Heartless Read Online Free PDF

can we try to be friends
again?' Deanna looked at me with pleading in her eyes. Rob
put his arm around her and introduced her."
Raif nodded. "Yeah, he had just come from my house
where he delivered our invitation and asked me to design their
home in Baton Rouge. I would have turned him down if it
hadn't been for Deanna."
"Larkin spoke for both of us and assured them we could get
over all the past hurts. I agreed reluctantly. Rob seemed so
pleased. He said, 'I won't ask you to be my best man. Even I
realize that would be pushing. Representative Comeau has that
honor, but I do want you there.'"
"The four of us went together. I suppose we knew our
wives would keep us straight." Raif chuckled. "Larkin might
have walloped you if you had gotten out of line. Chris would
just have glared at me and made me feel like a dog."
Ray laughed. "True. Then the four of us made the
pilgrimage to the LaFontaines' first Christmas party in the
home you designed."
"A magnificent piece of work." Raif grinned.
"But then, Rob was back a year later with a pink
bubblegum cigar and a blue bubblegum cigar. 'We're having
twins,' he bragged. He was genuinely happy. Then, he floored
me again when he said, 'I have a huge favor to ask of you.
You're a twin. You know how significant that relationship is. I
want, no, I need, you to be my kids' godfather.' How could I
refuse?"
"You couldn't."
Ray leaned back in his chair. "We met in first grade. Robert
was a runt, and a lot of the kids picked on him. His blond hair
was long and curly, and he had big pale-blue eyes, sort of like a
hazy day." He closed his eyes and could see the new kid in
school, walking into the classroom for the first time. He sighed.
"Kyle looks just like him. I stood up for Robert when bigger
boys bullied him. We sort of became inseparable.
"In high school, we both made the baseball team, and we
often went on double dates together. One time we went to the
very spot he was killed to make out with our dates. Rob related
some urban legend trying to get the girls to snuggle closer to
us. Before that, when my sister, Veronica, was killed, Robert
was there for me. He let me cry; he let me scream." He stopped
speaking as he recalled how Robert had actually hugged him. The signs were there and I never picked up on it. "When I told
him I wanted to be a cop, he told me, 'Okay, you arrest 'em,
and I'll put 'em away.' It seemed to be a team plan."
Ray ran the shot glass through his fingers as if it were a
coin or poker chip. "Before Robert was fifteen, his mother had
been married and divorced six times to Evan LaFontaine.
Seven must have been the charm. They're still married."
Ray set the glass on his desk. "During our senior year, Evan
got transferred to Baton Rouge. Robert's mom, Alexis, stayed
here until graduation. Then, she moved to Baton Rouge and
took Robert with her. The two months before we went to LSU
as roommates were the longest two months I had ever endured
to that point. Even though Robert could've lived at home, he
said he had to get away from his father and moved into the
dorm with me." Surely his father didn't molest him. How could
Alexis stay with a man that abused his child? Could that be the
reason for all the splits?
"We went to college and joined Delta Tau Delta. College
was great! Yeah, we played a lot . I dated, but Robert went out
with a different girl every weekend. I thought he was just a
ladies' man. Now, I see that he was afraid of getting too close.
And I know he sabotaged a few of my relationships, but at the
time it didn't matter because I wasn't in love with any of them.
Like the time Juliana found a thong stuffed under my pillow."
"Juliana?"
Ray nodded. "A girl I dated. She went ballistic!" He
laughed out loud. Raif leaned forward, entranced by his
brother's reminiscing.
"I told her it was Robert's. He grinned and agreed. She
threw the thong in his face and told him it might belong to one
of his bimbos, but she still wanted to know what it was