Prayer Read Online Free PDF Page B

feeling less great than he had been, John leaned back in the seat. “Sounds like a great time.”
     
    Luca laughed. “You never know. Been a while since we had a brawl. Could be fun.”
     
     
    ~oOo~
     
     
    Theo’s friend’s name was Atticus Calhoun, and John understood what Luca had meant within about five minutes of meeting the guy. He just gave off a certain vibe, and most men knew at least one like him: the kind of guy who spent a lot of time in front of a mirror, who really considered his ‘look,’ who scanned the home page of a couple of news sites every day and considered himself up on the world. Who’d picked up a random fact or two about a whole bunch of shit and considered himself an expert on everything.
     
    His hair was long and blow-died, and he had on more jewelry than most women John knew wore: silver and turquoise cuffs on both wrists, a bunch of silver rings, a thick silver chain with some kind of stone pendant, and silver hoops in his ears. Silver belt buckle, too.
     
    He was tan. John would have laid down a decent stack of Benjamins on a bet that the tan had been applied in a salon.
     
    Calhoun was going for a cowboy-sophisticate look, John supposed, in his jeans and boots, with a tweedy jacket over a black shirt
     
    Normally, John wouldn’t have paid so much attention to what some guy he’d only just met looked like, but Calhoun kept drawing attention to himself. He fidgeted and gestured and shook his hair like a fucking shampoo model, and he managed to insinuate himself into almost every conversation. He made it impossible not to notice every damn thing about him. He was the kind of guy you either found charming or hated on the spot.
     
    John did not find him charming.
     
    Theo was a fairly unassuming guy, on the quiet side but with a sharp sense of humor. He was patient and determined, which was good for Carmen, who could be prickly as fuck. John liked his brother-in-law a lot. What he was doing being friends with this clown, though, John couldn’t begin to say. Theo had probably had thousands of students over the years. Why take this one under his wing?
     
    A pair of hands landed on John’s shoulders from behind, and he glanced down and saw his sister’s wedding ring on a finger. He hadn’t seen her yet since he’d been back; Theo had been doing most of the hosting tonight.
     
    Turning in her light hold, he hooked his free arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze. “Hey, Caramel. Nice party.”
     
    There had been a time when the idea of his sister hosting a cocktail party for anyone other than immediate family would have caused gales of disbelieving laughter among her siblings. She wasn’t the world’s most social person. But then she’d married Theo, a professor and a writer of some fame, and they’d had their little girl, Teresa, and since then, Carmen was a little different. Not all that much, but noticeably. More relaxed. And, for her husband and child, more social when they needed it. She managed play dates and volunteered at Teresa’s school, and she threw occasional parties for bookish types for Theo.
     
    John didn’t think she actually enjoyed doing any of that, but she loved her family, and Carmen was, like he himself was, good at doing what she had to do, whether she wanted to or not.
     
    Which was why John hadn’t even considered bailing on this party, despite the certainty of facing Katrynn. Their family supported each other, period.
     
    And maybe he wouldn’t face Katrynn tonight, after all, even though she was here. They’d made eye contact exactly twice. She was quite obviously hurt and angry, and she was doing everything she possibly could to avoid him. John hadn’t decided yet whether that was a good thing or not.
     
    “Yeah. You look like you’re having a great time.” Carmen cocked a sarcastic eyebrow at him, then nodded at his near-empty glass. “You need a refill?”
     
    He pulled it back as if she’d reached for it. “I can fix it