Impervious (City of Eldrich Book 1) by Laura Kirwan Read Free Book Online Page A

used to. Meaghan sighed and poured herself another cup of Russ’s excellent coffee and topped it off with a dollop of fresh cream. At least the food was really good.
    She sat back down at the table and took a sip, wondering what to do with herself. A firm rap on the back door made her jump. She spilled the almost-full cup of coffee onto the table.
    Meaghan grabbed up her laptop, clutching it to her chest, before the spill spread under it.
    Another rap on the door, more tentative than the first.
    Meaghan hobbled around the table, holding her laptop to her chest like a sleeping baby, and peered through the window in the kitchen door.
    A man stooped on the back porch, pulling amber jars from a cardboard box and setting them with care in a line next to the door.
    One of Russ’s foodie guys.
    Meaghan pulled open the door. The man stood up fast and took a step backward.
    “I . . . I bring the honey for Russ,” he said in a thick accent. Tall, with a strong build, he had indigo eyes, like Jamie’s, but rheumy and bloodshot. He had once been quite handsome, she could see, but the effects of too much drinking lay over his face like a veil, muddying his features. He looked about her age, with shaggy dark-blond hair shot through with gray.
    He looked familiar. And it hit her. He looked like Jamie with twenty extra years and a drinking problem. This man had to be Jamie’s father.
    “Hi, um, Russ and my dad are at the hospital right now. Do I need to pay you or . . .”
    He shook his head. “Nuh. Russ leave the money for me.” He pointed at an empty flower pot next to the door. “In there.”
    “I’m Meaghan,” she said. Juggling her laptop to her other arm, she held out her right hand.
    He didn’t take it. He gave her a small shy smile, like it was something he seldom did, and shook his head. “My hand is dirty. From the bees.” His exhausted eyes met hers for a moment, then darted away.
    Her gut fluttered and she felt her face grow hot. She flashed on her observation from the day before when she met Jamie for the first time. If he were twenty years older, I’d be in trouble . It hadn’t been an observation, she realized. It had been a prediction.
    She was in trouble.
    Still know how to pick them, she thought. Some things never change.
    Now, she wanted him gone. Fast. An attraction to Jamie’s alcoholic father was drama she didn’t need. She saw a battered, rusty white pick-up truck parked in the narrow access alley.
    “Okay,” she said, realizing she still didn’t know his name. “I’ll tell Russ you were here.”
    “It’s good for your father you’re here.” His accent was unlike anything she’d ever heard before. Like Scandinavia mixed with Russia by way of Central America. With a stop in Jamaica.
    Bosnian, she thought. Or Croatian. Or something. Close enough.
    He met her eyes and she felt the heat again. No, she thought. Bad Meaghan. Don’t go there.
    “Thank you,” she answered. Leave, she thought. Please leave.
    As if hearing her thoughts, he said, his voice now gruff, “Tell Russ to call me if he wants more.” He turned away from her and marched back to his truck.
    She fled back into the house, her heart pounding. A door slammed. She heard the truck cough into life and head down the alley.
    Meaghan waited a few moments, then peeped out the window to make sure he was gone.
    She gathered up the jars of honey and brought them into the kitchen, lining them up on the counter. She unscrewed a jar lid, dipped the tip of her finger into the thick amber liquid, and tasted it. She’d always thought of honey as sweet but otherwise flavorless. But this stuff—it tasted like roses and cut grass. And sunshine.
    Meaghan sighed. Of course it was the most amazing honey she’d ever tasted. Because the world always conspired against her that way if inappropriate romance was involved.
    She didn’t fall in love often, but when she did, she fell hard. And it always— always —started with that flutter in