A Reason (A Reason, Season, Lifetime Series) by CL Champlain Page A

undefeated but you’re not a cocky jock. You’re friendly with the teachers and adults. You’re really mature for a seventeen year old guy. I love that you enjoy school and the first time I saw you actually reading a book I nearly moaned with want. Guys just don’t read unless they have to for school work, but you were reading for fun. I thought that was so hot. Girls throw themselves at you, but you don’t seem to care. I’ve never once seen you with any of them. Brenda said you guys talked on the phone once but you weren’t interested in her. She hinted you liked someone else, but I never really got that it was me. I dreamed about you a few times, which was so weird. I don’t dream a lot, when I do sometimes they come true. It’s funny that we’re together now, when my dreams always showed that we would be together. I chalked it up to hormones and ignored them, but now I wonder if my dreams were a sign.”
    “My mom always says that everything happens for a reason. Everyone we meet is for a reason. Maybe my Dad had to die so we would move back here, where my mom grew up, so I could meet you. At least, I like to think so.” Ryan says, putting a hand on my cheek and looking into my eyes.
    “How am I not supposed to get all sappy and fall for you when you say something like that? My mom says the same thing. Everything happens for a reason. I am sorry about your Dad, can I ask what happened, or is it too hard to talk about?”
    “No, it’s okay. He was a police officer in a bigger city. There was a big drug bust and the drug dealers started shooting. He was hit in the head, they say he died instantly. He was a good guy, I think you would have liked him. He was all about protecting and helping people. I can’t help but think if he hadn’t died, he would have been a good cop and taken care of your Dad. T he truth is that if he hadn’t died, we wouldn’t have even met. He liked working in a big city, trying to keep the streets safe. Ma is the country girl and after she got his life insurance policy she made plans right away to move back here. I was worried at first, how different it would be, there is nothing here. But I have met some great people, my education is certainly better here, and you’re here.” He tells me. I’m trying to concentrate on him, but it’s difficult at the moment.
    “ Ryan, when I was four, I had a really bad septic infection. I almost died. I remember being near my body, seeing my mom cry and the doctors work on me. I clinically died and they brought me back. Ever since then, I can sometimes see and hear the dead. I know it probably sounds really crazy to you, but.”
    “Hey, it’s okay. Don’t ever be afraid to tell me anything. Go on.”
    “Your Dad is really upset about the gun in your bedroom. He wants me to tell you that you should never keep the bullets in the gun, and you need to tell your mother that you have it so it can be locked up safely.”
    Ryan of course just looks at me in shock. I blow out a breath and walk up to his bed room. I walk to his closet, reach for a sneaker box and open it. Inside is a handgun.
    “You have never been in my house before today. No one but me knows about this gun. It was my dad’s. Ma forgot about it, so I kept it. Holy shit, how did you, I mean. Wow, um, hi Dad?”
    “He’s telling me to tell you that you left the safety off, and you need to tell your mom. Hold on!” I tell his dad, and I pause to put on the safety the way his dad tells me how to do it. I then open it, take out the two bullets and put it back in the box, unloaded with the safety on.
    “He says it’s safer now. Put the bullets somewhere separate from the gun and tell your damn mother. It needs to be locked up. Oh, and he knows about the condoms, and if you drink underage again he’s going to haunt your ass.” I giggle at that.
    Ryan’s mouth is hanging open and he sits down on his bed, with his head in his hands.  Maybe that was too much too soon. “He also