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"What's that supposed to mean?" Micah asked, sitting up in his seat.
"Every love song you ever write is about long-legged brunettes, and I am the opposite of that."
"He does have a thing for brunettes in his music," Lila said. She made a pouting face, since that left her out.
My heart had sped up considerably during this conversation, but I still tried to play it off.
"How long have you and Claire known each other?" Jordan asked. She laughed. "No pressure… I was just wondering… unrelated question."
"Micah lived in Rita's hideaway years before I did," Lila said, knowing she was in good company and could speak openly. Lila had been physically abused by her ex, and she recently lived in that same upstairs room where Micah had stayed all those years ago.
"I knew he lived up there," Jordan agreed. "I just didn't know exactly how long ago that was.
"I met Claire the day Rita took me in, basically, which has been seven years, going on eight," Micah said. "I had a different name back then. My first name is Logan."
"Is Micah your middle name?" Lila asked.
"No, I got it off of the Bible verse that's painted on the wall."
"I remember that verse," Lila said. "It's still written up there—something about being humble. What made you pick that?"
"Claire and I had a conversation in that room that made my soul get saved, and I don't know, in that moment I just knew I needed to be someone new."
I sat up in my seat, and the motion caused Micah to look at me again. I shook my head, thinking about it. "I remember that conversation, and you said you had been thinking about changing your name before that."
"I lied," he said in a matter of fact tone, causing others to laugh.
"You lied three seconds after your soul got saved?" I asked, smiling and teasing him.
He shrugged and shook his head. "I've learned that unfortunately getting saved isn't a cure for bad decisions. I've lied since then, too. I lie in my songs all the time."
I swallowed hard, and my mind raced to think of what he could possibly mean by that. He and I were looking at each other, and neither of us knew what the other was thinking.
"Speaking of songs," Lila said. "I want to check out that guitar. I couldn't see it at the restaurant. Do you have it here? I can't believe Justin Teague had it. How was it meeting him?"
She directed that last question to me, and I blinked, still feeling distracted and a little stunned.What was Micah implying when he said he lied?
"It was great," I said, answering Lila on autopilot. "Justin's really nice. I only talked to him on Facetime, though. I didn't actually meet him in person." I had glanced at Lila when I said it, but I looked at Micah afterward. Our eyes met, and again his expression was unreadable.
"Heads up!"
We heard a yell from the pool area, and I turned just in time to see a ball coming straight at me. It was thrown hard, so I didn't have time to react or try to catch it.
I flinched as I felt the impact.
Instant wetness.
The ball was soft, so it didn't technically hurt when it hit my shoulder and the side of my neck. But it was full of water, and a lot of it came out on impact. I was suddenly soaked and I gasped at the unexpected blow and then yelled in disappointment, "Aww," I said as I sat up and looked at my shirt.
"I'm so sorry, Claire!" was among the yelling I heard from the pool.
Ryan got out and instantly started heading toward me. He turned and yelled at his friend from over his shoulder. "Nice throw, Cody!" he said sarcastically.
"I'm so sorry Claire! I didn't mean to do it. Braxton should have caught that."
The two of them went on bickering about whose fault it was.
People got up from their seats to come to my rescue. Jordan had leaned toward me as if to shield me from any further attack and Micah got up and headed to get a towel. "Throw me that towel," I heard him say.
