Read Whisper (Novella) for Free Online Page A

me.”
    â€œIt’s not for everyone.”
    â€œYou, too?”
    â€œI’ve got to work to pay my way. College wasn’t in the cards.”
    Hurt rose to the surface. “At least you didn’t bomb out of any classes. I couldn’t cut it there. How’s that for a confession?”
    He coasted his hands to my forearms, enveloping me in a hug that felt so good I reveled in it, sighing.
    â€œI saw those TellTales, Carley, and you’re not dumb. You might’ve hit a roadblock, but you’ll get over it.”
    He ran one of his thumbs over my bracelet as if he knew I’d created it, like he knew that I’d give anything to make an idea like this succeed and I’d show everyone that I didn’t need college.
    â€œI’m glad you have confidence in me,” I said. “My stepdad constantly makes me feel like such a moron, so I hear it all the time. And I’m pretty sure that he thinks I’m going to be a failure in whatever I do.” I laughed a little. “All I want to do is get away from him. You probably read those TellTales, too.”
    â€œI saw them,” he whispered even more softly against my ear. “Just don’t listen to him. He’s a right bastard.”
    â€œYou know him?”
    Now it was my secret admirer’s turn to tense up, but then he loosened his hold on me. “Everyone knows Toby Taylor, Esquire. He’s the Scrooge of the town.”
    He was
very
up on Aidan Falls current events. How could he be Micah?
    But I didn’t care if he wasn’t. Actually, I was relieved, because it’d made no sense that I’d felt next to nothing for the guy I’d met at the party last night. Sure, Micah Wyatt was hot, but I hadn’t gotten interested because of his looks. Every time I’d seen a TellTale from my secret admirer, I’d fallen a little bit more for whoever was writing them. It was like every post was a flower I was folding between two sheets of wax paper, sustaining those precious words so I could go back to them again and again.
    Whoever this was, I didn’t want to leave his arms. I liked it here. It was the most comfortable place I’d been for a long time. Maybe ever.
    â€œWhy,” he asked, “did your mom marry your stepdad?”
    â€œI don’t know.” Every time he stroked his thumbs over my skin, I got more and more buzzed. “They’d been dating online for a year, so it wasn’t a head-over-heels thing. I’ve even asked her what made her fall in love with him, and she says that he seems like a hard-case on the outside, but inside, he’s really strong and supportive, and someday I’ll come around to seeing it. She thinks I’m just bitter because she left my dad, but I think there’s something to what she said—that she needs support. She used to be a hairdresser, but she actually considers herself to be an artist. My dad didn’t think that was practical, and they’d fight about her wanting to quit her ‘real job’ to explore her touchy-feely side. Things just got worse between them from there. I would’ve stayed with him, but he travels for work all the time, so I ended up moving with Mom to Aidan Falls. I can’t afford to be on my own yet, but it sounds like you know that tale, too.”
    â€œI get it. And I get that Toby Taylor allows her to work in that art studio for a living now,” he said. “She fell in love because he understands her.”
    He seemed to sense that it was time for me to ask who he was again because he pulled me closer to him, my back to his chest. He was all muscle, tall and solid.
    I gave a soft sound of pleasure, and I wasn’t sure he heard it as much as felt it in the give of my body.
    It seemed so right, being next to this person, talking with him about everything. It was as if we’d known each other a long time and tonight was meant to be, so when he pressed his mouth to