Blown (Elemental Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

replied with a poorly hidden eye-roll. “Fortunately, I’m not too worried about that. I haven’t technically graduated high school yet, remember?”
    “I’m pretty sure you count as a graduate now that classes are over,” Nate argued with a faint grin as he followed Eric into the foyer and pushed the door shut. Projecting his voice, Nate called out, “I don’t smell food!”
    “I haven’t started cooking yet!” Nate’s father, Christopher, hollered back.
    The pair made their way easily down the main hall, toward the large living room. In no time they had joined the family already gathered, and Eric quickly claimed the open seat beside his girlfriend.
    Nate tuned out his mother’s polite greeting as she spoke to Eric and dropped lightly onto the couch next to Logan. Logan was leaning back, his ankles crossed beneath the coffee table, but he nodded in silent greeting to his brother, a shadow-grin tilting one corner of his lips. On his other side were Blake and Brooke, with Blake beside his brother and Brooke claiming the corner seat, leaning slightly into the arm of the sofa. The couple offered amusingly similar smiles as Nate passed them.
    “Nate,” Lillian, his mother, suddenly said, a familiar scolding tone in her voice, as his feet came to rest on the coffee table.
    “Sorry,” Nate said quickly, setting his feet properly on the floor and sitting upright to avoid giving in to the temptation again.
    “Where, exactly, did you pick that up, anyway?” Angela asked, directing her question at him with a teasing smile and laughter lighting her eyes.
    Shrugging, Nate replied, “I must have gotten it from Dad’s side of the family.”
    An exaggerated look of horror on his face, Christopher said, “That’s impossible.”
    Before another word could be uttered a new voice, coming from the hallway, called, “Why do you all always insist on showing up early? You’re making me look bad!”
    Nate grinned and hollered back, “Don’t feel bad, Dean—every family has its black sheep!”
    Dean Hawke, the youngest brother by fifty-two seconds, sauntered into the room with a laughing grin and a shrug. “You’re just saying that to make yourself feel better.”
    “You know what I think?” Angela began rhetorically, aiming a teasing grin at her newly arrived brother. “I think you should start setting your watch ten minutes fast. Then maybe you’d show up on time.”
    Returning her teasing grin easily, Dean detoured up to her and dropped a large hand on her head as he said, “What good would that do when I use my phone to check the time?”
    Shoving his hand off of her head, Angela replied, “There’s probably a way to adjust the clock on that, too.”
    Dean laughed and turned toward an open spot on the second couch, settling down beside his father and spreading out comfortably. “So, are we waiting on anyone else?”
    “Not that we’re aware of,” Christopher replied casually.
    Lillian turned her gaze back to Nate, and asked, “Is it true that you’ve rented out your guest house again?”
    Inclining his head, Nate replied, “Yeah. She finished moving in on Monday.”
    “She?” Dean asked immediately, turning curious eyes to his brother. “What’s she like?”
    “Dean,” Christopher mumbled on a sigh.
    Before Nate could reply, Brooke spoke up and said, “She’s the new Head Chef at the diner, so do us a favor and don’t go chasing her out of town?”
    Dean’s brothers laughed while he rolled his eyes and said, “I feel like I’m getting that a lot lately. What’s the big deal if I ask about her?”
    “That was a rhetorical question, right?” Logan asked with laughing eyes.
    “Not that it’s any of my business,” Eric interrupted carefully, flicking his gaze around the family before settling it on Nate, “but is it really a good idea to rent out your guest house right now? I mean, you know, with everything that’s going on…”
    A tense silence eased into the room for a long minute,