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Graham stepped inside my house, and smirked when he saw what was playing on the TV. After turning around in a circle in the living room, he faced me, and just stared.
“What are you doing here?” I finally asked.
“What, can’t I just come visit?” Something in my expression must have answered him for me, since Graham hadn’t been to the house since he’d helped me move in. He sucked in a quick breath through his teeth, then released it. “Yeah, all right. Uh, I’m here to get Deacon’s phone.”
It felt as if my entire body fell through the floor at the mention of his name. It was the first time I’d heard it said out loud since the night he’d walked away. I swayed on my feet before I was able to steady myself, and shook my head to clear it. “You what?”
“Deacon wants his phone,” he responded. “He asked me to come get it.” At least he had the decency to look embarrassed.
I turned my head slowly toward my bedroom when I heard something come from that direction, but my eyes stayed on Graham as long as they could before dragging to look blankly down the empty hall.
“Hey, and no hard feelings, right?” he said on a rush.
“What?” I breathed, my voice sounded pained.
“About Kate.”
I looked back at Graham, my brow drawn together. “Kate? Kate . . . that you grew up with, Kate?” When Graham nodded, I asked, “What about her?”
Graham stuffed his hands in his pockets and lifted his shoulders to his ears. “We’re dating now.”
I think I looked shocked. I felt it, but I was still reeling from hearing Deacon’s name, and the fact that he’d sent Graham to come pick up something he’d left at my house weeks ago.
I hadn’t expected Graham to date anyone, ever. Then again, I hadn’t expected Deacon to, either. “That’s great. Why would there be hard feelings?”
“Well, considering I almost got my ass handed to me because you thought I was some stranger, or something.” He placed a hand on his chest, and ignored the way my cheeks reddened. “I’m flattered, Charlie, really. But, I’ve been waiting for Kate to give me the time of day my entire life. I’m sorry if you wanted me to be some guy on a phone, but—”
“Wait, what? No.” I cut him off, and made a face. “Graham, I didn’t want you to be the guy I was talking to; I just thought you were him. Every time I saw you, you ended up saying something that was nearly identical to what Stranger had said.”
“Huh, well this is embarrassing.” He brought his hands together with a clap. “How about that phone?”
Right. The phone. Deacon’s phone
, which had randomly gone off with messages over the first week from girls I didn’t know who wanted a night with him. I guess he would miss that phone.
I gestured down the hall, and started walking that way. “Yeah, it’s in my room.”
Graham’s mouth suddenly pulled into a wry grin. “Perfect.”
I faltered at his look and tone, and said uneasily, “I’ll bring it to you.”
He held up his hands. “I’ll wait here.”
I hurried down the hall and into my room, and tried to hold back the angry tears that welled in my eyes as I searched through my nightstand for his phone. The fact that he wanted this phone back, the fact that he had been avoiding me for the better part of a month, the fact that he was gone . . .
It hurt, it made me angry, it made me want to beg him not to be that guy.
I gripped the phone in my hand and pulled it out of the drawer, but had taken only a step away when I noticed my notebook lying open on my bed. The same notebook that was supposed to be inside the drawer I’d just been searching through.
I reached for the notebook, but paused halfway there. My heart skipped, then painfully took off when I saw the page it was on.
It was lists of names of guys I knew in Thatch. Guys I worked with at Mama’s. Guys that I knew for sure had come into Mama’s the days the notebook had been passed back and forth between Stranger and me. Guys that could have possibly been Stranger.
Nearly all of them were crossed out. Deacon’s included.
Graham’s name was circled a few times with question marks following it.
On the very top of the page was a note in a messy scrawl I had memorized, and knew as well as my own. A note that hadn’t been there before.
