Deciding that it would be in everyone’s best interest to get this over with, he turned his attention to the reason that he was here, pasted that smile that he’d perfected for his clients on his face, and-
Found himself drawn to the small woman standing in the middle of the street, wearing baggie flannel pajamas and the oversized pink bunny slippers that he’d bought her for Christmas when they were fifteen and felt the smile slip from his face. It had been five years since he last saw her, but he would recognize her anywhere, he thought as the simmering rage that he’d once thought was gone surfaced and he found himself shoving Bryce aside and deciding that it was time to end this once and for all.
*-*-*-*
“You promised that you wouldn’t do this again,” Kristen said, shaking her head in disgust as she folded her arms over her chest and pointedly looked away, refusing to give him a chance to do this to her again.
She should have known better, she told herself only to shake her head in disgust, because she had known better than to trust him. But one look at those brown eyes and she’d melted. She was pathetic.
Correction.
She was beyond pathetic, because not only had she fallen for this again, but now she was stuck standing out here in her pajamas acting like a crazy woman and it was all because of the lying jerk that she’d let sleep in her bed last night. When he’d showed up at her door a month ago, she should have ignored him, but he’d been persistent, and she’d been helpless to do anything but let him in. If only she’d known then what she knew now, she thought, sighing heavily only to throw her hands up in disgust when he gave her that look that always broke her.
“No,” Kristen said firmly because it wasn’t happening.
“You promised,” she said evenly as she struggled not to look at him again because she knew that if she did that it would break her.
“You always do this,” she said, tapping her pink bunny slipper on the street, more determined than ever to put an end to this, because she wasn’t doing this again.
She didn’t care if he pouted or kissed her, she wasn’t getting up at the crack of dawn for him again. From now on, he was on his own, she told herself even as she felt herself soften and-
“I’m not doing it,” she told herself when she felt herself weaken because it just wasn’t going to happen.
It wasn’t.
It really wasn’t.
It-
“Fine! But this is the last time!” she said, as she turned around and found the dog that she should have named Satan lying on his back with his paws up in the air and giving her that pathetic look that shouldn’t have this much power over her.
But it did.
Maybe she should look into those assertive classes again, she thought as she leaned over and tried to pick him up only to decide that it would probably be for the best if she stopped feeding him table scraps.
“You need to get up,” Kristen said, shaking her head with a heavy sigh as she stood up and gestured back toward the house that was barely twenty feet away.
When he only wagged his tail, she narrowed her eyes on him and pointed toward the house. “You told me that you wanted to go for a walk so if you don’t get off your furry butt and get inside then I swear on everything that is holy that we will go for that goddamn walk!”
When his only answer was another tag of his tail and a whimper, she crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “No.”
A whimper.
“Damn it!” she said, sighing as she reached back down to pick him up and-
“Oh, god, no,” she managed to get out when she saw the man that she never wanted to see again glaring down at her. Before she could figure out how he’d found her, he was kneeling down next to her and whispering in her ear, “Playtime’s over.”
Chapter 40
“You’re dead to me,” Uncle Jared bit out with a glare aimed at Trevor that was matched by everyone else at the table as he grabbed the platter piled high with pancakes and took a stack. Everyone except for Joey that is since she was curled up in a chair lost in another book, completely oblivious to everything going around her.
Again, Reed thought, feeling his lips twitch as he studied the small woman that he had no idea what he was going to do about. He didn’t want her to leave, but at the moment the only thing that he had to offer her was a low paying job with questionable benefits, and something told him that wasn’t going to be enough. His only hope was that she decided to finish her sabbatical here, but once her grandparents’ house sold there was really nothing holding her here.
He already had the school board’s approval to let her finish out the rest of the year while he searched for a permanent replacement for Miss Dawson, but once summer came, she wouldn’t have anything to do for the last nine months of her sabbatical. Knowing Joey, she’d go crazy with nothing to do, which meant that he was going to have to figure something out and fast because he wasn’t ready to lose her yet.
“How much is it going to cost to fix the house?” Reed asked, glancing at Reese.
“With that historical designation restricting what we can do, it looks like it’s going to cost around three hundred grand,” Reese said, making Trevor groan with a muttered, “Shit!” because he was out.
“How much if you deduct labor from the equation?” he asked, watching Joey, who hadn’t said anything since Jackson told her that he had to get going over an hour ago. She’d wished him a safe trip, gave him a hug and a warm smile that turned sad, making him wonder about a few things.
“That was without labor,” Reese said, taking away his last hope because there was no way that she was going to be able to afford that even with his help.
“I can do it,” Matt said with a glance at Joey’s untouched plate and-
“Ow!”
“This family is really violent,” Mikey said with a sad shake of her head as she helped herself to a piece of bacon off Sebastian’s plate, who was busy reading a book that he’d helped himself to from one of the many stacks that Joey left around the house.
“What’s the property worth?” Sean asked, helping himself to the bowl of home fries as he glanced at Conner.
“Five acres and access to a private lake, it’s valued at four hundred thousand,” Conner said, which meant that they weren’t going to make much flipping the house once they were done. But that didn’t matter, not to them. They weren’t here to make a profit. They were here because they all wanted a chance to get their hands on one of their great-grandfather Noah’s houses and put it to rights.
“I’ll give you two hundred for the property,” Uncle Jared said, sighing heavily as he helped himself to the bowl of scrambled eggs.
“Two-fifty,” Rory said as she took a sip of her hot cocoa.
“Two-seventy-five,” Uncle Jared said with a glare.
“Two-ninety,” Connor said.
“Two-”
“I’ll give you four hundred thousand,” Garrett, who’d disappeared two hours ago, said evenly as he took the empty seat next to Joey and rubbed his hands roughly down his face, “and I’m moving in today.”
*-*-*-*
“This can’t be happening,” Joey said, worrying her bottom lip as she frantically searched through her backpack only to toss it aside when she didn’t find it there either.
“What are you looking for?” Julie asked from her spot on the stairs where the kitten that Joey really should figure out a name for at some point, attacked her shoelaces.
“My Eeyore keychain,” she said, checking her pockets, again, only to come up empty.
“Did you check your car?”
“Five times,” she said, sighing heavily as she pulled her cellphone out of her back pocket, hoping that Jackson found it only to shove it back in her pocket when she saw that he hadn’t responded yet.
“Any chance that you left it back at the campsite?” Julie asked as she reached down to scratch the kitten behind his ear.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Joey said, feel
ing her shoulders slump.
“You can probably order one online,” Julie suggested with a hopeful smile.
“I can’t,” she said, grabbing her bag and started the search all over again.
“Want some help?” Julie asked, giving the kitten one last scratch as she stood up.
“That’s okay. Jackson probably has it,” Joey said as she forced herself to drop her bag, knowing that it was pointless.
“You’re probably right,” Julie said as Joey glanced around the foyer, hoping against hope that she’d spot the small keychain lying around somewhere.
“Probably,” she mumbled sadly as she stood there, trying to figure out what she was going to do.
“How was the camping trip?”
“It was fine,” she said, glancing towards the stairs and wondering if she could have dropped it when she brought her bags upstairs.
“Anything interesting happen?” Julie asked as she returned her attention to the kitten.
“We all tried to kill Matt,” Joey said, pulling out her phone and-
No response.
“I’m honestly surprised that no one has succeeded yet,” Julie murmured.
“I think I’m going to call it a night. Thank you for taking care of him,” she said, forcing a smile.
“Anytime,” Julie said with an easy smile as she headed for the door while Joey glanced around the foyer one last time before heading upstairs for the night.
Along the way, she investigated every corner, shadow, and crevice with no luck. By the time she made it upstairs, she’d accepted the fact that it was probably long gone. She never should have put it with her car keys, she thought as she stepped into her room and closed the door behind her. She should have kept it beneath her pillow, but she liked having it with her and now it was gone, she thought with dread as she headed to the bathroom.
“It was just a stupid keychain,” she tried to tell herself as she pulled her clothes off and stepped into the shower, but she knew better.
It was-
“Everything okay?” Reed asked as he wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss against her neck, instantly making everything better.
“Everything’s fine,” she managed as she reached over and turned the hot water on.
“I saw Julie on the way over here. She said you lost your keychain,” he said, resting his chin on top of her head.
“It will probably turn up tomorrow,” she said, placing her hands over his as she closed her eyes and dropped her head back against his chest.
“Probably,” he murmured. “If we can’t find it, I’ll buy you a new one.”
“It’s just a keychain,” she said, wondering how long it would be before she believed it herself.