Page 77 of What He Always Knew

“I need to sit down,” she said, one hand finding her head as she wobbled forward for the bench. “I need to think. I need time.”

“You’vehadtime, Charlie,” I reminded her, grabbing her hand to help her sit. I took the place next to her, folding her hands in mine. “I know you love us both, I get it, but you don’t love him like you love me. I’m the one for you,” I said as she shook her head, tears pooling in her eyes again. “I’m the one for you and you know it.”

“Please, Reese.”

“Tell him. Tell him tonight.”

“I don’t feel well. Please, can we just—”

“Damn it, Charlie,” I said, and in the next instant, my lips were on hers, hard and needy and bursting with the urgency I felt in every inch of my being. I wrapped her in my arms as she melted into me, her tears falling to slip between our lips. She was crying because she knew the truth, because she knew it was me, and she didn’t want to hurt Cameron. I knew it, but I couldn’t wait any longer.

I had to have her now.

“Tell me you love me,” I begged her, my hands framing her face as I kissed her again. “But only if it’s true.”

“I love you,” she whispered, her face breaking with the admission. “I always have. You brought me back to life, Reese.”

She kissed me between her words, shaking her head like I was stupid to even question her love at all.

“I have never felt the way I feel with you with anyone else in my entire life. Saying I love you isn’t enough to really say how I feel about you. I cherish you, I want you, I can’t imagine having to live without you.”

“Thenbewith me.”

Her face warped with emotion again, but before she could say another word, her eyes shot open wide at something behind me.

“I knew it.”

A chill raced down my spine, dread covering me like a cool mist as I turned to find Blake standing behind me.

“I fuckingknewit!” She threw her drink at me, splattering me with wine as I dodged the glass. It shattered somewhere behind Charlie as she hid behind me. “Is this why you won’t touch me, why you won’t so much askissme?”

“Blake, I can explain.”

“You can explain why you’re making out with a married woman while your girlfriend is in the other room?!” she challenged, laughing. “Oh, please, do tell.”

“I love her,” I said. Charlie squeezed my arm, but I kept going. “I’m sorry, Blake. But I do.”

“And what about me?” Blake cried.

I just stared at her, a foreign ache in my heart surging at the sight of her crying. I never wanted to hurt her. I never wanted her to find out like this. But I couldn’t take it back, now, and I wouldn’t even if I could.

“Fuck you, Reese Walker,” she spat, and she turned on her heels, knocking straight into Cameron on her way back inside.

He held an award in his hand.

“Cam,” Charlie gasped, stepping out from behind me. She looked from him to me and back again, her mouth open with words stuck just inside.

Cameron’s brows were low over his eyes, his mouth in a flat line as he glanced between the two of us. He shook his head, a sardonic laugh slipping from his lips as he let his head fall back, his eyes cast up toward the sky. He slid one hand into his pocket, the other still holding the gold apple award, and he took his time bringing his gaze back to Charlie. When it was there, the hurt in his eyes was enough to feel like a knife between my own ribs, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.

“You won teacher of the year,” he said, his voice flat. “They just announced it. Congratulations.”

And with that, he set the award on a bench, turned, and stormed off in the same direction Blake had.

Charlie lunged forward, her voice strained with emotion. “Cam!”

“Let him go,” I told her, wrapping her in my arms, but she shoved me away, stumbling over her heels in the process.

Then, she ran to the nearest tree, doubling over just in time to vomit at its base.