Catch Me If You Can Read Online Free

brother, shacking up? And you being the good Morgan boy. What will the townfolk say?”
    “I haven’t been back that long, but the town doesn’t seem like it’s exactl y remained stuck in a ti me warp all these years.”
    “Wouldn’t have surprised me,” Tag said dryly. “How’s Frances feel about this?”
    “You know Zan’s mom. Hopeless romantic. She’s very happy we’re together. Pushing for a wedding, of course. And it’s likely that’s where we’ll end up, but not right yet. We might raise a few eyebrows around town, but it won’t cost me the teaching position, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He took a sip, noted Tag’s expression and smiled. “What’s so funny? Hell, if Austin can get all moony-faced over a woman, me thinking about getting married shouldn’t shock anybody. Now, you going ass over heartstrings? That would be headline news.”
    Tag took the teasing in stride. Jace was right after all. He’d dated some through school—okay, a lot—but he’d kept his heart to himself, and that pattern hadn’t changed much over the years. Austin was the one who provoked and taunted, always looking for trouble. Girls were drawn to his bad-boy image. Burke was blessed with a glib tongue and quick wit. He could smooth talk his way out of any scrape … and into any girl’s pants. Jace had been the quiet one, the perfect student with perfect grades, perfect kid , careful to draw only positive attention. Tag hadn’t been any of those things.
    Well, he’d gotten into his fair share of scrapes, but mostl y he had just tried to be normal, because he’d felt anything but. He’d just turned eight when his mother died, old enough to be excruciatingly aware that being motherless was not normal. He remembered her as being soft and reserved, bowing to her husband in most things. She’d been sick as far back as Tag could remember, so it was hard to tell how she might have been if she’d been healthy. But that hadn’t lessened the grief that had walloped her sons when she’d passed away. If Taggart Sr. had grieved, he’d done it in private, sending an unmistakable signal to his young sons that they, too, were to deal with their loss privately. And that included not involving their father. Which left Tag to help his younger brothers through a task he’d been woefully unprepared to take on.
    Tag had dealt with his own grief by not getting too close to anyone outside his siblings, lest they find out the normal kid with the normal looks, normal grades, and normal friends felt anything but normal on the inside. Or that his home life was anything other than the picture of success and stability their father worked so very hard to portray. It was hard enough living up to his father’s endless expectations without inviting new ones from outside influences.
    “I guess you have a point there,” Tag said, not particularly upset by it. He enjoyed companionship, but he'd generally been so busy that he’d never dwelled on the lack of it in any sort of continuing fashion in his life. He supposed he’d gotten good at being alone. He’d started young enough. “I was just trying to imagine what Dad’s reaction would have been to your coed housing plan,” Tag teased.
    “ Jesus, I know,” Jace said, sti ll turning a bit pale, despite knowing it was a battle he’d never have to wage. “I thank God every day I don’t have to deal with that. Although, truth be told, I’m not sure I would have considered the offer here if he were s ti ll alive.”
    “I know,” Tag said. In public, around townspeople, they’d been respectful of their father’s passing, accepting the stream of condolences with sincere thanks. But here, alone with each other, they didn’t have to pretend. It had been a profound relief to them all.
    “I’ve wanted to come back to the rest of it, though. I feel like I’d run long enough. Like it was time to come back.” Jace looked across the table at Tag, his expression earnest.