The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) by Katharine Sadler

years ago. He’s like you, he can see
and talk to me, but he can’t touch me. I was hoping you might help
me with that.”
    “Oh,” I said, as I processed what he’d told
me. And then, “Oh,” again. Tucker had given me more than a few
hints that I might be the love of his life and, though I really
didn’t have any interest in dating a guy old enough to be my
great-great-great- etc. grandfather, I was a bit hurt to learn all
of his flirting had been fake. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “I wanted to. I really did. But if anyone
ever wanted to hurt me, he’d be the best way to do it and I…”
    “You don’t trust me.”
    “No, I do. I mean I don’t really trust
anyone, and not talking about him has become a hard habit to break.
I can’t risk losing him.”
    I couldn’t blame him for that. “So, if I’m
not the one why have you been helping me?”
    He huffed. “Just because I’m not in love with you doesn’t mean I don’t love you.”
    “Maybe, but that’s not why you helped me at
first, and don’t give me that crap about doing it for Doug.”
    He ran his fingers over the bedspread and
sighed, before he looked up and met my eyes. “I suspected the war
was coming. I’d heard… things. The time for being neutral is long
past and I’ve chosen my side. It’s with you, with the living.”
    “To protect him.”
    “Yes, of course, and everything that is
precious about life. No matter who you are or how bad you screw it
up, your life should be yours to live. The dead shouldn’t ever have
the right to take someone else’s life.”
    “Not even to be with him?”
    He didn’t hesitate. “Not even to be with
him.”
    I was a sucker for a good romance, but I’d
been knocked down a lot in the past few weeks and suspicion snuck
into the silent space between us. “How much of our friendship was
just because you suspected I might be able to make you
tangible?”
    Tucker will always appear to me as a 25
year-old, gorgeous man, but after I spoke, his face changed
slightly. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the difference
was, but his century and a half of years suddenly showed on his
face. “I’ve always hoped I might find someone who’d be able to make
me tangible again. I’d heard talk over the years, and, yeah, when I
saw what you could do, I figured you might be able to help me. I’m
not even going to say I was your friend before I knew you could
cross over, because I knew you were Len’s daughter and if anyone
could do it, you could.” He sighed. “I came to you for my own
reasons, but we wouldn’t have the connection we do and I couldn’t
be here now if I didn’t care about you for the person you are.
You’re brave and incredibly loyal and you care about people, living
and dead, even when you pretend you don’t.”
    I couldn’t speak for a few moments. I hadn’t
been fishing for a compliment. I hadn’t been expecting one,
especially not from Tucker and, because I respected and liked him,
his words meant more to me than anything he could have ever given
me. I realized then that I hadn’t felt good about the person I was
for a very long time. He made me feel a little bit better.
    “So when you say you want to touch him, what
exactly are we talking about?”
    It took him a moment to catch up with my
subject change and, when he did, he smiled. “G-rated, Kelsey. I
promise.”
    “Okay, then. I agree. Figure out the when,
where, and how, and I’ll do it.”
    “Thank you,” he said, a hand over his heart.
He blew me a kiss and left.
    I tiptoed out to find Jed asleep on the
couch, snoring softly. I might be able to make it past him and out
of the condo to check on Angelica and Bruce, but I was pretty sure
I wouldn’t make it back in. Instead, I tiptoed over and spread the
throw on him. He snuggled down a bit under it, but he didn’t wake
up. I watched him for a moment, his face so peaceful that he could
be any good-looking guy crashing on a friend’s couch after a