The Lost: Book Two, The Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 2) Read Online Free PDF

drink.”
    He didn’t want a drink. He wanted a hundred drinks.
    “Yeah, but only one,” he lied.
    She smiled over at him.
    She pulled out of the lot back onto the same road. Steered them away from his apartment, farther from town.
    They drove another stretch in silence but he could sense the shift in her mood. It was stronger than the moon’s pull on the tides.
    “Thank you, Eddie.”
    “Don’t ...”
    She didn’t seem to hear him. “I’m so excited. With you on board—”
    “Listen, Ana, we do this my way.”
    “That’s what I meant. Totally. I’ll try to ratchet it down.” She beamed him a smile he could feel all the way down in his toes. “I just want to learn. Teach me everything you know.”
    “First you’re going to teach me. Tell me about Tessa.”
    “Well, for one thing we were stepsisters and she was a lot older than me.”
    Ana came to a stop at a lonely red light. No cars in sight in any direction. “I was only eight when she drowned.”
    The light changed to green. Ana accelerated.
    “After Tessa died, my mom left. Tessa’s dad and mine weren’t even on speaking terms, so you can imagine how much worse it got after. One dad blamed the other, and it actually came to blows. It was terrible.”
    Eddie inventoried the mess of a situation. Divorce. Death of a child. Followed by another divorce. He was surprised Ana wasn’t selling her body or riding a pole or addict-deep in drugs.
    “Tessa’s pop rolled my dad real bad. He ended up in the hospital a couple days. The Sheriff wanted to arrest Tessa’s father but dad wouldn’t press charges. All he would say is that it takes two to tango. I think he just felt sorry for the guy after the fight. Tessa was all he had.”
    Eddie was amazed Ana had turned out so normal with her family history.
    Ana continued. “She was pretty and popular. And hot. I think she, uh, got around. Everybody tells me she was nice, but I think that’s them blowing smoke.”
    “Why?”
    She looked over at him. “I’m her sister, what else are they going to tell me. What’s the Latin, nil nisi boner ?”
    Eddie laughed. “ Bonum .”
    She took her eyes off the dark road for the briefest of moments to give him a knowing look. “It was a joke.”
    “Got it.” He was surprised by her bawdy sense of humor. “So why don’t you think she was nice?”
    Ana slowed and put her signal on. Eddie spotted the six-pack store that tripled as a deli and the post office ahead. One old plastic sign lit up the naked trees surrounding the parking lot.
    “One of the prereqs to running with the popular crowd is you have to be either a prick or a see-you-next-Tuesday.”
    “See-you-next Tuesday ...?”
    “God, you’re an old head, Eddie.”
    “I’m not that old. What does it mean?”
    She looked over at him slyly. “A cunt.”
    Eddie laughed.

Twelve
     
    An a had read the book but still Eddie was a puzzle to her. Okay, The Unearthed wasn’t entirely about him. Still she couldn’t find his center. The author had missed some fundamental part of him. She thought after reading the book she would have a handle on him, perhaps even a lever to her shame.
    He was still a mystery.
    He was nice-looking when he wasn’t angry and he had a killer sense of humor when he wanted to. When he was angry there was a danger to him that admittedly turned her on. He hadn’t hit on her … yet, and even that surprised her. She knew she wasn’t a raving beauty but men of all shapes and sizes gave her the Don Juan leer. She’d fantasized about Eddie one night …
    Her boyfriend was … he just was. He floated along with the many other young guys in town going nowhere and more often than not arriving there.
    She made a left out of the parking lot and headed back to Eddie’s place. Eddie stared straight ahead, the brown bag containing the two six-packs cradled in his arms.
    “Mind if I use your phone again?” he asked.
    She handed him her purse while keeping her eyes on the road. “It’s in