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“Deacon, give that to me!” she said quickly, her tone full of worry.
“You and your words,” I sneered.
Her head snapped up. “What did you just say?” she asked breathlessly.
I slammed Candy on top of it and thrust both at her. “An hour,” I growled when she took them from me. “Not even. I was inside you not even an hour ago, and you’re already sending this shit?”
“What is this?” she asked in a shaky voice. “Whose phone is this?”
I leaned forward and planted my hands on the bed so my face was directly in front of hers. “You gave me your heart, Charlie Girl, yeah? Or did you give it to Stranger? Or maybe someone else that I don’t know about.”
Dread filled her eyes. “How . . . how do you know—”
“I made you mine. I’m pretty sure I wanted to continue making only you mine for the rest of my goddamn life, and it’s you who can’t choose just one person?”
“No.” Her head shook stubbornly. “No, you don’t know what you’re talking about!” She held the phone up, and asked again, “Whose phone is this, Deacon?”
I pushed away from the bed and ran my hand through my hair as I took a step away from her. A frustrated huff burst from my chest that she was refusing to see what was happening. “Mine!” I snapped when I faced her again. “It’s mine, Charlie. I’m Stranger, you’re Words. Don’t you fucking get it?”
“No, this isn’t your phone. That isn’t—I have your num—you don’t talk to me the way—I thought he was—” She quickly cut off her frantic rambling, and leaned away from me when I bent close to her again.
“Thought he was who?” I demande
d. When she only shook her head, I yelled, “Who, Charlie, who the fuck did you think you were falling in love with?”
“You!” she cried, and her blue eyes welled with tears. “I fell in love with you, but you can’t be him—”
“You sure about that?”
“—you can’t be Stranger!”
“Then tell me who is!”
“I thought it was Graham!”
I stumbled away from her and the bed as if her words had been a physical blow to my chest.
Her confession mixed with my demand, both lingered in the space between us and louder than I could handle in the silence that now filled her room.
I staggered a step away from her, and then another, before I turned toward the door. Just as fast, I turned back around. “You thought you’ve been talking to my best friend, and this entire time, all I’ve been able to see was you?”
“No, that’s not it. That’s not what I meant. I always pictured you, but it was the things—”
“Save it, Charlie,” I whispered, my tone bordered on a plea.
“Will you let me talk?”
I lifted my arms to my sides, then let them fall. “Why? So you can drive that knife into my chest a little more?” I laughed softly, but there was no humor behind it. “You know, I couldn’t figure out why it was so hard to even consider walking away from Words, but I get it. I fucking get it now because I never would’ve been able to walk away from you.” Before . . . I mentally added.
“You knew . . .” She murmured when I started to back up again, her tone now filled with suspicion. “How long have you known, and how long would you have let it go on if we hadn’t had sex tonight?”
“Tonight.” I nodded toward the journal, still in her hands. “I saw it when you went to go check on Keith. Don’t try to turn this around to something I did when I’ve been trying to walk away from Words for nearly a week. I knew when I came after you tonight that walking from her was exactly what I was going to do. And what did you do?” My lip curled as I stared her down. “You told who you thought was another guy that you loved him as soon as I left your damn bed.”
“No!” she whispered, horrified. “No, that’s not true. That’s not who the song was about!”
“Bullshit, Charlie!” I roared. The loud boom of my voice made her jump, and tears fell from her eyes.
“I’m telling you the truth!”
