CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Amelia
“I’ll raise,” I say, leaning across the table to drop my chips in the pot.
Ellery narrows her eyes. “Darn it. I fold.”
“Me too,” Millie says. She’s relaxed around us, but not enough to glare at me for my good hand, or supposed good hand. She gives me a cheery smile as she drops her cards onto the discard pile.
“You’re bluffing,” Lennox says, dropping in her chips.
“I agree.” Gentry smiles as she adds her chips.
She hasn’t stopped smiling since she got here.
I don’t know all the details, but it would seem that her recent family issues have finally resolved and I have a good feeling that she and Levi might have worked things out too.
She won’t tell us. She says it’s too soon to talk about it.
I’ve been smiling a lot myself. Since that phone call with Deacon earlier in the week, we’ve been talking every night, and he’s meeting me at my place later since Harper is sleeping over at Mom and Dad’s.
Bryson’s picking her up in the morning to spend a couple of hours with her at the playground before I meet up with them.
“Let’s see your cards,” I say to Lennox and Gentry.
They lay them out, and I dance in my seat. I lay down my four of a kind and add the pot to my pile of chips. “I am having a good night.”
“That can change,” Ellery says as she grabs everyone’s cards and starts to shuffle.
My phone, which is on the table next to my hand in case my parents or Harper need something, dings. I flip it over, see the notification, and open the dating app. I’ve been messaging with HandsyGuy, but he’s been really busy this week.
HandsyGuy: If you had a choice between cage diving with sharks or bungee jumping, which would you choose?
I snort, and Gentry leans over to look at what’s on my phone. She’s nosy like that.
“Is that Sebastian?” she asks, pointing at the thumbnail picture on my screen. “That looks like his beard and his tattoo.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “We haven’t exchanged names.”
“Oh.” Gentry frowns for the first time all night. “Are you thinking about dating him?”
“Probably not,” I say. “We’re just friends.”
Her expression lightens. “Oh, good. That’s good.” She opens her mouth to say something, stops herself, shakes her head, then opens her mouth again. “This might be crossing some line, but you’re my friend.”
“Don’t tell me anything,” I say, because I’m still not ready to know too much about HandsyGuy IRL.
“That’s not Sebastian,” she blurts. “It’s his brother pretending to be him.”
“Are you sure?” Ellery asks, with more urgency than I’d expect. “Why would anyone do that?”
Gentry rolls her eyes. “Sebastian’s been really hard on the guys lately.
He’s been even grumpier than usual and… Actually, he’s being too hard on himself, too.
Anyway, Deacon decided Sebastian needs a girlfriend, so he set up a dating profile in Sebastian’s name.
Deacon tried to get Levi to pretend to be Sebastian, but he had no interest in getting dragged into another prank.
” She studies my face, looking worried. “You’re not into him, right?
I mean, it’s okay if you are, just know you’re talking to Deacon and not Sebastian. ”
“Deacon?” I ask, feeling weak. “Deacon Sullivan?”
“That bastard,” Ellery says.
I don’t even have the bandwidth to be shocked that she swore. Ellery never swears. But all I can focus on is that Deacon’s been lying to me. He’s known all along that I have a daughter.
“Yes,” Gentry says. “Levi’s brother, Deacon. What did he do?”
“He lied to her,” Ellery says. “Deacon’s been dating Amelia while he messaged with her as a different guy.”
“That’s awful,” Millie says. “He seemed so nice.”
“It’s worse than that,” I say, looking at Ellery, my heart pounding so hard the room goes fuzzy around the edges. “The whole thing was a setup. Meeting me at the hardware store, helping me out with the cat gym. It was all planned. None of it was real.”
“In a dark romance, this plot would totally work,” Lennox says. “It would demonstrate he’s willing to do anything and everything to be with you. Kind of romantic if you think about it.”
Everyone at the table gives her varying looks of disbelief and annoyance. She holds up her hands. “But major red flags in real life. I get it. Totally shutting up now.”
“That doesn’t seem like something Deacon would do,” Gentry says. “He doesn’t always think before he makes a decision, but I’ve never known him to be manipulative. Are you even sure he knows now that you and the person he’s messaging are the same? You said you haven’t exchanged names.”
“I guess it’s possible,” I say slowly, working it out. “But that’s a pretty unbelievable coincidence.”
“Maybe not in this town,” Ellery says. “If the impossibility of finding a man to date is anything to go by, this town is tiny.”
“So small I’d run into the guy who’s been messaging me on a dating app, and he can’t figure out who I am?”
She shrugs.
“Stranger things have happened,” Gentry says. “You should at least give him a chance to explain his side of the story.”
“Sure,” I say. “Makes sense.” But I’m not feeling very open to hearing whatever lie he’s going to spin this time.
Anger is good. It’s comfortable.
It allows me to ignore that my heart is breaking.
In one fell swoop, I’m losing Deacon and HandsyGuy.