Read Online Stranger Things Have Happened: An Adrien English Write Your Own Damn Story (The Adrien English Mysteries) by Josh Lanyon - Free Book Online

say, “I know damn well what ?”
    Astonishingly, he seems choked with emotion. Or maybe it’s just choler at the idea that someone would dare argue with him.
    “Listen, pal.” Gavin starts to come around the desk. “I don’t know who you are or what you think you’re doing here —”
    Riordan gives you a direct and dark look. “On your head,” he warns.
    “Gavin,” you say quickly. “Wait.” You stand too. Your heart is pounding fast, your mouth is actually dry. “Okay,” you tell Riordan. “What am I missing?”
    “Everything,” he says. “Some of it, you’re just as well off without. But some of it…you don’t want to miss. I know you don’t, because I don’t want to miss it either. As hard and as painful as it’s going to be — and believe me, there are moments coming that you’ll think are going to break you — I wouldn’t trade any of it. Not a minute. Because.” He comes to another of those sudden stops.
    “Because why?” you whisper.
    Why are you whispering? Because nobody should hear this except the two of you?
    “Because we get something most people don’t get.”
    “That could mean a lot of things,” you point out. “It could mean Willie Wonka chocolate bars. It could mean we both develop the same rare disease. In fact, that’s kind of how it sounds. You’re going to have to say it. The words matter. One word in particular.”
    “Love,” Riordan says. “We get love. And we get it for a long time — longer than either of us thought we’d have. But that’s not what I mean. That’s not the rare thing.”
    He looked so angry, so dangerous when he burst into Gavin’s office, but somehow you’ve covered that distance of floor and carpet and you’re standing right in front of him, gazing into his eyes, and you’re not afraid of him. Maybe a little afraid of some of what lies ahead, but not of him. Not of Jake.
    “So what’s the rare and special part?”
    “We understand what we have. And not a day goes by that we don’t remember it.” He’s watching you, waiting to see if you understand.
    Gavin says suddenly, skeptically from behind you, “You’re saying you live happily ever after?”
    “I’m not saying that,” Jake says. “For all I know, you’d actually be happier with him.” He nods at Gavin, but his tawny gaze never leaves your own. “It would sure as hell be easier with him.”
    It’s funny that the smile seems to start in your chest and work its way muscle by muscle to your face. You can feel that smile coming long before it curves your mouth, and you say gravely, “But?”
    “He won’t feel a fraction of what I do for you. You won’t change his life. And you will always wonder about what could have been, always feel that funny little ache right here.” He puts his hand over your heart.
    You feel that touch right through your shirt. Feel the warmth of his tenderness, the weight of his possession.
    You put your hand over his, and he captures it. You smile. Does he realize you’re holding hands? Maybe he does, because he raises your clasped hands, and gives your knuckles a quick kiss. Not a smooth move, not a practiced move, but if you wanted smooth and practiced, you’d stay in this office with the fake Maltese falcon in the foyer and the Bombay Company knock-off furniture.
    You let Jake lead the way out of the office, down the stairs, and back to the busy street below.
     
    The End

Y ou’re very fond of your dear old mum, but there’s no denying these little get-togethers are hard on your nerves.
    Your mother breaks the news to you that yet another of your old high school friends died recently. Rusty Corday fell out of a high rise hotel in Buffalo.
    When you return to Cloak and Dagger Books, Angus informs you that you just missed the police. Or, more exactly, Detective Riordan.
    Weirdly, you’re not sure if that’s a relief or a disappointment.
    Angus also lets you know that flowers were delivered for you earlier in the afternoon.
    The