Page 105 of Lavender Lake

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“Then why the hell would you want to be around me anyway?” My cheeks flashed with heat and my blood boiled with emotion.

“God damn it, she was right,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Who was right?”

“Hadley.” He shook his head. “She told me to stay away from you. She told me you would chew me up and spit me out. And you wouldn’t even do it on purpose. That it’s just the way you are.”

I swallowed. “Hadley told you that?”

“Yes. So I have no one to blame but myself. I just never expected . . .”

“What?”

“To fall so fucking hard and fast for you.”

“You can’t. You don’t feel that way,” I insisted.

“I don’t?” He smiled slightly. “God, this sucks. You don’t feel the same. Do you?”

I didn’t reply.

He shoved his arms into his shirt and stalked away. “See ya around, Powell.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The Ranch

I’d skipped dinner and stayed out past bedtime, only returning when the house was quiet and bedded down for the night.

Hadley had texted before she’d gone to sleep, but I hadn’t replied.

All of Cas’s personal belongings had been removed from the bathroom.

I was staring at my bedroom ceiling, my mind a whirl.

My chest was a hollowed-out cave.

In New York, my heart had been a blackened, charred mess. But being here, being with Cas, our honest conversations, him seeing me at my worst . . . something had begun to grow from the ashes of my pain.

I’d been momentarily stunned by Cas’s declaration. But after the shock had worn off, terror had been the next feeling.

Not because what he said frightened me.

Not because I wasn’t sure about what a future with him looked like.

But because I felt it too.

The magnetism between us. The easy laughter, the camaraderie; the pure joy that came with finding someone who completely understood you.

All of you.

Every crevice. Every shadow.

Did I know what Cas was short for?

No.

Did he know my favorite color?

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