When You Were Mine [Second Chances 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Online Free Page A

whether he should say anything. They had always had this surprising level of honesty between them. They had talked about everything. He hoped, even though so much time had passed, that this hadn’t changed.
    Jamie dug into his pocket and quickly pulled up his text messages. He grinned at the picture of Sophie, Taryn, and Evan for a moment and then quickly typed, “If I had anything to do with putting that look on your face that you had when you left, then I apologize. I don’t know what it was about but I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”
    Before he could chicken out, he hit send. He moved to the kitchen counter where he had hooked up his radio, and plugged his cell phone into it. He put his music on shuffle and trudged into the dining room to start unpacking.
    After checking the label on the side, he dragged it into the living room and opened it. As he haphazardly loaded DVDs onto the shelf, he thought vaguely about organizing them in some way. Ultimately he dismissed it in favor of getting the boxes out of his sight, though. He had been living out of boxes for almost two weeks now and he was completely over it.
    He heard a brief pause in the music and wandered over to the radio to see that Cora had texted him back. He detached the phone from the base and read.
    “I may be off base but that felt like a moment.”
    “No. You’re not off base. That felt like something,” he quickly typed back.
    His heart sank a little when he read her reply. “I don’t think I’m equipped for anything right now other than friendship.”
    “Then I’d very much like to be your friend,” he responded.
    There was a lengthy pause before his phone buzzed again. He picked it up and read, “I’d like that. It was great to see you tonight. I hadn’t realized how much I missed you.”
    “I’m back for good, now. So we can remedy that anytime you’d like,” he typed.
    There was another long pause before she said, “Then let’s grab lunch some day this week? And shouldn’t you be unpacking? You’re procrastinating, aren’t you?”
    He snorted as he read her reply and then typed back, “Lunch sounds good. Let me know when. As for the unpacking, I’m transparent. What can I say? I’m going to go finish, since you called me out. It’s just principle now. Talk to you soon.”
    “Night :),” she responded back.
    It hadn’t been the exact outcome he’d hoped for, but he could work with that. And, even if he couldn’t work with that, at least they could be friends. It was something.
    He plugged the phone back into the base of the stereo and started the music again. He’d unpack the rest of these damned boxes if it killed him.

    * * * *

    Around eleven the next morning, his phone rang insistently, waking him from a very nice dream. He picked it up, bleary-eyed and didn’t recognize the number. He fumbled with the button, then sent it to voicemail.
    Jamie pulled the blanket back up and slammed the pillow down over his eyes to block out the light that streamed into his bedroom. Fuck being awake. There was time for that later. Much later.
    He finally surfaced around two in the afternoon. He wasn’t normally this lazy but he’d decided to unpack everything. He hadn’t gotten to bed until almost five in the morning. It was done though. All he needed to do was to hang some shelves and pictures.
    By the time he was showered and dressed, it was almost three. His stomach growled loudly. As he checked his messages, he contemplated what he was going to do to fix that.
    He had one text from Evan asking how the walk down to the car had gone. Nosy bastard. Jamie shook his head and ignored it. Also, one voicemail from the unknown number.
    Curious, he dialed and listened. A voice came over the line and said, “Hey, Jamie. Steve Lutz. Ran into your brother Michael a little bit ago and he gave me your contact info. Gimme a call now that you’re back in town. Let’s grab lunch or something.”
    A grin on his face, he thumbed through