Heirly Ever After, Vernon, Magan [best thriller novels to read .txt] 📗

school. Then decided to follow my boyfriend across the country for gaming conventions and some minor competitions, which didn’t make him or me any money. So I ended up full-time waitressing at a diner and haven’t gone back to school to finish my last semester.”

“Boyfriend?”

I rolled my eyes. Was that the only thing he got out of that?

“Ex. Recently. I apparently crushed his dreams because I wouldn’t move with him to his grandma’s basement in Tennessee so he could be a professional gamer. Never mind that we both still had only one semester left of school. So when I said no, instead of moving in with his grandma, he moved in with some other gamer girl. Now they have a cat together and post videos that I seriously need to stop watching.”

“Sounds like a real tosser,” Jacob said.

I laughed, not because the statement was all that funny, but more because I’d never actually heard that term said out loud, and in my tired stupor, it made sense.

“Yeah. I guess you could call him a tosser. Whatever that means, it sounds right. Though I could be the tosser in this situation, because I’m the one who can’t seem to move on.”

I blinked hard then took a large gulp of the drink, pushing back the emotion that was threatening to bubble to the surface. I’d cried enough the last few months when I should have been getting my act together. And now I was having the longest conversation I’d had with anyone since Chris and I had broken up, and it was a stranger on a train.

Jacob’s gaze was locked on my face as if he was studying my reaction. “Tosser means fool or idiot. And I don’t think you’re either of those. Maybe a little hardheaded, but it seems like this ex is the real tosser.”

“Is he? But I’m the one who dropped school and followed him across the country. Annnnnd my mom and sister don’t know any of this, and now I’m going to have to break it to them right before my sister’s wedding. She’s marrying an English lord, and here I am, showing up late with news of dropping out of school.” I shook my head, the emotions that were raking through me now pushing to a hard pounding in my chest.

“We’ve all done stupid shite for a relationship.”

I spun toward him, raising an eyebrow, wondering if he was going to continue.

His face was stoic, as if he was deep in thought, with his jaw tight.

Then he laughed, shaking his head, like he was trying to get rid of whatever memory crossed his mind. “If we’re going to swap stories, mind if I sit next to ye, so we don’t have the whole train listening?”

I took a deep breath as I ran my hands through my mess of frizzy red hair. If I looked half as bad as my tired limbs felt, then he couldn’t possibly be interested. But what could it hurt having a conversation—maybe more light flirting—with a guy I’d probably never see again?

“Sure.” I finally grabbed my bag, scooting toward the window, the rain pelting down beside me, the train still on the same tracks.

He grabbed his own bag and got up, sliding in the seat next to me. I scrunched into myself as if somehow I could become smaller and not have my arms rub against his expensive-looking suit coat, though I did get a nice whiff of whatever cologne he was wearing. It smelled like mint and clean laundry. I’d been around a pot-smoking gamer for so long, I forgot what normal men dressed and smelled like.

“So, where were we?” he asked, taking a small sip from his bottle before screwing the cap back on, the action so casual, yet I couldn’t stop staring at the way his lips pursed and his Adam’s apple bobbed when he drank.

OMG.

Stop. Staring.

“Um…relationship issues?”

He smiled. God, that damn smile and dimple were really getting to me.

“Well, I’m sure you don’t want to hear about my ex, but I’m no stranger to bringing bad news home to my family when things don’t go right.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Care to elaborate? That’s pretty dang vague.”

He shook his head. “Let’s just say, being the oldest son in a traditional Scottish family comes with a lot of expectations about relationships, jobs, and everything else. Sometimes it’s hard to live up to those.”

“So you’re saying we’re both the odd ducks of the family?”

He laughed, raising his glass again. “Quack, quack.”

I clinked my bottle to his. “Quack, quack.”

…

It was almost an hour before the train was given the okay to move. Time crawled even as the dreary landscape sped by, the sky still blacker than a tar pit. How the heck the driver saw anything was beyond me.

I should have probably taken a nap or called my sister, but with barely a connection because of the weather, I didn’t bother.

Instead I spent way longer than I thought enthralled in conversation with a guy I’d just met, who asked me more questions about my life than Chris had in our entire relationship. Yet all I seemed to know about Jacob was that he was from Scotland and had a complicated family history, thus he was going to England to meet up with some relatives he hadn’t seen in a while.

When we finally rolled into the Webley train station, I checked my phone for a signal and caught the time.

“Holy shit, when did it get so late?” I said more to myself than anything as I hopped off the train, stepping under a metal awning as raindrops continued assaulting it.

“Shite, it is late. Do you have someone coming to get you?” Jacob asked, looking down at his own phone.

I knew he was right behind me as we got off the train, but I expected him to go off and find whatever family was waiting for him.

“Um, well, I was supposed to call my sister when I got in.” I glanced around at the darkened buildings.