Tell Me a Story by Dallas Schulze Read Free Book Online Page B

you're concerned about Becky and I shouldn't be giving you such a hard time."
    "She can't just continue to stay here. You've got to let someone know where she is. Maybe the Social Services people should be called." The suggestion was made without force.
    "No. Becky's terrified of them. Probably with good reason. There are some pretty flaky sounding circumstances surrounding her mother. They just might take Becky away from her."
    "Then, what are you going to do?"
    He rubbed his forehead and Ann noticed his pallor for the first time.
    "Either I'm getting too old to drink like that or hangovers are getting worse. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about Becky. I thought I'd take her out to my parents' home tomorrow. They may have some ideas. You're welcome to come along just to make sure that I don't sell her to the white slavers." He grinned to show her that there was no rancor behind the words.
    Of course she wasn't going to get involved any further. It was none of her business what happened to either of them. She'd done all that could be expected of her. Naturally, she would turn down his invitation. She was going to get out of her chair and say a polite good-night—she'd even wish him luck—and then she was going to go back to her own apartment and her simple, uncomplicated life. The only male she wanted to deal with right now was Oscar, who didn't have any of the dangerous seductive qualities of Flynn Mc-Callister.
    "If you wouldn't mind, I'd feel better seeing this a little farther. I don't know why. I hardly know Becky."
    "There's something about her that sort of gets under your skin."
    Ann nodded, suppressing the thought that Becky might not be the only one.

Chapter 4

    " A re you sure you don't want another piece of pizza, Mr. Flynn?"
    Flynn stared at the slice of pizza Becky was holding out and swallowed hard. Red with tomato sauce and dripping with cheese, it couldn't have looked more deadly to him if it had been laced with cyanide.
    "No thanks. You two go ahead and split it." One thing he'd forgotten about hangovers was that, no matter how bad you felt when you woke up, you could count on it being the best you'd feel all day.
    He pushed his chair back from the table, as much to get away from the food as to get more comfortable, and studied his companions. Twenty-four hours ago, he'd never have believed that he'd be sitting across the table from one small refugee and one hostile neighbor. To tell the truth, the refugee was easier to imagine than Ann. Who would have believed that the dragon across the hall would have such a pretty smile?
    He looked at Becky, his face softening. She'd lost the wary look she'd had just a few short hours ago. She seemed completely at home. Tomorrow he'd have to figure out what to do with her, but for tonight, he just wanted her to be a child. He had the feeling that she'd spent too little time doing that.
    "Parcheesi." Ann and Becky looked at him. Becky looked intrigued; Ann looked suspicious. He grinned at them both. "What we need is a nice game of Parcheesi before bed."
    "I don't think—"
    "I love Parcheesi."
    Ann swallowed the rest of her protest and managed to look enthused. Board games were right below jogging on her list of fun things to do. She'd never understood why people thought it was fun to move little pieces of plastic around a sheet of cardboard. In her experience, it led to arguments and irritation and hurt feelings. But then she'd never played with Flynn McCallister.
    Over the next two hours, she learned that not everyone was like her father, who went about playing a game the way he went about life—you were there to win and nothing else mattered. Flynn didn't seem to think that winning was all that important. His only goal was to have fun, and he took just as much pleasure in losing as he did in winning. He coached Becky, he coached Ann, and he didn't seem to care that they trounced him every time.
    It was a novel experience and one that wasn't entirely welcome. She