The Space Between (The Book of Phoenix) Read Online Free PDF

been going completely on instinct, following my gut even all the way to Italy. My gut was usually pretty accurate, but not this time. The one person who’d cared enough to tell me what she knew lived right outside of Atlanta. I didn’t particularly want to see her because it also meant seeing her asshole husband, but maybe she knew more than she’d told me and a face-to-face was the only way to get any more info out of her. Of course, I’d changed a lot over the years—I didn’t exactly look like the kid she’d seen last—but hopefully she’d see beyond the larger build and the tats.
    Or would she slam the door in my face once again?
    My jaw clenched and my leg bounced with agitation at the thought of what I had to do next. I had to—I was out of options. The guy in the next seat shifted, his eyes darting at me apprehensively with all the tension I threw off. Tatted up, muscular dude suddenly angry for no apparent reason must have freaked him out, especially on an airplane. I inhaled a deep breath, closed my eyes, and rubbed at my wrist, vaguely wondering why it had started to tingle.
    Leni’s face filled the backs of my eyelids, and I immediately calmed down. For one last time I allowed my imagination to run wild, promising myself I’d let her go before the plane landed. Once in Atlanta, I’d need to focus my energy elsewhere.
    When I saw the caramel-colored curls bobbing in the customs line at Atlanta Hartsfield, though, how could I let go? Maybe life wasn’t such an unfair bitch after all.

Chapter 3

      As soon as Jeric left, I felt a strange sense of being lost. And lonely. In fact, I’d never felt more alone in this foreign land than I did now. My heart had been aching over this departure—I would miss the quaint villages, sidewalk cafés, and colorful buildings with their rows of windows hidden behind brightly colored awnings and flowers that made the façades look like beautiful tiered cakes. The theaters, too, some of them centuries old, where classic operas had once been performed in times when wigged men had played the roles of women.
    And my soul—it had never felt so free. Although I hadn’t made any lifelong friends while in Italy, I’d still been able to be me . The real me. Maybe because everybody’s expectations of me were so low anyway or maybe because I knew I’d never see them again, but I didn’t care what anyone thought here. I didn’t feel the need to pretend to be someone I wasn’t.
    Uncle Theo had given me the best gift ever, and I certainly hadn’t deserved it. But it was time to go and with Jeric’s departure, I suddenly couldn’t wait to leave, too, to get home to Uncle Theo, to my comfortable bed, to my familiar surroundings filled with people I knew.
    Well, not so much that last part. Most of the people I’d known had left. My parents had moved to Alaska, and all of my friends had gone off to college or to New York City to pursue their dreams, and I’d become someone they’d once known in high school. It was mostly just Uncle Theo and me, and sometimes Mira. But at least the neighbors were friendly and the people at the coffee shop and stores were familiar. By the time I boarded my connecting flight in London, I was as excited to arrive home as I’d been to embark on this journey five weeks ago, especially to see my uncle. As weird as it sounded, he had pretty much become my best friend since I’d graduated high school. I missed his company terribly.
    I tried to sleep on the trans-Atlantic flight, but rest eluded me. My mind wouldn’t let go of Jeric’s face and kept replaying our entire conversation, focusing on the way his hands moved, his muscular forearms, the beautiful images inked on his skin. My own forearm burned as though it imagined what all those tats felt like, and I instinctively slipped my finger under my bracelets to rub at it. The woman next to me made a noise of annoyance at the jangle of my bracelets. I fought the urge to give her a dirty look.