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“Look,” she said and leaned in closer to me “I asked Brandon about Beckett, and he was pretty evasive about things He said that Beckett really liked you Really liked you He said that you were the first woirlfriend died There are reasons he can’t see you That’s all Brandon said, but he said Beckett was a totally honorable guy”

“His girlfriend died?” I sat in shocked silence Then I remembered that he told me he had a sad story he didn’t want to talk about “He said so a sad story, and that he was al” I shook e of sadness for him He knehat it felt like to lose so to marry and live with forever

But he obviously didn’t understand how it felt to be lied to

“It doesn’t matter anyway If he was so honorable, he wouldn’t have seducedhe didn’t know me”

“Brandon said there were reasons,” Leah said with a shrug “He’s pretty closed up about personal stuff, but Brandon does know that Beckett lost his girlfriend three years ago during an accident while they were snorkeling off the coast of India She was stung by some kind of poisonous fish and died in front of him”

I frowned, irlfriend die right before his eyes “That’s terrible,” I said,“That still doesn’t explain why he didn’t tell me the truth about the letters”

Leah shrugged “All I know is that Brandon thinks Beckett has survivor’s guilt and works super long hours to try to deal with it His business is all about developing better technology to prevent combat deaths He lost a lot of friends over there His own injury was like a catalyst”

I knew that, as a Marine, Beckett would have seen terrible things in combat It still didn’t explain why he deceived me about the letters

“I guess Beckett spends a lot of ti me there on Saturday If I see Beckett, do you want ?”

“No,” I said, frowning at the thought “He had the chance to explain things many times He didn’t End of story”

Leah shrugged “Brandon seemed so sure that Beckett was still crazy about you”

We sat in silence, and I tried to figure out why Beckett wouldn’t have just contacted me if he was still ‘crazy’ about me

“Why don’t you ht?” Leah said and jabbed me with her elbow “Brandon said Beckett really fell hard for you He stayed an extra week because of you and hoped to see you again when you returned to Manhattan” She wagged her eyebrows fully

Beckett had stayed an extra week to be with me A week that was theti to be a couple, once I returned to Manhattan

“Confront hi you crazy”