Keeper vs. Reaper (Graveyard Guardians Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

pathetic life.
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
    Ethan let go of her hand and they strode quickly across the short expanse to the farmhouse. Lucy heard movement in the house as they stepped up on the porch. She hurried to the front door and flung it open to find all of her brothers and sisters had gotten to the house before her and Ethan. The entire brood of adult children were scurrying about in the kitchen uncovering the food and making coffee.
    “Hey Luce!” Her oldest brother Gregory Jr, set a tray of blueberry muffins on the counter and embraced her. “How ya doin’?”
    “I’m all right.” She gave Greg a squeeze and then wiggled out of his arms. “Just want this day to be over, mostly.”
    “Well, we’re almost there.”
    Thank God.
    Lucy knew his intention was to reassure her, but she saw that his eyes were the ones holding back sadness.
    Lucy knew Greg well enough to know he was regretting that he hadn’t been around as much the last few years. Well, longer than that really. Greg was thirty-five years old and lived in San Francisco, which was about four hours away from home. He had been called over to become Keeper for one of the Bay Area graveyards. The family who had been Keeping it had no living heirs to take over.  Before that he had assisted her father at home in Summer Hollow, like all the children did.
    Greg smiled, “Ethan, how ‘bout you man, you good?” He held his hand out for a shake.
    Ethan returned the smile, but his was weak. Lucy knew he was happy to see Greg, but he missed Gregory Sr. Ethan grasped Greg’s hand. “I’ve been better, for sure.”
    “Son of a …” James yelled from in front of the open oven. His sharp yell was immediately followed by the ear assaulting clang of metal muffin tin against tile kitchen floor. “Shit! I burned my fingers.” He stuck two of his fingers between his lips.
    Lucy and Stephanie both hurried over and fell to their knees to try and save the muffins. “Use an oven mitt, dumbass! Look at what you did ,” Steph screamed at him from the floor.
    “Are you serious? Fuck the muffins, I burnt myself, Steph.”
    “Well you wouldn’t have if you had used a fucking oven mitt.” Steph’s voice escalated and she stood up to face him.
    James stood a full foot taller than Steph, but she stared up at him and fearlessly balled her fists at her side. Their identical dark brown eyes met and then he flipped her the middle finger as a silent challenge. Lucy stood up from the mess to intervene but Hannah slid in between them.
    “Let me look at it, J.” She put her arm around James and gently led him away. The impending fight would have likely been an embarrassing scene had they been left to go at it. Sadly, it wouldn’t have been the first time the public had witnessed an Estmond family brawl.
    “You got lucky!” Steph called as they headed toward the bathroom. “ God, I can’t believe he is twenty-four years old and hasn’t learned to use the freaking oven mitts.”
    Lucy sighed, trying to push her frustration with her sister aside. Stephanie and James were fraternal twins and one of the closer pairs out of the clan. They were the youngest, aside from Lucy.
    Since birth the twins had fought a lot, but anyone who dared pick a fight with either Steph or James had to deal with the other half of the pair. “Leave him alone, at least for today,” Lucy whispered to her sister.
    Steph rolled her eyes, insinuating a ‘yeah right , like that’s gonna happen’ and then bent back down to the floor. She gathered the remnants of the crumbled muffin mess and tossed it in the metal trash can at the end of the counters.
    Across the kitchen, Olivia had her hair pulled up into a messy bun to keep any renegade strands from getting in the food. She whipped away from the Formica countertop with a tray of cookies and hurried toward Lucy. “Get this stuff out in the family room. I can see people starting to come over from the cemetery.”
    Lucy frowned at her sister.