The Way Home Read Online Free

great pizza place close to here. We should go and grab a bite.”
    Houdini was sure that she was going to say no, he saw it in her eyes, and then he saw something else. It was the sadness again; he'd noticed it earlier. “I guess that I could eat.”
    “That's my girl.” He leaned in, kissed her lightly. Kept it light even when she went to deepen it. He didn't want to end up making out like horny teenagers in a parking lot. She let him take her hand; he brought it up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
    “Do you think that Adelaide is alright?”
    “I hope she is,” Houdini replied honestly. “Even if she's not, she needed to do this.”
    “You told her you got her, what does that mean?”
    “It means that I understand she needed to do something, that she can't just sit around with her thumb up her ass when the people that mean the most are dead.” Houdini kept his eyes straight ahead. He wouldn't look at her, he couldn't. He could feel her gaze. “Anyway, the pizza is really good. Come on, I'll drive.”
    It was a short ride to the pizza place, a silent ride during which she never looked away from him. Each time he tried to sneak a glance at her, she met his eyes and smiled. It was a sad smile. He parked in front of the restaurant. “You ready?”
    She placed her hand on his leg, looked up at him. “You don't have to tell me anything, Houdini, but you can.” She squeezed down and then released. “I want pepperoni and extra cheese. Oh, garlic knots. We should definitely get garlic knots.”
    Houdini watched as she ran her hands over her hair, checked her reflection in the mirror. “You'll just drop it if I don't say anything?”
    “I'm not going to force you to talk about anything. I get leaving the past in the past. So, yeah I'll drop it. We eating or what?”
    Houdini knew that she was true to her word. She'd drop the conversation and they would go on like nothing ever happened. They were good like that together, maybe too good. Maybe it was time to stop that, to face the things that they didn't want to deal with. “Yeah, we're good to eat.”
    He didn't recognize the woman behind the counter when they went inside. She told them to sit anywhere, and Houdini chose the booth all the way in the back. The place was all but empty, only two other occupied tables, so they'd have their privacy.
    Houdini waited until the woman behind the counter had come to take their order and returned with a pitcher of ice water for them. “There's something I want to tell you.” He cleared his throat, unsure of where to even start. “I'm not telling you for your pity. I'm telling you because I care about you, and you should know.”             
    She reached across the table, covered his hands with hers. “Alright, I'm listening.”
    “I don't know where to start.” Houdini admitted, his eyes on their joined hands. “I grew up in Florida with my parents and my brother, my twin brother.” He looked up, waited for her to say something but she just kept her eyes on his. “You figured out my name was Jason when you saw my identification. His name is James. Anyway, we were pretty poor, but we got by. Our neighbors had a daughter about our age, her name was Willow.”
    Memories swirled over him, threatened to suck him down. He wasn't only feeling the sadness that came with the thought of all he lost; he was feeling the anger that had gone along with it. The anger that had nearly consumed his soul. His grip tightened on Susan's hand until she kicked him hard underneath the table.
    “Shit,” Houdini pulled his hand back, reached for his water. “I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking.”
    “I'm fine,” she assured him. “You can keep going if you want, or stop, it's up to you.”
    It was too much but he wasn't going to stop. It was time that she knew the truth about his past. The whole truth. He'd kept her in the dark even while wanting more from her than she was comfortable to give. Now that it seemed she