THE CALLAHANS (A Mafia Romance): The Complete 5 Books Series Read Online Free Page A

from my face. He’d always liked my hair. I remembered how he ran his fingers through it when we lay together, the things he’d said about my resemblance to all these Greek goddesses…he didn’t even get their names right all the time. But just the thought was enough to make me putty in his hands.
    I was a fool back then. A young girl who didn’t have the experience required to guard her heart properly. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
    I straightened my spine, pretending it was filled with lead. No one could hurt me as long as I could hold myself up and keep my dignity in place. Right?
    I walked out into the restaurant and tried to smile when I saw him. Years of anger had built up, years of disappointment and grief for what might have been. Seeing him opened the floodgates and let it all come flowing out. I’d been watching him, following him, trying to figure out how to get close to him again. Last night had been a fluke. How was I supposed to know that the same random bar a friend—I did still have friends here in Boston—took me to would be the same he’d come stumbling out of? But it was fortuitous, and it made everything seem so random when it really wasn’t.
    “I’m so glad you called,” Brian said, as he stood and held out his hands to me. “It’s been too long.”
    “It has,” I agreed, trying to pretend I was just as happy to see him.
    He hugged me, and I was a little surprised to find that he smelled the same. It wasn’t his cologne—though the expensive cologne he wore now was far different from the drug store variety that was all the rage twenty years ago—but something basic about him, a natural scent that was beneath the spice of his new cologne that was familiar. And it wasn’t just his scent. His height, his breadth, just the feel of his arms around me, was all the same. It took me back and reminded me how much I enjoyed the feel of his touch all those years ago.
    If only I’d felt half as much comfort in my husband’s arms, maybe we wouldn’t be divorced today.
    I stepped away, a little confused by the tremble that rushed through me, the imbalance that struck and caused me to practically fall into the waiting chair. Brian didn’t seem to notice. He slipped into his own chair with a grace men shouldn’t possess.
    “How have you been?”
    I looked over at him, wondering if he wanted me to summarize the entire past twenty-some odd years of my life, or just the highlights. Like he had a right to know. He could have been a part of it, if he’d wanted. But…
    “I’m good,” I said, quashing the anger as best as I could. “And you?”
    He was still wearing his wedding ring, the same ring I once took off and slipped into his jeans pocket whenever he’d meet me at our little spot, a diner not far from the college campus. It almost hurt to look at it, to remember what it felt like to watch him slip it back on his finger whenever he left my bed.
    “I can’t complain,” he said, a spark coming into his eyes as he looked at me. “Business is good. My sons are still living in the area.” He sat back a little and seemed to think about it. “Life is pretty good, actually.”
    “And Abigail?”
    He glanced down at his hand, his thoughts moving to that ring as mine had done. “She died. Five years ago.”
    That caught me by surprise. She was older than I was, but not by much. “I’m sorry.”
    He shrugged, as though it was meaningless. However, I could see the hurt and the grief that came into his eyes.
    “It was quick. Pancreatic cancer. She was gone a little over a month after diagnosis.”
    “That’s tough.”
    He shrugged again. “What about you? Are you married?”
    “Divorced.”
    He inclined his head slightly, his eyes looking through me the way they’d always done. I once swore he could read my thoughts before they were born in my mind. He denied it, but he could see me in a way no one else ever had. I thought that meant something, all those years ago. But then I