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Charlie shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. When their eyes met, he raised his eyebrows, effectively saying so?
“I mean,” she sniffled. “Do you want me to say I’m sorry that I wanted to be with you that way?”
His sarcastic laugh startled her.
“Jesus, Charlie.” She took a step toward him but stopped when he stepped back. “I keep dreaming about you. About the way you felt inside me.”
“What do you want me to say?” he growled. “Fucking you was the best moment in my life. Getting my mouth on you? Better than any fucking whiskey I’m ever gonna have on my tongue. Watching you come under me, pinned to the floor? Better than free porn.” He shrugged.
“Then why are things weird between us now?”
“First of all.” He shrugged. “Things were never particularly friendly between us, because you’re prickly as a fucking porcupine. Second, are you fucking kidding me? We have insane frenzied sex all over your floor, and it’s so good, I would have died happy laying there beside you, and you wanna know why things are weird now?”
Uncertain how to answer him, she nibbled on her lip and looked away.
“You wanna know what really got me, Tatum?”
He moved again. Toe to toe with her, she could feel the heat from his body.
“What?”
“You got up and walked away. To wash me off you the second we were done. And as if that’s not enough, you locked your fucking door like I’m a monster that would have followed you in there and forced you to do it again.”
Tatum looked up, taken aback by how close he was. She met his eyes briefly, but afraid he would see too much, she tipped her chin to her chest and licked her lips.
“That’s because I wanted you to follow me and do me again.”
Her whispered confession was met with silence. Tatum counted to three before looking up at him again, and then she wished she wouldn’t have. She should have walked out of the coffee house and gone straight home.
She shouldn’t have gone to the whiskey tasting.
She shouldn’t have come to Long Grove.
But then, Tatum didn’t belong anywhere, so where could she have gone?
Home for now. Maybe to pack up and try to start over again.
21
Charlie stared at her for a moment, speechless at her confession. Before he could react, Tatum stepped around him and started walking down the alley.
“What does that mean?” He forced himself to stay calm, but when she kept walking, the same outrage, the same hurt, he’d been swallowing since they’d been together leapt up like a flame in his gut, his chest. “What the fuck does that mean, Tatum?”
“I never should have come here.”
She spoke quietly, but her words carried back to him. Confused and unwilling to let it go this time, Charlie rushed after her.
“Stop talking in riddles.”
“Look.” She spun to face him and gave him a hard stare. “This. Doesn’t. Work. It never works.”
“What doesn’t work?”
“This.” She drilled her finger into his chest.
“What? You fuck a lot of guys the way you did me?”
His words stuck hard, and he felt a jolt of guilt when he saw the hurt look on her face.
