Page 42 of Playing for Keeps

“You haven’t seen me,” I said and disappeared into the bathroom.

I heard Luke get up to open the door.

“Is Ethan here?” I could hear Reuban’s growly voice even through the bathroom door.

“Nope. No idea where he is, sorry,” Luke said.

“Tell him I’m looking for my phone.”

“Okay.”

I waited until Luke shut the door before I emerged from the bathroom.

His face crinkled in amusement. “What did you do?”

I took Reuban’s phone out of my pocket and flashed it at him. “Just engaging in some old-fashioned ransom.”

Luke shook his head. “Fuck, I can’t believe I’m still getting you out of trouble.”

“Maybe that’s why you were put on the planet,” I suggested. “To bail me out in my times of need.”

“That’s a mildly egocentric view of the world,” he said.

“Come on, you’ve got to help me come up with the ransom message.”

Luke chuckled. “How are you going to send him a ransom message when you’ve got his phone?”

Fair point. But my brain quickly conjured up a solution. “He’s rooming with Jacob. I’ll send a message to him.”

I’d roomed with Jacob lots last year, so I knew he always had his phone handy on road trips as he constantly messaged his partner, Austin, and his daughters.

I’d enjoyed rooming with Jacob, but it was nothing compared to how much fun I had with Luke. Luckily management had quickly figured out Luke and I were inseparable on road trips and had roomed us together.

And now that Luke was having such a phenomenal season, I was pretty sure they weren’t going to change it up anytime soon.

There were no words to describe how happy I was to have my best friend back. Like right now, for example. No one else would have joined in my shenanigans with so little protest. Despite his outwardly serious nature, Luke had always made an epic wingman.

His dark eyes danced as we brainstormed ransom demands. I was leaning toward making Reuban do something epically embarrassing that would also offer blackmail potential in the future. You had to love a prank that kept on giving.

“And I reckon we need to make him think his phone is under threat, otherwise he’s not going to give in to any ransom demands,” I said.

Luke frowned. “How are we going to do that?”

I grinned my most evil grin. “I have an idea.”

“I can’t believe the things you rope me into doing,” Luke grumbled a few minutes later as he knelt on the bathroom tiles and knotted the necktie around the tap.

We were using our Marauders ties to create a sling to hold Reuban’s phone over the bathtub.

Crouched beside him, I grinned and said, “Admit it, you were bored without me.”

Luke didn’t reply, and my grin faded at his serious expression. He looked down at the tiles, his Adam’s apple working. “I definitely spent less time explaining my way out of trouble when you weren’t around,” he said eventually.

My shoulders relaxed. “See, boring,” I said, then reached past him and gave the knot a tug to make sure it was secure. As much as I enjoyed a good joke, I had better things to do with my money than buy Reuban a new phone.

A buzzing came from Luke’s pants, and he pulled his phone from his back pocket. I craned my neck—yeah, I wasn’t above being nosy—and saw he had an incoming FaceTime call from Jonathan. “I better take this,” Luke said. He accepted the call and dropped his voice. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Jonathan grinned through the screen. He really was a cute guy, all bright eyes and sweet smile. “Great game.”