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“Okay?”
She dipped her head in a nod. “Yeah. Just let yourself in when you get back.”
Instead of leaving, I took long, quick steps toward her, and brought my mouth down onto hers as I pulled her close.
She melted against me, and I forced myself not to say everything I was thinking.
Please forgive me.
Please don’t be her.
Please understand. . .
“Come back soon,” Charlie whispered against my lips, and without looking at her, I turned and strode for the door.
Despite the twitching in my hands to grab Candy from my center console, where I stashed it most days now, I waited until I was out of Charlie’s driveway and off her street. Then continued to drive until I was near one of the docks at the lake.
I put my car in park and just stared out at the lake for long seconds until I couldn’t stand it any longer, then dug in the console until I found the phone. It felt like I was moving through water as I went to the contacts and opened up Words’s, then pulled out my other phone, and did the same to pull up Charlie’s.
I’d just glanced at Words’s number, so I already knew. But I refused to believe it until I was holding my phones side by side.
My head dropped back against the headrest as dread filled me, and I barked out a curse as I flung Candy across the car. It hit the passenger door with a loud smack and fell to the floor seconds before it chimed.
Then chimed again.
I slowly looked down to where it lay. My chest felt tight and heavy as I tried to tell myself that it wasn’t her.
It couldn’t be her. It had to be someone else.
I leaned over to grab the phone off the floor, and tapped on the screen until the messages were pulled up.
Words.
A brief flash of disbelief and jealousy flared in my chest before I told myself that she might be doing exactly what I would’ve.
I’d been trying to walk away from Words for days, and hadn’t been able to. But I knew without a doubt that if I hadn’t found out who Words was, I would have walked away from her without a second thought after what had happened between Charlie and me tonight.
I opened the message, and that jealousy and disbelief grew and grew as anger simmered in my veins.
Words: Hey, Stranger. Thought you might want to see this.
Below was a picture of a page in her journal. The very one I’d just been holding.
You can’t believe it’s daylight
We stayed up again all night
Talking just cause you like the way I make the words sound
I triple-double dare you
Fess up and make the first move
You need me like I need you
That’s why you come around here
Cause you know I’ve always been the one
