Waylon drops his hand to his side, his face clouding over with the same disappointment he displayed when I didn’t kiss him at the roadhouse. “You belong to me.”

“I don’t,” I remind him. “I don’t belong to you. This is some weird obsession on your part, and I don’t understand why you’re directing it at me, of all people. I met that woman at your trailer. All you have to do is snap your fingers to get anyone here you want. Doing this for me. Obsessing over me. It doesn't make any sense.”

He turns to regard me with a serious look. “You don't understand. You're right. I've been with plenty of girls. When I'm at the compound, all I have to do is snap my fingers, and they come right to me. Even if they already belong to somebody else.”

I shake my head, still not understanding. Like, at all. “So, you're saying that you chose me because I was hard to get?”

“I didn't choose anything, angel.” He shakes his head back at me as if everything he’s saying is obvious. “I woke up on the table, and I saw the woman I was meant to be with. Otherwise, I would’ve pulled the trigger and asked questions later.”

I screw my face up, unable to believe the words coming out of his mouth. “So you think this was what? Love at first sight?”

He lets out a consternated breath. “No, I wouldn't call it that. More like a lightning bolt hit me when I looked at you.”

He looks down as if he’s trying to figure out how to explain everything to me. “You were something I wanted. Something I planned to have before leaving Delaware. But I didn’t decide to keep you until I touched you and you slapped me.”

I glance from side to side, so confused it would be comical if I wasn’t standing in front of an exact replica of my dream house. “Why would me hitting you make you want to keep me? Are you not aware that’s the number one reason guys have ghosted me in the past?”

His face takes on a stubborn set. “I don’t know about who came before me. It’s not something I want to think about. But you and me….”

His face works, his chin moving up and down, and his chest caving like somebody trying to vomit something out. It takes him several moments to finish with, “We got some shit in common. Shit I don’t talk about. Ever. Except with you. Right now. If I have to….if you need me to in order to understand where I’m coming from here.”

I still. Everything inside of me quieting for the man who rules this town.

For once, he isn’t staring me down. He’s looking everywhere but at me.