Read Online Having Faith by Barbara Delinsky - Free Book Online Page B

Faith. Don't even think it. You're right. We're best friends. Best buddies. We shouldn't have done what we did, but it wasn't some ugly, faceless, nameless thing, and I'm sure as hell not dropping a C-note on your counter and walking out."
    Faith flinched. She bowed her head and pressed two fingers to her temple. Feeling quickly contrite, Sawyer gentled his voice.
    "All I'm saying is that this isn't the end of the world."
    "What if I'm pregnant?"
    The thought caught him off guard. He swallowed. "Is there a chance of that?"
    "Yes. I don't use birth control. I haven't had any need." She grew defensive.
    "I don't go around doing this kind of thing."
    Rattled as he was, her defensiveness hit him the wrong way.
    "Damn it, I know that, Faith! Will you stop saying it? I know you're not loose.
    I know you don't sleep around. I know you place value on physical intimacy. We may never have been romantically involved, but I do know you, and better than most, I'd wager. "
    "You must think I'm awful."
    He threw his hands in the air; they came down on his hips.
    "It takes two to tango, y'know." "But I kept pushing you on. I kept asking you for more." Her eyes grew moist.
    "I swear, Sawyer, I've never been like that before."
    The tears did it. He'd had no intention of touching her, but when he saw the tears he couldn't sit by and stay physically aloof. Not after what, right or wrong, they'd done. And not when every one of his instincts as a friend and as a man directed him otherwise.
    Taking a step to her stool, he wrapped his arms around her. "I want you to listen to me, Faith. You're a bright woman, probably one of the brightest I've ever met. I want you to listen and listen good. Okay?"
    She nodded.
    He spoke slowly, keeping his voice low and gentle. "I do not think less of you for what we did last night. If anything, the opposite is true. I'm flattered to know that there haven't been any other men but that you let me be the first since the divorce. I'm relieved to know that you're human, that deep down inside you have some of the same needs as me--even if the need is as lousy as criticizing our ex-spouses. I am not disappointed in you. I don't think I could ever be disappointed in you." He paused.
    "How can I be disappointed when you came so alive in my arms?"
    "Sawyer," she moaned.
    "Okay. We won't talk about that."
    "Don't even think about it."
    "Fine. What about your being pregnant? When will you know?"
    "Two weeks, give or take."
    "Then we won't think about that, either, until we know one way or another. There's no point in worrying, and there's no way we can change the chances. If it happened, it's already happened, and if that's the case, we'll sit down together and decide what to do."
    Faith couldn't fault his logic. But then, she'd always found Sawyer to be logical. She'd always thought she was, too, which was why she was surprised by her own heightened emotions. "Sound fair?" he asked, when she remained quiet in his arms.
    She nodded. "What do we do in the meantime?"
    It was a little while before he answered. He honestly didn't know what to do.
    "Maybe we ought to go on the way we always have."
    "Business as usual?"
    "That's right."
    "There's only one problem with that. Business as usual means running into each other only by accident. But there's the little matter of the Leindecker divorce."
    "The Leindecker divorce."
    "Remember? The thing that brought you down to my office in the first place yesterday?"
    "I remember." But he hadn't until then, and the recollection gave greater weight to what had happened in the intervening hours.
    "Oh boy."
    Faith knew what he was thinking. "Uh-huh. If we were wondering whether there was a conflict of interest then, what's the story now?"
    Reluctantly Sawyer let his arms fall from around her. He sank back onto his stool.
    "No different, I guess. We're still okay as long as we watch what we do."
    "You can pretend last night didn't happen?"
    "No. But I don't know if it'll happen again, and if it