First Sneak Peek at Playtime's Over
Prologue
Twenty Years Earlier
“We know you’re in there!”
Kristen considered pointing out that’s because they’d chased her in here, but since that hadn’t worked out well for her yesterday, she decided to keep her mouth shut and give up any hope that she might have had of playing on the monkey bars.
Besides, this was better than the monkey bars, Kristen told herself with a firm nod as she reached inside the small brown paper bag that Aunt Jackie packed for her only to bite back a sigh and move deeper into the play tube when Kelly, the girl that hadn’t been happy when the teacher made her share her mat with Kristen during reading time, threw a banana peel at her. At least it wasn’t another yogurt cup, Kristen thought, shifting a few more inches to the right when she heard Amanda, Kelly’s best friend and the girl who poured glue on her during lunch yesterday, mention seeing a pudding pack by the swings.
“I really hate it here,” Kristen mumbled sadly, wishing that she was back at her old school right now.
At least at her old school the kids left her alone, Kristen thought, sighing heavily as she shifted her attention back to her brown paper bag only to find herself frowning as she watched the boy that had been staring at her all day climb into the tunnel with a satisfied sigh. That was followed by him murmuring to himself, “What do we have here?” as he grabbed her snack bag and helped himself to the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that she’d been looking forward to all morning.
“What are you doing?” Kristen found herself asking.
“I’m invisible,” came the absently murmured response as he helped himself to a cookie with a satisfied sigh.
Blinking slowly, she said, “Okay,” not really sure how to respond to that. That was followed by watching him devour one of the large peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that would have made this day better and finishing off her juice box. When he helped himself to another cookie, Kristen sighed heavily as she reached over to grab the last cookie only to decide that she wasn’t really hungry after all when the move was met with a somewhat terrifying glare.
Pulling her hand back, and for some reason feeling the need to make sure that she still had all of her fingers, Kristen cleared her throat and asked, “Who are you?”
“Besides wondering how you’re able to see me?” he asked, looking thoughtful.
“Besides that,” Kristen said, waving it off as though that was a given.
“I’m your neighbor,” he said, shrugging it off while she sat there, unable to help but frown because she was pretty sure that he wasn’t an eighty-year-old man who enjoyed yelling at squirrels.
“Your other neighbor,” he said, correctly reading her mind, only…
“You live across the street?” Kristen asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she thought about last week when the social worker that hadn’t said more than two words to her dropped her off at her aunt’s house and the terrifying scene that met her when she eventually climbed out of the car and-
“Were you the boy that was forced to eat mud?”
“First off,” he said, pausing to finish off the last cookie, “that mud was delicious. Secondly, I wasn’t forced to do anything. I was luring my brothers into a false sense of security by making them believe that they’d won.”
“By eating mud?” Kristen asked, frowning in confusion as she watched a pair of intense green eyes narrow on her.
“Exactly,” he bit out with a firm nod as he held out his hand in silent demand.
When she could only stare, he said, “Your backup snack.”
“They dumped it in the toilet during story time,” Kristen said as a thought occurred to her. “How long have you been watching me?”
“Long enough to know that you need to establish dominance,” he said, dropping his hand away with a disappointed sigh as he looked pointedly to her right.
“What does that mean?” Kristen asked, following his gaze only to feel her shoulders slump in defeat as she watched Kelly and the rest of the girls that made her life miserable as they dumped a pudding pack, a bottle of water, and what looked like a bottle of paste into one of the buckets from the sandbox that she’d quickly learned was off-limits on her first day of school when Kelly dumped a bucket of sand on her head.
“I’m not exactly sure, but my cousin Jason told me that I needed to do it after my brothers tied me to a tree,” the boy who still hadn’t told her his name said as they watched Kelly grab a stick and started mixing what would most likely end with Kristen waiting in the nurse’s office for her aunt to pick her up early from school again.
“I really hate this school,” Kristen mumbled sadly when she saw Kelly pull a small bottle of glitter out of her pocket.
“Why are you living with the Andersons?” came the curious question that had her stomach turning.
“My mom didn’t want me anymore,” she said, trying to shrug it off like it didn’t matter.
“Why didn’t she want you anymore?”
“I got in the way,” Kristen said as she told herself that it was fine. Her mother just needed time to get used to the new baby and when she did, she’d send for her and everything would be fine. Until then, she just had to stay out of trouble, Kristen thought even as she couldn’t help but wonder where Kelly got that bottle of red paint from.
Not really sure that she wanted to watch this, Kristen asked, “Why do you think you’re invisible?”
“My brothers,” he said, shrugging it off as she once again found herself watching Kelly.
“Your aunt works at Dixon’s Bakery, right?” the boy that should probably leave before it was too late asked.
“Yes,” Kristen mumbled hollowly as she watched helplessly as Kelly squeezed every last drop of red paint into the bucket with a smile that actually terrified her.
“Have a plate of cookies waiting in your room tonight,” he said, making her frown as she glanced back in time to watch him climb out of the tube.
“Okay…” Kristen said, not really sure what to make of the incredibly strange boy, she glanced back at Kelly and found herself wondering why he was walking over to them and-
“My hair!” Kelly screamed as Kristen sat there, watching as the boy that deserved two plates of cookies finished dumping the rest of the glittery-red mess on top of Kelly’s head with a satisfied sigh.
Once he was done, he tossed the bucket aside and started to walk away only to stop as his emerald eyes locked with hers. For a moment, he watched her as he appeared to be thinking something over only to shrug as he leaned down and picked up a rock, leaving her even more confused as she watched him shove the rock in his pocket before walking away and-
“Definitely a strange boy.”
Chapter 1
Present Day Bridgewater, Massachusetts
This wasn’t going to end well.
Then again, Kristen knew that before she decided to drag the ladder the previous owners left behind out of the shed so that she could do something incredibly stupid, but in her defense, she hadn’t been left with much of a choice. Not after she’d realized that she’d locked herself out of her house and definitely not after-
“This isn’t over,” came the announcement from the man determined to make her life a living hell.
“Yes, it is,” Kristen said, releasing a shaky breath as she shifted her grip on the ladder while she stood there, pressing her forehead against the metal rung while she slowly exhaled and told herself that she could do this before she opened her eyes and-
Nope.
Definitely not happening, Kristen decided as she quickly closed her eyes again and tightened her hold on the ladder that she had no business going near as she waited for her heart to stop pounding against her chest. This was a bad idea, one that she deeply regretted as she struggled to find the willpower to release her hold on the ladder so that she could climb back down and-
What was that?
Swallowing hard, Kristen stood there, struggling to remember how to breathe as she did everything in her power to convince herself that she was imagining things when the ladder shook again. Really hoping that she was wrong, Kristen slowly looked down as she opened her eyes and found herself quickly climbing up the rest of the ladder when the large bastard, who had clearly lost his mind, decided to join her, leaving her with no other choice but to move her ass or risk both of them plummeting to their deaths.
In a matter of seconds, Kristen was making her way across the small roof to her bedroom window, praying every inch of the way that she’d left it unlocked only to realize that this day was about to get a lot worse. Really regretting her decision to leave the safety of her house to get the mail when he was home, especially since she knew better, Kristen turned around and pressed her back against the bedroom window that refused to budge as she watched the man who used to mean the world to her climb onto the small roof, looking more determined than ever.
Kristen opened her mouth to suggest that they finish this conversation safely on solid ground only to release a strangled whimper while she watched in horror as he shoved the ladder away from the house, letting her know that there would be no escape.
Not this time.
Swallowing hard, Kristen stared at the spot where the ladder had been for another moment before she slowly, ever so slowly, shifted her gaze to the man that she’d never thought that she would see again to find him watching her through intense green eyes with a look that told her everything that she needed to know.
It was finally over.
“Start talking,” Garrett Bradford, her one-time best friend and the man determined to make her pay for ruining his life bit out between clenched teeth as Kristen reached into her pocket to grab her cellphone and-
“Looking for something?” Garrett asked as he pulled the cellphone that she was really hoping wasn’t hers out of his pocket while she stood there, wondering why she let it get this far.
She should have put a stop to this years ago, but…
He didn’t deserve to know the truth.
Not after what he said and definitely not after everything that he’d put her through over the years. Because of him, she’d been forced to leave the only home that she’d ever had and start over somewhere new, somewhere where no one knew who she was as she did everything that she could to move on and forget about him. For five years, that’s exactly what she did. She’d started a new life and focused on the only thing that mattered to her.
Her books.
Nothing else mattered but proving the big jerk watching her as he absently turned her cellphone over in his hands, wrong. She wrote day and night, ignoring the exhaustion threatening to knock her on her ass and pushed herself, replaying the words that came out of his mouth when he’d destroyed everything. Every time she remembered those words, Kristen pushed herself harder, determined to make him regret ever saying them, until finally, they didn’t matter anymore.
He didn’t matter.
It took time, but she was finally at the point in her life where she could tell herself that it had all been a dream, every smile, every laugh, and all those times that he used to make her feel like she-
It didn’t matter.
“You know what I’ve been wondering all this time?” Garrett asked, looking bored as Kristen found herself debating trying to climb down the rose trellis, but since that would involve climbing onto the large roof above her and trying to shimmy down the side, she decided that her best bet was to stay right where she was and hope that he finally had enough and let this go so that they could both move on with their lives.
“I honestly don’t care,” Kristen said with a resigned sigh as she sat down, knowing that the stubborn jerk wasn’t about to let this go, not when he finally had her where he wanted her.
“I know you don’t,” Garrett murmured absently as he considered her for a moment before absently nodding as he glanced around them, taking in her backyard. “And that’s the problem.”
“No, the problem is that you don’t know how to let this go,” Kristen said, still amazed that he’d quit his job at a very prestigious law firm all so that he could buy the decrepit old house across from her and make her life a living hell. But then again, he’d always been determined. It was actually one of the things that she used to like about him.
“I don’t know how to let this go?” Garrett asked, his lips twitching with amusement as she decided to take that moment to run her eyes over him, once again finding herself noting all the changes the years had brought and had to admit that there weren’t many.
He was still incredibly handsome, his dark hair was still kept short, he looked like he’d put on more muscle, but the eyes that used to light up when they saw her had turned cold over the years. He also didn’t look like he smiled anymore. She used to love his smile, Kristen thought, biting back a sigh as she waited for him to get this over with so that she could move onto the next phase of her life, hopefully one that didn’t involve him.
“You really don’t,” Kristen said, gesturing for him to get on with it.
Nodding, Garrett murmured, “Fair enough, but I’m not the one that can’t stop writing about me, now, am I?”
Sighing heavily, Kristen shrugged as she muttered, “I give up.”
“You had no fucking right to put me in that fucking book,” Garrett bit out.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Kristen said, sick and tired of-
“I wonder who this could be,” Garrett murmured, sounding thoughtful as he glanced down at her phone while Kristen sat there, trying not to panic as the ringtone that she’d been waiting for the past year started playing.
This couldn’t be happening.
Not now, Kristen told herself as she sat there, feeling sick to her stomach. “Please give me back my phone, Garrett,” she said, swallowing hard as she held out her hand, praying that he took pity on her this one time so that she could fix this before it was too late.
“Oh, look at that, you saved the number as ‘Life Changing Phone Call’,” Garrett murmured as Kristen forced herself to stand up on wobbly legs as she continued holding her hand out, too desperate to care that she could fall to her death, not when everything was riding on this phone call.
“Please, Garrett,” Kristen said, hating to beg him for anything, but she didn’t have a choice. Not if she-
“Of course,” Garrett murmured, moving to hand the phone back to her only to drop his hand away as he added, “Just as soon as you tell me what I want to know.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything!” Kristen snapped, sick and tired of playing this damn game with him.
“True,” Garrett murmured, looking thoughtful as he made a show of examining her phone and-
“No!”
-tossed it off the roof
For a moment, Kristen could only stand there, staring at him in disbelief while she tried to wrap her mind around what just happened as she thought about all the shit he’d put her through over the years. She thought about the moment when she’d told him about her first book, about the way that he’d pulled her into his arms and congratulated her before he plucked the iPad out of her hands with that carefree smile that she used to love and started reading it. She remembered the moment that smile slowly disappeared and the look of disbelief that took over before he destroyed everything.
She thought about the years that followed, the way that he went out of his way to make her life a living hell until she’d finally had enough and left only to have him show up five years later and do it all over again. For the past year, he did everything that he could to piss her off, hoping that it would be enough to make her finally admit that he’d been right all along and she’d-
This ended now, Kristen decided as she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled only to follow that up with a firm nod.
Granted, she should have ended this when he suddenly showed up three months ago, but in her defense, she never expected to see him again. Not after what happened last time. If she had, she probably would have refrained from grabbing that garden hose and tried to shove it down his-
It didn’t matter what she tried to do or where she tried to shove things, Kristen decided, knowing that he deserved that much and more for what he’d put her through.
Oh, did he deserve it…
Over the past three months, he’d turned her once peaceful existence into pure hell. He somehow got her on the banned list for every food delivery service within twenty miles. He’d hired clowns to frolic on his front lawn knowing that they creeped her out and even had Bobo the freaking clown knock on her door and offer her an animal balloon.
He really was a sick bastard.
He hid treats covered in peanut butter along the old fire lane so that the dog that she really needed to figure out a name for soon, dragged her ass through the woods and dumped her in the pond. That was usually followed by blasting the theme song to Jaws, knowing that movie traumatized her when they were ten.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he got the neighborhood kids to egg her house. He signed her up for Girl Scout cookies for every troop within a twenty-file mile radius, making sure they came to her house every single day for a month, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to say no. Thanks to him, she now had two hundred boxes of Thin Mints taking up her hallway closet. He also made sure that she couldn’t find any Hostess Snoballs within a hundred miles, knowing that they were her one true weakness.
He woke her up every morning at the crack of dawn to the sounds of loud trucks, saws, banging, and the sounds of his brothers and cousins beating the hell out of each other at all hours of the night as they renovated the house that should have been condemned years ago, making it impossible for her to do anything more than fantasize about shoving his body in a-
Taking another deep breath, Kristen reminded herself that she would never survive prison, which meant that she needed to end this today. Decision made, Kristen slowly exhaled as she forced herself to open her eyes and face the man that had finally gone too far.
“Do you really want to know if you’re in my book?” Kristen demanded, pushing away from the side of the house so that she could glare up at the large bastard that she never wanted to see again.
“Yes,” Garrett said evenly as he met her glare with one of his own.
“You’re right. You’re in the book. In fact, you’re in all of them. You’re the reason why I wrote the book in the first place. Is that what you wanted to hear?” Kristen admitted with a careless shrug, watching as his eyes narrowed dangerously on her as he ground his jaw, looking angrier than she’d ever seen him before.
“Yes,” he bit out coldly.
Nodding, Kristen said, “Then, we’re done here,” as she moved to step away only to sigh heavily and add, “I just forgot one thing.”
“And what’s that?” Garrett asked with a look that told her that this was far from over.
“You’re not Greg,” Kristen announced, watching as the anger that lit his eyes slowly turned to confusion as she added, “You’re Tristan.”