AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Unable to stop myself, I tapped out the words that were so desperate to be said, even though I knew no matter how real our conversations felt, she never would be.
Walk away from you? I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to.
If anything, you should be waiting for the day I decide to finally find you.
Words: . . .
Words: I dare you.
Chapter Twelve
Charlie
June 15, 2016
“GRAHAM, HONEY, I’M so glad you were here to help today. I was thinking about Caroline—”
Graham’s face pinched with irritation as his mom stepped up beside us that next Wednesday. “Mom, no. No Caroline, no Melissa. No more lists of girls.” He jerked his hand away when his mom tried to put a piece of paper in it. “I don’t want her number. One of these times I’m just going to show up with a girl so you’ll stop doing this.”
Mrs. LaRue sighed. “Well she can’t be just any girl you found on the street.”
“She won’t be, Mom, Christ. I’ll probably have known her my entire life. This is Thatch. As much as I love talking to you about all the girls you want me to settle down with, I need to finish talking to Charlie about the house.”
His mom kissed me on the cheek and squeezed my shoulder. “We’re going home. Enjoy your new place, sweetie!” Before I could thank her, she turned her thoughtful gaze on Graham. “Known her your whole life, huh? That narrows down my lists.”
“I didn’t mean—Mom, I still have to find her—you know what? Never mind. Yes, go narrow down your lists.” Graham let out a slow breath when the door shut, then dug in his pocket to produce a ring of keys for me. “Here, before I forget to give these to you.”
My pulse was racing and my mind reeling from his words. I repeated them to myself as I stared at the keys in my hand, and tried to keep my tone light when I asked, “You still have to find her? Is this mystery girl hiding from you?”
Graham winked, and the corner of his mouth pulled into a lopsided smirk. “Something like that.”
I tried to keep my heart in my chest, but it felt impossible, when it was entirely possible that I was standing just inches from my stranger.
It had been four days since I’d dared Stranger to find me. Each night I asked if he was any closer, while praying he wasn’t.
Stranger allowed me to be someone I could never be in real life. I couldn’t attempt to voice the things I wrote to him without my words getting caught in my throat. I couldn’t try to speak to men that way without needing to find someone or something to hide behind.
With Stranger I had my voice because I had my phone to hide behind. His beautiful soul endlessly pulled me out from behind the walls I’d built around myself; all the while I remained invisible to him. Every day he helped show me how to trust someone with my heart again, even though he and I both knew that, in reality, he would never hold it.
But now with Graham’s cryptic and oddly similar words, I wanted to shout that I was standing right there.
But I needed to keep Stranger at a distance. I needed to keep him fictional, or everything we had would shatter. Our deep conversations that meant everything, and even the innocent flirting and teasing . . . all of it would be gone.
Graham’s voice pulled me from my internal conflict, and I blinked quickly to clear my head as he handed me a piece of paper.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked breathily when I realized I’d missed everything he’d just told me, and hated that my tone gave away everything I was feeling.
“There’s a security system already set up throughout the house, but the owner had it shut off when he moved. Everything to get it turned back on is on that paper.”
“Oh. Right,” I said quickly, still wanting nothing more than to get away from him, and to say things I knew I shouldn’t.
“All right. Anything else you need to know?”
Only about a thousand things, starting with what the word “stranger” means to you.
But I knew that wasn’t what he was asking.
I’d run into Graham during my date with Keith the weekend before, and he’d told me about one of his friends who needed to rent out his house.
