Read Online Total Rush by Deirdre Martin - Free Book Online Page A

twelve.
    The doors opened on the fifth floor, and Gemma stepped out into the hall. She hadn’t taken three steps before the door to Mrs. Croppy’s apartment flew open. The old woman was hurtling toward her like one of the Furies, her shrill voice loud enough for the entire floor to hear.
    â€œYou! I’ve been waiting for you all day! Your junk is littering the hallway! People can’t walk! It’s dangerous!”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” Gemma tried to make her way down the hall. Her bags were getting heavier with every step. If she didn’t put them down soon, they’d slip from her hands.
    â€œLook!” Mrs. Croppy squawked, pointing a crooked, bejeweled finger at the other end of the hall. “Just look!”
    Gemma wearily lowered the bags and looked. There, in front of her doorway and extending the entire width of the hall, was a menagerie of stuffed animals large and small. Penguins, polar bears, orangutans, rhinos—every animal imaginable, their colors as vivid as a rainbow.
    â€œOh my God,” Gemma whispered, transfixed. Mrs. Croppy was still screeching, but Gemma had stopped listening. Slowly, as if in a dream, she made her way toward her apartment. Tigers, elephants, woodchucks—she was ankle deep in faux wildlife, the soft synthetic fur of zebras and raccoons brushing her skin as she fumbled to open the door of her apartment.
    â€œWhat are you going to do about this mess?” Mrs. Croppy squawked.
    Gemma barely heard the poison in the old woman’s voice. “Just give me a minute, okay?”
    Mrs. Croppy grunted and slammed her door shut, leaving Gemma in blessed silence. She knew just what she’d do. First, she’d dump her groceries on the kitchen table. Then she’d move her furry friends inside. And then—dear God, how she wanted to shout out his name!—then she would go upstairs and pay a visit to Sean.
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    Sean smiled when the doorbell rang, knowing just who it was. The electronic chime made Pete and Roger hop excitedly on their perches and they began squawking. Not the most relaxing sound in the world, but he was used to it.
    â€œSettle down, guys,” he soothed as he opened the door to reveal Gemma.
    â€œHi,” she said shyly.
    â€œHi,” he returned, ushering her inside and closing the door.
    Gemma’s gaze covered every inch of his living room: the dusty bookshelves crammed with his history books and spy novels; his coffee table, which held the latest issue of Firehouse magazine.
    His gaze, meanwhile, was riveted on her. Her curling red hair looked windswept, and she was wearing the same scent as at the christening, faintly floral, but with a hint of spice that stirred his blood. His mind kept flashing back to the teddy on her bed, then flashing forward to an image of her in it. No one had ever captivated him so thoroughly, so fast. He felt bewitched.
    â€œCare to introduce me to your roommates?” she asked, her gaze coming to rest on his birds.
    They crossed the room, approaching the twin cages. “This is Pete and this is Roger. Pete is a parakeet, and Roger is a cockatiel.”
    As if they sensed they were the subject of conversation, the birds squawked even louder. Gemma leaned in to get a closer look at them, especially Roger, who boasted a small patch of orange feathers on his chest.
    â€œYou rescued them?”
    â€œYeah, from a fire in a dry-cleaning store, of all places. After the fire the owner went back to Korea and I took them.”
    â€œHis loss.” She tilted her head this way and that, observing them from different angles. “They’re pretty.”
    â€œPretty neurotic. Sometimes the only way I can get Rog to calm down is to pace with him, like a baby.”
    â€œInteresting.” She turned to him, her smile shy. “Thank you.”
    â€œFor—?” he asked, pretending he didn’t understand.
    She jostled his arm playfully.