Read Online Let It Snow (The Hope Falls Series) by Melanie Shawn - Free Book Online Page B

knew his brother had a point. He just wished he’d hurry and get to it.
    “I’m talking about how you two were together. Anyone who was around you guys for five minutes could see it. You guys had this…connection. The only other time I’d ever seen it was between Mom and Dad. Then you call me and tell me you’re engaged and the next thing I know she’s gone and you turn into a man-whore asshole.”
    “Hey, I’m not an asshole.” Jake wasn’t even going to try and defend the ‘man-whore’ title.
    “No, not anymore. But you were. For years,” Eric stated flatly.
    “So, what, do you want an apology? Did my brief stint as an asshole hurt your feelings?” Jake asked sarcastically.
    “No, I want to know what happened.”
    “You know what happened. You just summed it up perfectly. We were together. We were happy. We were going to get married. She left.” That was the story that everyone knew. The only people who knew the whole story were himself, Tessa and Adeline. And Adeline was gone now. So just he and Tessa knew. It was no one else’s business.
    “She just left? For no reason at all.”
    No good reason.
    Jake knew his detective brother was not going to drop this so he figured he might as well tell him a version of the truth. “She realized that she didn’t want to get stuck living in a small town. She knew that after school I planned on coming back here to live. She didn’t want that. She wanted to see the world. So instead of going to school in Southern California, like we’d planned, she went to New York.”
    Eric sat there silently, his expression was unreadable. Jake couldn’t tell if he was buying it or not. Jake was actually getting uncomfortable under his brother’s stare and he hadn’t even lied. He just hadn’t told the entire truth. Jake actually felt a little sorry for the criminals his brother interrogated.
    “Well, she’s back now,” his brother finally said.
    “Not for long. After she gets Adeline’s affairs in order, she’s going home.” Jake closed the files on his desk and unlocked the desk drawer he kept them in.
    “Where’s home?”
    “San Diego.”
    “She’s here now. Are you going to do anything about it?”
    “Nope.” Jake’s patience was quickly running out. First his sister, now his brother. He was sure as soon as his parents found out she was in town that they would be up his ass too. Because they didn’t know the whole story. How he’d gotten on his knees in the hospital room when she’d told him she was leaving and begged her to stay. He’d told her he would go with her. That he would do anything to be with her. That they could work it out.
    She’d looked him right in the eye and told him to leave, to get out of her room. Screamed it, actually.
    They didn’t know how he’d gone back the next day but she had already been discharged. Or how he’d driven like a maniac to her grandma’s house and then yelled at Adeline when she wouldn’t tell him where Tessa had gone.
    No one knew how he’d punched holes in his walls that night out of helpless frustration. Or how he’d gotten black-out drunk almost every night the first year of college just trying to forget her.
    No, all his family knew was that they had been together. They had been engaged. Then she’d left. And that’s all they ever needed to know.

Chapter Eight
    ‡
    T essa pulled into her grandma’s driveway next to a very nice Mercedes SUV she assumed belonged to Lauren. The expensive silver vehicle looked out of place parked in front of the rundown two-story house. Tessa’s heart sank as she took in the peeling paint and the overall dilapidated appearance of the home.
    It particularly stuck out like a sore thumb because the rest of the street had been well-maintained. A few of the houses looked as though they had even been renovated. As she stepped out of her car, she put her hand up, shading her eyes from the sun to try and get a better look at the house that sat next door to her