“I don’t think he’ll mind.”

“Really?” I said, stopping outside the classroom door.

He gave me a sheepish grin. “My dad’s on the school board. My grandfather was before that. My family’s dug six foot deep into this school.”

Unbelievable. “Well, then,” I said, sweeping my hand through the door. “After you.”

Sliding through the doorway, he plucked my hand from my side and towed me in. Everyone in class glanced up, looking between the two of us like they weren’t quite sure what was going on, but you could almost see half the class shrugging it off right away and the other half stared another second and got back to pulling their textbooks out. What the hell kind of influence did Sawyer have here at Southpointe and how could I replicate that elixir?

“Hey, Mr. Peters,” he greeted as he led us to a couple seats in the back of the room. “I’m going to sit in this morning.”

Mr. Peter’s eyes fell on me in a way I recognized, even he knew what had transpired at homecoming, before he nodded at Sawyer.

“I hope you’ll enjoy the finer points of literature, Mr. Diamond,” he said, turning to the board.

He looked back at me, his eyes light. “Oh, I will, Mr. Peters,” he said. “I will.”

The next three periods went the same way, although I called “no way” on Sawyer when he tried coming with me. It wasn’t because I wasn’t thankful for everything he’d done, how he smoothed out what should have been a hellish day, but I couldn’t carry him around like a security blanket all year long. He gave me the glimmer of confidence I needed to get through the rest of the day.

I wasn’t totally immune to sideways stares or hushed voices, but they were a fraction of what I’d anticipated and I knew that had to do with Sawyer. I was in his debt, but didn’t know if that was a place I wanted to be.

Taylor looked like her head was about to blow up by the time I meandered to our table in the cafeteria. After ignoring her first five calls on Sunday morning, I just turned off the phone. I wouldn’t be able to dodge her inquires any longer.

“Did you drop your phone in the toilet or something?” she asked before I even sat down.

“My battery died and I couldn’t find my charger,” I said, smiling all innocent like at her. Was it still considered lying if it was done to keep blabber mouths like Taylor in the dark?

Her face changed—she actually bought that one. “You poor thing,” Taylor said, resting her hand on my arm. “As if your weekend needed to get any worse.”

I mm-hmm-ed through a sip of orange juice.

“Okay, where do we start?” she said, leaning closer. Lexie and Samantha dropped their celery sticks and leaned across the table.

I just wanted to get this over with. They wouldn’t relent until they’d sucked me dry of information, and I knew if I didn’t give them what they wanted, lies would be created to fill in the gaps.

“Where do you want to start?” I asked, popping the top back on my OJ.

“Did you know he’d stolen the car?” Taylor whispered, looking conspiratorially around the table.

“Of course not,” I answered, offended until I realized they were disappointed with my answer. In these girls’ books, I would be at least one or two shades cooler if I’d been in on or gone along with the whole vehicular theft thing.

“Have you talked to him since?”

It hurt thinking about him; it hurt even more admitting I hadn’t heard from him.

“Nope.”

Taylor and her apostles looked disappointed again. “The buzz around here is that he evaded like a hundred police cars, returned the car to its owner, then walked right into the downtown precinct and turned himself in,” Taylor spewed, waving and shaking her hands so neurotically I scooted a few inches back. “What did you hear, Lucy?”

“A whole lotta nada,” I answered, already exhausted from the grand inquisition and we were only three minutes into lunch hour. We were only getting started.

“So it’s true he just, like, left you behind?” Lexie asked, chewing the end of a carrot stick. These girls ate more damn raw vegetables than a family of rabbits.

“Yep,” I said, looking over my shoulder, praying for some kind of distraction. “It was tragic.”

“How did you get home?” Lexie said, waving her carrot.

I was about to answer a car when Taylor smiled over at me, arching a brow. “I heard you rode shot-gun in a certain BMW 325i.”

“I don’t even know what that means,” I said, glancing behind me again. Still no one coming to my rescue. Hell, at this point in the questioning, I wouldn’t have cared if it was a masked madman carrying a chainsaw over his head.

“Sawyer drove you home?” The half-eaten carrot dropped from Lexie’s hand.

“Yeah?”

Shooting up in her chair, Lexie glared down at me. “Why, Lucy Larson has certainly made the rounds around Southpointe, hasn’t she? All in one week’s time.” Sharpening her glare at me, she spun and marched out of the cafeteria.

“Don’t worry, she’ll get over it,” Taylor said, waving her hand in the air. “She and Sawyer dated on and off for a couple years and had a nasty breakup a few weeks before school started.”

“Two years?” I said, having newfound respect for Sawyer. A two year commitment to the genius that was Lexie Hamilton should have guaranteed him a seat amongst the gods. “She hates me. She’s going to hate me for a long, long time.”

Curling her finger at me, Taylor leaned in. I didn’t move any closer. “Lexie hates everybody. Just don’t tell her I said that.”

“How nice for her,” I said.

“Wow, Lucy Larson,” Taylor said, pulling out a compact from her purse. “You somehow manage to tame the untamable Jude Ryder, short-lived as it was, then move right on to Southpointe’s most eligible bachelor and coveted husband-to-be. You are officially my hero.”

Samantha giggled. “Are you taking on any apprentices at this time?”

“Only the morally handicapped,” I muttered, as Taylor powdered her nose and Samantha sipped diet pop from a straw. I was surrounded by sweater set, peaches and cream, future Stepford wives. What the hell was I doing?

“Sawyer frickin’ Diamond,” Taylor sung, shaking her head. “Unbelievable.”

“I am, aren’t I?”

I don’t know which three of us jumped more, but Taylor’s powder shattered when it hit the floor, so she won some sort of prize.

“God, Sawyer,” Taylor said, picking up the shattered triangles of powder. “Don’t ever sneak attack a bunch of girls in a huddle unless you want to get an elbow in your balls.”

He tapped his head. “Duly noted.”

“What do you want?” Taylor asked, melting a bit under his smile.

“I came to borrow Lucy.” His hands rested on my shoulders. “You girls don’t mind, do you?”

“That depends,” Taylor said, watching Sawyer’s hands on me.

“On what?”

Taylor slid me a loaded look. “On what you came to borrow her for.”

“A man’s business is his own,” he replied, pulling my chair out.

“Except when it isn’t,” Taylor said under her breath, before making a tunnel of her hands and whispering in my ear, “I expect a full report.”

Popping up, I waved to Taylor and Samantha and turned to Sawyer.

“Get me out of here,” I mouthed.

He grabbed my hand and led me out of the cafeteria. “Come on.”

If this is what having every head turned at me, gazing with scandalized eyes, felt like, I never wanted to run for office. I didn’t get what the big deal was with Sawyer and me walking together, but they did. Probably had something to do with him holding my hand, which I should’ve pulled away, and the rumors that were formed and written in the book of fact after homecoming.

Once we were free of the cafeteria, I exhaled. “Thank you.”

“You looked like you were in physical pain back there,” he said, leading me down a quiet hall. “I had to save you from that.”