Free The Awakening (Entangled Series Book 1) by Jill Sanders

kissed me last night?”
    Jess caused Xtina to jump slightly when she squealed. “Of course not!” Jess leaned almost all the way out of her seat. “So?” She sat back. “How was it?”
    Xtina rolled her eyes. “You should know.”
    Jess chuckled. “Of course I know, but I want to hear you say it.”
    “Wow,” she said under her breath, remembering the kiss and what it had done to her. “Just… wow.”
    “I couldn’t agree with you more.” Jess sighed and rested her chin back on her hands. “I was sure hoping that it was a fluke. It should be against a law… that amount of passion in just one kiss. But I’m glad you two are getting along.”
    “I don’t know. I mean.” She walked over and leaned on the counter. “I haven’t experienced this with someone before.” Jessie’s eyebrows shot up. Xtina paused. “I can’t read him.”
    Jessie’s chin dropped. “You mean; you can’t see into his mind?”
    Xtina shook her head.
    “Wow. What do you think that means?” Then her friend gasped. “Is that why you two can see the ghost and not me?”
    “She’s not a ghost,” she replied almost automatically. “I don’t know. Mike seems to think so, too.”
    “Okay, if she’s not a ghost, then what is she? Mike seems to be convinced she’s an apparition.”
    “Like I said, she has… memories.”
    “Wouldn’t ghosts?” She leaned over a little more, moving her feet up under her. “I mean; they were once people.”
    Xtina felt a shiver run up her spine. “No, they only project emotions.”
    Jess leaned back. “What aren’t you telling me?”
    Just then the timer chimed on the oven. She turned around to pull out the rolls before they burned. When she set one in front of Jessie and took the seat next to hers, her friend turned to her.
    “Go on.” She motioned for her to continue talking.
    Xtina had hoped that the conversation would end, but she noticed the determined look in her friend’s eyes.
    “Fine.” She threw up her hands, but held up a finger to take a bite of the cinnamon roll first. “Mmm, you’re going to have to share this recipe with me.”
    “You’re stalling,” Jessie said, shoveling a bite into her mouth. “Okay, yes, I will, since these totally rock!” Xtina laughed. “Go on.” She waved her fork at her.
    “My first memory, I was four. I was sitting up in my room, crying. When my mother came in to comfort me, she asked me why I was crying. So, I told her it was because the man standing at the window was sad that his son wouldn’t be coming home from the war.” She watched Jessie shiver, then reach for her cup of coffee and swallow a large drink.
    “Go on.” She almost whispered it. “What happened?”
    “My mother glanced towards the window, then turned back to me. Her eyes were huge, so I thought she saw him, but instead, she rushed from the room and brought back my father. They spent the entire night praying over me. They made me memorize the Lord’s Prayer that night and made me say it over and over again. I was four. I barely knew how to spell my name at the time. Every time I would see the man at my window, they would have me say or write down the prayer. Sometimes I would write it out until I had blisters on my fingers.”
    “I remember seeing your hands covered with blisters,” Jess said. She reached out but pulled her hand away quickly. “Sorry. What happened to the old man?” She glanced towards the stairs.
    “He’s gone, along with the woman in the attic and the children in the field.”
    Jess shivered and almost dropped her cup. “What happened to them?”
    “Remember the time we snuck to the local library after school?”
    Jessie’s eyes narrowed. “That was on St. Patrick’s Day, right?”
    “Yes, while you were talking to the boys, I was researching a book I’d heard about. One on how to get rid of them. It was pretty rudimentary, but after a couple tries, they disappeared.”
    “Do you still see them? Others I