My phone rang and when I saw my landlord’s number my heart dropped. Mike only called me when there was a problem, like the time the heater broke in January, or when the pipes burst in the bakery and a film of flour-infused water seeped into my space. And then there was the ticklish alarm system that tripped if you looked back at the building after locking up butdidn’talert when I accidentally left the back door propped open.
“Hey, Mike, what’s up?”
Edith shifted in my lap at the sound of my voice. I placed my hand on her body and was reminded how tiny she was.
“Hey, the alarm is going off in your place. I’m in the city and I sent someone to check it out, but he can’t get over there for forty minutes at least. Can you go turn it off?”
There was a slight chance that someone had broken in and was trying to find anything worth stealing among the dog paraphernalia, but we both knew it was more likely due to the shoddy wiring job his friend had done when he installed the alarm system. I sighed, glancing down at the puppy curled on my lap and the senior with her big head resting on my thigh, her nose inches from Edith. It was after nine and the last thing I wanted to do was leave my couch because of my landlord’s inability to invest in the property.
“Yup, I can head over and turn it off. But can we talk about getting it fixed? This is like the fourth time it’s happened this year.”
“Um-hm,” he said. I could hear him exhaling smoke and pictured the inch-long ash dangling from his cigarette. “I’ll add that to your list of requests.”
You mean my list of demands.
After we hung up I ran down to my car, brought Edith’s crate to my apartment while ignoring the daggers shooting in my wrist, then got the puppy settled inside. I kissed Birdie on her head. “Watch out for her, okay?”
My black-and-white-striped home-socks were too thick to fit in my sneakers so I slipped on an old pair of Birkenstocks instead. I looked more like my mom in the getup than I wanted to admit, although she’d be sporting elastic-waist jeans instead of paint-spattered leggings. Frolic was only a seven-minute drive from my house so I planned to be back on the couch in fifteen, unseen by anyone.
I parked on the back side of the industrial building and glanced at the time. Eight minutes down. I hopped out of my car and started to shuffle-jog toward the door in my Birks when Inoticed that it wasopen. The screaming alarm and flashing lights inside added to the something’s-different-and-very-wrong vibe.
I froze. This wasn’t a drill, someone was inside my building! Anger-spiked adrenaline flooded through me. What kind of idiot breaks into a dog training school? My business did okay, but it wasn’t like I had a big safe stuffed with cash in my office. I crept closer, my back against the outside wall, intending to peek inside to see if I could spot the person dumb enough to do it before calling the police. I leaned toward the open door slowly, inch by inch, until...
“Don’t be scared...” a deep voice said as a figure emerged from the shadows.
I jumped backward with a shriek, clawing and smacking the air as if I had the strength to fight off the giant heading for me.
Until I realized that it was none other than Andrew Gibson, emerging from the darkness to torture me yet again.
chapter four
I bent over and clutched my heart, gasping from the shock.
“Whoa, sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you,” Andrew said, barely hiding his laughter.
I glared at him. “Oh, this isfunny?”
“No, not at all. I take alarms very seriously. I think you need some self-defense lessons is all. Those haymakers were sad.”
I narrowed my eyes at him until they were almost closed. “What were you doing in there?”
“Yeah, that’s my fault.” Andrew pointed to the building looking slightly embarrassed.
“How?” I rubbed my wrist, which was starting to smart now that the adrenaline was draining out of me.
He frowned. “Your back door was propped open with a little rock. I looked in to see if you were still there since all the lights were off in the front and the second my head crossed the threshold the alarm went off.”
It was just like him to insert himself into a situation where he wasn’t needed. Yeah, I’d accidentally left my back door propped open all night a few times, and sure, sometimes I’dcome back in the morning to evidence that the trash pandas had pried their way in and raided the treats in the storeroom, but that was the extent of it. I didn’t need him to swoop in and play savior.
“Why are you wearing eye black?” He scowled like he’d tasted something sour and gestured to his cheeks. “You look like one of my quarterbacks.”
“What?” I reached up to touch my face and realized that I’d left my charcoal under-eye patches on. I pulled them off quickly and tried not to wince because they felt like they were superglued to my skin after staying on for so long. I rolled them up into little rubbery balls and tucked them in my sleeve. “It’s nothing.”
I couldn’t decide if I was more angry at Andrew for barging into my building or for commenting on my appearance, because I still had baggage about all the stuff he used to say back in the day. The guy noticedeverythingabout me. Like, if I happened to wear a nice sweater to class instead of my usual hoodie and leggings he’d ask who I was trying to impress. When I got some ill-advised highlights he’d accused me of wanting to be a blonde, then said my hair looked better before. I’d finally started firing back at him, making jabs about his easy course load and tendency to skip class, hoping he’d leave me alone. I neverreallybelieved that he was brainless. It was just the easiest way to make him back off a little.
Of course I looked like Edie Beale and he was even hotter than the last time I saw him. The scruff I’d noticed the other night was a little thicker now, not quite a full beard but definitely headed in that direction. Figures he could go from nearly clean-shaved to half mountain man in just a few days. It was like his testosterone couldn’t be tamed. And the stupid man-bun was still there but a few strands had escaped, the messiness somehow artful and deliberate looking, like a stylist had pulled them out so he didn’t looktoocoiffed.
“Are you gonna...” He trailed off and pointed inside to where the siren was still wailing.
