Ascension Read Free Page B

to his friends list, too. When he’d been alive, he’d been outgoing and popular, but he hadn’t had many close friends. Well, one, really, and that’d been Laine. He’d been so deep in the closet, he hadn’t been able to risk letting anyone besides his lover too close.
    Granted, he couldn’t communicate with most of the people he popped in on, but they almost all knew about him. When he let them know he was there—if he let them know, generally by tumbling things in the air that shouldn’t be tumbling in the air—they greeted him with a warmth he didn’t think any of his friends from his living time had. Except for Laine, when they had been alone.
    Today was just going to be one of those days, he supposed. The past kept bubbling up in his mind, and a sense of melancholy and loneliness pervaded his normally happy persona no matter how much he tried not to let it.
    Stefan was laughing, his eyes lit up with joy as he zipped along beside Lee. Conner didn’t want to intrude, not when he was feeling every bit the moody mess Laine had called him out on being. He settled his feet on the ground, pretending for just one moment that he was alive again, that he didn’t have to concentrate to feel the hardness of the earth beneath his feet. He glanced up at the brilliant blue sky, squinted at the sun’s glare that, even though he was a spirit, still made his eyes burn and water. He would never figure out stuff like that. He only knew it happened, that his spiritual body could still feel and his heart could ache with loneliness.
    Conner looked down at the ground. He saw his boots, his favourite pair he’d worn so often when he’d been alive. Faded denim jeans hugged his legs, and a tight blue T-shirt covered his upper body. Why was he even wearing clothes? He was dead, and they weren’t real. Stefan was clothed, too, and all the other spirits he’d seen were as well. Had he manufactured the clothes when he’d been in that place between death and dying?
    This is getting too deep for me. Conner had been moderately intelligent at best. There was no way he was going to figure out all this afterlife shit. It was a sign of how bored he was that he was even trying. Conner snorted at himself, at his stupid fancies, trying to pretend he was human and whole again. His eyes burned more from the damned sun, that was all it was, and he shot up into the air like a just-fired missile. He wasn’t trying to flee from his thoughts—that never worked—but if he could just lose himself in the beauty around him for a while, he’d take it. It was the only thing he could really have anymore.

Chapter Three
     
     
     
    Ro couldn’t explain it, but he had felt the oddest sensation when he’d been talking to Sev. It was almost like he’d heard a buzzing in his head, then Sev had shushed him and Ro had known Conner was in the room. It was kind of like the way he’d felt the other day at dinner when Conner had shown up, but this time it was more intense.
    Conner Sutherland. Ro had of course heard stories about Laine’s deceased lover. He’d even Googled the man years ago. The horrific account of Conner’s death had made him cry. The tragic parting of lovers had twisted his youthful heart into a knot of regret for Laine and Conner.
    Then Ro had met Laine, and seen how much Sev loved him, and vice versa. He supposed it was fate or something that had brought Laine and Sev together. Or Conner. Ro liked to think Conner had loved Laine enough to want him to be happy in this life.
    Ro pulled a file out of his desk drawer. He’d put the clippings together what seemed like ages ago, when he’d been a young, dumb kid full of romantic idealism. He snorted at that innocent boy now. The only romance he’d ever have would be in his head unless he left the town of McKinton. Gay men weren’t exactly falling off tree limbs here. Ro snickered, imagining sexy studs floating to the ground like leaves on a fall breeze. McKinton would become a very