complete turn on?"

"I think that's acceptable." She looked up at me from under her long black lashes. “Thank you. And…your hair? Did you get it cut?” Sawyer pressed her beautiful pink lips together.

I couldn't believe this girl was mine.

“Finn?” She asked, dragging me to the present.

“Oh. Yeah. My hair. My mom gave me a trim. Said I looked like I crawled out of the swamp, not live beside it.” I patted the top of my head like a dancing monkey in a circus side show. “She was right. It needed it. It had been a while.” I’d always been confident in my looks and I loved the way Sawyer looked at and appreciated my body, but this was the first time in my life I was seeking approval from a girl. It was like I needed her to think I was good enough for her.

I wasn’t. Never would be.

But still, I wanted her to think it.