I Found You
by Jane Lark
Synopsis
“Dark, gritty and wholly mesmerizing, I Found You is a haunting and compelling read you will not easily forget!” – Bookish Jottings “So interesting, so versatile, so exhilarating… It kept me up all night.” – Goodreads “A fabulous book. Definitely not like any other romance…” – Goodreads “It’s a romance, but so very, very different to the norm.” – Jeannie Zelos Book Reviews ‘Emotional, romantic, and heartbreaking’ – Imagine a World
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Tomorrow is for regrets. Tonight is for being together.
On a cold winter night, Rachel and Jason’s lives collide on Manhattan Bridge. She’s running from life, he’s running toward it. But compassion urges him to help her.
His offer of a place to stay leads to friendship and trouble. There’s his fiancée back home in Oregon and a family who just don’t trust this girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
But when the connection between them is so electric, so right… everyone else must be wrong. And as the snow begins to settle on the Hudson, there’s nothing but the possibility of what could be – of this, right here, right now. Them.Add to Goodreads
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Excerpt
Jason
The beat of the music
pounded through my earphones, drowning out the loud rattle of the subway
trains. I was in the zone. My heart was racing, my feet striking the pavement
with the rhythm of the baseline, as I ran.
The monotony of city life swamped me in the day, but running brought me
back from it at night.
God, I missed home, and fuck it was cold.
Too cold to snow. I heard the words Dad always repeated. I’d
always thought it a myth. Was it ever too cold to snow? I didn’t know, but
people had been saying it all day.
The pavement was dry, not icy. Dry with cold. There was no moisture in
the air, only the cloud of my breath, as my lungs filled and then exhaled with
the pace of my strides.
Maybe it was true. God, there were so many myths in the world. Like, New
York was the place to be. It still felt like new shoes to me, like it just
didn’t fit.
The tarmac felt firm beneath my sneakers.
I looked forward, trying to increase my pace and energy, burning away
the doubts and disappointments I’d felt since I came to the city.
At the end of the bridge there was a figure, caught in the middle of a
beam of orange lamplight, like some illuminated angel. I generally only saw
other guys jogging on the bridge path. It was rare to see anyone else.
It was Thanksgiving in little over a week and Christmas in a few weeks.
Lindy was pissed I wasn’t going back home, but she’d made up her mind to come
to me for Christmas.
Was that good or bad?
The figure was facing the Brooklyn Bridge, probably looking at the
reflection of the lights glinting and shifting on the dark water. It was
mesmerizing when you focused on it.
The Manhattan Bridge was never busy, probably because of the noise of
the trains. The environment didn’t inspire pleasure, so it wasn’t a place for
tourists. But it was a good path for running, long and straight, and normally
empty.
I ran harder, my eyes focusing on the figure.
The person hadn’t moved. They held their hands up, gripping the metal
grill above them.
The pose seemed odd. A little desperate. It wasn’t casual.
My imagination shifted, no longer picturing angels but a horror movie.
The way the lamplight shone down on the figure, could be like they were in the
sights of a hovering helicopter, or a beam from a UFO.
I thought of Christmas again, and ached for home. But I wasn’t going
home. I had to conquer New York.
The light shining down on the stranger, suddenly took the form of a
Godly benediction once more. The person’s arms shifted, stretching out, similar
to a crucifixion pose, hands wide and high, as they looked upward.
I was getting nearer.
My fingers were numb with the cold, even inside my gloves, and my ears
burned as jack-frost nipped beneath my hood. Running should’ve kept me warm,
but it was twenty-one degrees Fahrenheit, way below freezing point.
Fuck, now I could see the person ahead was standing in a t-shirt. Their
out-stretched arms were bare.
“Hey!” My heart rate thundered as I ran on, wondering what sort of
city-nutter I was running toward. What were they doing wearing a tee in this
weather? It didn’t look like a homeless dude, but…
My breaths grew more uneven.
The guy ahead hadn’t heard me.
I pulled my earphones out. “Hey!”
Still no recognition. It was like they were in some sort of trance.
My feet pounded on the concrete.
It wasn’t a guy, it was a girl. I’d seen the long hair way back, but
hadn’t been sure. Plenty of guys had long hair. Now, I could see.
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