Текст книги "Thirty Nights"
Автор книги: Ani Keating
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Текущая страница: 27 (всего у книги 27 страниц)
I vomit in the restroom until nothing but acid comes out. Reagan holds me with words I don’t hear. By the security line, she picks up The Oregonian and looks at me, tears streaming from her eyes.
“Your tradition,” she sniffles, and tucks it inside my rucksack, probably next to my first newspaper that I bought in the States.
We hold each other until they call my name. Elisa Snow…exactly like in my nightmares, but Reagan is here until the end.
“Take this,” I say, pulling the camera he bought me off my neck. “These are all our spots, all our life. Go visit them for me sometime.”
Reagan takes the Nikon, sobbing.
“I love you with my life,” I tell her.
“I love you too. I’ll see you in two weeks. I’ll bring any American man I can find along the way to marry you and bring you back.”
Security attributes my pallor to anxiety and walks me to the gate. Reagan waves behind the liquid curtain of my tears until I can see her no more.
Inside the plane, I stuff my rucksack under the seat and stare out of the window unblinking. I don’t want to miss a glimpse of my American un-dream. In the distance, the sun sets over the West Hills that nestle his home. I wonder if my soul is still on the Rogue. It will never catch up with me in England. It will always float here, keeping tabs on the Solises, Reagan and him. I guess if you travel far enough, the soul splits.
Beneath me, America fades. Perhaps it’s the height or the hollowness inside, but on this flight, I’m not carrying ghosts. I am one. Shivering, I reach for my rucksack to get my scarf. Aiden’s dog tag comes out of my blouse but I ignore it, because as I unzip my pack, on the very top, held with a purple ribbon are the yellowed, sealed envelopes and a folded white note.
I reach for the note, wondering if it can bring me to life. My ghostly fingers make contact with the crisp piece of paper but they no longer touch. They simply work: grip, pick up, unfold. I read the unfamiliar slanted handwriting, one blurry letter at a time.
Elisa,
I’m breaking Mr. Hale’s rules by giving you his letters in hopes that they will lead you to the man you know, not the one you heard today.
Don’t make a mistake you will both regret for life.
Benson
Oh!
About the Author
Ani Keating is an attorney, daughter, sister and wife, living in the City of Roses (Portland, Oregon). When she is not in court or at the office helping clients sort through legal issues (and complaining about the photocopy machine), Keating explores her childhood passion for writing. Her first novel, Thirty Nights, is a sexy and heart-tugging story about love’s power to save and redeem us even at our darkest moments. Read it with a supply of Baci chocolates and English roses by your side.
You can connect with Ani on Twitter: @AniKeating, and learn more about her and the story at www.anikeating.com.
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They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Thirty Nights
Copyright © 2015 by Ani Keating
ISBN: 978-1-61923-128-3
Edited by Tera Cuskaden
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: November 2015
www.samhainpublishing.com
