Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“A pawnshop? Oh my god, you know I love thrifting and antiquing! How could you not have told me?” The silence is so deadening that it could almost be labeled profound. Ransom and Ayana share another private look, and it’s the kind of look that says they don’t know how much to tell me. “Uh, fine. I get it. You all have some big secret going on. I’m not going to ask because I love you, Ayana, and I get that some things are private. I also get that you think I might turn into a raving, raging wildebeest and try and rub Lennox’s shoulder for luck or…uh, I don’t know.”
Brushing is different than rubbing, okay! Rubbing just sounds wrong! There will be no rubbing involved. You’re afraid I’ll take things overboard and be a pest. But I won’t. I just need this—just one meal. Food seems to be the most powerful. And okay, maybe just a brush of shoulders at the end. That’s it. I promise it’s the last time I’ll ask. I just seriously need this. My dad gave me a car! Gave it to me. My sister is so jealous even though she got her license a hundred freaking years ago and already has a car. If I don’t get my license, or I wreck the car, or…or…whatever. I just need this. Really. Plus, he owes me one. He did kidnap me and cause me all sorts of trauma….”
“Which he did pay for with pie and fries and apologies,” Ayana counters.
“And it wasn’t just him,” Ransom points out. “The twins had something to do with it too.”
“Lennox was the brains behind the kidnapping. But behind all of it? Well, I’m not sure about whatever it is you all have going on, but I can tell your granny is the real brains behind all of it. She didn’t order the kidnapping, and Lennox was being punished by having to do the swan boat ride sitting on the boat with me. If she didn’t want him to be here, why would he be in San Diego?”
Again comes the guarded look that Ayana and Ransom try to quickly pass between each other such that it’s too fast for me to notice, though I still notice it, of course.
“Uh-huh, I thought so. Your granny is hoping that Lennox and I…that we…he’s here for a reason, isn’t he?”
“Um, well…we don’t know what the reason is. Honestly. Besides being close to us, helping out with Maya, and keeping an eye on us to make sure we’re adjusting okay and all that….” Ayana trails off and blushes. She’s obviously said too much. “It’s not because she wants Lennox to…she’s not a matchmaker.” There isn’t enough steam behind that, and I know Ayana too well. I can hear the doubt in her voice.
Whatever. Doubts are good. And even if Lennox’s granny does want to play matchmaker? Well, I’d be down for that. Lennox doesn’t look a thing like Ransom. I know they’re all adopted, and their granny isn’t their biological granny, but Lennox is big, like Ransom. He’s tall, muscly, bearded, and deliciously sandy with the most intense green eyes. He’s yum with a side of yum, and he’s funny. What’s not to like about someone funny? And the best part? He’s also brought me the only luck I’ve ever had in my entire life.
I flutter my eyelashes at Ayana, trying to be charming and persuasive. It’s okay if she sees me as super ultra pathetic and in need of lots of help and saving. I’m okay with that just this once. “Please? Just one lunch. Pleaseeeee? Pretty please with pickles on top? I swear I’ll owe you big time. I’ll babysit Maya for you whenever you want for the next month. I’ll…I’ll sell my soul to you on a soul contract.”
Ayana rolls her eyes. “Good lord. Keep your soul. That’s just weird. I’ll take you up on the babysitting offer, and Ransom will talk to Lennox, okay?”
I hesitate, wondering how far I can push things without going too far. “Can he talk to his granny instead?”
Ayana’s nostrils flare. “Okayyyyy, let’s golf!”
I don’t know if that’s a yes, but I think it is. I seriously freaking hope it is. Really. Because as much as I need good luck, I’m almost scared to think about the bad. It’s been a while since something truly disastrous happened to me. I need to stave it off. This is about so much more than just passing my driver’s test.
I don’t need another piano incident.
Even if it was a very pretty, painted, artistic piano.
CHAPTER 2
Lennox
“I’m sorry to say, but we have another one.”
Sher is a sweet twenty-year-old girl working at the pawnshop part-time to pay for her college tuition, but when those clients, you know which ones I’m talking about, come in and try and test her because she’s blonde, petite, and sugar-sweet, she can turn into a werewolf, no full moon needed. After a few chew outs in which people got ripped—not just new assholes but new everything—I encouraged her to tell the customers that she needed to get the boss and just walk away from the situation.