My chest felt heavy with every emotion, the most prominent of which was all the love for my little man. “You are?” I asked as I wiggled out from underneath Deacon, my voice thick with my surprise and excitement.
“Who else would I be?” Keith started to ask just before I pulled him into the tightest hug.
“Whoever you want to be,” I whispered against his head as I peppered it with kisses.
I glanced up at Deacon as my mouth split into the widest smile. Holding Keith tighter to my chest, I covered his free ear, and whispered to Deacon, “He’s only been Keith since you left. Wouldn’t even talk about it. Any of it.”
Pain and acceptance flashed across Deacon’s features. He nodded once, then ran his hands over his face and through his hair. Pinning me with his stare, he mouthed, “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Can’t you see how happy I am?” I released Keith, and said, “Hey, buddy, are Aunt Grey and Uncle J still here?”
Keith nodded enthusiastically. “We brought dinner!”
“Okay, why don’t you go back out there, and we’ll follow you right out.”
Deacon waited until Keith was running away screaming to say, “I never should’ve walked, Charlie.”
“We both shouldn’t have done or said what we did.” I traced his handsome face, and let the tips of my fingers linger on his lips. “Deacon, I don’t want Graham. I’ve never wanted Graham.”
“I know.” He nodded toward the door. “I heard you.”
That didn’t surprise me. As soon as I’d heard him walking up behind me in the room, I’d known he had to have heard everything.
“And the song . . . you have to understand what happened with the song on that last night.” I grabbed the notebook where it rested beside me, and flipped quickly to the finished song. “Look at the chorus. Read it.” I waited for a few seconds, before I asked, “Do you see it? ‘When I look at you like that’ . . . Deacon, when had I ever knowingly looked at Stranger before I finished the song? The chorus was about you. I was only falling in love with you.”
His eyes met mine and flashed with understanding and awe. “Charlie Girl,” he murmured, his voice weighed down.
“And that last message . . .” I trailed off and shook my head. “I don’t know if you’ll ever believe me, but I was going to tell Stranger good-bye that night. I thought he deserved to see the full song. Once he—once you responded, I was going to explain the chorus and tell him that I was done. But there was no response, and then you were back in my room.”
There was a short hesitation before Deacon sighed. As he spoke, he moved to sit on the bed and pulled me into his arms. “All I saw that night was that you messaged him and I saw the words heart and love, and I lost it. I didn’t even fully grasp the other words; I didn’t understand that it didn’t fit for someone you’d never seen. But it makes sense now.”
My eyes landed on the phone resting forgotten at the foot of my bed. “That phone . . .”
Another long sigh. “I never thought I would hate that I had that phone.”
“It went off a lot that first week before it finally died.”
Deacon’s forehead landed on my shoulder, and for a moment, he didn’t speak. “I had it for the girls I slept with. I didn’t want them to have my real number. I gave it to Words because I was trying to figure out if she was one of them . . . if she was someone I should stop talking to immediately. Didn’t know the number when you messaged me, obviously. Didn’t even recognize yours when Grey sent it to me.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
My stomach churned and chest ached, but I tried to push those feelings away. I knew this was from a different Deacon. A lifetime ago.
“After that day I forgot to pick you up from work, I have only used that phone to talk to Words. No one else. Graham knew I was still using it, and he and Knox about lost their minds because they knew I was seeing you. But I didn’t tell them about Words until after the Fourth.” He nodded in the direction of my door. “Graham’s waiting to set the phone on fire.”
“I’ll help.”
Deacon’s fingers curled around my jaw to turn my head to face his. He was smiling sadly. “I’m so damn sorry.”
“One day at a time?” I asked hesitantly.
“One day at a time,” he agreed, and pressed his mouth to mine. “Only you, Charlie Girl.”
My body warmed with his words and his kiss, but it ended soon after when we heard Keith yelling in the front of the house.
After another lingering kiss, I pushed against his chest. “Come on, let’s go destroy this phone and eat with everyone before Keith comes storming in again.”
“That’s why Jagger tried to keep us apart,” he mumbled as he helped me off the bed. When I looked back at him with a confused expression, he clarified, “Graham told him about the phone. Everyone thought I was sleeping around on you.”
“Oh.” My eyes shut, and I released a slow breath as we walked toward the door leading to the hallway. “That’s something else we’ll have to deal with later.”
“What, your brother?”
I arched a brow when I looked back up into those light brown eyes. “Yeah. He’s not going to believe you as easily as I did.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “I told him earlier that I was spending the rest of my life with you and your son.”
I faltered, then stopped. “You what? What did he say?”
A mischievous smirk flashed across Deacon’s face as he bent to kiss me. “You found me in your room, didn’t you? He wouldn’t have helped me through the window if he wasn’t okay with me marrying you someday.”
I stared openmouthed at him for long seconds after he pulled away, and that smirk on his face grew.
“You and your words, Charlie Girl.”
Epilogue
Deacon
A year and a half later . . .
“HEY THERE, LITTLE stranger,” I whispered, and settled into the recliner next to Charlie Girl’s bed. “Looks like it’s just you and me now.”
Wide, dark eyes stared up at me. Eyelids heavy and blinking slowly.