I may or may not have spent the entire Saturday cleaning my room, and it may or may not have had anything to do with the fact that Sawyer was coming home on Sunday to get started paining the baby's room. That was how we were calling what used to be the studio, since sooner than we expected it was going to be taken over by the littlest member of the Martinez Fernandez family. The room was next to mine, and where I'd become used for the past few months to it being quiet, now that she was back and with what was up ahead in our future I was trying my best to come to terms with the fact that it was going to get real noisy in there and the wall in between was not necessarily thick.

That was how on Sunday morning I heard Sawyer's voice next to my head as I slept in bed.

I jolted from bed while my body was still not coordinated with my brain. My legs tangled in the bed sheets and acted like shackles to my lower body. Meanwhile my upper body had not quite got the message and hurtled forward. I hit the floor with a yelp and a hard thud that probably rattled the entire house.

The conversation in the baby's room stopped. I was hurting something fierce in places. My cheekbone met the floor intimately and my right arm landed wedged between my body and the floor and it didn't appreciate the position. I stayed like that until I was able to gather my bearings. At least I was definitely awake now. I was sitting up when my door opened and there he was, with Toni and papa right behind him.

"Are you okay, sis?" Toni asked, holding back her laughter with some weak effort. "Also, you may want to cover yourself."

I looked down, wondering what she meant, when I saw that my nightgown was all askew and I was nearly flashing all my goods. An unnatural sound came out of my throat as I picked up the blankets to try to cover myself, but Sawyer wasn't quick enough at hiding his smirk before he turned around.

"I think she's fine," he said before heading back to Toni's room.

My jaw hung open. Was I the only one who caught a double meaning there? Toni's eyebrows started wiggling and I figured that nope, I wasn't the only one.

Papa didn't look like he'd connected the dots. "Ay, mija. That sounded pretty bad. Estás bien?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." I took advantage of the fact that they were standing there to ask, "Why are you all up so early?"

"We thought it'd be best to start early," papa said. "It'll probably take Sawyer and I most of the day to get everything ready."

I frowned. "Why so long? I thought it was just a couple of paint coats."

"Oh, it's not just that," Toni said. "There's the actual wall painting, but they're also going to hang new curtains and assemble the crib and the diaper changing station."

"When did we get all that?" I asked as I made my way up to my own two feet.

Toni laughed. "We haven't got it yet. Mama and I are going shopping this morning."

Well, that sucked because I supposed they wanted me to come along, and that meant that I was not going to see Sawyer much. I knew that going shopping with mama and Toni was an epic quest. It always started out as a couple of things only but quickly evolved into an exhausting exercise to see how we could buy the most things with the smallest amount of money possible. And mama's definition of a small amount of money was loosely based on her moods. So this expedition could start out with a $100 budget and could gain one zero to the right, or it could start straight at the $1,000 and quickly get downgraded when she didn't like what we liked.

"Papa," Toni started as she looked up at him with wide eyes. "I just thought of something."

"What?" he asked, now passing his concern on from me to her.

"If the three of us go shopping for this big stuff, then who's going to carry it all into the car?"

He blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's not like I can carry a lot of weight." As she said this she rubbed her hands around her growing belly, drawing our attention to it. "So that would leave only mama and Rory to carry big stuff. Rory's pretty strong, but I know mama wouldn't be able to help out much."

"That's true," he said, his eyes deepening with worry. "What should we do? Should I send Sawyer out with you instead?"

Toni patted his arm. "Don't be silly, we're paying him to paint and not to shop. Why don't you come with us instead?"

Papa scratched his head. "But then who's going to help Sawyer?"

That was when Toni looked at me. I struggled to recover for a second but I said, "I could help him."

I could kiss my sister. What an absolute genius. Someone give her all the awards.

Papa's face scrunched up. "Eh, I'm not sure mama would approve of that plan."

I folded my arms and spoke very loudly, so everybody could hear. Because I had a real suspicion that mama was hiding out in the master bedroom listening to everything that was going on. "Oh, please. Do you think something could ever possibly happen between Sawyer and I? We barely tolerate each other. In fact, it'd be a total chore to have to stay and help him all day."

My heart was hammering in my chest as though I'd ran my feet off, and not my mouth. Toni's I-want-to-laugh-so-bad expression was back in full swing, but papa was looking a little less pruned.

"Well, I do wish you guys would get along better," he said. "Sawyer's one of my best employees and I'm hoping he sticks around at the shop after high school."

Good. I was hoping for the same.

Toni and I leaned forward, hanging from the thread of suspense that hung over us as papa thought about it. In the end he shrugged. "I don't really see any other way."

He whirled around calling out for mama and announcing the change of plans. Toni and I exchanged a glance that she read perfectly. She stepped into my room and closed the door behind her, not minding one bit when I threw my arms around her and squeezed.

"You're the best," I told her.

As she tightened her hold around me, I could feel the rumble of her chuckle against me. I thought I felt something extra and jumped back to examine her belly, but she just said, "Nothing too exciting yet, just gas."

"Ew," I laughed.

She sobered me up with A Look. "I want you to keep in mind two things, Rory. The first one is that you may be very tempted today by being in close proximity with a hot boy to do things you might not be ready for. Although I don't regret what's happened, I hope you won't do the same thing I did."

"I'm sorry," I said, toning it way the heck down.

She shrugged. "At least wear a proper condom, not one you got passed down at a party."

I cringed so hard my molars hurt. "What's the second thing?"

"The second thing is," she said, smiling a bit. "That after we leave you'll probably have to apologize to Sawyer for what you just said."

"I—but it was just to get our parents thinking there's nothing-"

"Doesn't matter," she said. "Everybody has feelings."

I thought about this as I changed my clothes and grabbed a quick breakfast downstairs. Somehow I was able to convince mama that I was as annoyed about having to help Sawyer out as she was that he was here at all, and she didn't kick up a huge fuss about it as I'd have expected. I tried not to appear over eager as I waved them goodbye all the way until they made the bend around the corner, hoping she'd take it as reluctance to go back inside.

Once I did, though, I raced upstairs.

I caught Sawyer in the process of taping up plastic down to protect the carpet. He was on his knees tearing tape with his teeth when he looked up at my entrance. I didn't know how I'd survived years resisting him, but now that I'd given up on that I just found it hard to breathe around him. And it wasn't just because I made it up from downstairs in record time. He was just—spectacular.

"Can I draw you?" I blurted out.

Sawyer blinked like I'd spoken in a different language. He cleared his throat. "Why would you want to draw someone you can barely stand?"

"C'mon, I only said that so papa and mama wouldn't suspect a thing." When that didn't seem to convince him I added, "I made it sound as bad as possible on purpose."

He grumbled, "Well, you almost convinced me."

"Sawyer Logan," I said with a small laugh. "I've let you put your tongue down my throat more than once. Don't you think that means I more than tolerate you?"

That drew a smile from him. "Can you clarify what more than tolerating me actually means?"

I gave him a look. It was like he was sincerely hoping I'd admit aloud that I liked him. And sure, I did, but where would the fun be in just saying it?

Steeling my fluttering nerves, I dropped on my knees before him and put my hands on his shoulders, looking into his eyes at level.

"If you let me draw you, I might tell you."

Grey eyes shamelessly traveled down to my lips and stayed there. "I thought we were supposed to break into a sweat together."

I smacked his shoulder and rolled my eyes. "And we will, after I at least get a sketch done. I promise."

It wasn't like I had the chance every day to be in a quiet place with him, to do as I pleased.

"Fine." He sighed and before I could react, he grabbed the hem of his blue t-shirt and tore it up and away from him. As I gaped at him he smiled in full. "I figure you'd get more inspired this way."

Inspired, for sure, but not for things that were strictly done on a page. Still, I wasn't about to pass on this golden opportunity not even for my raging hormones. I sat on the plastic cover all hot and bothered as I sketched my live model. There was work to be done and I didn't ask him to just sit still for me. I improvised as he moved along prepping the room up. I made a sketch of his back as he reached up, another quick one of him kneeling down again and a wanton one of just his torso and arms. I was going to have dreams of a peculiar nature that night, that was for sure.

"Are you done?" he asked, motioning all around. "We have to turn these green walls into pearl white, you know."

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Is that a blush on your face?"

Judging by his snort and the way he jumped to put his t-shirt back on, I'd say that was a yes.

"I cannot believe this," I said, standing up to put the sketchpad away in my closet for later. "The great Sawyer Logan, conqueror of everything female in Metropolitan High School, suddenly shy?"

"I didn't think you were going to start looking at everything with such great detail, okay?" I heard him say from the studio while I was in my room.

Once my art stuff was safely put away, I joined him back with a mocking coo. "Aww, is little Sawyer self conscious?"

He openly laughed. "First of all I'm not little and I can prove it to you."

I gasped, feeling like I'd probably done wrong in teasing the Tease Master and like this was quickly spiraling out of my grasp.

"And second, we all have flaws and I'd rather you not focus on the ones you haven't known about all along quite yet."

I stood there as he poured paint on the pan and begun soaking the roller with white. This sounded an awful lot like an admission to vulnerability that I wasn't used to, even though what Sawyer had done with me for the past couple of weeks was precisely that, share the most tender parts of him. My desire to tease him vanished in a poof and was replaced instead with something that was squeezing my heart.

"Sawyer," I started as he made the first even strokes of paint on the wall by the window. "I don't want you to feel like I'm putting you down. If I have to say it, I'll say it." I stood right in front of him, took a deep breath and admitted, "I like you too."

He didn't react for what felt like the longest time. It made me want to squirm.

"It's very scary for me," I whispered.

He lifted a clean finger and traced my jaw with it. The caress echoed all the way down to my toes.

"Because of your parents?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Because of you." At his confusion I added, "Because of me. I don't know. I'm used to seeing you with a different girl every other month or so. I don't want to be one of them."

"You can't be." He smiled. "You're the reason why things didn't work with any of them."

Heat rushed up my neck. I wanted to believe him, I really did. But I remembered Toni's words about what could happen in the proximity of a hot boy. And Sawyer wasn't just a hot boy. He was the hottest of them all.

"I don't know how I can believe you," I admitted, and I was proud of myself for doing so.

Sawyer didn't grow angry or wary. He was still smiling sweetly as he said, "That's okay. We have time for me to prove it. But now we better get to work before your family comes back home and finds us tearing at each other's clothes."

I squeaked out an, "As if!" But we did set out to work after that. We sneaked glances at each other when we thought the other wasn't looking, which was rare, because for the most part we were both definitely looking. I was happy with this arrangement that allowed me to openly appreciate his butt and commit it to memory. Of course when he caught me in the act he started teasing me, and a few minutes later we were splattering paint on each other's faces and anywhere we could reach.

After we were done with the entire first coat of paint, we sat back on the floor to admire our work. The room looked terrible. The white was drying fairly translucent and a whole lot of green still showed. This was probably going to require at least two more layers. By the end of today we were going to be so sore.

I blew out a breath. "Maybe I should charge for this, too."

"I'll pay you." When I raised my eyebrows at him he said, "With a date."

I spluttered. "Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm dead serious. It'll be a cheap date, but spending time with me is priceless."

I laughed so hard I rolled on the floor, which put me in a prime position to pick up my roller and run it all across his chest. He tried to wrestle it from me, which was tricky as I balled myself trying to protect it. It left my sides vulnerable to tickling and that won him the battle. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get the newly added paint off of my hair later when suddenly Sawyer had an idea.

"You should paint a mural in this room."

"What?" I asked, raising myself on my elbows to look at him as he kneeled by my feet.

"What would be a better gift to your niece or nephew than your own art?"

"Nothing, but-" I stopped myself with a shake of my head but not knowing what else to say.

He shrugged. "Why not?"

I wondered about that as we continued working. It wasn't like I had much to lose on that account anymore. They knew I'd painted the backdrop at Homecoming and they might even like the personalized touch in the room. I couldn't buy anything big for the baby, but this much I could do. And since I was done with my college applications there shouldn't be a problem with a small project like this. I started dreaming of a mountainside in soft colors that would inspire my niece or nephew to explore the world, and once the idea took root in my head I couldn't let it go.

Sawyer was right. It was time for my family to see what I could do.

you guys asked for cute moments and i hope you've enjoyed them

let them hold you down for what's coming

(on a separate topic, don't forget that tomorrow you get the chance to chat with me for a couple of hours on Discord! details in my LOVE YOU 1000 book! 🖤)