Page 7 of What He Always Knew

The logical side of me echoed my thoughts withof course he asked for more time, he loves her and doesn’t want to lose her, dumb ass.But the side of me that had tasted Charlie, the side that had felt what it was like to own her —thatside said bullshit.

He didn’t deserve her. He’d naïvely believed he could treat her the way he had for five years and she’d just stay. He thought she’d never leave. And then when she finally told him she was going, he begged for more time.

Bullshit.

“Why should he get another two months?” I asked.

I was fuming, nostrils flaring as Charlie slipped her hand back from where it rested in front of mine and picked up her soup spoon, instead. I felt the loss of that energy between us, and I reached my hand forward, begging her to keep the connection.

“I don’t know, because he wants a chance, I guess,” she said with a shrug. “He wants more time.”

“And what do you want?”

She closed her eyes on a breath.

“I don’t know, Reese. I’m just… I’m confused. I love him, too.” Her eyes opened again, the pain in them mirroring mine. “I’m sorry, but I do. This is all… it’s so much.”

She dropped her soup spoon before even attempting to take a bite, sitting back in her chair.

My hand inched forward again, and she watched the movement, her eyes stuck on my fingertips before they found me again. I needed to touch her. I needed to hold her, to remind her what it felt like when she was in my arms this weekend.

Watching her sitting there so close to me, yet so far away, it was almost as torturous as the night she left me in the fort we’d built. And with the next words she spoke, the same longing ache I’d felt that night ripped through me like a knife.

“I told him yes.”

Her voice was just a whisper, but it might as well have been a train.

“I gave him two months.”

I closed my eyes, pushing a breath through my nose as I tried to hold onto what hope was still left.

I wanted to scream, to flip tables and demand for her to leave him tonight. The rational side of me didn’t exist when it came to Charlie. There was only the mad man inside me, the one who had wanted her for so long —toolong — and now that he’d had her, there was no satiating him.

She had to be mine. That was the only answer.

But I knew I couldn’t have her if I didn’t give her the time she needed, the space to make the decision on her own.

She had to choose me, too.

After a moment, I leaned back in my own chair, my hand still flat on the table, though there was too much distance between us now. “I understand,” I finally said.

“You do?”

“I do.”

Charlie sighed, leaning forward, her hand on the table again. She spread her fingers over the cool surface, her eyes on mine.

“Thank you,” she said, fingers inching forward.

We watched each other, and I asked her without words what this meant for me — for us. When her hand reached just far enough for her middle finger to touch the tip of mine, my heart squeezed.

It didn’t change anything for us. That small touch told me so.

Hope trickled back in.

“There’s something I need to tell you, too,” I said, and I swept my hand over hers.

But before I could say another word, Mr. Henderson swung into the café, his eyes lighting up when he spotted us in the corner.