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to save my life.”
    A spark ignited his eyes and he chuckled. “Then you and I can play Go Fish,” he said. “Strip Go Fish, that is.” His voice was exhilarating. The cool, low growl promised excitement, adventure… fun .
    And Maddie did say that I needed to have some fun, didn’t she?
    “Deal,” I told him.
     

CHAPTER FIVE

    “You have a shot at a career in high-stakes poker if snowboarding doesn’t work out,” I told Sawyer as I snapped his photo.
    He was balancing on a diving board of the complex’s shared pool, and though the strip poker tournament had just wrapped, he wasn’t missing a single article of clothing. Well, except for his shoes, but he’d only taken those off so they wouldn’t get wet.
    I glanced down at the digital display screen on my camera to evaluate the latest picture.
    Too dark .
    Sawyer and I had snuck into the indoor pool area after hours, so all of the lights were off and we were shrouded in dimness. Since I was working without an external flash, the picture came out completely underexposed.
    Regardless, Sawyer’s silhouette looked great. I had snapped his profile mid-jump as he bounced up and down on the diving board. One of his hands was on top of his head, his other extended out for balance. Wisps of hair flew in all directions; his chest was puffed out and his lips slightly parted as if I had captured the exact moment he inhaled.
    This was life.
     I bumped up the ISO and tried again, this time coming right up to the diving board and standing on my tiptoes so that I could frame a close-up of his face.
    Still great.
    Extremely great, in fact, but I had a feeling that had a lot more to do with my subject than my skills as a photographer. The blue color of the water reflected in his light green eyes, making them look like depths of an ocean. One I wouldn’t have minded diving right into.
    Sawyer hopped off the diving board and moved to my side to check out the photo.
    “I may have a shot at a career in poker, but you definitely have a shot at a career in photography,” he murmured quietly. He opened his mouth to say something else, but then quickly closed it again.
    “What?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
    His thumb caressed his bottom lip as he shook his head. “Nothing. Never mind.”
    “You’re lying,” I said. “You may have fooled all those people at the poker table tonight, but I know when you’re bluffing.”
    “Oh? You know my tells?” he teased, moving even closer.
    “Yes. You’re doing one of them now.” I reached up and pressed my index finger to his thumb.
    “Guess you got me,” he said, but something told me the tightening in his jaw had more to do with my finger on his mouth than the fact I’d called his bluff.
    “So?” I prompted. “What were you going to say before you chickened out?”
    “I was going to add ‘if med school doesn’t work out’, but then realized that was pointless since I have no doubt in my mind that it will work out. You’re one the most driven people I’ve ever known, Silver. Anything you put your brain and heart into will work out for you.”
    “You don’t know that.” Things didn’t feel like they were working out. My brain was in medicine, but my heart wasn’t. I couldn’t share that with Sawyer, because the truth was that he didn’t know me. Not anymore. Not the way he used to. “You don’t know me.”
    Hurt filled his eyes. “Do you really think that? You and Lyla were the only two people on this earth that I ever cared about.”
    “ Were ,” I emphasized. “Didn’t you tell my brother that the past was best left in the past?”
    “Because he looked like he was about to throw himself on the ground and grovel at my feet,” he replied. “I never left our past behind.” Massaging away the tension in his jaw, he lowered his voice and added, “I could never leave you behind.”
    I couldn’t either. Sawyer had been embedded into every one of my thoughts since the moment he’d entered into my