Moon Glamour by Aimee Easterling (books to read to be successful TXT) 📕

like her father. She felt fear and pushed through it. He felt fear and...

“I need a drink,” Nick muttered, right on cue.

Then hooves were pounding toward us from the direction of the barn. A student slid down off her mount. “Whoa. That looked gnarly. Are you okay?”

“Hey, Clara,” Harper greeted her roommate, her voice staying carefully level. Right, I should have realized that was Clara, with her long, tangled hair and unfashionable glasses. I likely would have if my sister hadn’t been pressed up against a horse whose eyes were still rolling back in its head.

But the thousand-pound animal only twitched an ear and kept walking as Harper relayed what had happened in an animal-friendly sing-song. “I’m fine. Athena is fine. Cloudburst is fine. We’re all just fine.”

The skin on the horse’s neck stopped twitching midway through Harper’s litany. Or maybe the animal was responding to the fact that I’d finally found a downwind spot where it could neither see nor smell me.

I took advantage of the momentary respite to spin in a circle, hunting Marina. But there was no one else present. And the floral scent, now that my sister was no longer at risk, materialized into late-blooming honeysuckle on the fencepost beside me. No rose petals. No magic. Just a plant out of sync with the season.

Plus, Lupe had told me there would be no fae present until Samhain. I shook away the conspiracy theory, focusing on my sister instead.

Harper’s cheeks were still red, but her breathing had slowed. Meanwhile, now that his daughter had everything under control, Nick finally decided it was safe enough to approach. Sliding off his horse, he held his mount’s reins so laxly I half expected it to bolt also. “Here, take the horses back to their stalls, why don’t you?”

Clara snatched his reins one moment before they dropped. And even though Nick had been the one to screw up, Harper was the one whose shoulders slumped.

“Sorry, Dad. I know you were looking forward to riding.”

“No problem, kiddo.” He shrugged, but his tone of voice didn’t entirely let her off the hook. He never did. An anxious child was far more eager to please him. “Run along and meet us back at your picnic table.”

I wanted to punch the guy, but Nick was Harper’s father and legal guardian. The line I walked here was a precarious one.

A fact that Nick knew as well as I did. His gaze turned to me and his eyes went predatory. “I have something to discuss with Athena.”

Chapter 7

The girls and horses walked one way. Nick and I ambled in the other. Silence hovered over us until Nick reached out to finger the hem of my leather jacket.

Despite myself, I jerked away. This jacket was the only item of my mother’s I still owned. The rest of her possessions had long since been sold...by Nick, without my permission. This one thing I intended to keep.

“How much do you need?” I demanded. Only after I spoke did I realize my voice had been louder than intended. If Harper possessed wolf ears, she would have heard my opening.

Harper didn’t possess wolf ears, though. All she had was a no-good, alcoholic father and me.

Speaking of the no-good alcoholic, Nick stepped closer until his fumes enveloped me. “A couple of grand. No, make that ten grand.”

“Ten thousand dollars?” Breath hiccuped out of me.

“You make it sound like a few bucks is an imposition. We’re family, aren’t we? Family gives and family takes.”

I knew better, but I let myself get drawn into the argument anyway. “Family gives and family takes? The taking part I get, but what have you given lately?”

Nick waited a solid second, as if he knew he possessed the trump card and wanted to relish his moment of victory. When he spoke, I realized he was right.

“Harper.” His eyes narrowed. “I give you Harper. I sign the papers and let her attend a hoity-toity boarding school, don’t I? I stay out of your way for weekly visits. I ignore the fact you’re an animal, a threat to her safety. Seems like I give a lot.”

He was right and I had no rebuttal. Instead, I picked up my pace, heading toward the picnic tables. Nick would follow. He always did.

Sure enough, the reek of cheap liquor caught up with me before the rest of the visiting families came into view. Nick’s taller form cast a shadow across my face as we stepped out of the trees side by side.

“I could yank her out of school today you know.” His words were ice picks in my spine. “Take her home with me.”

Home to the beer cans, the late nights, the gambling debts piling up. Harper worked hard at Highlands. She didn’t deserve being forced into unpaid maid service.

“How about I pay whoever you owe?” I suggested. Because that was when Nick came to me for extra beyond his usual weekly stipend. When he gambled too much and IOUs were called in all at once.

I’d learned the hard way that it was safer to deal with his creditors directly. Then the debt was sure to be cancelled. Otherwise, my hard-earned money slid down the black hole of another binge.

Unfortunately, Nick’s scent morphed into bitter anger. “I’m not a child. I won’t be treated like one.”

I’d pushed it too far. And we’d spent too long discussing the issue too, because Harper was now entering the picnic area from the opposite direction.

Boarding schools must have staff members to take care of horses for the students. Whatever the reason, my sister was unencumbered as she waved at us. She’d be within human earshot within seconds.

Nick didn’t budge. “Well?”

“Give me a week,” I told him, “and you’ll get your cash.”

THE REST OF OUR VISIT went nearly as badly as the first half. Harper pretended not to be disappointed by the lack of salt packets. “I forgot,” I lied when she dug through the sack and came up empty.

“They’re salty enough,” Ms.