by Rona Jameson
Tears in the Rain
Rona Jameson
Contents
Prologue
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Part II
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Part III
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Part IV
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Part V
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Part VI
Epilogue
Dear Reader
Also by Rona Jameson
Written as Lexi Buchanan
About the Author
Copyright © 2019 by Rona Jameson
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Tears in the Rain
Tears.
That’s all I had now, tears in the rain, all because I fell in love with a boy.
Growing up, he was always by my side—unmovable—even when his friends teased him. He always knew when I needed him closer. I’d wake from nightmares to find myself wrapped safely in his strong arms. I even asked him to teach me how to kiss a boy, and our love grew into something it never should have—something forbidden.
My name is Fallon Scott and this is my story.
To my family
Prologue
Rogan - Nine Years Old
A twig snapped behind us and I slowly dropped back, allowing Leon and Chase to continue ahead to the river. I didn’t want to draw attention to the fact Fallon had followed us. They’d just call my sister names—and me—even though they knew she liked hanging around with us. I always acted as though I didn’t care one way or the other, but in truth, I did care. Fallon was my sister and my best friend. Not that I’d admit that little fact to the guys any time soon. They would never understand why I wanted to spend time with her—sometimes I didn’t either.
Fallon was thirteen months younger than me, but she was also a lot smaller. She reminded me of a fairy with the freckles across her cheeks and nose. She used to hate them until I told her they weren’t freckles but cinnamon sugar, her favorite pancake topping next to sprinkles.
Tall grass rustled as she got closer, but I knew Fallon, and she wouldn’t be watching where she was going. She’d be watching us. My heart thumped hard in my chest while I quickly wondered what I could do to make sure Fallon wouldn’t get hurt without alerting the guys she was behind us.
The decision was taken away from me when she let out a piercing scream. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as though I’d been electrocuted. Leon and Chase turned toward the sound, seconds before I turned and raced toward my sister; their footsteps pounded behind me.
I almost stumbled into Fallon when I found her dancing around in the tall grass. Her face was stained red and her eyes were puffy from the falling tears. She released her breath in big gulps and hiccups.
“Her legs.” Chase gasped, pointing at the angry red blotches on her white legs.
“Poison Ivy,” I mumbled, cursing. “Help her onto my back.” I turned and waited for Chase to lift her up. “I’ll get you home, Fallon.”
I fastened my hands under her, taking her weight. “I’ll catch up to you both,” I told my friends.
They looked between themselves, and then Chase offered a wry smile. “Of course you will.” He shook his head.
“It hurts so bad, Rogan,” Fallon cried out. She tightened her arms around my neck, nearly cutting off my air supply.
I ignored my two friends as I gave my sister a ride back to the house. For an eight-year-old, she was strong, as were her lungs, the sound ringing in my ears. I glanced down and winced at the red marks and white dots all over her legs. The sight spurred me on and I sprinted through the back gate and up the garden path, running straight into the house.
Both Mom and Dad appeared from different directions when they heard the ruckus.
“Poison Ivy!” I gasped, my breathing heavy. It had been far too long since I’d run so fast, and add Fallon’s weight and my panic, and I was sweating like a pig.
Dad lifted Fallon from me and sat her on the kitchen table trying to calm her down. Mom grabbed the medical box for the magic cream she had in there. It worked on burns and stings.
Eventually, Fallon calmed down, and holding a hand out toward me, asked, “Watch a movie with me?”
I offered her a half smile and turned my back. “Climb on.”
Dad chuckled and helped her up.
I carried her to her bedroom and placed her gently on the bed, then I spent five minutes fiddling to get the Goonies to play. It was about one of the only movies we watched together—we’d seen it too many times to count. I didn’t care because she was my sister.
Mine to protect.
My best friend Chase knew how close I was to Fallon, even if he couldn’t understand why I would want to spend time with her. The thing was, Fallon and me, we’d always been close, especially with Mom and Dad working full-time, all the time. It had been the two of us since our parents had met and fell in love. I’d been three and Fallon two. Dad always said he’d promised to love Fallon as his own daughter the day he married her mom. He even gave Fallon our last name—Scott. We were growing up the best of friends, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Leon, my other best friend, teased me often about Fallon, which got my temper going. Chase had to get between us recently so I wouldn’t punch Leon in the nose. It would have made me feel better for a short time, then, of course, I’d have felt bad.
At the end of the day, family was family, and I’d always have Fallon beside me. I hoped to always have Chase and Leon as friends, but that could change. My sister was different and always would be.
Turning, I found Fallon cuddled into the pillow with a picture of a beagle puppy on it. I chuckled and joined her on the opposite side of the bed. We stayed that way until the credits for the movie started to roll, and then I felt her hand slip into mine.
“Rogan,” Fallon whispered, drawing my gaze to hers, “will you always be mine?”
Our foreheads touched together. “You’ll always be mine, Fallon,” I replied, hoping nothing would ever change between us.
Fallon - Thirteen Years Old
As my social studies teacher droned on about English colonization, I got lost in my thoughts wondering whether or not I could get away with following my brother, Leon, and Chase to the diner after school.
The center of Augusta, Maine wasn’t far from school, but Mom and Dad told us we had to go straight home today. Together. I was slightly confused by that because Rogan always made sure I never walked home alone. He felt strongly about it. So it made me wonder what he was up to.
Ever since he and his
friends turned fourteen they’d been into girls. Leon started to have problems with me hanging with them, but I didn’t get why. They hung out with other girls, so why not me as well? I think it was Leon who put Rogan up to leaving me out. Rogan felt bad, I could tell by the way he looked at me with an apology in his gaze. It wouldn’t have been Chase because he never really bothered one way or another.
Woolgathering, as my mom would say, took up most of my class time, but that left me with no clue of what I was supposed to do for homework.
And then I was saved.
“Here.” Julia Quinn passed me a slip of paper. “I noticed you weren’t really in class.” She smirked.
Surprised, I took the paper and looked down to see the homework assignment written on it.
“Do you want to grab a coke after school?”
Her eyes shot up at my spur-of-the-moment invitation. “Really?”
I smiled. “Yes, really.” I’d known Julia since first grade, and we sat together during second, but hadn’t really become friends.
Rogan said I needed to make some friends with girls. He’d stressed the word girls, which I found amusing.
“Okay, let’s go.” Julia shouldered her backpack.
Rogan wasn’t going to like me showing up.
“Let me just tell my brother.”
Julia stayed silent as she followed me outside and into the bright day. I started to sweat before we reached where Rogan, Leon, and Chase waited.
“I’ll walk you home first,” Rogan said.
“I’m getting a coke with Julia.”
Rogan eyed my new friend and shook his head, a half smile on his lips. “Clever. Very clever.”
“I thought so too.”
“Let’s go.” Rogan turned and expected us to follow.
Julia moved in beside me. “Are we really getting a coke with them?” she whispered, and I didn’t miss the excitement in her voice.
“Probably not,” I admitted. “They’ll go off and do whatever they had planned. They don’t want Rogan’s little sister tagging along.”
I was right too, except I didn’t understand why I was upset with Rogan for hanging out with a bunch of girls without me—but I now had a girlfriend.
Part I
Rogan aged 17 / Fallon aged 16
1
Rogan
“Why does she have to come?” Leon grumbled and pointed at Fallon, his face going an ugly shade of red. “For once I’d like to do guy stuff and not have your sister tag along.”
I got in Leon’s face. “Why can’t she hang around with us? She’s been with us for years.”
“I don’t like it now that we’re older. What if we want to talk about girls or something? She’s going to run off and tell them what we said.”
I blinked a few times before I let out a long-suffering sigh. I got what Leon was saying, but I considered Fallon part of the group, or at least I thought she was part of the group. Maybe to me she was but to them she wasn’t.
I turned to Chase. “Do you feel the same way about Fallon?” I tried to calm down and didn’t, the flex of my hands as they tightened into fists was a giveaway.
“It’s okay,” Fallon whispered as she moved to my side and put her hand on my wrist. “I’ll go.”
I moved to hold Fallon with me, but she backed up, her eyes swimming with hurt.
“It really is okay. I’ll go and hang out with Julia.” Fallon insisted, before turning and walking away. Her shoulders drooped, which worked me up even more.
“I’m sorry,” Leon said, and he loudly exhaled. “You have to admit we can’t talk like we would if she wasn’t with us. And I really need to talk about something.”
Chase laughed. “What is wrong with you? We’ve talked about all kinds of stuff in front of Fallon before. Why is now any different?”
“Because,” Leon drawled, “I want to talk about her”—he pointed lower on his body and his cheeks went a bright shade of red—“um, you know?”
My heart stopped and I stared at Leon wondering if I’d actually heard him correctly. The silence was loud but that was probably the blood pounding through my head. Chase shoved Leon. Leon blinked and cursed under his breath.
“I didn’t mean hers.” Leon’s eyes popped wide. “I don’t know why I said it like that.” He quickly amended. “I want to talk about a particular girl’s…um—” He held his hands out and backed away from me. “I promise I don’t mean Fallon’s…um… Don’t punch me in the face. I have a date.”
“Date?” I frowned, his last words stopping me from moving closer.
“Yes…I have a date, which is what I want to talk about without Fallon listening.” Leon walked away and I glanced at Chase, who shrugged.
“I don’t know anything more than you do.” Chase smirked. “I thought you were going to kill him for a minute there.” He grinned and wandered off.
Chase wasn’t wrong. When Leon had mentioned Fallon and her…um…I wanted to knock Leon’s head off. No one thought about my sister in that way, let alone talked about her in that way.
Ignoring my friends—if one of them was still my friend—I headed home. Fallon wouldn’t have gone to Julia’s house, not when she was upset. She’d have gone home and locked herself in her bedroom. I knew her well, and it hurt that one of my friends had hurt her. Leon had needed to talk, maybe ask questions knowing Leon, but he could have said something on the side without Fallon having heard.
Pushing through the gate at the back of the garden, I spotted Uncle Frank helping Dad weed the garden. More accurately, Dad was weeding while Uncle Frank held a beer in one hand and the garden rake in the other. Sometimes I got the feeling Uncle Frank only came around for the free food and beer. My parents weren’t what you’d call well-off, but they worked hard, even though it still meant living paycheck to paycheck. He had two kids who were five and seven years older than me. Fallon didn’t really get on with either of them.
Shaking my head, I ignored Dad and Uncle Frank and rushed into the house. Mom was in the kitchen and gave me a look before nodding her head toward the stairs.
Fallon had locked her bedroom door and, unless she opened it, I wasn’t getting inside.
“Fallon,” I hissed, “let me in.”
“No. I hate you.”
Those last three words wounded me, and even knowing she didn’t mean them, it still hurt deeply. I dropped my forehead to the door. “That’s not fair, Fallon. You know I love you. I was standing up for you, but you were the one to leave.” I pressed against the door with the palm of my hands. “Please let me in. You’re all I have.”
There was silence and then I heard the key turning in her door. I nearly fell inside when she opened it suddenly.
I pulled myself up short and snapped my eyes shut when I saw Fallon standing before me in a hot pink bra and panties. “Fallon!” I hissed in shock.
“What? You wanted me to open the door. So I did.”
My eyes narrowed into slits as I glared at Fallon standing there without a care in the world, hands on her hips, glaring back. I knew she was hiding the hurt behind a devil-may-care attitude, but it was too much for me to see her in her underwear. It was probably more than girls wore to the beach, but she was my sister!
To keep my eyes from straying over her curves, I made myself busy and closed her bedroom door. “I’m locking it again so Uncle Frank doesn’t walk in.” Uncle Frank had done that on one or two occasions. He never respected a closed door.
“I’m sorry I was angry with you,” Fallon whispered, blinking back tears. “I’m not really. I know you were on my side.”
Her distress made me forget her state of undress, and I tugged her against me, hugging her hard and tight. “I’ll always be on your side. Leon was just being an idiot because he has a date and wanted to talk about…things.”
Fallon tilted her face up to mine and frowned, then a slow smile appeared on her face. “He wanted to talk about the birds and the bees, huh?” Now her face split into a huge grin.
<
br /> Embarrassment crawled up my neck. “Don’t even say that.” I covered her mouth with my hand while her eyes danced with amusement. “I mean it, Fallon. You are never dating.”
Fallon rolled her eyes as she wiggled out of my arms and took a step back. “I’m sixteen, Rogan.” She giggled and looked flushed. “Mom has already had that talk with me, so I know all about it.”
Uncomfortable with the way our conversation had gone, I reached up and rubbed my neck. “Put some clothes on,” I snapped, afraid of the way my heart raced when my eyes ran over her.
“Honestly?” She huffed, and shoved her arms into a pink robe. “Better?” She glared at me.
The robe did nothing to hide how beautiful she was. She was going to have to wear a sack to hide from all the boys who would get it into their heads to touch her. But I was the only one who knew how beautiful she was on the inside, and I hated that one day she would be with someone who’d know her better than I did. It bothered me more than it should, and I didn’t know what to make of it.
