Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
MAGNOLIA
I stared at the artwork in front of me. My entire world rocked. My mystery sketch artist was none other than Bowen Dupree—the boy who’d appointed himself the role of arch nemesis. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Why?
Why would he be so hurtful every time I saw him and then turn around and do something so sweet, so thoughtful? It made no logical sense.
“Welp.” Sophie slapped both hands against the dinner table. “Mom and Dad, why don’t you go check those cows? Or whatever that’s code for.” She pretended to retch. “We’ll get going on the dishes.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Silas took Lemon’s hand and they headed outside.
Sophie stood and turned on the faucet, filling the sink with hot water. Bowen immediately hopped up to clear plates. And I sat there watching him. He stacked the plates quickly, hands trembling slightly, looking anywhere but at me.
I needed to get up and help, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t process what I’d just learned. I glanced back at the sketch he’d done of his mom. The style, the colors, the strokes, were the same as all the sketches I’d received.
“Can you finish this up?” he whispered to Sophie. “I’m going to drive over to Dupree Ranch and see if Gramps needs any help tonight.”
“Mhmm,” Sophie said, scrubbing away.
He bolted for the front door. I hopped up and hurried after him. He’d just reached the sidewalk when the screen door banged shut behind me.
“Bowen,” I said.
He stopped, his back to me, hands on his hips, shoulders falling in resignation as he gazed at the fields below. But he said nothing.
“Bowen,” I repeated. “We need to talk about it.”
He turned to face me, eyes cold. “Talk about what?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Seriously? Just be honest for once.”
His forehead tightened, ready to deflect whatever I threw at him. “I don’t know what you mean?”
“You drew those pictures of me.”
He gave me a single defiant headshake. “No, I didn’t.”
“You did,” I said calmly, no accusation in my tone. Because why would there be? It was one of the kindest things anyone had ever done for me. “Please tell the truth.”
“I didn’t,” he bit out, trying to terrify me into submission. “And you can’t prove it.”
“I mean, I can. One of my dad’s best friends is an FBI profiler.” True story. “He’s scary good at this stuff. All I have to do is give him one of my mystery sketches and one of the ones from back inside.”
“You wouldn’t?”
“I would. No…” I nodded. “I will. Or you could just admit it.”
His hands shoved into his hair, messing up his man bun. “Fine. It was me.” He looked so ashamed. “But you can’t tell Griffin.”
I wasn’t making any promises. Not yet.
I bounded down the stairs and stopped in front of him. “Why’d you do it?”
“I can’t.” He fell back a step like I was radioactive. “I’ve said too much.”
“No. That’s not how this is going to go. I’m the one calling the shots this time. Why’d you do it?” I asked again, with less patience.
“Because.” His head dropped back and his eyes closed. “I hated being so mean to you, and I was trying to make up for it. You weren’t supposed to find out.”
“Why?” I asked again.
He stared at me. “I just answered why.”
“No. Why were you mean to me in the first place? And why did you feel bad about it?” I threw my hands out. “I mean, if you’re going to be a douchebag, you need to commit. None of this back and forth nonsense.”
A muscle in his jaw pulsed, but he didn’t speak.
“You’re going to tell me,” I demanded. “Or I’m telling Griffin about the drawings.”
His mouth fell open. “Are you blackmailing me?”
“Yes,” I said, not the least bit ashamed. “You made my life miserable for two years.” I poked him in the chest. “You owe me answers.”
But he didn’t give me any. He just stood there, staring me down, guarding all his secrets.
Suddenly, everything clicked into place.
I froze, hand half-raised before I let it drop.
“You liked me. On our Sole Mates date. That was the real you. Sweet, funny, a touch flirty. A gentleman. Not all of this a-hole behavior you’ve exhibited since.
All this—” my finger made a swirl in front of his hardened expression, “is a cover. I didn’t realize it until now.
” I hooted, the truth sucking the darkness of the last two years from my lungs.
“But you, Bowen Dupree, are a nice guy.”
“No. I’m a jerk,” he sounded desperate for me to believe it.
“Nope. You’re a nice guy. And you liked me at Sole Mates. But then, you saw Griffin’s phone call and realized I was the girl he’d been trying to get with all summer. That’s what happened. Isn’t it?”
His whole face dropped, like the scaffolding holding him together had just been kicked out from under him.
I stepped toward him. “Why didn’t you just tell me that night?”
His eyes skittered over my face, hands tugging at the back of his hair, like he was going to run.
“Bowen,” I said more sternly. “For the love, just give it up. This behavior has been crazy-making. I felt something intense for you at Sole Mates.” I pressed a hand over my heart.
“I thought it was going to be the start of something amazing, and then you disappeared. Do you have any idea how that felt? Coming out of the bathroom, so giddy and excited, only to find you gone?”
His eyes went hooded, like it hurt to look at me—to face what he’d done.
“And the next time I saw you, you were horrible. You told your girlfriend—who you broke up with a month later, now that I think of it—that she had the best legs you’d ever seen after you’d said the same thing to me.
” I dug my finger into his breastbone. “You were purposely hurtful because you wanted me to stay away from you. You were trying to throw me off. And it worked. I thought I was losing my mind. For two years.” I exhaled, releasing some of the pain.
“It’s time for the madness to end, Bowen.
Tell. Me. The truth.” I poked him once for each word.
He caught my wrist and squeezed, yanking me against him. I looked up into those gray eyes, stormier than I’d ever seen them. I couldn’t breathe being that close to him.
“Fine,” he snapped. “I liked you, okay? So much. Of course, I did. You were adorable, and hilarious, and sexy as hell. And so freaking brilliant,” he spat like it disgusted him—like admitting that made him weak and he hated himself for it.
“And we had this insane connection. But none of that mattered. Because you were Griff’s.
So I left.” He tossed my hand away. “Are you happy now?
I stood there, head spinning. He’d felt the same about me? He wasn’t repulsed by me? My breath wasn’t bad? He hadn’t had cold feet? He’d liked me. He’d wanted me. Just like I’d wanted him.
And he’d left anyway.
My heart fissured—a piece breaking clean off and hitting the ground with a smack. The past two years flashed through my mind. Not as they had actually happened, but as they could have been.
Bowen and I at football games together, in matching orange and blue.
Lying on the Lawn, studying. Feeding each other Bodo’s.
He knew my coffee order by heart and I knew his.
Lazy Sunday afternoons playing Scrabble.
Hikes and running. Holidays at home. Taking a ride on the Skyline Drive to watch the fall leaves change color.
Kissing.
There would’ve been so much kissing. In the library, in his car, at my apartment, in the courtyard of Monroe Hall.
I would’ve loved it. Lived for it. There was no doubt.
But then, what could’ve been faded from view and reality settled back into place.
Him leaving during Sole Mates. Lying about being a UVA student.
Saving my life and breaking my heart all in the same day.
Throwing out hurtful jabs whenever I was here at their house during Christmas break or the summer.
He had done those things. Of his own free will.
And a bunch of anonymous sketches—no matter how beautiful—couldn’t wipe that away.
I took a step back and shook my head. “I wasn’t Griff’s then.” The words scraped as they came out of my throat. “But I am now.”
I trudged back up the sidewalk; every step heavier than the last.
“You can’t tell Griff,” Bowen said, in the same acid-infused tone he used whenever he wanted to wound me.
I kept going, my lungs leaden.
“Please don’t tell Griff,” he rasped, stripped of all the armor he’d worn seconds ago.
I turned to face him, unprepared for the sight in front of me.
He blinked back tears, hands on the top of his head like he’d start ripping his hair out if I didn’t agree.
This man was one of the most popular people on the grounds of UVA.
Girls whispered his name as he walked past. I’d heard it.
Many times. But right now? Even with his bulging biceps, wide shoulders, strong jaw, and eyes that stole the hearts of women everywhere he went, he looked like a helpless little boy.
I didn’t understand. Not fully. I hated myself for wanting to shield him from the very heartbreak he’d given me. But I couldn’t cause him pain, no matter how much he’d caused me. It simply wasn’t in my nature.
“I won’t,” I promised. Then I climbed the porch stairs and escaped into the house.
When the door closed, I jumped. Sophie was standing there. She must’ve been watching through the sidelights.
She held her jaw tight, like she was afraid that if she loosened it, something she shouldn’t say might slip out. “I don’t know what Sole Mates is or what happened that night, and I know you’re mad at him for the way he’s treated you…but you don’t have the whole picture.”
My forehead furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I love both of them,” she said. “You know that, right?” There was a tightness in her voice that told me this was her disclaimer before she dropped a truth bomb that would leave me standing in emotional rubble.
I hugged myself, gearing up. “Of course.”
“It’s not my place to tell you, and they’d both be really mad if I did.
So I’ll only say this…” She hesitated. “There’s a reason Bowen rolls over to make Griffin happy.
A good one. And I would bet money that Bowen didn’t want to be mean to you.
” She pressed her lips together as if afraid to say more.
“If he didn’t want to be mean, then why was he? He had a choice. No one put a gun to his head.”
“It’s not that easy.” Her eyes hooked mine, so serious and a touch broken. Then she said something that changed my and Griffin’s relationship forever. “The truth is, Bowen is a puppet on a string…and Griffin is the puppet master.”