Sawyer thought for a moment that she was going to dodge his question, but then she said, “I almost didn’t. I mean . . . I didn’t hear from you for a whole month.”
“I know,” Sawyer stated softly. It was his turn not to meet her gaze. “I had some things to work out.”
“And did you?”
“Unfortunately, I think so.”
“Unfortunately? Does it have something to do with Greyson?”
The woman was incredibly perceptive.
“Yeah.” But Sawyer didn’t elaborate. He wasn’t ready to talk about that just yet. “So, did I get to you? Did I finally wear you down?” he asked, hoping to lighten the mood.
“You’re rather persistent, in case you haven’t noticed,” she said, her eyes sliding away from his.
“But you still managed to fend me off for the last eight years.”
“Has it been that long?” she teased, a small smile tugging on the corners of her lips. He liked that she ribbed him even when the conversation had turned serious.
“It has. And ever since the day I saw you in the grocery store, I’ve never given up hope.”
“But you had to sleep through half the town to get to this point?”
Sawyer didn’t respond to that. He knew his reputation, but he didn’t make excuses for the decisions he’d made. He had always been safe and completely honest with the women he was with. Never had he led one on.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t’ve said that.”
“No need to apologize. I like honesty.”
“Speaking of honesty . . .” Kennedy met his gaze head-on. “Are you gonna tell me what the thing with Greyson was all about?” she asked, diving right back into the conversation he’d been trying to avoid only moments ago.
Sawyer reached for his Sprite, took another sip, and glanced across the room at the pictures on the wall. As much as he didn’t want to, Sawyer knew he was just going to have to come out with it. Get everything out in the open in order to ensure that his rift with Kennedy’s father didn’t come between him and Kennedy. He would figure out a way to handle Greyson and what he’d done, he had no doubt about that. How, he wasn’t quite sure, but he would come up with something.
“The night your father came to the resort with Mack . . .” Sawyer began, turning to put the can on the table once again. Kennedy’s eyebrows lifted, but she didn’t say anything, so he continued. “Although he blamed me for that information leaking out, it wasn’t me, Kennedy.”
“I know that,” she said. “We’ve talked about this already.”
“We have. But I can’t let it go. Your father’s pissed and he has every right to be. I made him a promise, the same promise we make to all of our guests. But someone violated the trust and shared that information.”
“About Mack?”
“Yeah. Why they just brought Mack into it, I don’t know.” That was something Sawyer was still trying to figure out. Why hadn’t they mentioned that Mack and Jeff had been there together? Why didn’t they elaborate on the details? Those were questions that Sawyer still didn’t have answers to, but he knew he was getting close.
“Do you know who did it?”
“I think so,” Sawyer said, meeting Kennedy’s gaze. “Since that night at Moonshiners when I argued with your father, I’ve been digging into it. I asked Gage to find out who was there that night, what guests were registered, who was in the playroom. He’s spent a lot of time combing through the videos.”
“You videotape that stuff?” Kennedy asked, her eyes wide.
“Only for security,” he assured her. “We don’t keep them after a certain amount of time. But we keep them for reasons like this. I need to know who leaked the details.”
“And you know who did it?”
“I’ve got my suspicions,” he told her.
“Greyson?”
Kennedy seemed just as skeptical as he was, but Sawyer just couldn’t shake the feeling that Greyson had something to do with it. He was there that night, and based on the tension between them . . . it just seemed to fit.
“Why would you think Greyson would do that? What does he have to gain?”
“Remember the night at Moonshiners when Greyson came in and you overheard my conversation with him?”
“Stamina Girl?” Kennedy asked, her expression blank.
“Yeah,” he chuckled. He found it amusing that she would’ve latched onto that one little detail. “That one. Well, I went to the resort, met Greyson and whatever her name was.”