Delectable (Neighbor from Hell 9)

“I hate you both,” she said, picking up a chip off her forgotten plate and popped it in her mouth as she glared at the two traitors that were enjoying this way too much.

“You love us, which is why we’re concerned,” Sara said, sighing heavily as she shifted in her chair in order to give Kasey her full attention. “Now, would you like to talk about what just happened?”

“You mean besides you screwing me over?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared at the woman that had just guaranteed that she was going to have to hide out in her bedroom for the next two months, give or take a week.

“By screw you over, do you mean saving your ass?” Sara asked before nodding. “Then yes, let’s talk about that.”

“What the hell were you thinking?” she asked, getting to the point.

“I was thinking that you needed a contractor,” Sara said with a sniff as she checked her manicure.

“Umm, I’m right here,” Eric reminded them as he pulled up a chair and joined them.

“Yeah, we didn’t forget,” Sara said with a sad shake of her head as she returned her attention back to Kasey. “Is this because you can’t look at him without imagining tearing off his clothes and tracing every delectable golden muscle with your tongue?” she asked, blinking. “Is that why?”

“What? No!” she snapped, because she hadn’t been thinking about that…until now.

“I’m not interested in him,” she said, wondering how they’d ended up having this conversation.

“Really? Then please explain the blushing and the fact that you couldn’t take your eyes off him?” Sara suggested, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned back in her chair and waited for an answer that would hopefully shut her up.

Since telling her best friend that Reese had torn her clothes off and held her in his arms would only come back and bite her in the ass, she moved on. “Did it ever occur to you that I’m not interested in him? Or that maybe I wanted to do this myself so that I could save money and get the kitchen done the way that I wanted it?”

Sara seemed to think it over for a minute before she shook her head and said, “No.”

“What exactly happened to the sink?” Eric, the bastard that she should have never let move in with her, asked, gesturing towards the mess that they’d made with the potato chip that he’d swiped off her plate.

“Yes, Kasey, what happened to the sink?” Sara asked brightly with a triumphant look that she really didn’t appreciate at the moment.

“Nothing,” she bit out with a glare as she shoved another chip in her mouth.

“Really? Because to me it looks like someone that didn’t know what she was doing tried to do renovations on her own and ended up being saved by an incredibly hot cop, who also just happened to be a contractor,” Sara said, ending with a satisfied sigh as she helped herself to a chip.

“Look,” Kasey said, pushing on and ignoring the fact that her best friend was right, “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“And why’s that?” Sara asked, giving up on stealing her chips and settled for stealing the entire plate.

“Besides the fact that he never gave us a quote? How about the fact that we don’t know anything about him?” she pointed out, wondering why they were having this conversation when it should be more than obvious that hiring Reese just wasn’t a good idea.

“Maybe because you didn’t tell him what you wanted?” Sara shot back as she nibbled on a chip, looking thoughtful while Kasey sat there, scowling at the chip-stealing bitch.

“Because I don’t want to hire him?” she shot back.

“You don’t want to hire an available contractor, who just happens to also be incredibly hot and can renovate your kitchen within your timeframe?” Sara asked, blinking.

“How do we even know that he can do the work? For all we know he might be a glorified handyman,” she pointed out as she got to her feet and headed for the refrigerator, confident that she’d made her point and had effectively ended this conversation before it had a chance to shift back to her and all the mortifying things that she’d done today.

“Because he showed me pictures of his work on his phone and the website for Bradford Construction where he works when he has the time,” Sara said, sounding smug.

Needing a minute, she grabbed a juice box from the fridge, tore the thin plastic cover off the straw and viciously stabbed it in the hole before taking a much-needed sip. Turning around, she watched Sara for a moment as she tried to come up with an excuse to cancel the whole thing, but between the damage they did to the sink and every other problem that she had with the kitchen, she didn’t have much of a choice.

She needed his help, which meant that she was going to have to suck up her pride, pretend that today hadn’t happened and pray that he did the same.

Chapter 13

“You’re going to wake him up!” came the whispered hiss as the sounds of someone, probably several small someones, snuck past him on their way to the kitchen.

“I’m starving,” eleven-year-old Sebastian announced, which was seconded by his twin brother, Johnny.

“There’s no food!”

“I told you that we should have hidden some!” came the accusing whisper from one of the twins, which one, he wasn’t sure and he really didn’t care since there was no chance in hell of him falling back to sleep now, not after they’d mentioned food.

A quick glance at his watch had him rubbing his eyes and sitting up on the couch with a heavy sigh. It was seven in the morning, he was fucking exhausted and with a houseful of Bradford children on the prowl there was no way that he was going to get any sleep anytime soon.

“Go get dressed,” he told them, deciding that he might as well take the boys out for breakfast before they woke up the rest of the house.

The boys didn’t need to be asked twice, not when food was involved. Grinning hugely, the boys shoved each other out of the way and raced back to the room they shared with their cousins. He didn’t have to tell them to be quiet, because they knew better than to wake anyone else up.

Hoping to get them fed and back here before nine so that he could go make a certain neighbor blush, he went back to his room, took a quick shower, dressed, attached his gun holster to his ankle, and opened his bedroom door to find his cousin’s boys waiting for him. He cocked a brow in question and the boys nodded, letting him know that they’d told their mother where they were going.

Gesturing to the front door, the boys preceded him and in minutes they were in his truck, and pulling out of the driveway. As soon as they reached the end of the road, the boys were sighing with relief and turning the radio on.

“What are you in the mood for?” he asked, taking in the restaurants along the beach-lined streets and noted that their options were limited at this time of the morning.

“Food!” came the response from both boys, making him chuckle.

Having had enough donuts and fast food egg sandwiches to last him a lifetime, he kept driving until they came upon a diner that looked promising. “How about pancakes?” he suggested, already pulling into the small parking lot.

“God, yes,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily with relief.

“You boys paying?” he asked, cutting the twins a look to find them watching him with calculating looks that would probably scare anyone else, but since he was a Bradford twin himself, he simply chuckled and gestured for the boys to get out.

Before he had a chance to close his door, the boys were there by his side, fully alert and dragging him towards the diner. They’d barely managed to get through the door when the boys were saying, “Three, please,” startling the hostess.

“Three, please,” he said with an apologetic smile as the waitress shifted h

er attention to him and-

Christ.

-smiled invitingly.

“Three it is,” she murmured as her gaze dropped to his left hand in search of the gold ring that would save him from situations like this before looking back up at him and murmuring, “Right this way.”