When the buzzer sounded, some of the other players came running with their guns blazing. I took a few of them out from my perch, shaking my head. Fools. Then I concentrated on finding Bri. If she thought I’d go easy on her because she was a girl and she’d never played before, she was mistaken. I’d just taken out a twelve-year-old kid—Bri would get no mercy from me. I just had to wait for her to leave the security of her hiding place.
I might not be patient with most things, but when it came to laser tag, I could wait all night to get my prey.
For the first several minutes of the game, there was no sight of her, so I concentrated on picking off anyone who came out of hiding. Then from the corner of my eye, I saw someone stealthily sneak from behind one barricade and creep behind another one. I couldn’t tell for sure in the dim lights, but that was probably Bri. Although I hadn’t seen exactly where she’d ended up, she’d run off to hide in that direction when the game started.
I waited until I could see the person again. I studied her in the darkness—she had curves and was light on her feet. When she turned, I got a good look at her ass. Oh, yeah, that was definitely Bri. I’d be able to pick out her sweet ass anywhere.
I jumped down from my perch, doing a roll and taking someone out with a blast as I went. I ran to the side of a huge cube-shaped obstacle and flattened my back against it, peeking around the edge. Although I’d planned to wait for Bri to appear, I couldn’t help but take out a few other players while I bided my time. It was too easy—they were fish in a barrel, serving themselves up for slaughter.
There was a thud on the wall opposite of where I was standing. Whoever it was crept along the wall closer to the edge. Then the tip of a black shoe appeared on the floor.
Gotcha!
I counted to three then jumped out with my gun blazing. I pulled the trigger and hit…nothing. There was no one there.
I whirled around, my gun at the ready, but before my eyes could focus on the person in front of me, my vest vibrated and the lights flashed.
Bri grinned, her hands on her hips. “I thought I was going down,” she gloated.
I hung my head in shame and noticed one of her shoes was missing. “Hey,” I protested. “That’s cheating.”
She laughed and wiggled her sock-covered toes.
“All’s fair in love and—” She gasped as her vest lit up. A boy who couldn’t have been older than ten ran by, laughing hysterically.
I held my belly and bent over, laughing hard. “What were you saying?”
…
“My birthday’s today! My birthday’s today!” Mackenzie jumped on my chest. “Get up! It’s my birthday!”
I wanted to push her off me and pull the covers over my head.
She started singing “Happy Birthday” to herself.
What time was it? I glanced at the clock. Not even seven. Oh, hell. I was never having kids. Even cute ones wearing Frozen pajamas.
“Mackenzie!” Laura hissed from the doorway. “Leave Josh alone.”
I propped myself up on my elbows. “I’m awake.”
“Sorry, Josh.” Laura clutched her bathrobe around herself. “She’s a little overexcited.”
I gave Mackenzie a wry look. “What’s today again? I think I forgot.”
“It’s my birthday, silly.” She grinned.
“In that case…” I flipped her over and started tickling her. “It’s time for the birthday spankings.”
“No!” she shrieked. Laughing, she wriggled while I tickled her, and I caught a kick in the mouth.
“Ouch.” I rubbed my jaw. Mackenzie hopped off my chest.
“Mackenzie, tell Josh you’re sorry,” Laura said. “You kicked him.”
“I’m sorry I kicked you. Are you sorry you tickled me?”
I chuckled. Touché.
“Yes,” I said seriously. “I’m very sorry.”
Mackenzie smiled, and I had to give it to her. Pride swelled within me to see what a little master manipulator she was turning into.
“Come downstairs when you’re ready,” Laura said. “I’ll make pancakes.”
“Thanks.”
As soon as they left I flopped back onto the bed, having no intention of rising anytime soon. Then I heard the guest bathroom door close and the shower start. Bri must be up already.
I lay back with a smile while I waited for her to be finished in the bathroom. She’d surprised me last night. I never would have thought the proper Ms. Welch would play dirty at laser tag. I could hear her argument now. It’s not dirty. It’s strategic.
She could call it what she wanted—Bri had a devious streak.
And I liked it.
I closed my eyes and dozed off. When I came to, the bathroom was empty. I took a quick shower, threw on my clothes, and hurried downstairs. The scent of fresh pancakes had wafted through the vents and tortured me the whole time I was showering.
Bri was sitting at the counter, her hands wrapped around a mug of coffee. My dad sat next to her with his reading glasses on and the newspaper splayed out in front of him.
Bri smiled easily when she saw me. She looked so relaxed sitting there.
Mission accomplished. I mentally high-fived myself, Top Gun style.
Although, it was a little unsettling how she seemed to belong. She belonged more than I ever did.
I was not gonna go there today. I owed it to the kid to get through her birthday without any blow-ups between me and my dad.
“Elsa, sit!” Mackenzie said, pushing the puppy’s rear end to the ground. As soon as she removed her hands, though, the puppy was jumping on her and yapping. “You won’t get a treat if you don’t sit!”
“Here,” I said, kneeling down beside the puppy and holding her bottom down while Mackenzie fished a treat out of the box on the counter.
“Good, Elsa. Daddy, did you see what Elsa did?”
“Uh huh,” my dad said, not even bothering to pretend he’d been watching. Some things never changed.
“Mitch,” Laura said sternly but gently. “Mackenzie is talking to you.”
My dad looked up, his eyes unfocused. “What?”
“Your daughter is talking to you,” she said slowly.
“Sorry. What was that, honey?”
“Too late.” Mackenzie flipped her hair over her shoulder. “You missed it.”
I grinned. I was really starting to like this kid.
“Are you sure I can’t help with anything?” Bri asked.
Laura used the spatula to place a stack of pancakes on a plate. “Nope. Got it covered.” She placed the plate on the counter. “Josh, those are for you.”
“Did you eat yet?” I asked Bri.
She nodded. “Yes. I’m stuffed.”
I slid onto the stool next to her and coated my pancakes with butter, then doused them in syrup.
“We need to leave in about thirty minutes,” Laura said.
“Where are we going?” I asked, my mouth full of pancake and syrupy goodness.
Mackenzie giggled and put her hands on her hips. “Nowhere, silly. It’s for girls only.”
“We’re getting our nails done,” Bri confirmed. “Mackenzie invited me to go with her and her mom for a birthday mani/pedi.”
I shoveled another forkful in my mouth. Bri seemed happy about the arrangement, but fuck. What was I going to do? Spend some quality time with my father? Fuck no.
Laura placed two more pancakes on the edge of my plate, and I nodded my thanks. She took off her apron and dragged a big box that had been sitting along the wall to the center of the room.
“These are the decorations,” she said. “Mitch. Pay attention.”
“Sorry, dear. What was that?”
“Decorations. Think you can handle this?”
“Of course.”
Laura gave him an exasperated look that totally conveyed her lack of confidence. “If you have any questions at all—and I mean any—call me. I’ll keep my phone on. I would’ve done them last night, but I didn’t want to risk Mi
ss Elsa chewing up her namesake.” She knelt down to rub the puppy. “You’re just a fur ball full of trouble.”
This was going to be a show. When I was six, we invited the neighborhood kids over for my birthday. My dad’s idea of decorating was blowing up balloons and taping them everywhere. The only problem was he got the really long ones that were used to make balloon animals instead of the round ones. Just take a minute to imagine how that had looked. Slightly more than a little indecent.
Elsa jumped up on my leg, and I looked down at her panting little mouth, with the cute puppy tongue that curled. I slipped her a piece of pancake.
“Don’t feed the dog from the table,” my dad said, not even looking up from the paper.
Wasn’t that some shit? He couldn’t pay attention when Laura and Mackenzie were talking directly to him, but then when I did something wrong, he got all eagle-eyed and criticized me.
Story of my life.
“I’m just going to go upstairs and get ready,” Bri said, standing. I held my hand out for her mug and put it in the dishwasher along with my plate.
Laura and Mackenzie also left the kitchen, leaving me alone with my dad.
“Did you hear that David from next door is graduating this December?” he asked without even looking up. “That’s a whole semester early.”
“That’s nice for him,” I said. David was a tool. We used to play together when we were kids, but as we got older, our interests went in different directions. Basically, I liked everything and anything fun and crazy, and he was 100 percent nerd. I think he even dressed up when he went to see the new Star Trek at the movie theater.
I mean, whatever, if that was his thing. But I was tired of being compared to him, the golden son.
“Nice for his dad, too.” He loudly flipped a page of the newspaper. “That’s thousands of dollars in tuition money saved.”
“It’s not even your damn money.” My grandparents had set up a college fund for me before they died, so while my dad talked like my tuition was a great burden on him, it wasn’t. He just had to draft the money out of the account and sign the check.
“It’s still a waste.” He ran his finger down the column of the newspaper, squinting despite his glasses.
I slammed the dishwasher closed. “The least you could do is look at me when you’re criticizing me.”
He looked up. “Who’s criticizing? I’m stating facts.”
“You’re implying that I’m a fuck-up. Like always. Why not come out and say it?”
He looked at me with a level gaze over the rims of his reading glasses. “It’s true you’ve made some choices that are questionable.”
“Some?” I laughed bitterly. “Name one choice that you think is good. Just one.”
He sighed. “You went to college.” I waited because I knew that wasn’t the end of it, and sure enough, he had more to say. “But you’ve wasted your time there so far. I just hope you’ll have a degree to show for your years when it’s all over.”
“And there it is. You can’t even say one fucking nice thing about me, can you?”
“Watch your tone, son, and your language,” he said, but I was already walking away.
…
Bri
When I reached for my credit card to pay for my manicure and pedicure at check-in, Laura held my hand firm in my purse so I couldn’t pull it out.
“Josh somehow sucked you into the madness of this weekend,” she said. “You should at least get a free mani/pedi out of it.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Josh actually did me the favor, though. I’ve had a rough week and needed to get away. The timing was perfect. And it really hasn’t been all that crazy.”
Laura laughed and guided Mackenzie to the pedicure chair. “We’ll see what you have to say after the party.”
“It should be fun.” I settled into the chair and dipped my feet in the water, per the technician’s instructions.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” Laura reached into her pocket and pulled out a small envelope. “Snowflake appliques for our nails.”
I laughed. “Nice.”
“Mommy, I want the big one!” Mackenzie made a grab for them, but Laura held them away.
“Excuse me, young lady?”
Mackenzie placed her hands in her lap, her expression now properly demure. “May I please have the big one?”
“That’s better. It may not fit on your nail, but if it does, you can have it.” Laura turned back to me. “She’s totally spoiled. I see it happening, but she’s my only one, so…” Laura shrugged. “I’m just glad I had a girl. I don’t know what I’d do with a boy. Josh was already a teenager when I married Mitch, so by then he didn’t really need a mother so much anymore.”
“I think everyone needs a mother,” I said quietly.
I realized I didn’t know Josh’s whole story. His mom didn’t seem to be in the picture, but why not? How long had it been just him and his dad?
“Let me rephrase,” Laura said. “By the time I married Mitch, Josh didn’t want anything to do with another adult authority figure. Plus, I was only twenty-four, so it was a bit strange having a fourteen-year-old stepson. Those two were a little rough around the edges.” She laughed. “They’d been living like two bachelors.”
“What happened to Josh’s mom?” I asked. When Laura hesitated, I waved my hand. “Never mind. I’m sorry. I’m being nosy.”
“No, that’s okay. You’re the first friend Josh has ever brought home from college, so he must think very highly of you.” She paused for a second and pursed her lips. “Or maybe he’s trying to punish you, given how he and his dad get along, but we’ll go with the first option. Anyway, she left when Josh was…almost five, I think. Mitch had been a single parent for about seven years when we started dating. I know it was hard on him.”
So Josh had basically grown up motherless. Even though I’d experienced the same fate, it made me sad. It made me wonder the same thing I’d always wondered about my own circumstances: what could bring a mother to leave her child?
My birth mother was still out there somewhere, and I could probably find her if I looked hard enough, but I didn’t want to. All I knew was that she’d chosen a lifestyle that prompted CPS to take me away from her and she hadn’t bothered trying to get me back. And that was enough. What more did I need to know?
“Mommy, can I have pink nail polish?” Mackenzie said, holding out a bottle of bright polish. “I like this one.”
“Today is your day, Kenz. You can have whatever color you want.”
“Mackenzie, can you pick out a color for me, too?” I asked. The little girl’s eyes lit up, and she nodded solemnly, taking the task very seriously.
I wanted to ask why Josh’s mother had left, but I held that in, along with the multitude of other questions I had. It felt like I would be invading his privacy and going behind his back if I asked Laura.
So instead, I settled in my chair and closed my eyes to enjoy the pampering.
Chapter Sixteen
Bri
When we walked in the front door, Josh was standing on a chair hanging pink, purple, and aqua streamers, and doing a mighty fine job, I might add. He smiled when he saw me. “You’re just in time. Can you hand me the tape?”
“Sure,” I said, grabbing the roll of Scotch tape sitting on the end table.
“You’d better be using the painter’s tape!” Mitch yelled from the other room. “I don’t want tape-sized pieces of paint being stripped from the walls.”
Laura rolled her eyes. “We are not using that blue painter’s tape. Tacky. The Scotch tape will be fine. Mitch can take it up with me if he has a problem.”
“Can I get that in writing?” Josh said. I couldn’t tell if he was joking. His hair was sticking up like he’d been tearing at it, and he was clenching his teeth. That, combined with the look on his face and the silent death-glare he shot in the direction of his father’s voice, told me he’d had a rough morning. I, on the other hand, was completely relaxed. I almos
t felt guilty, but not quite.
“You know what?” Laura said. “Just give me the streamers, and I’ll do that. Can you two go pick up the cake and balloons?”
Josh jumped off the chair and had his coat on before I could even blink. He held open the front door. “Let’s go.”
Two hours, two-dozen balloons, and one ginormous cake later, we returned to the house. Laura thanked me profusely for all the help, which was silly. All I’d done was accompany Josh, but I was glad I was able to contribute even in that small way. Josh’s family had been so welcoming to me, despite the short notice that he was bringing a guest. I wished there was something I could do to ease the friction between Josh and his parents, but that storm had been brewing for years. There was nothing for me to do at this point but stay out of it.
Laura whisked away the balloons to finish decorating and instructed us to put the cake in the refrigerator.
As we were walking toward the kitchen, we could hear Mitch yelling at Elsa. “No, no! Bad dog!”
Josh and I exchanged a look. “Is it too late to—” he started.
“Just stop right there,” I said. “Put on your big girl panties and deal with it.”
He laughed. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means man up.”
“I think you just want to see me in my panties,” he said with a chuckle. “Nice cover, though.”
I rolled my eyes. “Be careful not to bang your ego on the doorframe as you walk through.”
I bet he did look nice in his panties, though. Was he a boxers of briefs kind of guy? Definitely boxers. Everything else about Josh was free and comfortable, so why would his underwear be any different?
Mind out of the gutter. This is a child’s birthday party!
Chaos in the form of a mud-covered puppy and an exasperated Mitch greeted us in the kitchen. He was holding the squirming Elsa as far away from himself as he could, but the puppy’s flailing paws were flinging mud and grass everywhere, though it looked like the bulk of the mess had landed on Mitch.
Josh grinned and covered his mouth with his hand while I slid the cake onto the empty shelf in the refrigerator.
Wanting More (Love on Campus #2) Page 15