Gladly, even.
His eyebrows slashing together over his dark eyes, Deacon refocussed on my face.“What the fuck did Baxter almost killing his father have to do with you?”
“That was the deal I made to keep Baxter out of jail.”
“Why?”he barked.“Why would you do that?”
Always questioning.
Always suspicious of my friendship with Baxter.
Unable to accept that once upon a time, Baxter had been the only one to really know me.
But that, too, was a long time gone.
My body trembled like the last leaf clinging to the naked limbs of autumn as I whispered, “Because friends don’t abandon one another.”
Deacon stilled, his body poised like that of a predator waiting to pounce.He jerked his head back toward the table behind us.“Do they know everything?”
I winced and shook my head.Leave it to Deacon to find the open wound and pour salt on it.“Not yet.”
He gaped.“Why the hell not?”
I met his gaze and held it.“They’re not ready to listen.And it’s not easy approaching someone when they believe the worst of you.”
A sliver of regret flashed in his eyes, cracking the shutter open for a fraction of a second.
It wasn’t nearly enough.
My pulse settled.
This was not the man I remembered, the boy I loved.
Life had hardened this man beyond recognition, and I was a woman who required softness.
I almost wished I hadn’t agreed to meet with him.
I almost wished he hadn’t had the opportunity to smash the image I carried of him in my heart of hearts.
Because now I was losing him all over again.
But this time, I’d be the one to walk away.
“I think we’ve said all that needs to be said,” I murmured.
There was a time I would have told him the rest.Now it was pointless.
Though unspoken, meeting with him stirred up those old ghosts, sending a warning ripple over the false surface of my calm.
I had to get out of there before I broke down.
Because while Deacon had changed, filling out to become the man he was today, I was still in love with the boy I knew back then.
And he was well and truly gone.
“I’m going to take my food to go,” I stated quietly.
Not that I would be able to eat it.
