Burkheart Witch Saga Book 3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

from the oven, and her worries suddenly seemed far away. She made her way downstairs and into the kitchen, her stomach growling like a starving tiger.
    David and Harold had gone to her apartment to set up the new crib she and Kayla had picked out. Harold had really wanted to get out of the house and away from Kayla, but he would have never said that to Grace for fear of hurting her feelings. He occasionally seemed to forget that her powers allowed her to feel what he was feeling. He felt excluded and hurt, but he had loved Kayla just as much as the rest of them. She had been like a second mother to him after he was rescued from the cottage in the woods.
    His family was great, but his mother and father had died shortly after his nineteenth birthday. They had been traveling to New York when their plane crashed. Harold was supposed to be with them, but he'd opted to stay in Washington to be with Grace for her birthday. The guilt that he felt had nearly killed him, and it had nearly driven Grace crazy as she felt every bit of it emanating from his mind in waves. She had tried her best to project feelings of forgiveness and peace to him, but the barrier he had set up around his heart was nearly impenetrable. She had finally broken through it when she told him that she loved him for the first time.
    Grace had literally felt his heart soften, and she knew for a fact he felt the same way about her.
    He was the best thing in her life, and she did not like the way that Kayla had been treating him since she came back. Even David had been having some odd feelings about his wife. He tried to mask them from Grace, but her magic was too strong for him to hide it. He was wondering why she had been short-tempered and impatient. He had even thought about the possibility of Kayla having an affair.
    Grace sat down at the table ready to eat, and Kayla put a plate in front of her containing a grapefruit and a small bowl of oatmeal. Kayla sat down to a plate of fresh biscuits and gravy.
    "What is this?" Grace asked.
    "Your breakfast. You are getting a little too chubby, so we have to cut down on your carbs," Kayla said as she scooped up a forkful of gravy-coated biscuit. "Take your vitamins."
    Grace's mouth hung open. She was in total disbelief that her mom had said something so hurtful. She decided to dig a little deeper into the situation.
    "Mom, have you talked to Doc or Joy lately? I really wanted to have them over for dinner this week."
    "No. We don't need to have those midgets here. I don't want them trying to fill your head with nonsense." Kayla continued to shovel her breakfast into her mouth as she talked.
    In all the years Grace had been alive, Kayla had never said a derogatory thing about anyone in the coven. Doc and Joy were the closest things that Kayla had to parents, and she loved them fiercely. For her to refer to them as midgets was unthinkable. There was something very wrong, and Grace intended to find out exactly what it was.
    "I'm going to go to the apartment and help with the nursery, and then Harold and I are going to go out to dinner tonight."
    "I'll go with you."
    "No Mom, just me and Harold."
    "Well, if that is what you want," Kayla replied petulantly. "If you don't want me there, that's fine."
    "We just really need some alone time," Grace said, digging into her oatmeal.
    "I said it was fine," Kayla grumbled.
    The two women ate in uncomfortable silence. All that Grace could think about was her desire to have biscuits and gravy—and how bizarre her mom's behavior was lately.
    When the two women finished their meals, Grace rose from the table and took her dishes to the sink. She opened the dishwasher to place her plate in the rack. Noticing that it was full, she opened the cabinet under the sink to retrieve a tablet of soap, and that was when she saw it.
    There was a bottle of vodka sitting in the cabinet behind the trash bags.
    Grace was stunned that after so many years, her mom would start drinking again. Both her mom