The Promise (Neighbor from Hell 10)

Dear Reader,

Where to begin…

First, I probably should explain why you’re reading The Promise instead of Irresistible.

The goal as some of you know was to release Irresistible last year, but it never happened. The first problem that happened was I fell in love with Reese and Kasey in Delectable and I needed to see that story out because it refused to stop playing out in my head. The hope had been to finish Delectable, get the next Pyte novel done, and then Irresistible, which shouldn’t have been a problem.

It became a problem.

I’m not really sure what went wrong first, but it was definitely an interesting year and a half. I ended up taking my daughter out of school and homeschooling after she was bullied, which ended up taking a large chunk of my time…a lot of my time, lol. That was followed with trying to clean up all the old files including Irresistible to make the flow better, which took a few months and once it was done a computer update erased everything and restored all the files back six months.

That was fun.

I may have cried a little.

Okay, a lot.

There may have even been an attempt to throw the computer out the window. Thankfully, I couldn’t get the window open. So, I had to settle for taking the computer to get checked and found out that the computer was set up to automatically save everything to backup, which also set those files back six months. After that was fixed, I improved my system, cried a little more, and went back to work on Irresistible. Once I cleaned it up again, I realized something important.

It’s too serious for a Neighbor from Hell novel. I tried to figure out where I went wrong, asked several people to read through it and got mixed results. I decided to put it aside, and I played with other novels for a bit before I came back to it and couldn’t figure out what to do. So, I decided to put it aside again and I set to work on The Promise.

Now, about The Promise…

This book actually started as the first Loser’s Club novel, but I couldn’t get past the fact that it felt like a NFH novel. So, I sent what I had to a few people and got the same feedback. It was definitely a Neighbor from Hell novel. After a few more attempts to make it work, I decided to see what a Bradford could do for the series. I have to be honest, I also liked the idea of some fresh blood bringing new life to the NFH series.

I love the characters that I’ve developed in the series, but I wanted to take a new direction with the series and get away from the known. Reed Bradford gave me that opportunity. This book started playing in my head while I was writing Delectable, so I decided to go with it. I could see everything happen from beginning to end and I loved it. I loved everything about the story and couldn’t wait to get it written down, but the problem with knowing everything that happened is actually making it happen.

It becomes work after that, forcing things in the book, arranging details and events to lead to the next point and I hated it. I realized how much I love writing a book that writes itself. For the past year, I worked to make this story that kept playing in my head happen, but every time I tried to force it, I hated it and would end up deleting it. There was this heartbreaking scene at the end of the book that I loved and had been thinking about for a year and I couldn’t wait to get it in the book, but when it came time to put it in, I just couldn’t do it. It didn’t feel right.

I was also remind

ed of something important about the Neighbor from Hell series. One of the reasons that I love this series is because the single goal is to make the reader fall in love with a smile, not add stress to an already stressful world. Neighbor from Hell novels are a wonderful, light escape and I wanted to keep it that way for this book.

One thing I should mention before you read this book, Shawn is based on my son Shane, because there should be an insanely awesome autistic child in this series to make it complete. He will be appearing again in one of the Friends from Hell books, the spinoff from the Neighbor from Hell series for all those characters that keep the Bradfords in line for Jackson’s book. You don’t know who Jackson is, but no worries, you’re about to meet him.

So, with that, I give you The Promise.

Prologue

Bridgewater, Massachusetts

Fourteen years Ago…

“I really think that we should talk about this,” Joey said even as she had to berate herself for not putting the thirty-second head start they’d given her to good use and found a better hiding spot than the top of an old metal cabinet.

“There’s nothing to talk about!” Jamie, the normally sweet girl who always let Joey sit at her table, snapped a bit angrily as she jumped and made another mad grab for her, which only confirmed Joey’s suspicions that she was going to die this very day.

“Death by seniors,” she mumbled miserably with a pathetic sigh as she took in the large group shoving each other out of the way in an attempt to get their hands on her first. If they’d only worked together, she thought with another sigh even as she decided that it was probably for the best if she didn’t point that out.

After calculating the odds of surviving this encounter and deciding that they weren’t good, she decided to try reasoning with them with the hope that they could discuss this like rational human beings. “I understand that you’re upset and possibly disappointed by the way things turned out, but is violence really the answer?” she couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes!” came the resounding answer, making her shoulders sag with defeat because she was really kind of hoping that they’d take into consideration the fact that she was only twelve, small for her age, and really, really sorry about this whole thing.

Granted, she hadn’t had a chance to apologize yet, but she would just as soon as they stopped trying to drag her away from the safety of the metal cabinet that kept making ominous sounds that were really starting to concern her. She should have kept running and tried to barricade herself in the closet, but at the time the cheerleaders had been closing in on her and she hadn’t been sure if she was going to make it to the closet in time. Thanks to her quick thinking she was now stuck on top of an old, somewhat rusty, metal cabinet with an angry mob of hormonal teenagers after her.

She really wished she could figure out how to keep her mouth shut sometimes, now being one of those times. It would definitely make her life easier, she thought as she was forced to flatten herself against the wall so that she could pull her foot away from the edge of the cabinet.

“Would it help if I said that I was sorry?” she asked with a hopeful expression only to groan when they yelled, “No!”

Hugging her backpack tightly against her chest, she nervously licked her lips as she glanced around the large classroom, looking for someone or something that could get her out of this. But it appeared as though she was on her own on this one.

What she wouldn’t give for a teacher to walk in right now…

Well, maybe not Mr. Lafereira since he was the reason that she was in this mess. He really shouldn’t have called on her, especially since he knew better than most teachers what her stubborn mouth was capable of. But for some reason, he’d felt it was necessary to prove that she didn’t know when to quit. There had been seventeen other students in the room who were more than capable of answering his question, but had he asked any of them a question about Robert E. Lee’s role in the American Revolution?

No, because for some reason the deeply disturbed man enjoyed it when she pointed out when he was wrong, which unfortunately for the sake of their education, was often. She wasn’t sure what his degree was in, but it definitely wasn’t in American History. He was constantly getting dates mixed up, his facts wrong, and could never seem to answer any of their questions without having to refer to the large history book that he kept open and ready on his desk. So, when she’d politely pointed out that Robert E. Lee had been in the Civil War and that he might want to seriously consider other vocations it had somehow enraged him into assigning everyone a ten-page paper due first thing Monday morning that had really been his fault for calling on her.

“I hate you!” one of the cheerleaders screamed, sobbing hysterically a bit at the end there.

“You ruined my life!” someone else added, but she really wasn’t sure who since they’d all decided to start screaming at her.

She should shut up and let them get it out their system with the hopes that it would be enough to get them to give up on their plan to shove her in a locker and seal it with cement, but once again, her mouth refused to stay shut.

“It’s only a dance,” she pointed out, reminding them that it wasn’t the end of the world, but that’s when she realized that she’d made another tactical error.

“It’s Homecoming!” someone yelled as though that meant something to her.

“I had to mow fifty lawns to pay for this thing!”

“It’s the biggest dance of the year!”

“I had to eat lettuce for a month to fit into my dress!” one of the girls screamed as she gave up trying to grab Joey and decided that it was time to shove the cabinet onto its side.

That was right around the time that Joey decided to abandon ship.

Taking a deep breath, she tightened her hold around her bag and jumped from the cabinet, managing to take everyone by surprise and-

Fall flat on her face with a pained groan.

It wasn’t the smartest thing that she’d ever done, but at least she was off the cabinet, she told herself as another pained groan escaped her. As she lay there, most likely dying from internal injuries, she couldn’t help but wonder if they would be willing to forget this whole thing now that her short, and somewhat depressing, life had flashed before her eyes. When she felt a pair of strong hands wrap around her arms and drag her to her feet, she couldn’t help but regret her decision to turn down her grandmother’s generous offer to homeschool her so that she wouldn’t end up in a situation like this one.

And yes, having the rest of the school turn on her and demand her head on a platter had been something of a concern for her grandparents. If only she’d listened, she thought absently as she was carefully placed on her feet and found herself looking up at her brother’s disapproving face. She couldn’t help but notice that he really didn’t look all that pleased to see her.

That kind of hurt since she was very happy to see him.

“What did you do now?” Jackson asked as he shot the group itching to get their hands on her a look of warning, which was probably the only reason they weren’t dragging her off toward the lockers by now.

“Umm,” she mumbled, shooting a nervous glance around the room to find the rest of her third period American History class glaring at her, “I may have questioned Mr. Lafereiria’s ability to teach high school history.”

He didn’t say anything, but then again, he didn’t have to since she was well aware that she’d messed this one up. When he shook his head with a sigh and grabbed her bag, she nearly wept with joy as he gestured for her to move her butt.

“Sorry,” she said, shooting the angry crowd that most likely wouldn’t be asking her to sign their yearbooks a nervous smile.

“She didn’t mean it,” Jackson said, reciting the line that he’d been forced to use since she’d learned to talk and making her once again wonder why she couldn’t learn to keep her mouth shut.

“Let’s go,” Jackson said, wrapping his large arm around her small shoulders and d

ragged her out of the room before she could open her mouth and say something to make this worse.

Not that she was even sure that it was humanly possible at this point.

“Joey,” he said with a pained groan as he led her toward the cafeteria, “what did we talk about?”

“Many things,” she mumbled pathetically when she saw who was waiting for them in the hallway.

Reed Bradford, her brother’s best friend, the school’s bad boy, breaker of hearts, her neighbor since she was two, and her self-appointed babysitter.

“You find her in time?” Reed asked as he pushed away from the lockers and joined them, making her hate him even more than she already did.

It didn’t matter that he’d saved her from an angry crowd determined to get their revenge, she hated him, always had and always would.

“Yeah, thanks, man,” Jackson said as Joey grumbled a “See you later,” and ducked out of his reach. She hurried toward the cafeteria before she had to listen to the jerk ranting about how she had no business being in high school.

As she was forced to duck inside the janitor’s closet when the angry mob that wanted nothing more than to tear her apart stepped into the hallway, Joey decided then and there that she was going to do whatever it took to finish school early and when she did, she was going to leave this town and never come back.

Chapter 1

Present Day

“Try again,” Reed said, keeping his gaze locked on the sophomore sitting across from him, shifting nervously as she tried to come up with a better lie to explain why she was sitting in his office instead of in third-period Biology class where she belonged.

“It was, umm, already there when I got there,” she said, licking her lips as she tried to meet his gaze head-on, failed, and settled for staring down at her lap.

“You can do better than that,” Reed said, absently tapping the half-empty pack of cigarettes that she’d been caught red-handed with against his desk as he waited for another bullshit excuse that would explain why he’d found her hanging out behind the gym, smoking.