Ascension by Bailey Bradford (desktop ebook reader txt) 📕

burned his tongue. He wasn’t the only one enjoying the meal, either. The three men quit picking on each other and settled in to eat.

A prickling sensation caused the hairs on the back of Ro’s neck to stand up. His skin flushed with an awareness that he’d come to recognize. Sev cocked his head, but Laine kept eating, right up until the time that his plate scooted away from him.

Laine grabbed his plate and glared around the room. “Aw, damn it, Conner! You’re just jealous because you can’t have any!”

Sev shook his head. “He can have yours,” he said just as Laine’s plate was lifted off the table.

Laine leaped up from his seat but the plate spun up until its contents almost touched the ceiling.

“Conner…” Laine growled.

Ro’s pulse raced and he grew warm in places he just shouldn’t while sitting at his uncles’ table. Ro set his fork down and pressed his hands to his thighs, digging his fingertips hard against his legs to distract himself from the wave of arousal washing over him. Only someone like him would have a crush on a dead guy with a love for pranks.

“I’m gonna call someone who can exorcise spirits,” Laine warned. The plate tipped precariously and Laine tossed a hand out. “I was kidding! You know we love you, buddy.”

And just like that, the plate was lowered to the table again. Ro watched enviously as Laine’s hair was tousled. Sev swatted at the air shortly thereafter. “Conner, don’t fuck with my hair—urgh!” Sev’s hair became the victim of a mini whirlwind. Laine snickered. Ro dipped his head and wished he’d been included in the playing, but, as usual, Conner didn’t seem to notice him. He supposed that shouldn’t be surprising. Conner had been Laine’s lover before dying. There was no reason for the prankster spirit to notice Ro’s existence.

What would be the point if he did? Ro couldn’t figure that one out. He kept his sigh to himself. He was just a geeky twenty-eight year old who still lived at home with his parents and didn’t have a life to speak of.

“Did you sense him?” Sev asked as Ro fiddled with a fold in his jeans.

Ro shook his head. “No.” He didn’t think that prickling sensation counted. As much as he’d longed to be gifted like Sev, to be able to communicate with the dead, Ro just wasn’t able to. He figured his familiarity with Conner was the only reason he knew when that particular spirit popped in. Conner had been swooping in to tease Laine and Sev, and sometimes save their asses in certain situations, for a long time now. Ro had heard so many stories—

Sev pushed back his chair. “I bet he’s in the bathroom hiding my stuff again. I’ll be right back.”

“Huh?” Ro looked at Laine for an explanation.

Laine grunted around a mouthful of food. He chewed it then swallowed, in no obvious hurry to answer, but he finally did. “‘Huh’ isn’t exactly a question, at least not in my mind, it isn’t. Conner’s taken to hiding Sev’s creams and hair dye. I don’t think he likes your uncle hiding his gray.” Laine took a drink of his tea and held the condensation-covered glass in his hand as he spoke. His dark eyes held a seriousness to them that made Ro want to squirm like a recalcitrant child. “You’re a smart kid. Are you gonna keep working at Virginia’s Café forever?”

In other words, why didn’t he go to college, get a real job—no, a career—and make something of his life? Ro felt a surge of anger at that. He’d been asked it too often. He tipped his chin up and glared at Laine, fighting down a shiver of fear and the intimidation he always felt at even the idea of standing up to the sheriff. But Ro was tired of everyone looking at him like he was a fool for not wanting more.

“What’s wrong with it if I do? I’m making an honest living. I’m good with the customers.” It wasn’t challenging, except for when Mr. Brown decided to be an asshole, but even that Ro could handle. “Not everyone is made to go to college. There have to be little people working jobs like mine so educated people can have food they don’t have to cook themselves. It’s not like—”

“Whoa, whoa, kid, stop,” Laine said as he held up a hand. “I didn’t mean any offense.”

Ro cocked his head, puzzled by that. “Well, how else was I supposed to take it?”

“Maybe that your uncle Laine thinks you’re too smart and talented to spend the rest of your life waiting on tables?” Sev said from behind him.

Ro twisted around in his chair to watch Sev stash an armful of products in the pantry. “Won’t Conner find them there?”

“Nah. He’s off again, probably keeping Stefan company, or spying on someone else.” Sev closed the pantry door and leaned a hip against it. “You’re evading.”

Ro scowled and turned back to his plate. “No, I’m not. I already answered. I don’t want to go anywhere other than where I am. Why’s that so hard for anyone to understand? Some people go and come back, some people just go, and some people stay and are happy with their lives.” Honestly, Ro wasn’t a hundred percent certain why he didn’t want to go off to college, or even to the community college. It just wasn’t for him. That was the best he could come up with.

Sev sat down beside him and touched his nape, brushing aside Ro’s long hair to do so. “Look, we just worry. We only want you happy, just like your mama and dad do. They love you, but feel like you’re staying here because you feel obligated.”

“I don’t.” He did, but that wasn’t all of it. His mother’s diabetes had ravaged her body over the past decade. The amputations and dialysis were draining what had remained of her will to live, Ro could see it. So could his father