Moon Glamour Aimee Easterling (reading women TXT) 📖

Nick, of course, was always good for lowering the mood yet further. He glowered as Clara and Harper competed to see who could stuff more soggy fries in their mouths. But, for once, my kid sister was having too much fun to focus on her parent’s moodiness. So, yeah, that part didn’t suck.

Since Harper didn’t seem bothered, I didn’t exert myself to tease Nick into good humor. Instead, I leaned on the picnic table and reveled in the fact that Harper was hanging out with someone who looked more like a friend than a colleague.

This was a major change from her first year at Highlands. For two terms, I’d watched and worried as my sister nurtured acquaintances, ensuring she’d have a warm body to spend vacations with if her father failed to step up to the plate.

But now Harper appeared to relinquishing thoughts of the future. She was laughing and being silly like a child. That felt unbelievably good.

The thought of vacations, though, reminded me of something I’d meant to discuss with her. “Break is week after next, right?” I asked.

“Next week,” Harper countered. Her face shuttered, my fault this time instead of Nick’s. “It starts Friday at 5 pm. But, I mean, if you guys are busy, I can stay here. Clara does.”

Clara did because her mother was the headmistress. “It’s like a mausoleum,” the other girl countered. “Dark. Cold. Dinners in the cafeteria with Mum.”

Harper’s eyes smiled even if her mouth didn’t. “I like your mother.”

“She’s a termagant.”

Whatever that meant. Highlands students definitely liked their big words.

“She’s fair,” Harper countered. “And...she’s directly behind you.”

So, yeah, that was uncomfortable. The headmistress peered down her nose at her daughter before turning to face me. “Your tuition payment is overdue.”

I hated discussing this in front of the kids. But the headmistress clung to silence until I muttered, “I’m on the monthly payment plan....”

“And late.” Then, turning to Nick, she added, “Meanwhile, you haven’t signed the parental agreement for this semester. That, at least, is easily remedied.” As she spoke, she whipped out a sheaf of papers, as if she expected Nick to jot down his signature right there at the picnic table.

Which, knowing my stepfather, was probably a good idea. He wasn’t the best at follow-through unless it involved accepting a round of drinks....

But Nick didn’t seem to be in any hurry to grab the papers. Instead, his eyes slid to me as he spoke to the headmistress. “I forgot my pen.”

“I have one.” Clara was either deeply oblivious to the mood or very, very good at pretending. Either way, she dug into her backpack and came up with a glittery, sparkly thing that I supposed could have been called a pen.

“Naw.” Nick waved away the writing utensil. “I’ll sign it when I bring Harper back from vacation.”

“I’ll expect full payment of this and next month’s tuition payment at the exact same time,” the headmistress agreed before sweeping away.

The coldness of her reaction seemed to take all of the autumn sunshine with her. No wonder the four of us sat there in stunned silence for a solid minute before Clara dipped back into the insulated bag for another soggy fry. “Don’t mind Mum. She has to be a hard-nose or no one would ever pay her.”

I nodded, accepting the fact that it was likely just as awkward for Clara to be the daughter of the headmistress as it was for Harper to have an alcoholic father and a sister who had trouble dealing with bills on time. I cleared my throat. “Anyway, about break, I’d love to have you both come stay with me. Girl time. We’ll paint our toenails. Binge on ice cream....”

Nick opened his mouth to interrupt and I raised both eyebrows. A reminder of our agreement. He’d get his cash. In exchange, I’d get Harper for spring break.

And...Nick nodded. Closed his mouth without anything vile spewing out of it.

Gradually, the sun emerged from behind the clouds. Clara and Harper regaled us with chemistry-lab mishaps and crushes on actors.

And, on the way home, I stopped by the bank to deposit Marina’s check.

Chapter 8

The museum was impenetrable to thieves...well, to human thieves. Luckily, I had an ace up my sleeve.

The ability to transform into a wolf.

And, yes, I knew it was a bad idea. I’d never utilized my lupine form during previous heists for three very good reasons—the card in my pocket, the alpha it represented, and the necessity of keeping the existence of werewolves a secret from the larger human world.

If I was found out during this heist, I put my ability to visit Harper in jeopardy. The idea of losing our weekly visits left bitter terror in my mouth.

But two days of scouting showed up no other obvious avenues of entrance. The night guard I brushed past on the sidewalk at the end of his shift had dog hairs on his trousers. And the deadline of Harper and Clara’s fall break loomed.

Plus, there was the check I’d already cashed with all those zeroes on it. The carrot that a single job could pay Harper’s tuition all the way through to college. And the stick—the memory of smelling flowers that really shouldn’t have been blooming at the end of October moments before Harper had an incident with her horse.

“Just this once,” I decided. “We can be in and out before anyone notices. Authorities will assume I’m a dog with a human handler...and if they see no signs of the handler there will be no leads to follow up.”

Inside my belly, my wolf pranced. She was in total agreement with any opportunity that allowed us to don our fur form and get frisky. She’d been cooped up way too long, other than short shifts inside our apartment. It wasn’t smart to take her enthusiasm as evidence I was making the rational choice.

But there were no other avenues open to me, so I took her approval at face value. Started planning a heist