Time To Play by KA Richardson (free children's ebooks online .txt) 📕

the stairs as she moved back to allow the other person through. ‘Jesus, you could’ve bloody looked,’ she snapped, not bothering to look up. She didn’t know her neighbours anyway, but no one went barrelling through a stairwell door without at least considering someone might be coming the other way. It was just plain rude.

Placing her carrier bags on the floor, she bent over and tried to retrieve a tin of tomatoes that was rolling towards the top of the stairs.

‘Anyone ever tell you, you have a habit of bumping into people?’ said Ali with a smile, bending to help her pick up the items that were now strewn over the landing.

‘Just living up to my name I guess,’ she grumbled back, remembering him calling her a jerk the last time they’d collided.

Even his confusion didn’t stall her, and she looked him in the eye. ‘Next time you wanna call someone a jerk, at least have the decency to do it to their face.’

Ali’s confusion was blatant. ‘Jerk? I didn’t call you a jerk.’

Marlo threw her hands up and shrugged in exasperation, ‘And he can’t even own up to it. At least have the decency to admit when you’re at fault.’

‘Marlo, I didn’t call you a jerk.’

She felt her temper start to rise. ‘I heard you,’ she said. ‘You knocked me over and asked me to carry that bloody box to your office, and as I was leaving you called me a jerk!’

She saw the moment Ali realised what she was on about, his expression changing from confusion to acceptance. But she froze as he surprised her by taking her hand. ‘I didn’t call you a jerk, Marlo. I was referring to myself. You carried my box and said something that I took the wrong way. I was calling myself a jerk for dismissing you like it was your fault.’

Marlo raised her eyebrows, questioning him even as her pulse quickened under his touch. He hadn’t released her hand, and it felt warm where his lay on top.

Whoa there girlie, don’t even go there.

Ali sighed, ‘We were talking about the murder case a few months back. You said it wasn’t my fault that the guy had escaped, and I snapped at you. I was the jerk, Marlo, not you.’

Marlo pulled her hand back, considering his explanation. It did ring a bell. Her tone softened, ‘It really wasn’t your fault you know.’

‘I know, it feels like it, though. You’re a cop, you know what it’s like. A man died. Maybe if I’d done something different, he’d have lived.’

‘Not at your hands, Ali. You’re not responsible for a prisoner once they enter the prison system. There wasn’t anything you could have done differently to change the outcome. Brown wanted to escape, and he did what he needed to do to facilitate that. The prison service staff messed up, every Tom, Dick, and Harry knows you don’t leave a high-risk prisoner like that with one staff member to look after him. The other guard shouldn’t have left. But Brown will get caught again, and when he does the prison service will throw away the key.’

‘I know you’re right, but still. I’m sorry for being a jerk, and I’m sorry for knocking your shopping down the stairs. I’ll go grab what’s down here,’ he said, leaving her sitting on the floor and picking the items off the steps and bottom landing. His cheeks coloured slightly as he handed her a box of Tampax that had gone astray, but it was nothing compared to how hers felt. Burning wasn’t the word! Of all the things he could’ve picked up, it had to be these? It couldn’t have been a tin of bloody beans?

‘What are you doing lurking in the stairwell anyway?’ she asked, suddenly wondering how he came to be there.

‘I live here. Fourth floor.’

‘Howay, pull the other one, it’s got bells on it. I live on the fourth floor. Surely we’d have seen each other?’

‘Seriously, I’m in flat E. Inherited it when Alex moved in with Cass last year.’

‘No way. Flat E? You’re the Luke Bryan fan?’

‘I play it too loud then,’ said Ali with a rueful grin.

‘Never too much volume for Luke Bryan. I have all his music. Love him. Wouldn’t have pegged you for a country fan, like?’

‘Always have been. Dad brought us up on the likes of Don Williams and Kenny Rodgers. He always said it was music that spoke to the soul.’

Marlo grinned at him as he handed her a bag full of tins. ‘Would you mind returning the favour and carrying them to my apartment for me? Could do without having to chase them all down the corridor.’

‘Sure.’ He smiled back.

Wow, when he smiles his face changes completely. It’s like he’s a different person.

She unlocked her front door and pushed the door open with her hip, holding it open to allow Ali past. ‘Thanks, Ali. You wanna stay for a coffee?’ It was an impulsive question, and she felt her cheeks flush with colour. She didn’t do that, ask men to her apartment for coffee. It was almost unheard of.

But she got a reprieve as Ali replied, ‘I’d love to, but actually I have plans. I’m just on my way out. Rain check?’

‘No problem,’ said Marlo. ‘thanks for the hand with my shopping.’

‘Least I could do seeing as how I knocked it all out of your hands. See you later.’

Marlo closed the door thoughtfully. In that few minutes she’d learnt more about him than she suspected most people learnt in a long time. Ali always came across as a good inspector, but he could also be stand-offish, distancing himself from his colleagues. Or so she’d heard, anyway. Shaking her head, she decided it was none of her business. She never listened to the rumour mill anyway, she made