Daniel > Recent Status Updates

“Don’t be afraid of me,” I whispered against his lips.

Lifting his head, his bright blue eyes twinkled with mirth. “I’m not afraid of you… I’m desperate for you.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“You will look at me differently after tonight. You will see why my name invokes fear. But I promise he will pay for killing your friend and I will make sure my nephew is no longer in danger.”

“Okay.”

“Okay? You understand what I’m saying?”

“I knew there were sides to you. I knew I’d see them if I stuck around long enough. Do what you have to do, I get it.”

“You think you get it.”

“When Mum died I got into so much trouble. All I was doing was running. But it’s not living if you don’t let yourself feel stuff, let yourself love. Peri taught me that. I think what’s tiring is stopping yourself from caring. Holding back and shutting down is like forcing yourself to carry the heaviest weight in the world. When you start to care for someone, it’s scary but you keep doing it. It’s so worth it.”

Peri signed, "That day before I fell off my bike, when I first saw you, you were looking at me like I was looking at you. You saw me all the way through. I felt it. We saw one another. And we never stopped seeing. We still see one another like that. We’re doing it right now. I feel like glass with light shining through it when I’m with you and my world is bright and clear… Like everything is made of sunshine."

“Okay?” he asked, searching Echo’s eyes in the mirror.

Echo took Peri’s hands. “I’m okay.” He looked down and sighed softly. “I don’t get how you do this. Make me feel like this. I feel like I’ve been in love with you my whole life and was just waiting to one day meet you.” Letting go of Peri’s fingers, he lifted his hands to his chest and made a heart shape. “It’s yours. It always has been.”

🫶

“You’re cracked a bit. You feel weakened, but Snow, I think even if you had a million cracks or were a pile of shattered pieces on the floor, you’d be worth saving.”

“Or I’d be trash. I’ve been called trash plenty of times. No one looked at my imperfections and thought I was a future mosaic. They looked at me and saw a mess.”

“Until now.”

Glancing around the room, I saw Frank and my other guys amused at Snow’s antics. Of course, Snow, with his infectious smile, made everyone in this house adore him in just twenty-four hours. It made me wonder how he ended up on the streets. What had happened to him?

“Go clean up, Mr. Manos.” Maggie rubbed my arm. “You can ponder later.” She chuckled and turned back to her roast.

“Let’s make things clear. I’m gay. My father was not a tolerant man. He let me know that I was a disappointment. But I’m good at what I do, so he overlooked that. I vowed I wouldn’t let people be treated like shit for their sexual proclivities or however they were born. If you want to die, then keep talking that way. If you’d like to maybe make it out of this alive, I’d start getting tolerant real fast.”

12 pages in and I'm already obsessed ... again ... remembering why I loved this series so freakin' much the first time through 🤣😆🤣!

“What the hell are you doing out here? Where’s your folks? You got parents?”

He nodded. “You know your address?”

Again with the nodding. Had I rescued a bobblehead? “Can you tell me your address?”

He shook his head. “Why?”

“You’re a stranger. Pop says I can’t talk to strangers and to never tell them where I live ‘cause of who I am. People would want me and I’m too cute. He says I’m kidnapping material.”

SO excited to re-read this series!!! 😁

Peri held him as he sobbed.

Echo had never broken like this with anyone before. And he really was breaking, shattering with every gasping breath. But it didn’t matter because he could feel Peri was trying his hardest to hold him together. And even if Peri couldn’t, Echo knew he would be there with him, holding his hand and helping him pick up all the pieces.

“I watched that video you sent me on my phone over and over and over. It saved my life. Today, you saved my life again.” With every word, his voice grew croakier and croakier. “You’ve been saving my life every minute of every day since I met you, and I want you to know this scarred mess of a heart in my chest is yours, if you want it.”

All Echo wanted to do was kiss him. The thought filled his head. He wasn’t even thinking any longer. He was leaning down, lips brushing against Peri’s, the barest soft scrape of skin against skin. Peri’s hand was in his hair, pressing against the back of his head, keeping him in place. Echo wasn’t going anywhere. For a second, they just stared at one another—Peri breathing fast, Echo coming completely undone.

Peri looked at him like he was pretty sure no one else had ever looked at him. Honestly, openly, longingly. Echo’s heart thumped. A crooked finger of warmth, of want, curled deep in the pit of his stomach. Those stunning wide dark eyes, this beautiful, kind, patient boy… Echo was coming undone in all the best, and worst, ways. And oh, there were stars. So many fucking stars.

These two!!! 🥰

On first meeting with Reg Dwight (the future Elton John) in 1967 ...

I sense a kindred spirit. We're outsiders looking for a way in. I'm willing to play along. Sancho Panza to his Don Quixote. We agree to give it a shot. There's nervous energy in the air, a feeling of possibility. I leave the cafe invigorated. What have I got to lose? I'll give it a month and see what happens.

Almost SIX DECADES later ...

Like a warm wave in human form, he wrapped his arms around Echo’s shoulders and held him tight. Echo didn’t immediately lean into him. It was more a giving in, letting himself be hugged, letting himself hug Peri back. It was one thing to offer a hug to someone when they were upset, and entirely another to accept a hug when you were the one feeling vulnerable, raw and so badly balanced on the edge of your hurt.

Seeing Echo’s bare skin made him feel tense and excited. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know what that meant, just he had no real idea what he was supposed to do about it. Only that his whole self desperately wanted to do something. Here I am, he wanted to shout across whatever unseen divide seemed to separate them. I’ve been looking for you and I think you’ve been looking for me too and I’m here. I’m right here.