Waking the Dead by Jane Davitt, Alexa Snow Read Free Book Online

purple running through it on one side; the black she came by naturally, but the streaks were new, and he had a feeling they’d sparked the latest argument with her mother.
    He didn’t mind them; it reminded him of the sheen on a raven’s wing, though he didn’t plan to share that with her, and unlike the Celtic symbol tattooed on her ankle, he supposed it would grow out or even wash out over time.
    “Go to university? Waste three or four more years in school?”
    “It wouldn’t be a waste.”
    “It wouldn’t be what I want to do!”
    “Well, if you ever get around to telling me what it is you do want to do, I’d love to hear it,” John told her, keeping his voice even with an effort. It was too early in the morning for this, for all that she was his favorite niece. He took a sip of his coffee and discovered glumly that it’d gone cold while he’d been listening to her. He could hear Nick and Josh laughing together in the kitchen and he wished he was in there with them.
    “ Anything but stay here,” Caitrin said passionately. “I’d rather serve customers at a pub than be here listening to Mam whinge at me all day and night. Everything I do or say makes her angry, and I’m sick of it!”
    “She just wants what’s best for you.” John thought a recording of his voice, repeating the same things over and over again would have done as much good.
    “She doesn’t know what’s best for me.” Caitrin sighed.
    Nick, God love him, cleared his throat from the doorway, interrupting them. “Sorry to barge in,” he said, “but your tea’s going to be useless if you don’t take it now, Cait.”
    “Oh -- I forgot all about it.” Caitrin got up and wandered back into the kitchen; John followed, pausing to pat Nick’s hip gratefully.
    “How did it go?” Nick asked under his breath.
    John just had time to shrug before they were within earshot of Caitrin again, who, anger vented, was now eying Josh with more attention than before.
    “This place must seem like the end of the world to you,” she said.
    Josh blinked. “Not really.” He sounded uncertain. “It sure takes a while to get here, but I wouldn’t say it was --”
    “Tourists always think it’s so quaint,” she said dismissively. “They’re mad.”
    “Josh isn’t a tourist,” John said, a warning note in his voice. He wasn’t having Caitrin be rude to the lad when he was still sleep-dazed and hampered by being on his best behavior. “He’s family. Now stop badgering him and think of something he can do when he’s not out fishing with me.”
    “Which will give him, what, an hour free?” She was smiling now, though, tilting her head back, her blue eyes gleaming. “If you’re interested,” she told Josh, “there’s a beach party tonight.”
    “You make it sound like
California
,” John said. “It’s a bonfire down on the sand, and if Dan Edwards throws a dead seagull on it again, don’t come crying to me about the stink.”
    “It’s not anywhere near as stupid as my daft uncle’d have you believe,” Caitrin confided to Josh. “It’s a good time; you should come along. We’ll have a few drinks and a few laughs. No seagulls, I swear it.”
    “Okay.” Josh didn’t seem to take much convincing. “It sounds like fun.”
    * * * * *
    The jet lag thing was a lot worse than Josh remembered it being. Of course, the last time he’d experienced it, he’d been about ten, so maybe it was just that it hit him harder now that he wasn’t a little kid. Anyway, just before lunch he’d gone upstairs to get his shoes so John could take him for a quick boat ride, and three hours later, he’d woken up lying sideways on the bed with a blanket draped carefully over him.
    He went downstairs yawning and found Nick working at his desk and John sitting on the couch tying flies. “God, sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what happened.”
    “Don’t you?” John looked amused. “I think they call it ‘sleeping.’ “
    Josh sat down