Without You (Love Wanted in Texas 1)

I don’t like being alone.

“Will…”

“Motherfucker!” I shouted.

Luke and Colt laughed.

Colt said, “Don’t take it out on the fence, dude.”

I threw the fence pullers and cursed again. “Fuck this shit.”

“Y’all want to call it a day? The barn dance is tonight. I’d like to head home to shower and get ready,” Colt said with a smile.

“Why are you so happy?” Luke asked.

Colt shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I just want to dance and have a little bit of fun.”

Luke turned to me. “Have you talked to Alex yet?”

I shook my head.

Colt let out a sigh. “Will, Alex cried her eyes out the other day when she came home. What happened? My parents tried to get her to talk to them, but she wouldn’t.”

“She pushed me away again. I tried to get her to talk to me, and she told me…she told me…” My voice cracked.

Colt and Luke both stood there, waiting for me to finish.

“She told you what?” Luke asked.

I looked down to the ground. “She told me I was scaring her.”

“What?” Colt and Luke both said.

“What in the hell were you doing?” Colt asked.

I looked into his eyes. “I put my hand on the door, so she couldn’t open it and leave. I was asking her to please talk to me, and that was when she…she, um…she said I was scaring her.”

“Will, you need to understand that she probably didn’t mean it like that,” Luke said.

I snapped my head over to look at Luke. “How in the hell could I have misread that? She said I was scaring her, Luke. Her eyes were filled with something I’d never seen before. She was afraid I was going to hurt her. She said that he ruined it. I asked her what she meant, and she just freaked.”

Colt pushed his hands through his hair and then sighed. “She must have been talking about Blake. Do you think maybe she just said you were scaring her because she didn’t want to talk about Blake?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. All I know is, the girl I love is afraid to be touched by me.”

Colt shook his head. “No, Will, I don’t think that’s it. Listen, I went and talked to Janet. I wanted to talk to someone who had been through something like what Alex had. Janet told me she felt dirty for months, like she was unworthy of anyone’s love. Just because Blake didn’t rape Alex doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel the same way. He touched her, and by the comment he made to us…” Colt balled up his fists and took a deep breath. “By the comment he made, I’m going to guess he managed to get his hands down her pants. If he touched her, that could make Alex feel the same way.”

Luke said, “That makes sense, Will. She said he ruined it. You and Lex have only been with each other. You have a perfect and, for lack of a better word, clean relationship. You’ve only been with each other. By another guy touching her, she’s probably worried about how that makes you feel.”

I stared at Luke and then looked at Colt. “Do you think that’s what it is?”

They both nodded.

“I mean, I’m no expert by any means, but after talking to Janet, I really learned a lot. Alex’s control was taken away. Blake tried to take something that, in Alex’s mind, only belongs to you, Will. Blake tainted that.”

“Do you know if she’ll be at the barn dance?” I asked.

“You haven’t talked to her?” Luke asked.