The Outskirts (The Outskirts Duet #1)

“Sure, why not?” she answered back. Holding her wine glass without drinking from it.

“Nah, I don’t think you’ve got it in you,” Miller said, with his beer paused at his lips.

Sawyer’s smile was spreading, she set her wine glass down. “I did steal.”

“Really? Oh, this is going to be good. What did you steal?” Josh asked, pouring herself another glass.

Sawyer smirked, popping out the dimple on her cheek. “I stole money from my father. Technically it was the church’s money. I took it before I left.”

“So, what? You took like twenty-bucks from the collection plate?” Miller scoffed, belching loudly.

Josh kicked him under the table.

“Ouch, baby. Next time you’re going to hurt me make sure you do it when we’re naked.”

“Try nineteen thousand dollars from the weekly church donations,” Sawyer corrected, sitting straight in her chair.

I tightened my grip on the arm of my chair and almost spit out my beer.

The table was silent until Josh chimed in. “No way. You’re lying.”

“It’s true. He asked me to make the deposit. Instead, I took it when I left.”

“What did you do with the money?” Miller asked curiously, hanging on Sawyer’s every word.

“On the way here, to Outskirts, I stopped and donated half to a battered women and children’s center and the other half to a suicide prevention call center.” Sawyer started to giggle midway through her sentence, by the time she was done she was in a full-blown bit of laughter.

“Bad ass!” Miller exclaimed, raising his beer in salute before finishing it and slamming it back down on the table.

“What’s so funny?” I asked Sawyer. Laughing along with her although I didn’t know why except that Sawyer’s laugh was infectious.

“I made the donations in my father’s name.”

Then we were all laughing along with her. The sound of Sawyer’s laughter carried straight to my heart where nothing but joy and pride were causing it to beat erratically.

Noticeably absent, was my old friend guilt.

“Wow, that’s ballsy.” Josh gave Sawyer a fist bump, which she awkwardly returned.

Sawyer’s eye caught mine like she was waiting to hear my response to what she’d done. “I’m impressed,” I said.

She beamed.

And I was. My innocent girl had done something that took a hell of a lot of guts. Come to think of it, everything she did took a hell of a lot of guts.

I reached out and grabbed the arm of her chair, sliding it as close to me as possible. I planted a soft but firm kiss on her plump pink lips and looked her right in her eyes, cupping her cheek in my hand. “That’s my girl.”

A throat cleared. “Your girl, huh?” Miller asked, raising his eyebrows.

I answered without breaking eye contact with Sawyer who was still smiling up at me.

“Yeah. MY girl.”





Chapter Thirty-Three





Sawyer





My girl.

I was downright giddy when I excused myself to go inside to grab the pie I’d baked. When I came back out onto the deck the three old friends were laughing about some memory from their childhood and although I had no idea what they were talking about I smiled and laughed right along with them. I couldn’t remember ever having this much fun during a meal.

Miller was still talking as he put a pink pill on the table and started crushing it with the back of his spoon before using a rolled-up dollar bill to snort the powder up his nose.

Finn looked unaffected by his behavior, like he’d seen it a thousand times before, while the look on Josh’s face was that of disapproval and annoyance as she glared down at Miller who was snorting lines off the table.

“What?” Miller asked when he noticed Josh was watching him.

Finn chuckled and squeezed my knee.

She waved a hand over the powder on the table.

“Oh that?” Miller asked. “It’s just Ritalin. It’s for my ADHD,” he nodded at his own statement and snorted another line with his eyes defiantly glued to Josh’s.

Josh snatched the pill bottle from Miller’s pocket. She tapped a nail against the label. “Oh yeah, it says right here to crush three tablets twice a day and snort with food,” she said sarcastically. “Can you at least pretend you have respect for the fact that I’m a cop.”

“Yes, as soon as you can show some respect for my chosen profession,” Miller said, with his powder covered nose in the air.

“Your profession?” Josh questioned.

“Yes, well, one of them anyway.”

“Drug dealer?” Josh chimed in. “You mean that one?”

“I like to consider myself more of a sommelier of narcotics.” He sniffled. “I don’t see you giving Finn shit about smoking weed.”

“Because it’s WEED you moron. It’s legal in some states. And please. Remember one thing, I’m giving you SHIT about it. I’m not arresting you for it.”

“Well, that is a good thing because…” Miller started.

“YET,” she interrupted, pinning him to the back of his chair with her hardened glare.

“You wouldn’t,” Miller whispered dramatically, drawing out the words slowly as he leaned away from Josh.

“Try me.”

I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t laugh.

“If you arrest me I’ll take that to mean we aren’t getting married and having babies,” Miller said.

“You talk a big game, but you do realize you’ve never so much as asked me out,” Josh announced suddenly, stunning everyone at the table including Miller who looked downright offended.

“I have too!” Miller argued.

Josh rolled her eyes. “Oh please, inviting me for tacos, tequila, and anal isn’t asking me out.”

Miller’s jaw dropped. He held a hand over his chest. “I think it sounds like a perfectly romantic way to spend an evening. You’re just too picky.”

“Maybe I am,” she shrugged.

“Well then maybe you should just stick with pussy,” Miller groaned.

Josh stood from the chair and narrowed her gaze at him, holding her stare until he looked up and jumped when he found her standing directly above him. “What?” he asked, shifting in his chair.

“Maybe you should stop BEING a pussy,” Josh spat. And with that, she was gone, across the clearing, heading for Finn’s shack.

Miller looked back and forth between Finn and then me. “What the fuck just happened?” Miller asked.

“I think you just got rejected. AGAIN,” Finn said, cracking open a beer.

“Fuccckkkk…I already offered tacos, sushi, and anal. What else is there?” Miller asked dropping his head to his hands.

“No, that’s not it at all. She didn’t reject you,” I interjected.

“She didn’t?” both Miller and Finn asked at the same time.

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“Then…what DID happen?” Miller asked. Both him and Finn leaned forward in their chairs.

I took a sip of my beer and smiled. “I think she just told you to bring your A game.”

Miller growled something inaudible and followed Josh over to Finn’s cabin.

“Thank you for all this,” I said, once we were alone. “You didn’t have to buy me a house just to get me to like you. I liked you right from the beginning, even when I thought I didn’t.”

“I didn’t do it to get you to like me. I did it because I wanted to make you happy. I wanted to make you feel good,” Finn said.