Fever Read Online Free

with that droll expression of hers. “Of course I'm gonna call her.”
    “Yeah, for a booty call!” Frankie jumped up onto the stool beside his foster mother and chortled.
    “Frankie,” she scolded and turned back to me with a glare. “See the example you're setting right now?”
    “Oh come on, Nina.” Frankie rolled his eyes. “You don't think I'm good with the ladies?”
    Nina squashed her grin between tight lips and turned back to the boy. “You're fourteen years old. Let me assure you, you have a very long way to go before you score yourself a decent lady. Now back to bed, mister. You've got school tomorrow.”
    “Malachi said we could play another game.”
    Nina's green eyes rounded. “It's getting close to midnight, and Malachi is not allowed to say those things to you without my permission. Now, bed. Sleep. Grow!”
    With an impish grin, Frankie slid from his stool and bustled past his foster father. Malachi scruffed the boy's hair as he walked past, putting on an innocent face. “What's he doing up then?”
    Nina gave him a hard glare before turning to check the pub doors were locked. “That kid does not understand the concept of sleep, and you letting him play pool after closing does not help, Mal. He should have been in bed hours ago. If the place hadn't been so busy tonight, I would have been up there with him. I feel bad when I can't look after him properly.” She turned back with a frown.
    Her soft heart was her undoing...and the reason every foster child who had ever been in her care fell madly in love with her.
    “You remember what I was like when you first got me. Sleep's hard for a foster kid.” I threw the dishtowel back over my shoulder. “Besides, trying to beat Malachi at pool is probably keeping that kid from running away.”
    Nina gave me a soft smile. “I just hope the state will let us keep him. I feel like we can really make a difference with this one. If we're lucky enough, he'll turn out as brilliant as you.”
    I grinned as she patted my arm. She'd never be my real mother, but she certainly treated me like her son, as she did every boy who'd been dropped off at her door. “Frankie's a good kid. He'll be fine.”
    “Yeah, as long as we can keep him away from that psycho mother of his.” Malachi's eyes bulged, his Irish accent growing thick with the late hour.
    “Mal,” Nina chided.
    “What? I only speak the truth.”
    “I know.” Nina looked toward the door that led up to the three-bedroom apartment above us. “But he doesn't need to hear us talking that way. A boy will always love his mother, no matter how messed up she is.”
    Nina picked at the counter , and I couldn't help leaning over the bar and kissing her cheek. “You're the world's best mother, Nina. He'll fall in love with you, too. In fact, I think he already has a little bit.”
    “Well, it's impossible not to, Boy-o. Look at the woman, she's the most beautiful creature on this earth.”
    Nina blushed and rolled her eyes as her husband captured her from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and nuzzling her neck. “Malachi, stop it.”
    Finally relenting, he grabbed the broom from the closet and started sweeping up the floor, giving her neck a raspberry as he walked past her. I chuckled with Malachi as Nina yelped and slapped him on the back. The three of us continued packing up, each knowing our jobs without having to say a thing. I'd started working weekend shifts here when I was sixteen. Five years later, I felt like a pro and couldn't wait to start doing this on my own.
    “Speaking of falling in love.” Nina sat down at the bar, her perfect nose crinkling.
    “When were we speaking of falling in love?” I tipped my head. She always did this to me.
    “We are now.” She slapped the counter and I bit back my smile, reaching for a short glass and popping the cap off her favorite bottle of whisky.
    She took the glass with a little smile and raised it in the air before taking a delicate sip. “When