Ready or Not (The Love Game Book 4)

by Elizabeth Hayley

  “Are you there now?”

  “Yeah, I just pulled in. My class starts in ten minutes.”

  “I’ll let you go, then. I’ll see you at work later.”

  “Can’t wait.” His voice was husky, as if the words had escaped around a closing voice box.

  Warmth flooded me, and I couldn’t resist returning the sentiment. “Me neither.”

  We hung up, but I stared at the screen for a bit longer. Ransom had somehow crawled under the defenses I’d built, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

  Well, that was a bit of a lie. I felt happy about it. But I wasn’t sure that was how I should feel about it.

  Ransom wasn’t Brad. There was absolutely no question about that. But I still had a lot going on, and I wasn’t sure getting involved with someone was the best idea. Not that I even knew that Ransom wanted to be involved with me. It seemed like he did, but he also could’ve decided I was much more hassle than I was worth. It’d be hard to blame him.

  I forced myself up and went back into my room to finish getting ready. Even though I didn’t have to leave my apartment for class, I always got dressed anyway. It made me feel more productive. I also had a live session to attend today, and while a lot of my classmates showed up in ratty clothes they’d probably slept in, that wasn’t me. My dad had always taught me that impressions were important, and I wanted to make sure a professor I might need a recommendation from down the road had a good one of me.

  The day passed surprisingly quickly. I managed to focus on my classes and assignments, despite all that had gone down yesterday. When it came time for me to head to Safe Haven, I only had a small thrum of anxiety when I left my apartment building. The unbidden thought that Brad could be out there watching me was definitely in my head, but it didn’t stop me from holding my head high as I casually made my way to my car and hopped in. And if I breathed a small sigh of relief when I locked the doors around me, so what?

  When I pulled up in front of Safe Haven and parked in the small lot across the street, I was actually excited. Ransom needed my help, and it made me giddy to think that he’d decided he could rely on me. Even if I was the most logical choice because I knew Cindy. Semantics be damned. I was gonna rock the shit out of being Ransom Helper.

  Maybe I need to work on that name.

  When I got inside, I swept my gaze over the room in search of Ransom. His truck was in the lot, so I knew he was here, but I didn’t see him anywhere. I felt a brief surge of disappointment that I quickly told myself was ridiculous. Since when did I need to see Ransom so badly?

  Get a grip.

  The kids weren’t due to show up for another half hour, so after saying hello to everyone, I set about helping Marty get snacks ready. Once we were done divvying up trail mix into small plastic cups, I moved to the sink to fill the water pitcher. With my back to the room, I was startled by a loud bang and a muffled curse behind me.

  Twisting around suddenly, I sloshed water all over the floor. “Damn,” I muttered before looking up to see what had caused the racket.

  Ransom and Roddie were struggling to bring a gigantic couch into the room—a feat the narrow doorway was making difficult.

  “Bro, I told you we shoulda come in the other way,” Roddie said as he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

  “That would’ve meant going through the entire center. Stacey would’ve caught us.”

  I dropped a few paper towels on the mess and then made my way over to them. “Why are you bringing a ratty couch in here?”

  Roddie pressed a hand to his chest as if he’d been an insulted maiden. “This baby’s in near perfect condition.”

  He and I clearly had very different concepts of what constituted “near perfect.” There were tears in the upholstery and a dark mark at the base. And that was just what I could see with it wedged in the door.

  “Where’d you get it?” I asked.

  Roddie sniffed. “Next to a dumpster down the street.”

  “Hmm. And you thought you should trash pick it and bring it here because…?”

  “Because I figured it would be awesome to sit on while we play video games.”

  I couldn’t suppress an eye roll. Safe Haven had a good-sized TV that was hooked up to a PlayStation. It was supposed to be a privilege for kids who completed their homework when they first arrived, but Roddie often set up tournaments that he said nullified that rule because it was a special circumstance. And even though this special circumstance happened damn near every week, causing Harry to make a number of hollow threats about disconnecting everything, Roddie remained resolute in his assertion that he was providing a valuable service by educating kids in the fine art of gaming.

  “We don’t even know what that thing is crawling with,” I said. “You can’t let the kids sit on it.”

  “I know, Mother,” Roddie said, sounding more like a preteen than a college student. “I plan to deep clean it and get a slipcover. But it’s supposed to storm tonight, so I can’t leave it outside while I do that. I’ll just put caution tape on it or something until it’s clean.”

  “Where are you going to get caution tape?”

  “From Edith. She has everything.”

  He was probably right. Harry’s secretary was like a Mary Poppins of office supplies. Though I thought caution tape might be beyond her scope.

  “Hey, guys,” Ransom called from where he stood outside with the other end of the couch. “This is a fascinating argument, but can we finish it after we clear the doorway of this thing? The kids are gonna be here soon.”

  “Oh yeah. Sorry, man,” Roddie said as he crouched down to grab the couch. “Give it a solid push on the count of three.”

  I looked around at the array of toys and puzzles behind Roddie. “I don’t think this is gonna work.”

  “One,” Roddie started. “Two.”

  “Guys—”

  “Three!” Roddie yelled, tugging his hardest as Ransom pushed.

  I was relieved when the couch didn’t budge. I’d had mental images of Roddie falling over the objects behind him as a couch drove him into the floor.

  “Roddie,” Ransom called. “Back up. I’m gonna get a running start and push it through.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Hell yeah! Use those football muscles, brother,” Roddie yelled.

  “Ransom, maybe you should try a different way.”

  “Never give up, never surrender,” he yelled back at me.

  “I don’t think that applies here.”

  “Stand back,” he yelled, sounding farther away than before. I wondered with concern at how long this running start was going to be.

  Roddie and I moved a good ways back just as the sound of sneakers hitting blacktop reached us.

  “Oh God,” I whispered.

  A second later, Ransom made contact with the couch. It felt as if the entire room shook, which ordinarily would be an exaggeration, but I could’ve sworn Ransom’s hit on the couch jolted the entire center. The couch inched forward with his momentum behind it, but Ransom didn’t stop pushing. After a second, there was a sharp crack, and the sofa tumbled forward, hurtling into the room like someone had flung it from a slingshot. The wooden feet groaned across the linoleum flooring before it crashed into the games and toys I’d been worried Roddie was going to be tossed into earlier.

  An “oof” came as a heavy thud sounded from the doorway. I turned to see Ransom lying on the ground like Superman, all his limbs spread wide.

  The doorjamb was ripped open, the wood exposed after the couch had ripped part of it away. Splintered wood lay all over the floor. It looked like the sloppiest breaking-and-entering job ever performed.

  I took the few steps I needed to get to Ransom and knelt beside him. “Are you okay?”

  He rolled to his back, groaning with the movement. As he gazed up at me, I couldn’t help but let my eyes track over his body, looking for injuries. When I brought my eyes back to his face, he had a dopey grin stretching acros
s it.

  “I saw that going very differently.”

  A soft laugh escaped me. This guy was really something else. And I was totally gone for him.

  “I’d certainly hope so.”

  He looked up at the doorway, examining the mess he’d made of the door. “Think Harry’s going to be mad?”

  I also looked up to survey the damage. “Without question.”

  “Damn.”

  I laughed again. I grabbed on to his arm as I stood, trying to pull him with me. A wasted action since he outweighed me by probably almost a hundred pounds, but he did move to sit.

  “Come on,” I said as I tugged on him again. “We can call Bill to come take a look at it.”

  Bill was the head of the maintenance crew at the center. I was sure he’d be simply thrilled to deal with a destroyed door this late on a Friday.

  “Oh God, do we have to?” Ransom asked. “Maybe I can fix it.”

  Bill was gruff and grumpy on a good day. And this would certainly not be a good day in his book.

  “I think you’ve done enough,” I said.

  “Dude, that was epic,” Roddie enthused from behind us.

  “Oh, it was epic all right,” I said, staring meaningfully at Ransom.

  “Epically stupid?” he asked.

  I tapped my nose twice to indicate he was right on the money.

  “Come on, get up,” I told him. “The kids are gonna be here in”—I checked my watch—“ten minutes.”

  He sighed heavily. “I’ll never find my pride by then.”

  I barked out a laugh as I helped Ransom to his feet. Roddie moved the couch against a wall and set about cleaning the mess the couch had made as Ransom and I walked out to where Edith sat.

  “Edith, love of my life,” Ransom said, laying it on a little thick, even for him.

  “No,” she said without even looking up from the paperwork she had spread across her desk.

  “You don’t even know what I was going to say,” he objected. “Maybe I just came to declare my undying devotion to you.”

  She eyed him over her glasses without moving her head. “Did you?”

  “Well, no, but—”

  “Then my answer is no.”

  Ransom dropped to his knees beside her desk and put his elbows on top so he could clasp his hands in prayer. “Please, Edith. I’ll never ask for another favor as long as I live.”

  She eyed him doubtfully until he added, “Or until I really need something else.”

  The sigh that fell from her lips would’ve made my eternally agitated grandmother proud. “What is it this time?”

  “I need you to call Bill, and—”

  “No, absolutely not.”

  “But…think of the children, Edith!” Ransom’s wail was plaintive and dramatic.

  “I prefer to think of myself, thank you.”

  Ransom stood then. “I don’t understand why they let such an evil creature work around children,” he groused at her.

  “It brings balance to Harry’s eternal piety.”

  “This selfish act will come back to haunt you one day, Edith. Karma is an unyielding force.”

  Edith looked unmoved. “Bill should be in his office about now for his afternoon snack.”

  Finally losing my battle with the laughter bubbling inside me, an amused snort escaped me.

  Ransom glared at me. “Et tu, Brute?”

  Unable to hold back anymore, I began laughing. It actually bordered on hysteria. All I could do was throw my hands up in an exaggerated shrug, causing him to storm off in the direction of Bill’s office. At which I only laughed harder.

  God, I loved this job.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  R A N S O M

  Bill wasn’t thrilled to see me. Especially since, as Edith had predicted, he was eating his afternoon snack. To his credit, he kept his grumbling to a minimum as he followed me down to Safe Haven and set about sanding down the jagged pieces so we didn’t have to worry about the kids being impaled as they came in.

  But I’d evidently done irreparable damage, because he had to board it closed after the last bus had arrived because a new door would need to be installed. Thankfully we had a door at the other end that opened to the courtyard out back as well as a doorway that led to the main center, so it was able to be boarded closed without being a fire code violation.

  Of course, the order for a new door prompted a visit from Stacey, for whom we had to recount the whole tale. She looked at the couch dubiously, and I was filled with a growing sense of dread that she was going to force me and Roddie to take it back out. God only knew the damage we’d do if that happened.

  Thankfully, Roddie jumped in and convinced her to give the couch a chance—his exact words. He promised to have it cleaned and presentable by early the following week, at which point she’d come back and determine whether it could stay or not.

  With all the drama, Taylor and I hadn’t gotten to work out much about the weekend other than she’d be over the next morning. I only had to survive one night alone with Cindy. How bad could it be?

  I’d worried that I’d have issues leaving Safe Haven with Cindy. I didn’t really want to put Harry and Taryn’s business out there, so I was thankful when Marty took me up on my offer to let him leave a half hour early. Parents usually came earlier on Fridays to pick up their kids, so when only two brothers and Cindy remained, Marty told me to have a good weekend and hightailed it out of here.

  The brothers were picked up ten minutes later, and it was just Cindy and me.

  “Ready to go?” I asked her, trying to infuse cheer into my voice.

  She shrugged, not looking overly impressed with the situation she was in.

  Ditto, kid.

  “Okay, let’s head out.”

  I grabbed her schoolbag and carried it while she followed me silently. When we got to my truck, I opened the back door and then hesitated.

  “Uh, I don’t have a car seat. Do you need one of those?”

  Shooting me another blank look, she shrugged again.

  I ran a hand through my hair. “We’ll have to make do without one. Don’t tell on me, okay?” I said the last part with a smile, hoping conspiring with her would endear me to her a little.

  It didn’t. She climbed in, buckled her seat belt, and sat ramrod straight in the seat, facing forward. I suddenly had a flashback to a movie I watched as a kid. The Bad Seed I thought it was called. A cute little blond girl with pigtails went on a killing spree. I cast a quick look at Cindy’s feet. Thankfully she was wearing sneakers and not tap shoes like the ones the girl in the movie used to bash people’s heads in.

  I gave my head a slight shake to clear my thoughts. Jesus, I was getting dark. Who knew being a philanthropist made a person morbid as fuck?

  As I got us on the road, I struggled to get my nerves under control. I was way out of my depth with this. There were so many things I hadn’t thought of.

  What if she needed help getting a bath or getting changed? There was no way I could help her do those things. I wasn’t built for prison. I mean, I was maybe built for it physically, but mentally, I’d collapse like a Jenga tower. But, no, she was in second grade. Surely she could handle those things.

  But then my worries became more practical. What if she got sick or hurt and I had to take her to the hospital? What if she sleepwalked and ran off into the night, never to be heard from again? The possibilities were endless. How did parents function with all these what-ifs rattling around in their brains?

  “Do you like pizza, Cinnabon?” I asked to keep my thoughts from deteriorating further.

  Crickets.

  Why did people say crickets anyway? Weren’t crickets loud? Though I guess Cindy was loud in her own way: the silence emanating from her was damn near deafening.

  “Why don’t we play a game? I’ll ask a question, and if it’s a no, you kick my seat once, and if it’s a yes, kick it twice. Sound good?”

  I waited for a long moment before I felt two kicks
on the back of my seat.

  Jackpot.

  “Great. Do you like pizza?”

  Two kicks.

  “Awesome.” Get a grip on the superlatives. “Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I like lots of toppings. Do you like toppings?”

  One kick.

  “Ah, a plain cheese kinda gal, huh?” What the fuck is the matter with me? “Guess we’ll each have to get our own pies for dinner, then. Can you eat a whole pizza?” I was teasing, knowing she couldn’t but I sure as hell could.

  Still, I reveled in her reply of a single kick.

  “That’s okay. The best thing about pizza is having leftovers.”

  That was about as far as I could take that conversation, so I let silence reign for the rest of the drive to Harry’s. I ushered Cindy inside and handed her schoolbag to her.

  “Your stuff is over there. Do you wanna see what your mom packed?”

  Cindy hesitated a second but then gave a small nod. Progress! As she moved toward her things, I hustled to the back so I could let the dogs out. When I entered the sun-room, they all went a little crazy, probably anxious to be let outside. I slid open the deck door and let them bound out into Harry’s fenced-in backyard.

  As the dogs did their business, I leaned against the wall and tried to get my head in the game. I watched Jetson and Bamm-Bamm chase each other around the yard. They were so funny, dipping their front legs and trying to juke each other out as the other gave chase. I was so absorbed by their fun, I forgot about Taz.

  I quickly stood up straight and scanned the yard.

  Where the hell is he?

  After a few seconds, I caught sight of a wriggling butt. And that was all I saw because the rest of Taz’s body was wedged under their synthetic fence as he tried to dig under.

  “Taz. No! Here, boy. Come here.” I ran toward the fence, but just as I got close enough to make a grab for him, he inched the rest of the way free and took off down the alley behind the house.

  I could just barely see over the top of the fence and quickly lost sight of the dog. “Shit. Taz! Come back.”

  I turned and glared accusingly at the other two dogs. “You were his diversion, weren’t you?”