Read Online Luck of the Devil by Patricia Eimer - Free Book Online

around with that creepy guy I was trying to tell Faith—”
    He poofed out of sight.
    Everybody’s attention focused on Boris. He shrugged and turned back to the cartoons he’d been watching. “Guess they finally handled his paperwork.”

Chapter Five

    “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I said two hours later as I pulled my Civic into the parking garage at the Pittsburgh airport. “First Tolliver, then Hope and Boris. Now Mom and Dad?”
    Shoving the parking stub into my purse, I opened the door and stepped out before hitting my key chain’s car-alarm button. Pittsburgh was a safe city, but only an idiot left her car unlocked in an airport parking lot. I made my way across the sky bridge and into the bustling airport, searching for my unwelcome guest.
    If I were the former—and now apparently current—mistress of Satan, where would I head first after I got off the plane? If I found her right away, maybe it would prevent her from displaying too much of her crazy to the people around us. Airport security filtered everyone through one terminal on arrival so I could snag her there. And lo and behold! There was a coffee shop next to it.
    I checked my watch. Fifteen minutes before she showed up. Time for at least one cup of coffee in peace today. Maybe, if I was lucky.
    “Black coffee and a blueberry muffin,” I told the heavily tattooed young man at the counter. If Mom was here, Dad wouldn’t be far behind. He wasn’t going to let us get together without him, especially if they were an item again.
    Once I had my snack, I found a table near the entrance of the cafe so I could see my mother when she came out of security. I sipped my coffee. They better be getting along still, because otherwise he’d pull something crazy and I’d have to move again. For the third time since I’d graduated college.
    While enjoying my coffee—and the last bits of solitude before this impromptu family reunion went to Hell—I spotted a guy across the shop staring at me. Smiling, I tried my best ‘come hither’ eyes on him and was rewarded with a smirk. His pointer finger moved to his cheek and wiped at the side of his mouth, exaggerating the movement.
    Frowning, I brought my fingers to my own mouth. They came away with blueberry.
    Damn it.
    “Faith!” My mother yelled from the other side of the airport lobby, distracting me from my mortification. “What are you doing here? It was supposed to be a surprise. Hope told you, didn’t she?”
    “Tolliver might have mentioned it.” I took another long drink of coffee and counted to ten.
    She settled into the seat across from me, fidgeting with her oversized pink bag. Between the heavy green eye shadow and the brassy blonde curls, she looked like a chubby, overgrown child who’d decided to play dress-up in her grandmother’s things. Unfortunately, she was at about that mental level as well. It had been almost a year since we’d seen each other, and I could’ve gone twice as long. The fates—and my sister—had conspired against me.
    “Tolliver?” She narrowed her blue eyes and huffed. “I should have expected it of him. He’s never really happy when your father and I are together, after all. I think he’s got some sort of unresolved issues when it comes to your dad and his mother.”
    “Mom?”
    She licked at the bubblegum pink lip gloss on her teeth. “Yeah?”
    “Jealousy is not a becoming quality on you, especially when you’re complaining about your stepson.”
    “I’m not jealous. Tolliver is a bit of an odd young man, and his fascination with getting your father and his mother back together isn’t healthy.” Mom snagged my blueberry muffin and eyed the uneaten side. “You weren’t planning on finishing this, were you? I didn’t get anything to eat this morning and all they had was overly processed granola bars on the plane.”
    “Take it.” No, I wasn’t hungry. My roommate didn’t eat my Danish, and my pain de chocolates weren’t