Free The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 by AJ Rose Page A

can wait a couple days. Elliot’s anxious to call his parents, so I’m going to scope out payphones in town and hope one is working. While I’m there, I’ll get groceries.”
    “I have plenty of canned food,” she said absently.
    “No harm in getting more before it’s all gone,” he said, trying to stay light.
    “Who’s Elliot?”
    “A, uh, friend of mine.” It felt strange calling Elliot a friend, but given the circumstances, and since Elliot seemed to want the job, he supposed there wasn’t any point in denying it. Especially after last night. “He’s the one who let me use his car to get up here so fast.”
    Charlotte arched an interested brow. “A friend. You haven’t had friends for years.”
    Ash threw his hands up and grabbed the trash bag, stomping through the door leading to the carport.
    “I’m not some socially stunted moron, you know,” he hollered through the screen. “I am capable of real friendships.” He scowled at her upon returning to the kitchen, going to check the grill again, taking an oven mitt with him.
    Charlotte gave a contrite laugh and followed him. “Baby brother, you’re one of a kind and worth your weight in gold.” She hugged him hard from behind, and he let her, hoping his loyalty would be noted, which he tried to convey with a pat on her arms. This was their way, fighting like feral cats, then forgetting it in minutes, knowing no matter what, they had each other.
    “C’mon. I’ll introduce you to Elliot and make sure your son hasn’t roped him into building a Lego empire on the floor of his bedroom.” Ash pulled the hot pan from the grill and shut off the propane. “I still remember the curse words you invented last time you walked barefoot into his room with laundry.”
    She snickered and allowed him to lead her down the hall after they’d set everything on the kitchen table. He stamped down his unease at being stuck doing nothing for the foreseeable future and, for the first time in years, introduced someone to his family.
    Breakfast was a quick affair, thrown-together bagel sandwiches on paper plates to avoid unnecessary cleanup. Charlotte asked about Elliot’s classes, his parents, and his world travels when she found out he’d been out of the country several times. He was polite and told her tales of tropical islands, a multi-country European trip the previous summer, and taking a shark cruise in the Cape of Good Hope off the coast of South Africa when he was in high school.
    Riley was fascinated. “Did you see a great white?”
    “Yeah, several of them.”
    “Did you swim with them?” The light in Riley’s eyes was unmistakable, and Ash couldn’t help marvel at the easy way Elliot had taken to the boy.
    “Well, no. That dive certification is more intense than we had time for on that trip, and it’s dangerous to snorkel above them. But we were able to watch them swim pretty close to the surface, and the water there is amazingly clear.”
    “I want to swim with sharks some day,” Riley announced, shoving his last bite of bagel in his mouth, making his cheeks bulge like a hamster storing nuts.
    “God, you’re going to make me gray before I’m thirty.” Charlotte wrapped both hands around her glass of orange juice, knees drawn to her chest with her heels on the edge of her chair, tucked into herself.
    She’s too thin again, Ash thought. Remembering the diet food in her fridge, he narrowed his eyes.
    “How’s the job going?”
    “Same as always. Getting my butt pinched by the guards who think it’s okay because they leave me a tip.”
    Ash nearly growled until he saw Elliot’s eyes practically bug out of his head, his face turning the deep crimson of embarrassment.
    “Why don’t you start breaking fingers? I know you can.” Ash hated that she had sacrificed a chance to take nursing classes when he’d gotten his scholarships. Now she was stuck as a waitress in a shitty diner, working paycheck to paycheck and at the mercy of the assholes