Page 156 of Texting Dr. Stalker

To say just how much this meant to me. That she literally couldn’t have done a nicer thing. That she was the first and only to make me a meal and I wanted to get on my knees and show her how grateful I was.

I didn’t just want to bed this girl.

I want to goddamn marry her.

The windchimes Gran had strung up decades ago in the conservatory suddenly swung and sang.

I froze.

That’s spooky as hell.

They couldn’t sing as no windows were open. No wind of any kind.

So how…?

Goosebumps shot down my spine as one of the potted ferns rustled as if someone had brushed past.

Sailor had said her place was haunted.

I’d seen it firsthand with that damn TV turning on all the time, but I hadn’t felt the presence of the dead here before. But now…now it felt as if all the people I’d lost were crowded by the back door, pushing their noses to the glass, and watching me have a quarter life crisis about how much I wanted the girl I’d been betrothed to as a six-year-old boy just because his grandmother had a best-friend who dreamed of becoming family.

Ignoring the nosy ghosts, I focused on my phone.

Me:I can’t thank you enough for the food. And for telling me why it’s hard to be around me. I know you’re still healing and this is probably far too soon but…would you like to have a drink with—

What the fuck are you doing?

I choked and deleted the text with a panicking thumb.

Holy shit, that was close!

I couldn’t text her.

My number was registered as X in her phone.

Christ, how could I forget that?

A cold sweat broke out at the thought of what would’ve happened if I’d sent that message. She would’ve known instantly. All my lies would’ve come tumbling down and…

Maybe this was the way it was meant to go?

Maybe we could figure a way around all my lies and shady stalking behaviour?

Or she sells her house and runs away.

Bracing both hands on either side of the plate, I sighed heavily.

God, this is such a mess.

I’d gotten rid of X.

I no longer seemed to freak her out as Zander.

Instead of revealing my lies, I could just bury them as deep as every other skeleton in my closet and pretend he never existed.

I could resume my protective watching as her neighbour and not her stalker.

This…this could be agoodthing.

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