Page 37 of Stalker's Valentine

“Yeah.” I grinned. I hadn’t thought about that in a long time. My sister was the best. Though, all of them were, really. “How’s work?” I asked, and she grinned. This was a subject she loved to chat about. She went on and on about her days at the salon. Usually, I loved the stories she told me. As a hairdresser and makeup artist, Raven was super talented. But I couldn’t get myself to focus. My thoughts kept returning to the man in the bar.Why did he look so familiar?

That’s when I remembered.

He’d been the delivery guy who had dropped off the fruit arrangement. The gifts had stopped arriving the night I’d thought someone had been in my place and Merri and I had made love for the first time.Could he be my secret admirer?

Raven and I kept talking while I sipped on my water bottle. My eyes drifted off towards the parking lot. It was pretty empty. Just a few bikers standing together next to their Harleys. That’s when I saw it. A window rolled up quickly, but not quickly enough. I’d caught a glimpse of Merritt.

Or it’d looked like Merritt.Why is Merritt here?

I shook the thought away and wanted to laugh at myself. I was imagining things. He’d said he had some work to do andwould see me in the morning. I was seeing him in places he wasn’t at because I missed him.That has to be it.

The night kept going, and we hopped from bar to bar, calling an Uber each time. Even though I was sober, having only indulged in one shot, none of us ever drove after consuming a drop of alcohol. It was a little after midnight, and we were at the brewery because the girls wanted to sing karaoke. They’d even talked me into going on stage with them since it was my first time there for the event.

As I headed up to the stage, my brows bunched when I noticed him. The delivery driver was sitting at the far end of the bar with a beer in front of him. One that by the looks of it he hadn’t touched.

I tried to focus as Olive took my hand and Coral tossed her arm over my shoulder and the music started for Abba’sDancing Queen. That’s when I saw him. Merritt. Merritt hid in the back against the shadows of the dark area of the dance floor. Just standing there.

Watching me.

He didn’t try to hide it either or avoid my eyes.

But then again, why should he? We were together. He was my boyfriend. Not that he’d called himself that, had he? We’d said I love you and told each other we wanted to have a family together.

He’d said it again just last night.

I was being silly.

I could chalk up the delivery guy to being a coincidence. We just happened to be at two of the same places at the same time. It didn’t mean he’d followed me. But why wouldn’t Merritt have come up to us? Say hi?Unless he is there with someone else? the cynical side of me wondered, but I shook it away. He wasn’t. He loved me.Merritt is mine.

The lyrics started, and I swayed along with Coral, who was drunk and having a great time, when suddenly ,in the middle of our turn, it hit me.

Like puzzle pieces colliding together and every single thing becoming clear. Making sense.

Merritt.

Merrit was my secret admirer.

He’d known where I lived. Not because Austin had told him but because he’d figured it out before that. It was why the gifts had started to show up the day after I saw him again at my brother’s bar. How he had picked my favorite bouquet of flowers. It hadn’t been by chance or the fact they made him think of me!

He’d been following me. It explained the feeling of being constantly watched since the party. Before the countdown! Why he had been at the coffee shop when I’d been there.

Oh god, has Merritt been stalking me?

Olive shot me a look, like‘What the hell? Why aren’t you singing’? I kept trying but failed as more chips fell into place.

He’d known his way around my house. Had he been in there without me? Or while I’d been home? I hadn’t left a window open.It was him.Merri had been at my house. Alone.

If he’d done that, what else had he done?

Almost as if sensing my distress, I watched while I sang as he pushed off the wall. The devastatingly handsome man I’d given my heart to started to walk towards me like it was his life’s mission. When Merri passed Austin, I didn’t miss the way Austin called after him, but Merri didn’t stop. It was clear he was rushing over, and just like a deer caught in headlights, I didn’t know what to do.

merritt

. . .

She knew.

Fucking hell, I had no idea what had tipped her off to put things together, but she had.

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