Finally (Neighbor from Hell 12)

Devin looked up from the drawer that could really use some more Reese’s peanut butter cups as he reached over and-

Click.

“Okay, those might be mine,” she reluctantly admitted when he found the bag of M&M cookies that she picked up from Dixon’s Bakery yesterday.

Keeping his gaze locked on her, he pulled out the bottom drawer that she used for extra wires and-

Click.

“I have no idea how those got there,” Charlie said, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she tried to fight back a wince when Devin slowly turned his head and took in the office supplies that she’d been hoarding.

“I’ll have T.J. bring up a new desk,” he said, sighing heavily as he closed the drawers.

“Why is he bringing up a new desk?” Charlie asked, trying to figure out what he was talking about.

“To replace this one,” Devin said, gesturing to her desk.

“What’s wrong with my desk?” she asked, unable to help but frown as she tried to figure out how they’d ended up talking about her desk in the first place.

“Too many flaws,” Devin said, shaking his head as he gestured towards the desk that she loved and planned on buying when she left.

“I don’t want a new desk,” she said, but he wasn’t listening.

“I should have thrown this thing out years ago,” Devin said, moving around her desk as he continued his inspection, shaking his head in disgust as he took in all the imperfections that covered her desk.

“Umm, you’re not throwing out my desk,” Charlie said because this was her desk.

“If you can’t find anything that you like downstairs, I can make you a new one. It might take a little time, but I should be able to finish it by Halloween,” he said as he moved back around her desk so that he could finish his inspection.

“No, that’s okay. I don’t want-”

“In the meantime, I’ll have T.J. put this out front to see if anyone wants it,” Devin said, cutting her off as Charlie looked from the desk that she loved more than anything to the man that had just suggested throwing it in the trash and back again and…

This just wasn’t going to work for her.

Chapter 3

“I wasn’t done talking to you,” Devin bit out as he glared at the door that had just been slammed in his face.

“And you can tell me what you needed from out there,” the ungrateful brat said, making him narrow his eyes on the door as he grabbed a donut from the small paper bag that he didn’t remember grabbing and took a bite of the delicious jelly donut as he narrowed his eyes on her door.

Since he didn’t actually have anything that he needed to tell her, Devin considered bringing up all that shit that she had in her office, the movie posters lining the walls, the flat-screen television, mini-fridge, microwave, and sound system that he would have fired anyone else over, but…

Fuck it, Devin thought as he finished off the rest of the donut and headed back the way that he came. He didn’t give a damn what she had in her office because he knew that she worked her ass off. He just…

He just wanted to see her.

After this morning, he just wanted to see her and get his mind off things for a while. He hadn’t realized what he was doing until he found himself standing in front of her door. They weren’t friends, never really talked before, but she was the only one that he wanted to talk to after the twins’ teacher broke the news that his son was probably going to have to repeat the first grade.

He had no fucking clue what he was going to do and he had no idea why he wanted to see her. The only thing that he knew was that when he sat in the chair that she’d helped herself to from his waiting room, watching her work, he’d felt himself relax. There was just something about her that…

Made him realize that he was a fucking idiot, Devin thought, shaking his head in disgust as he headed towards the back stairs only to bite back a curse when the woman that had taken his decision not to date as a personal challenge, headed towards him. When he’d hired her a few years ago, he’d barely managed to get the words out that the job was hers when she’d offered to thank him with a home-cooked meal and a look that told him exactly what he could expect for dessert.

“There you are! I was hoping to talk to you about something,” Kelly said with a huge smile as though she hadn’t been waiting for him.

“What did you need?” Devin asked, helping himself to the other jelly donut and-

Found himself watching as the vicious woman that had shoved him out of her office, plucked the donut out of his hand, took a bite with a sad shake of her head and a mumbled, “You owe me a donut,” as she turned around and walked away, leaving him standing there, unable to help but run his eyes over her, noting the way that her ass swayed gently back and forth as she walked away.

“Did…did you just growl?”

“No,” Devin said absently as he watched until Charlie disappeared around the corner only to find himself moving to go after her and-

“So, I was thinking,” Kelly said, stepping in front of him and cutting him off before he did something stupid.

“What’s that?” he asked, biting back a curse as he forced his attention back on the woman smiling sweetly up at him.

“Well, it’s about the website. I have a few ideas that I thought would really help Bradford Creations. I was thinking that we should change the color scheme to something more welcoming like pink and that maybe we should integrate some pictures of puppies and kittens on the homepage to give the page a more personal touch,” Kelly said with a warm smile and a shrug as he stood there, trying to figure out what puppies, kittens, and a pink color scheme had to do with Bradford Creations.

“Charlie’s in charge of the website,” Devin said, deciding that he’d wasted enough time up here and headed for the stairs.

“Well, I know that, but I thought that I would talk to you about it since she really doesn’t seem to know what she’s do-”

“Charlie’s in charge of the website,” he repeated, cutting her off as he made his way downstairs and headed towards the glass wall that cut across the back. It had been the first thing that he’d installed when he bought the building so that his children would have a safe place to play while he worked. He’d divided the large room in half, using one side for his office and the other half for the kids’ playroom so that he could keep an eye on them.

He opened his office door and sighed when he stepped on a pile of Legos. After a glance at his watch, he made quick work of picking up all the toys that had found their way onto his side and tossed them back into the playroom before he grabbed his toolbelt and headed to the computer Charlie set up for them so that he could check which orders needed to go out today.

“How did the meeting go?” T.J. asked as he joined him by the back table.

“They want to hold Dustin back,” Devin said, still trying to figure out how he was going to fix this. Dustin was insanely bright. His teacher kept stressing it over and over again even as she told him that they would have no choice but to keep him back.

Dustin couldn’t read and wasn’t learning his ABCs like the rest of the children and Abbi…

God, he didn’t know what he was going to do about his baby girl. She was determined to make sure that her brother wasn’t left behind, which apparently meant refusing to do her classwork as long as Dustin struggled with his. They wanted to split the twins up and put them in different classrooms, but he didn’t think that would go over well.

He had until May to get Dustin caught up with the rest of the children or they were going to have to talk about other options, including the possibility of putting Dustin in a remedial class. Devin was already doing all the things they’d recommended to help Dustin catch up with the rest of the class. Every day, he worked with Dustin on his homework, went over the alphabet with him, used flashcards, and read a story to him every night. He had no idea what else he was supposed to do to fix this.

“It’s only October and they’re already t

alking about keeping him behind?” T.J. asked, frowning as he pulled out his phone and-

“What did you do?” T.J. asked, lips twitching as he read something on his phone.

“What are you talking about?” Devin asked as he pulled up today’s orders.

“Just wondering if there was a reason why Charlie was threatening to commit violence if I touched her desk,” his best friend said, looking amused as he slid his phone back in his pocket.

“It’s flawed,” Devin bit out as he angrily scrolled through their orders, wondering why she was being so goddamn stubborn about this. He’d offered to build her a new desk, a better desk, but instead of thanking him, the ungrateful woman had pushed him out of her office and told him to keep his damn hands off her desk.

“She loves that desk,” T.J. murmured absently as he pointed at something on the screen. “That went fast.”

“What went fast?” Devin asked, still debating making her another fucking desk just to piss her off for banning him from her office.