Read Online Protecting What's His by Tessa Bailey - Free Book Online Page A

barely had time to register the perfect synchronicity of their leaps over the waterlogged couch and coffee table. They each grabbed an end of the five-foot-tall Dolly statue and lifted, groaning under its weight. Ginger took the lead, wobbling backward through the wreckage, showing Willa where to step safely. They needed to move quickly. Judging by the rapidly growing stain on the ceiling, standing underneath the wet plaster didn’t seem wise.
    “Ginger, lift! You’re going to knock off one of her boobs if it hits the table!”
    Grunting over the strain in her muscles, she lifted Dolly up and over the dining table. “For once I wish Dolly had smaller tits,” she panted.
    Thankfully, they made it outside without mishap and Ginger managed to get the sleeping super, Lenny, on the phone and up to their apartment in less than two minutes. By that time, their living room ceiling had partially caved in, the room filling rapidly with water. Ginger and Willa were waiting with their Dolly statue in the hallway when he ran up the stairs, still buttoning his jeans.
    Lenny took one look in their apartment before sprinting up the stairs to Ginger’s upstairs neighbor’s apartment. A minute later he sprinted past them again, presumably down to the basement so he could turn off the water. The steady stream flowing into their apartment finally subsided, but Ginger didn’t dare go back inside. Instead, she stared through the doorway in silence at the new home they’d barely had time to get used to.
    Lenny, looking incredibly stressed and apologetic, explained to them that their upstairs neighbor, a middle-aged woman living alone, had been suffering from the flu and thanks to her cold medicine, had passed out waiting for her bathtub to fill some three hours earlier. The older building’s flooring had been no match for the weight of the water, sending it downstairs to Ginger and Willa.
    It seemed like only minutes after Ginger’s call to Lenny, the fire department arrived to begin pumping out the water and also attend to their upstairs neighbor, whose illness appeared more serious than she’d originally thought.
    As she and Willa pressed themselves up against the hallway wall to let the firefighters by, she heard Derek’s door slam. He exited the apartment wearing gray sweatpants and a T-shirt, clearly having been woken by the commotion. Narrowed eyes ran over the firefighters walking into her apartment, then landed squarely on her. Until his eyes dipped and ran the length of her body, she’d forgotten her attire consisted solely of a sopping wet white nightshirt. She hastily crossed her arms over her breasts and stepped in front of Willa, who wore a similar shirt. In black, of course.
    Glaring at the passing men, Derek stomped back inside his apartment without comment. He returned seconds later carrying two giant fleece sweatshirts with police department logos over the right breast. He tossed one to Willa, who gratefully pulled it over her head, then yanked one over Ginger’s head. It fell to her knees.
    “What the fuck is going on?” he finally asked.
    She and Willa were cold and homeless and this asshole had the nerve to demand answers from her? Fuck that. “Don’t bark at me!”
    Derek pinched the bridge of his nose and turned to walk into her apartment. A moment later, she heard Lenny relaying the story to Derek, the super’s harried voice fading in and out as they surveyed the damage.
    “Ginger?”
    She looked over at Willa. “Yeah?”
    “Does this mean we’re going back to Nashville?”
    The numbness in her sister’s voice made tears prick behind Ginger’s eyelids, but she kept them in check. Later, she might cry over how this type of catastrophe seemed to follow them around and wonder if maybe she deserved it. But right now, Willa needed reassurance.
    “Girl, it’ll be a cold day in hell.”
    Willa looked hopeful. “Yeah?”
    Ginger tilted her head. “You like it here?”
    Her sister nodded.
    “Then we