Page 16 of Same Difference
“I have to go.” He hung up fast and dropped the phone onto the table like it had burned his palm.
He linked his hands behind his head and stared at the damn thing as a hundred questions flitted through his mind in Delta’s voice. She’d peppered him in the beginning, hadn’t she? It had annoyed him. And then she’d grown quieter and quieter.
Had he done that to her? All she’d asked toward the end was, “Are you all right?” “Is anything wrong?” “Are you angry with me?” “Did I do something wrong?” “Are you okay?”
Maybe she didn’t know how to ask him anything else anymore.
Maybe he’d killed them.
Before he could change his mind, he picked up his phone and texted Delta.
Are you okay?Send.
Only the message wouldn’t go through. He waited and waited, and then tried again.
Are you okay?Send.
It just sat there under the other text, not going through.
He had to search the internet to figure out what was wrong with his texts.
She’d blocked him.
The ache in his chest spread wider.
He’d thought at times that Delta had been weak because she was submissive, but he was learning today that she wasn’t weak at all.
She was very tough. When she made a decision, she stuck with it, and in this moment he had so many regrets. He had memories of her face, and the changes in her eyes over the past two months. They’d been bright and happy, and her smile had been so easy in the beginning. And then the light had slowly faded from her eyes until the day Nory came into their territory, and she’d admitted she was lonely and wanted Nory to stay.
He remembered he’d been so shocked that Delta had said she was lonely. She had him. How could she be lonely? He’d resented it a little even.
But maybe it was him. Maybe Nate didn’t know how to be present with a woman like Delta.
Maybe he hadn’t wanted to, so he hadn’t tried.
Liam could hear her crying in that little house, and Nate couldn’t be there to protect her from the thing that was hurting her.
He was that thing.
He’d fucked up.
Twenty-four hours ago, they had been salvageable. That’s what Delta had been waiting for, right? For him to come around, and open up to her, and let her in?
And now she was actively cutting her heart from him, and he couldn’t take any of it back.
He couldn’t go back in time.
He would never be able to take away the memory of him trying to give her back.
Fuck, he’d really done that to her, and with no warning, and without a thought. Why had he done that? Why hadn’t it occurred to him that it was wrong?
Her ex got the satisfaction of knowing her mate was trying to get rid of her.
Her father had to worry about her well-being because she’d been rejected so blatantly.
Nory had talked about Delta’s insecurities, and he tried to imagine how he would feel. It wouldn’t be a big deal if she’d done what he’d done and kept his heart from her. But Delta had fallen. He’d been able to see it in the hurt that swam in her pretty green eyes, and in the strangling silence she had filled his truck with. He bet she’d cried for all she was losing in that gas station bathroom, while he’d been angry that she was making him feel guilty.
The damage was big.
