Read Online For You (The 'Burg Series) by Kristen Ashley - Free Book Online
Authors: Kristen Ashley
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husband Jimbo sneeze or about anything at all.
About an hour later the door opened and Alec and his partner Sully walked in.
Unable and maybe unwilling to stop it, I felt my jaw move in a nonverbal greeting, the way it always did when I saw Alec. Always and forever. Since I could remember.
I used to do it because it made him smile at me, a smile I hadn’t seen in years, a smile that others saw and it was handsome so I was sure they liked it, at least the girls. But they didn’t get it. They didn’t get how precious it was. They didn’t understand, it not being directed at them, what that smile could do. The power of it. It was like every time he smiled he’d opened a chest of treasure and said, “All this is yours.”
Now I did it because it made his expression change. He didn’t smile but there was something there, not treasure but precious all the same. It was nostalgic in that painful way nostalgia could be, but it was still precious and addictive, like a drug. I’d forget between times, but when he walked in, the craving would assault me, too much to fight, I was jonesing for it. So I went after it, lifting my jaw then his face would change and I’d allow myself half a beat to drink it in before I looked away.
Even after all that happened, today was no different.
Quick as I could, the second I got my Alec hit, I looked at Sully and understood why he wasn’t around yesterday.
He looked like hell. Brimming eyes, red rimmed nose and he was carrying a tatty tissue which had been overused.
“You need hot, honeyed water,” I said to Sully when he hit the bar, hot, honeyed water being what Mom used to make Morrie and I drink when we had a cold.
It probably had no medicinal effects at all except those wondrous ones only mothers could generate. Mothers who gave a shit about their kids and took care of them when they were sick like they were the most cherished things on earth and the world would not be right until her kid’s cold went away. Mothers like my Mom.
“I need hot, honeyed whisky,” Sully told me with a smile.
I could do hot, honeyed whisky. I would have to run down to the corner store to pick up the honey but it was only six doors away.
“You on duty?” I asked.
He gave me a look, it wasn’t a bad one. It wasn’t pitying or filled with blame. It was one filled with concern and a hint of understanding.
“Feels like, this case, with this cold, I’ll be on duty until the day I die.”
“I’m sorry, Sully.”
“You apologize again I’ll ask you over for dinner.”
That made me laugh, the first time I’d done it in over twenty-four hours and it felt rusty in my throat.
Still, Sully’s wife Lorraine was a shit cook. She was famous for it. Ever since she brought a half-dozen casseroles to the high school band’s pot luck fundraiser the first year they were married and gave food poisoning to half the band and some of the town.
The extra late afternoon bodies filling the room and the work and likely Alec being there made me feel suddenly hot.
I pulled off my sweater to strip down to the tank underneath as I replied, “I swear, I won’t apologize again.”
Sully’s laughter was muffled by my sweater being over my ears.
Alec’s comment was not because the sweater was off by the time he said it.
“What happened to your arm?”
I dropped my hands, my sweater still in both of them, and looked at my arm. Morrie’s fingerprints were clear as day, purple and blue and looking angry.
Fuck, but I always was an easy bruiser.
“Shit,” Morrie muttered, eyes glued to my arm.
“Shit, what?” Alec asked, his gaze swinging to Morrie who looked just as guilty as he was.
“Alec,” I said.
“Colt,” Sully said.
“Shit, what?” Alec repeated, ignoring Sully and me, looking pissed.
No, looking murderous.
I’d seen him that way once. I was barely conscious then and it scared the shit out of me. I was fully conscious now and worried I was about to pee my pants.
“Alec, don’t
About an hour later the door opened and Alec and his partner Sully walked in.
Unable and maybe unwilling to stop it, I felt my jaw move in a nonverbal greeting, the way it always did when I saw Alec. Always and forever. Since I could remember.
I used to do it because it made him smile at me, a smile I hadn’t seen in years, a smile that others saw and it was handsome so I was sure they liked it, at least the girls. But they didn’t get it. They didn’t get how precious it was. They didn’t understand, it not being directed at them, what that smile could do. The power of it. It was like every time he smiled he’d opened a chest of treasure and said, “All this is yours.”
Now I did it because it made his expression change. He didn’t smile but there was something there, not treasure but precious all the same. It was nostalgic in that painful way nostalgia could be, but it was still precious and addictive, like a drug. I’d forget between times, but when he walked in, the craving would assault me, too much to fight, I was jonesing for it. So I went after it, lifting my jaw then his face would change and I’d allow myself half a beat to drink it in before I looked away.
Even after all that happened, today was no different.
Quick as I could, the second I got my Alec hit, I looked at Sully and understood why he wasn’t around yesterday.
He looked like hell. Brimming eyes, red rimmed nose and he was carrying a tatty tissue which had been overused.
“You need hot, honeyed water,” I said to Sully when he hit the bar, hot, honeyed water being what Mom used to make Morrie and I drink when we had a cold.
It probably had no medicinal effects at all except those wondrous ones only mothers could generate. Mothers who gave a shit about their kids and took care of them when they were sick like they were the most cherished things on earth and the world would not be right until her kid’s cold went away. Mothers like my Mom.
“I need hot, honeyed whisky,” Sully told me with a smile.
I could do hot, honeyed whisky. I would have to run down to the corner store to pick up the honey but it was only six doors away.
“You on duty?” I asked.
He gave me a look, it wasn’t a bad one. It wasn’t pitying or filled with blame. It was one filled with concern and a hint of understanding.
“Feels like, this case, with this cold, I’ll be on duty until the day I die.”
“I’m sorry, Sully.”
“You apologize again I’ll ask you over for dinner.”
That made me laugh, the first time I’d done it in over twenty-four hours and it felt rusty in my throat.
Still, Sully’s wife Lorraine was a shit cook. She was famous for it. Ever since she brought a half-dozen casseroles to the high school band’s pot luck fundraiser the first year they were married and gave food poisoning to half the band and some of the town.
The extra late afternoon bodies filling the room and the work and likely Alec being there made me feel suddenly hot.
I pulled off my sweater to strip down to the tank underneath as I replied, “I swear, I won’t apologize again.”
Sully’s laughter was muffled by my sweater being over my ears.
Alec’s comment was not because the sweater was off by the time he said it.
“What happened to your arm?”
I dropped my hands, my sweater still in both of them, and looked at my arm. Morrie’s fingerprints were clear as day, purple and blue and looking angry.
Fuck, but I always was an easy bruiser.
“Shit,” Morrie muttered, eyes glued to my arm.
“Shit, what?” Alec asked, his gaze swinging to Morrie who looked just as guilty as he was.
“Alec,” I said.
“Colt,” Sully said.
“Shit, what?” Alec repeated, ignoring Sully and me, looking pissed.
No, looking murderous.
I’d seen him that way once. I was barely conscious then and it scared the shit out of me. I was fully conscious now and worried I was about to pee my pants.
“Alec, don’t
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