Ready or Not (The Ready Series Book 4)

by J. L. Berg

  “Is that spinach?”

  He grimaced as I threw in a few leaves to wilt.

  “Yes, and you’re going to love it. Promise.”

  “Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced.

  I let him pour the eggs over the cooked veggies. I tossed in a small handful of cheese and let it melt, and then I flipped it over and cut it in half. After only a few minutes, we had a perfectly cooked omelet.

  I pulled two plates from the cupboard, and I poured some freshly squeezed orange juice.

  “Do you want some salsa on top?” I drizzled a fresh mix I’d bought from a local grocery store over my half of the omelet.

  “Is it spicy?” he asked, eyeing the container with suspicion.

  “Nope, not at all.”

  I handed it to him and watched him mimic my motions, taking a few spoonfuls and placing the salsa on top of his eggs. I waited for him to take his first bite, and I held my breath the entire time he chewed.

  “Wow, it’s actually good!” he exclaimed.

  “See? I told you!”

  “Can I come over here every morning?” he asked.

  He meant it as a joke, but I could see the little boy inside him, peeking out from behind those light eyes and begging me to say yes.

  “Absolutely, Noah. You can cook me breakfast any day of the week,” I answered with a wink.

  We cleaned up, and Noah even helped me load the dishwasher. As I grabbed my purse, I sent a quick text to Jackson.

  Taking Noah to the cemetery. Is that okay?

  He immediately replied back.

  Yeah, it’s great. Thanks for checking in. X

  The X at the end of his text made my stomach flutter as my memory raced back to our good-bye kiss the day before.

  He slowly walked me to my door as if we had all the time in the world. I just wanted to drag him by the hand all the way up to my bedroom where I could discover every delectable inch of Jackson Reid. He cupped my chin, tilting my head, as he leaned forward and tenderly placed his lips against mine. I moaned, long and low, as he deepened the kiss, pushing me against the solid wood behind me. Every masculine hard inch of him pressed into me. It was divine.

  “Come inside,” I whispered.

  “No.”

  I pulled back and found him smiling.

  “Why?” I was pretty sure I was pouting.

  “Because that’s exactly what everyone else would do.”

  And that was exactly how he’d left me, a wanting mess of need, on my doorstep, which had probably been his evil intent from the beginning.

  Stupid, sexy jerk.

  “What?” Noah said as we made our way out the door and toward my car.

  Shit, did I say that out loud?

  “What? Nothing.”

  “Adults are weird,” he said, shaking his head and smiling.

  “Oh, Noah, you are so right.”

  Both of us were quiet as we walked the curved path to Mrs. Reid’s final resting place. Noah’s attention moved from name to name as we passed aged gravestones, weathered through the decades. Finally, we stepped off the path and found Etta lying next to her husband, Theodore.

  “Do you want some time alone?” I asked.

  He looked back and forth between the two stones. “No. Please stay.”

  I nodded, watching him bend down to trace his fingers over the words etched in the stone.

  “I didn’t know her that well. Dad wasn’t able to take much time off when I was little,” he confessed.

  “Well, that doesn’t mean you didn’t love her.”

  “What was she like?”

  “Kind and giving. She loved her garden, and she baked the best cookies and pies.”

  He smiled. “She used to send us cookies on Christmas. They were good.”

  “Yeah? What else do you remember about her?” I asked.

  “She would always send me a card on my birthday with a ten-dollar bill inside. It always looked new, like she’d gone to the bank especially for me.”

  I grinned, remembering Etta’s love for cards. “She did. She loved sending you those birthday cards, and she would always make sure she went to the bank a month in advance, so she could send it out in time. When she got really sick, I would take her.”

  “How come you liked her so much, Liv?” The tiny pads of his fingers briefly touched the wilted flowers I’d brought last week.

  “I guess it’s because, for a while, she was the closest thing to family I had.”

  “You don’t have parents?” He looked up at me from his position on the grass.

  “I do, but we haven’t spoken in a long time. We don’t…get along well.”

  “That’s too bad,” he said. “I don’t have a mom. I mean, I guess I do, but I think she hates me.”

  I stepped forward as the protective instinct in me took over, wanting to shield him from such thoughts. “What makes you say that, Noah?”

  “She left right after she had me. She must not have loved me much.”

  I knelt down, so we were eye-to-eye.

  “No one could ever hate you, Noah. Whatever reason she had to leave had everything to do with her and her own problems. It had nothing to do with you. Like you said, adults are weird. But kids? Kids are easy to love. You are probably the easiest one of all, so please don’t think she left because something is wrong with you, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Ready to head back now?” I brushed the dirt from my skirt before helping him up.

  He nodded, and we made our way back to the trail.

  “Oh, and, Liv?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re pretty awesome, too.”

  ~Jackson~

  “That’s just disgusting,” Liv said, pointing and shaking her head.

  I used the tongs to gently lay the two steaks I’d been marinating all afternoon onto the hot grill.

  “No,” I argued, “this is culinary perfection. When I’m done, this meat will melt in your mouth. It’ll be so tender that it could make babies weep.”

  She gave me a wry but amused expression.

  “A little overboard?” I asked.

  “A little bit, and that definitely won’t be melting in this mouth.”

  Her laughter filled the backyard as I finished up putting the food on the grill. I took care when I placed her veggie burger down, making sure it was far away from the meat. I might not understand how she could choose a life without steaks and bacon, but I certainly respected her decision.

  Setting the grill’s lid down over everything, I walked over to the wicker chairs that had definitely seen better days. My grandmother used to love the outdoors. Her backyard had been a testament to that—at least, when she’d had the energy to keep it up. In the end, I’d been told she had barely been able to venture across her own house, let alone go outside to tend to her plants. If it weren’t for Liv, everything would have died. The worn, unused furniture was proof of that.

  “I think I need to go furniture shopping,” I said, sitting down and looking at the blue paint that had mostly faded to a dull gray. I ran my fingers over the textured pattern, wondering what Nana must have thought about when she’d sat in this same chair.

  “She loved to sit out here and watch the fireflies in the summer, and then she’d wait out here for the first snowflake in the winter. I’d yell for her to get inside before she froze.” Liv paused and rested her hand on mine. “But she’d want you to make this house your own, Jackson. It’s why she gave it to you and not anyone else.”

  “Out with the old and in with the new?”

  “How about a mixture of both?”

  Nodding, I looked up and found her brown eyes in the last few remaining sunbeams of the day. “I think I could live with that.”

  Rising, I moved back over to the grill and checked on our food, flipping the steaks and veggie burger over.

  “Noah was quiet when you two came back today. Was he okay?” I added the vegetable skewers Liv had brought over onto the grill.


  “Yeah.” She smiled. “I think it was good for him to go. He was curious about her, and it gave him a chance to get to know her through my eyes.”

  “He’s never had much family besides me,” I said, joining her once again.

  “What about your parents? Aren’t you close?”

  I grabbed a beer from the cooler at our feet and offered her one. I popped the top, and she took it.

  “We are.” I grabbed another beer and popped the top. “They adore Noah, but right around the time he was five, my dad was eligible for early retirement. They always dreamed of living somewhere different. So, after giving my blessing, they moved to Washington. They have a beautiful house, right on the beach, and my dad owns a boat. They’re in heaven.”

  “Good for them,” she commented.

  “Yeah, I just wish we saw them more often. Washington is a long flight.”

  She was silent for a moment, her gaze set on the horizon, as the sun slowly faded away, giving in to the impending night.

  “Noah talked about his mother, too,” she finally said.

  At the mere mention of her, I stiffened instantly, a knee-jerk reaction even now after all these years.

  “What did he say?” I asked hesitantly.

  “Not much. Just that she left when he was a baby.”

  She paused, and I felt her eyes on me.

  “Jackson, he thinks something is wrong with him.”

  “What? Why?” My head jerked up.

  “He assumed something had to be wrong with him for her to leave,” she said softly.

  Shaking my head, I let out a shallow breath. “Jesus.”

  “I think I set him straight.” She smiled warmly.

  “It should have been me.” My hands moved up to my face and through my hair as I leaned forward in my chair.

  “Sometimes, kids need to hear these things from someone else.”

  “You’re an amazing woman, Liv,” I said, looking up at her.

  Her smile widened. “You’re not the first person to tell me that.”

  Edging closer, I reach out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “But I’m the first man, right?”

  Her lips were so close that I could feel her warm breath against my own.

  “Would it make you feel better if I said yes?” Her tone was light and flirty.

  “Sweetheart, please keep joking. It’s water off my back because soon, every other man who has had the pleasure of paying you a compliment, touching this skin, or kissing these lips will be nothing more than a distant memory.”

  Just as my lips touched hers, finally doing the one thing I’d been dying to do all night, the screen door creaked behind us as Noah pushed through it.

  We broke apart, and I looked up to catch the end of his eye roll. His attention quickly turned toward the grill, and he took in a quick sniff as his mouth curved upward.

  “Are we having the steaks well done tonight, Dad?”

  “What? Why?” I asked, leaping out of my chair to check on my precious dinner.

  Moving swiftly, I lifted the lid, and I was met with smoke. Noah’s laughter filled the air just as quickly as the dark plume engulfed the backyard. Noah and I began moving our hands back and forth in an attempt to clear the air.

  I cut the gas and got my first look at the steaks. They were blackened beyond repair.

  “So, pizza?” Noah suggested.

  Liv joined in on the laughter.

  “Pizza it is,” I said.

  ~Liv~

  “You’re dating your hot jerk of a neighbor?” Clare asked as we all gathered around her kitchen island, waiting for dinner to cook.

  “Yes,” I answered with a coy smile.

  “So, your assessment of him has…changed?” Leah guessed, her back to us, as she cut a large baguette.

  “Oh, he’s still a hot jerk, and he definitely drives me crazy, but in a good way.”

  “Details!” Leah called out over her shoulder.

  “Husband coming through!” Declan announced as he appeared at the doorway. “No more sexy-neighbor talk. I can only handle so much. Besides, he can’t be that good-looking. I mean, come on!” He looked down at his own body and back up.

  We all burst out in laughter.

  He really was a cocky asshole.

  “No one is as studly as you, baby,” Leah crooned, her voice soft and sultry.

  He wandered over to where she was standing, tucking himself behind her, and he scattered kisses across her neck.

  “That’s right,” he purred in her ear.

  “Okay, seriously. I’m not sure if I’m going to gag or spontaneously combust from watching the two of them,” I said, turning away from the spectacle they were making in the kitchen.

  “Join the club,” Clare said.

  “Speaking of club, where is Logan?” I asked, looking around for our missing member.

  Everyone knew where Garrett was. We could all hear him in the living room while masses of children pounced on and attacked him. His laughter mixed with theirs was enough to turn any cold heart into a puddle of mush.

  “Logan is on the phone in our bedroom,” Clare said.

  “Hospital?” Mia asked as she snuck a piece of bread from the pile Leah had been making.

  “No, thankfully. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be here,” Clare explained. “His sister.”

  My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Logan has a sister?”

  I’d been around this extended family for years, and I thought that I’d met every member, including Logan’s mother. I knew he didn’t speak with his father, but I didn’t know he had a sister.

  Logan came from a wealthy family. I had been brought up in an affluent family as well, but I had a feeling it was pennies compared to the bank account Logan’s family was sitting on.

  His parents had divorced when he was young, and from what I understood, it hadn’t been a pleasant split. While growing up, Logan had barely seen his mother, and he’d spent most of his childhood resenting her. After he’d met Clare, Logan had reconciled with his mother, and she’d been slowly earning back his trust ever since.

  “Yeah, his sister has been absent from his life for a while. When his mother, Cece, got married and traded her lavish lifestyle for something a bit simpler, Eva…well, let’s just say she disagreed. Logan’s been trying to get in touch with her ever since.”

  “Wow,” I said. “I had no idea. What is Eva like?”

  “She’s exactly what you would expect a girl who had everything and anything she wanted to be like. She’s spoiled and spontaneous. She has no sense of ownership or work ethic. I’m not sure she’s changed one bit since the day she learned to swipe her daddy’s credit card.”

  We all looked around.

  Finally, it was Mia who asked, “What does Logan hope to accomplish?”

  “He thinks he can save her from herself,” Clare answered.

  “What do you think?” Leah asked. The bread now buttered and in the oven, Leah turned and faced us with Declan’s arms wrapped around her waist.

  “I don’t know,” Clare admitted, shaking her head.

  “Hey, guys,” Logan said.

  We all turned and saw him entering the room. He looked tired. His hair was a mess, probably from his worried hands moving through it, and faint lines appeared around his eyes. Those weren’t normally there unless he’d pulled a double at the hospital.

  “How did it go?” Clare asked, immediately moving to his side.

  He wrapped his large body around her and held on like she was a lifeline.

  “Not as well as I’d hoped. She wouldn’t even tell me where she is.”

  “But she’s okay?” I asked, concern echoing in each word.

  “I guess. I mean, moneywise, yeah. She’s got plenty of that, thanks to our father. He gave up on her a long time ago, and he just funnels it to her without even bothering to ask what she is spending it on.”

  “She’ll come around,” I said, hoping my words came true.

  I knew how im
portant family was to Logan, how important it was to everyone—even me.

  ~Jackson~

  “Now, you’re sure you know what you are doing?” I asked.

  Liv looked up at me with slight hesitation. She was on her knees. It was quite a lovely sight actually.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  I couldn’t help but grin. “You’re sure? Because once you start, there’s no going back.”

  “You’re making me nervous, Jackson!” she yelled, throwing a piece of sandpaper up at my face.

  I ducked as my deep laughter filled the backyard.

  “I’m just fucking with you, Liv.”

  Her gaze fell back on the wicker chair that was flipped over on its side in front of her.

  After a few days of walking back and forth past my patio door, I’d decided against buying new patio furniture. Instead, I’d asked Liv to help me revamp the existing pieces. I’d seen what she’d done with some of the chairs and tables in her own house, so I knew she was experienced in salvaging old furniture. Plus, it was time alone with her.

  When I’d asked Noah if he wanted to help tonight, he’d looked at me like I was clinically insane. He was happily inside where it was cool and air-conditioned, probably blowing up aliens or cop cars on the PlayStation.

  For the next hour or two, I had Liv all to myself.

  Dating a single father was an imperfect science—especially when the single father happened to be new in town, had a brand-new, highly demanding job, and had little babysitting contacts.

  Adding in Liv and her own responsibilities, I had the biggest case of blue balls known to man.

  I wasn’t complaining.

  Okay, I was—slightly. But I knew it would be worth the wait. Liv was worth a thousand dates that ended at the door rather than in a bed. The longer I knew her, the more I realized that Liv was the one woman I intended to keep. So, I could deal with the blue balls and dates that weren’t really dates since we were never truly alone. I was in it for the long haul.

  I just hoped she was, too.

  “So, where do we start, boss?” I asked, kneeling down beside her.

  “We need to scrape and sand off as much of the old paint as possible. It’s not going to be fun,” she warned.

  “Guess we’ll have to find something fun to talk about then,” I replied.