Liam's Bride: BBW Werebear Romance (Clan Conroy Brides Book 1) by Emma Alisyn Read Free Book Online

last minute break.
    This morning she woke early to pounding on her front door. The apartment wasn't enclosed; anyone could walk up to her front door similar to a motel.
    Meredith scrambled, halting a fall from bed just as her mind awoke. Who would knock on her door on a Sunday morning? Most of her college friends lived out of town. Meredith was the last hold over from their small town upbringing. Except Tamar- but then she had moved away, too, and only come back to raise her baby somewhere quiet.
    She pulled sweats on underneath her oversized sleep shirt, tugging her hair into a quick sloppy-neat pony tail. Thank God the just woke up look was a recognized style. Peering through the peephole, her heart stopped.
    "I know you're there, Mere," her father Harvey said in a scratchy voice. Paused and cleared his throat. "I heard the footsteps."
    She leaned her forehead against the door, heart thumping. How the hell could she have forgotten? Her father. Knees feeling weak, Meredith’s mind raced. How could she open the door? How couldn't she?
    "Let's just talk, sweetheart, and then I'll go away if you want."
    Her father calling her 'sweetheart' jarred Meredith, twisting the muscles of her stomach. Her mind recalled the image of the man whose use of the same endearment sparked a completely different response in her. A warm response, where with her father she only felt dread.
    Meredith looked through the peephole again, this time studying the man she hadn't seen in years. He looked thin, graying brown hair shaggy, a stubble on his cheeks and chin. Faded jeans and a plain t-shirt added to the hitchhiker look he sported with the army green satchel slung over his shoulders. His hunched, slumped posture shrunk his size. This wasn’t the big, stressed and mostly angry man she remembered.
    With a small shock, she realized she’d been much shorter the last time she’d seen him. He must never have been a big man in fact- she’d just seen him through the eyes of a child.
    "Can I at least use the bathroom and get a glass of water?" He shifted on his feet, shifting the pack from one shoulder to another, then setting it down. Though she didn't feel sorry for him- how could she- she still couldn’t quite turn him away.
    Opening the door, she stepped back and made room for him to enter, resigned. "Hi, Dad."
    "Hi, Meredith.” He stared at her, cleared his throat again, tried to smile. “Well. I did call, you know."
    She turned away. "Don’t call me sweetheart. Bathroom is down the hall."
    "Thanks."
    He took the satchel with him, closing the door quietly. She sat on her couch, closing her eyes while she waited for a good twenty minutes. When was the last time they’d spoken? Months ago. Water ran, the usual sounds of morning grooming. When he emerged, freshly shaved and in a new t-shirt, he looked neater if not less haggard.
    "I hitchhiked here," he said. "The rest stops in this state aren't great. They used to be nicer."
    "That was twenty years ago." Were they really going to do the small talk thing?
    "Yeah. Do you mind if I sit down?"
    "What do you want, Dad?"
    Sighing, he crouched down in front of her. "I know you’re mad at me, Mere-"
    "Are you insane? Mad?" She shook her head. "I’m not mad. I just don’t really want you here."
    “You’ve become a beautiful woman, Meredith. Prettier than your mother.”
    Tears pricked her eyes, an echo of his sudden rapid blinking. She surged to her feet, hurrying to her bedroom. He didn’t follow- if he had she probably would have kicked him out of her place then and there. Meredith took her time dressing and cleaning up. She felt better after the ritual soothed frazzled nerves. When she emerged from the bathroom, Harvey was sitting cross legged where she'd left him. He glanced up at her.
    "Katherine called me when you graduated," he said. His eyes lowered, following the slump of his shoulders. "A teacher, huh? I missed all of that."
    "I hope you don’t want me to feel sorry for you."
    His lips