The Hidden Life Read Online Free PDF Page B

bulge.
    “Tonight?”
    Clearing my throat, I pushed off the wall and strode toward the street, my hand in the air to hail a nearby taxi. “Yeah, I think we covered most of the ‘talking’ part. I’m more interested in the ‘what happens after’ part. Like right now. Tonight.”
    “Y-y-yeah,” he stuttered at first, caught off guard by my abrupt change of tune, then repeated himself more assuredly. “Yeah, tonight. You need me to come get you?”
    “Nah, I’m grabbing a cabbie now. I’ll have him drop me down the road and come in the back entrance. You mind bringing me to my car on your way to practice tomorrow?” I asked, as I opened the yellow car door and slid into the backseat, giving the driver the address.
    “That works. I’m gonna tell Roe you’re coming then jump in the shower. See you in a few.”
    “Yep.” I hung up the phone and slid it into my pocket then rested my head back on the seat, watching the blur of lights zoom by as I envisioned all of the naughty things I was going to do to Colin later that night.
    By the time I let myself in their house and bound my way up to his second-floor master suite, my dick was a loaded steel gun, cocked and ready to fire. And fire it did.
    Hitting my target every damn time.
    Claiming his forbidden pleasure.
    Reveling in his willing surrender.
    Owning every inch of his hard body.
    Victory that night was sinfully sweet, and I savored every last minute of it, but the next morning, when I couldn’t kiss Colin goodbye as he dropped me off at my car, afraid someone might see us, that same lonely, empty pit of despair reappeared in my gut, this time even deeper than before.

 
    “I’ll throw
    my
    voice into
    the stars and maybe
    the echo of my words will
    be written for you
    in the clouds by
    sunrise.
    All I’m trying
    to say is:
    I will love
    you
    through the darkness.”
    -Christopher Poindexter
     
    Seth
     
    OUT ON THE veranda of the Sixty State Street building’s top floor, I gazed out over the sea of white lights illuminating both the skyline and harbor, wondering what in the hell my problem was. Sucking in a deep breath of fresh Boston summertime air, I closed my eyes and counted backward from ten before exhaling and reopening my lids. Nope, didn’t help at all.
    I had been at the First Annual Mending Hearts Gala for all of ten minutes, and I already felt like the black bowtie was strangling me. Just being in the same room with Colin was enough to make my heart palpitate and my lungs collapse. No matter how much I had psyched myself up for seeing him, I was powerless to the effect he had on me.
    My fingers trembled around the frosty glass filled with my favorite lager as I lifted it to my lips and guzzled back a healthy drink. I could not let him see me like this. I didn’t want him to know how much I still wanted him, how many sleepless nights I had lay alone in my bed, wishing I was in his arms instead.
    It had been a couple of weeks since our last fight, when I had walked out of his bedroom, protesting that, yet again, I had become second place to his public life . The life I was friend-zoned in. The life he would never give up to be with me.
    For the two and a half years we’d been back in Boston, our relationship had been nothing short of a roller coaster ride, a journey filled with constant peaks and valleys, leaving me dizzy and unsure of which way was right-side-up most of the time. During his off-season, we would often spend the evenings cooking dinner, hanging out with Monroe, watching movies, things that normal couples did. Behind closed doors, Colin showered me with love and attention. He texted me during the day to let me know he was thinking about me, counting down the hours until we were back together. Though it still bothered me that we had to stay hidden from the rest of the world, getting that time with him, feeling like I was a part of his life and not just a warm body to keep him company at night, made it all okay.
    But once the