Page 8 of The Promise Of Rain

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.