Ready or Not (The Love Game Book 4) by Elizabeth Hayley (pdf ebook reader .txt) 📕

joined in. “So anyway, there are still bees flying around everywhere out back, so I wanna make sure the buses don’t go down there and that the kids who walk know to go in through the front today.”

“Okay, let me just put my bag inside and get the room ready for their snack, and I’ll come back out.”

“Already done.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I got here a little early today.”

“Thanks,” I said, smiling.

“Plus, the last few times you did snack, the kids hated it.”

We were standing next to each other near the curb, looking out for the bus, and I glanced over to see if I could tell if he was serious. I couldn’t.

“Stop. My snacks are fine. And it’s not like I make them. I just pick them from the kitchen.”

“Only a weirdo chooses yogurt or string cheese when there’s still Goldfish left. I didn’t want to be the one to tell you how disappointed the kids were, but they know you’re new and didn’t have the heart to tell you.”

“Well, sorry for being health-conscious. Jeez.”

“Don’t apologize to me. The real victims are over there,” he said with a one-sided smirk as a bus entered the parking lot.

Once the vans and buses had dropped the kids off, Ransom took them inside to get them settled while I waited for the few walkers who still hadn’t arrived.

After the kids got settled and got their homework out, Ransom announced that he’d gotten pretzels and pudding from the kitchen for snack.

“Once you’ve washed your hands, you can come up and grab some,” he said. “I got chocolate and vanilla.”

After they were seated again and shoveling spoonfuls of pudding into their mouths, I felt obligated to apologize.

“Sorry about the carrots the other day,” I announced.

“Why?” Gianna asked, taking a few pretzels out of her bowl.

“Because they’re vegetables, and no one likes vegetables.”

“I like them,” Gianna said.

Her friend Emilia ate a bite of her vanilla pudding and washed it down with some milk. “Me too.”

Then a boy named Kyle chimed in. “And they’re good for our eyes, right, Mr. Ransom? Didn’t you say if I wanna play QB in high school, I gotta eat things that’ll fuel my body?”

“I did,” Ransom replied. “Good for you for remembering.”

I internally sighed, wanting to be irritated about Ransom playing with me and, by extension, causing me to look like an ass in front of the kids, but I couldn’t muster it. He was such a goof, it was really my own fault for not suspecting he’d been lying to me earlier. Despite that, I couldn’t completely let him off the hook.

I can’t stand you, I mouthed to him, which only made him smile wider. “Are you gonna take those dumb sunglasses off, by the way?”

He’d been wearing them outside, which wasn’t all that strange, other than it being a bit overcast so they weren’t really needed. But now we were inside where it definitely wasn’t sunny, and his sunglasses looked odd, like they were too big for his face. Or maybe women’s?

“They’re a fashion statement.”

“I’m not sure that’s the type of statement you want to make. They look like something you stole from Kris Jenner’s closet.”

“Who’s Kris Jenner?” Gianna asked.

“She’s…” Ransom started to explain before clamping his lips together. “Never mind.” He pulled the glasses off and hung them from the collar of his V-neck T-shirt.

“Oh, damn,” Kyle said. “What’d the other boy look like?”

“What?” Ransom said, reaching up to his eye, which was puffy and bruised. “Oh, this? A door got me. That’s all.”

“Yeah, okay,” Kyle said, walking closer to check out Ransom’s injury. “This door have a name ’cause I’ll fu…” He caught himself before Ransom had to. “I’ll mess it up.”

Ransom put his hand out and rested it on Kyle’s head and looked him in the eye. “I didn’t get into a fight, Kyle. Just drop it.”

Thankfully for Ransom, Kyle did, but I couldn’t blame the kid if he was still wondering who the hell did that to him. I wondered too.

We spent the rest of the afternoon helping the group with their homework, playing card games, and bringing them out to their parents when they arrived. Once all the kids had been picked up, I walked over to the cabinet where I kept my bag.

“You’re horrible at Uno,” Ransom said.

It was true. I’d lost all but one game. “Not as horrible as you are at lying.”

“I don’t lie.”

“That’s a lie right there. Everyone lies.”

“Even you?” he asked, his eyebrow raised.

“Even me,” I admitted. Though I wasn’t about to say about what.

He opened the main door for me so we could head to our cars.

“So what really happened to your eye?” I asked. “Are you in like some sort of underground fight club or something?”

“Ha! Not even close.”

“Then what happened? And don’t tell me you got hit with a door.”

He walked a little farther, and I kept stride beside him. Finally, when we arrived at my car, he stopped. “Things got a little crazy over the weekend. It was a complete accident.”

“Okay.”

“It was,” he said, sounding eager for me to accept that as the truth.

“I believe you,” I said, thinking that now we were even because every time I’d acted like I couldn’t stand him, I’d been lying too. And I was sure we both knew it.

Chapter Nine

T A Y L O R

It’d been a while since Sophia and I had gone out just the two of us, and I was definitely in need of a girls’ night. Between two jobs and keeping up with school, I barely had any time to hang out anymore, and Sophia was just as busy. But since one of the girls at the bar had asked if she could pick up my shift so she could earn some extra money before her sister’s bachelorette party in two weeks, I figured I’d let her take my Friday so I could have a night off.

Sophia and I had tried to think of something different to do, and she’d suggested going to a