Finally (Neighbor from Hell 12)

That was followed by pushing her inside his office, giving her a look that told her exactly what would happen if she left the office again before he left, closing the door behind him and leaving her sitting there, deciding that she’d ask him about the pictures later.

Chapter 15

“Are we going to talk about it?” T.J. asked as Devin stood there, watching as Charlie smiled at something that Dustin was showing her while Abbi carried over another small box for Charlie so that she could unpack.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Devin said as he forced himself to look away and focus on the bureau that he was supposed to be building.

“You don’t think letting the woman that you’re in love with move in with you is something that we should discuss?” T.J. asked conversationally as Devin grabbed a piece of sandpaper and carefully ran it over the edge of the secret drawer that he was working on.

“Drop it,” Devin said as he found himself glancing towards his office again.

“Okay. Then maybe we should discuss moving her into your office?” T.J. asked as Devin double-checked the slot to make sure that the drawer was going to slide in correctly.

“She can’t get up the stairs by herself,” Devin pointed out, picking up the drawer and slid it inside the secret slot that he’d created between the top two drawers.

“True,” T.J. murmured, sounding thoughtful before he asked, “Do we need to finally have that talk?”

“And what talk would that be?” Devin absently asked as he double-checked the thin drawer before he focused on the latches that were going to make this work.

“The one where I tell you that you should cut yourself some slack and finally ask her out.”

“That’s not a choice and you know it,” Devin said, shaking his head as he grabbed the wooden latch that he’d carved last night off his workbench. Sighing heavily, he grabbed a screwdriver and knelt down in front of the bureau so that he could slide it inside its slot to make sure that it blended in well with the design before taking it back out.

“Why not?”

“You know why,” Devin said as he placed the small latch back on his workbench and reached for the small can of stain.

“The kids are older now and they seem to really love her,” T.J. pointed out.

“I made a promise,” Devin said, grabbing the rag and dipping it in the stain so that he could rub it over the latch, making sure that the entire latch was covered before carefully placing it aside to dry.

“And you’ve kept that promise, but I don’t think you realized what you’d be giving up when you made it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Devin said, because he’d made a promise to his children and he planned on keeping it.

His children came first.

End of story.

He didn’t have time for the drama or bullshit that came with dating or having to worry about his children getting close to a woman only to have her suddenly disappear from their lives when things didn’t work out. Besides, he had enough to deal with right now with work, the kids, and-

“Daddy!” Abbi said, sounding upset as she drew his attention to find her standing at the red line that he’d laid down across the floor when she was a toddler to keep her from entering the shop.

“What’s wrong, baby girl?” Devin asked, wiping his hands clean on a rag as he headed towards his little girl to find out what had her so upset and-

“The mean lady hurt Charlie!”

*-*-*-*

“I’m so sorry. It was an accident,” Kelly said with a sympathetic wince as Charlie struggled to breathe through the pain as she pulled Dustin closer only to have him push her hands away and stand his ground as he glared up at Kelly.

“No, it wasn’t,” Dustin bit out as Charlie gave up trying to pull him closer and wrapped her arm around him.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Charlie managed to get out as she pulled Dustin closer, afraid that he was going to kick the woman who had “accidentally” kicked the bottom of her foot when she’d taken it upon herself to deliver the junk mail that had piled up in Charlie’s mailbox over the past few days.

“I feel terrible about this,” Kelly said, moving to come closer only to step back when Dustin moved to stop her.

“It’s fine,” Charlie said, biting her lip to stop herself from crying.

“You kicked her! I saw you!” Dustin snapped, trying to push her arm away and leaving Charlie with no choice but to pull him onto her lap before he did something that got him in trouble.

“It was an accident. I didn’t see your foot,” Kelly said with a helpless shrug and since Charlie didn’t believe her, she simply said, “Don’t worry about it,” as she was forced to close her eyes and try to breathe through the pain.

God, this hurt, Charlie thought, slowly exhaling as more pain tore through her foot. A moment later, she felt Dustin pulled off her lap. Afraid that he was going to do something to make this worse, she opened her eyes in time to see Devin hand Dustin over to T.J. before crouching down in front of her and-

“Shhhh, it’s okay,” Devin said as she found herself reaching for him.

He had her in his arms and was pressing a kiss against her forehead before she managed to take her next breath. “What happened?” Devin asked as he carefully set her down on top of her desk.

“It was an accident. I heard Charlie was back and I wanted to see if she needed anything. I didn’t see her foot and I’m afraid that I might have accidently kicked her,” Kelly explained, sounding a little distracted as she watched Devin step back from Charlie so that he could lean down and check her foot.

“No, it wasn’t!” Dustin snapped as Devin carefully moved the gauze wrapped around her foot aside and clenched his jaw tightly shut as he stared at the bottom of her foot.

“It’s fine,” Charlie said, slowly exhaling as she grabbed hold of the edge of the desk as she waited for the pain shooting through her foot to stop even as she couldn’t help but wonder if Kelly’s high heels were tipped with steel because, god, this really freaking hurt.

“I’m really sorry, Charlie,” Kelly said, worrying her bottom lip with a pitiful look aimed directly at Devin.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Charlie said, really wishing that Kelly would just leave so that she could focus on getting through this without crying.

“What are you doing down here?” Devin asked Kelly as he carefully pulled the gauze back over Charlie’s stitches.

“I-I came downstairs to bring Charlie her mail,” Kelly mumbled, watching as Devin stood up and cupped Charlie’s face in his hands and kissed her forehead with a softly whispered, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Charlie promised him, forcing a smile as he pulled back just far enough to look into her eyes.

“You’re lying,” he said, sighing heavily as he dropped his hands away and-

“Wait. What are you doing?” she couldn’t help but ask when he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder as he shifted his attention to Kelly.

“I appreciate the gesture, but you’re not supposed to be down here. From now on, if you need something send an email, but I don’t want to see you down here again,” Devin said as he grabbed Charlie’s bag and handed it to T.J. before heading to the door.

“Devin?” Charlie said, trying not to panic as he headed towards the exit. “I have work to do.”

“You can do it from home.”

“I still need pictures for the website,” she reminded him as she tried to push herself up so that they could discuss this as he carried her through the door only to find Kelly pausing by the backstairs to glare at her.

Oh, that couldn’t be good, Charlie thought as she looked past the woman that looked like she wanted to kill her with her bare hands and found T.J. carrying a child under each arm as they watched Kelly’s every move.

“You can do it when you get back,” Devin said, drawing her attention back to the man carting her around like a sack of potatoes.

r /> “And when might that be?” Charlie couldn’t help but wonder only to groan when he muttered to himself, “Pain in the ass,” since that wasn’t exactly hope-inducing.

Chapter 16

“I don’t think we should be doing this,” the incredibly beautiful woman that he’d finally managed to get alone, said even as she reached up and cupped the back of his neck so that she could pull him down for a kiss that had Aidan backing her into a corner so that he could reach down and-

“You’ve held him for ten minutes, woman! It’s my turn to hold him,” came the unwelcomed demand from the other side of the laundry room door that had them both sighing.

“I’m going to kill my brother,” Aidan said, brushing his lips against his wife’s one last time before pulling away.

“That would probably be for the best,” Melanie agreed with a solemn nod while he took her hand in his, entwining their fingers as he pulled her towards the door and-

“Christopher Bradford, you give me back that precious baby right now!”