Golden Angel: (Broken Angel #5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the butterflies to swarm into her stomach.
    Nothing. She might as well have been kissing a rock.
    “Pretty moon! Pretty moon!”
    Leilani was startled by high-pitched giggles.
    “Oh, you’re still up. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just putting Giggles back in her cage,” Auntie Anela said as she headed to the bird cage sitting next to the door. A white cockatoo sat on her shoulders, bobbing its head excitedly.
    “Pretty moon! Pretty moon!”
    “Yes, Giggles. It is a pretty moon tonight.”
    “I’ll take care of her.” Leilani reached for the bird.
    Giggles flapped her wings and squawked. Leilani snatched her hand back.
    Giggles laughed.
    “That’s not nice, Giggles,” Auntie Anela scolded.
    Leilani rolled her eyes. She loved Auntie Anela for moving in with them. But that bird was driving her ape-shit. It was no secret that Giggles wanted to take her down. It had been war since day one.
    Auntie Anela had warned her that Giggles was smart and liked to repeat everything she heard. She hadn’t been kidding. Leilani had learned the hard way.
    When she and Sammy had helped Auntie Anela move in, she’d banged her elbow on the kitchen counter. She had let out a slew of curses that would’ve had her grounded for a month if her parents had heard. Giggles had been in her cage, playing with one of her toys, acting like she hadn’t heard any of it. She didn’t say a word, not even a giggle, until Auntie Anela stepped into the kitchen, and then bam! Those swear words had flown right out of that damn bird.
    “Is something wrong?” Auntie handed Giggles over to her.
    Leilani gazed at her, taking in wise and crinkled chestnut brown eyes. Her short, dark hair was flecked with gray, giving her a salt-and-pepper frame around her wrinkled face.
    “Nothing’s wrong. It’s just a little hot.” She turned away, placing Giggles into the cage.
    She wasn’t really lying. It was hot.
    Smooth hands touched her shoulder, turning her back. Leilani’s eyes flashed down. She couldn’t look at her. Auntie was like a psychic or something who could read minds. Sometimes she knew what Leilani was going to say even before she’d thought of the words.
    Even though Auntie wasn’t related to her and Sammy, she was `ohana—family. Auntie had practically raised her mother and then herself when she was small. Auntie had been with her family through everything—when her father had left for LA, when her mother had remarried, when Sammy had been born, and when her parents had died. She’d even sold her own home to pay off her parents’ mortgage so that she and Sammy could stay in the home where they’d been raised. Leilani owed her everything.
    “Something happened. Sammy was talking in his sleep again, calling for someone named Jeremy.”
    A lumped formed in her throat at the sound of his name. She wanted to forget him. Auntie was making it hard.
    Forcing a smile, she went to fridge and pulled out a pitcher.
    “Jeremy? Oh that’s nothing. He’s just some tourist Sammy used to hang around with a few years ago.”
    “Is that all?”
    The room was quiet as she poured lemonade into a couple of glasses. When she handed one to her, Auntie held on to her hand.
    “Are you sure that’s all?”
    Leilani gripped her cool drink. She should tell Auntie about Jeremy. Maybe she could tell her how to stop dreaming about a man she could never have.
    I can’t. She shouldn’t be worrying Auntie about her drama. She’d already done so much for them.
    “Yep,” she replied, keeping her voice light. “Oh, by the way, you’re still going to help me choreograph a new hula, right?”
    She gulped down her drink as Auntie studied her.
    “You’re not ready to talk yet. That’s fine. Maybe tomorrow.”
    “Yeah, tomorrow.”
    “Are you going to bed?”
    “In a minute.” She kissed Auntie’s cheek before she headed out of the kitchen.
    When she heard a door close, she gazed outside again at the full moon. She hoped Auntie would be so