Read Online Only You by Willa Okati - Free Book Online Page B

at Barrett in half apology, half fellow-feeling. “And he’d signed up for the same service. I figured that was a sign.” He laughed, abrupt and rough. “The Finder said we deserved each other.”
    “Did you meet?” Barrett asked, almost uncomfortable.
    People didn’t talk about these things. Felt almost like peeking through his neighbor’s window and watching him jerk off. Daniel wouldn’t be telling if he didn’t have a reason, but Barrett could hope Daniel would get to the point.
    “No,” Daniel said. “We never did. He was older than me. Seventeen, going on eighteen. I think he was horrified. Kids that age. Six years doesn’t seem like much at all now, but back then…” He shook his head. “His eighteenth birthday, I planned to surprise him.”
    From the way he said that, Barrett doubted it’d been a happy surprise.
    “When I got there, I found out he’d joined the Army.” Daniel made a flying gesture and a small whistle noise. “God, was I pissed. But he left a note for me. Told me to grow up, and he’d meet me after he’d done his tour.”
    Barrett scratched lightly at the back of his neck. Was he having sympathy pains or what? Annoying. He tried to shake off the faint phantom tickle and pay attention. “And after?”
    “Missing in action,” Daniel said. “Presumed dead. That was the official word.”
    And Barrett had thought Ivan had it rough. At least he’d known his Robbie was alive, even if he’d never said as much to anyone.
    Daniel scoffed softly. “I wore a black ring for a while. Didn’t seem right to get a widower’s bead. I’d never so much as laid a finger on the man. And I thought…well. I thought that was it. Then last night I got a letter from someone who’d served in his platoon. I recognized the name. Jesse had mentioned him once, back in the day. Jesse. That was my mate’s name.”
    “It’s a good name,” Barrett said in lieu of knowing what else could be said. He had a feeling Daniel’s story didn’t end there.
    “I liked it, too,” Daniel said, distantly now. “Then, the package I got last night— I— there was a letter and a picture. They got the report wrong. Jesse had been in touch with him. He’s alive.” He touched the tip of his tongue to the bow of his lip. “He asked that friend not to let me know.”
    Barrett winced. “Fuck, Daniel.”
    “Anyway.” Daniel grimaced. “I didn’t have an appetite after that.”
    “Can’t say I blame you.” Barrett’s own breakfast of coffee tossed a bit uneasily. “What are you going to do?”
    “Go visit him?” Daniel raised one shoulder. “Find out for myself. I don’t have a soulmark tagging me for anyone else. I’d like to see if he does. Or if meeting him in the flesh might make a difference.” At Barrett’s frown, he explained, “It’s another of the old wives’ tales. You know how when soulmates are close by, one always seems to know where the other is?”
    “Yeah, but that’s not a wives’ tale. I forget the word. Peripheral awareness failsafe?”
    “Or whatever they’re calling it now. I don’t think that’s what it really is.”
    “What do you think?” Barrett asked, curious despite himself.
    “I think a soul knows when its mate is nearby.” Daniel held out his hand, palm up, as if he balanced his heart in that small cup. “Whether they’re orbiting, or whether they’re on a collision course, they know. When souls know they’ve found their missing pieces, they’re drawn together. Proximity. Nothing more than being near him might start the soulmark.” He closed his hand. “And if it doesn’t, at least I’ll know.”
    Barrett rolled all that over in his head. It did make an awful sort of sense. And if proximity triggered the development of soulmarks, it’d start to explain why Nick’s had cropped up now. He’d been in the blast zone for pheromones when Ivan and Robbie had found one another again. It would have been more surprising if Nick had walked away