The Game Plan (Neighbor from Hell 5)

“Four dates,” Trevor said distractedly as he watched her work.

“What are you doing?” Jason asked, licking his lips hungrily as the butter began to melt.

“Making pancakes,” she answered, wondering why they felt the need to have the “talk” with her.

“For us?” Trevor asked, sitting up straighter in his chair as he watched her spoon batter onto the hot surface.

“Well, that depends,” she said, watching them closely as she leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest.

“On what?” Jason asked, barely able to take his eyes off the griddle as the pancake batter rose.

“On whether or not Zoe knows that you’re here,” she said, watching their reaction closely. When Trevor winced, she had her answer.

“I see,” she murmured thoughtfully as she walked over to the kitchen island and picked up her cell phone.

“What are you doing?” Trevor asked nervously.

“Nothing much,” she murmured, searching through her contacts until she found Zoe’s phone number. After she sent Zoe a quick text she realized that she didn’t have Danny’s phone number, but that wasn’t a problem.

She flipped the pancakes, waited until they were done and then split them between two plates. After she added more butter and batter to the griddle she walked out of the kitchen. She wasn’t surprised when the men didn’t follow this time since Jason was busy devouring both plates of pancakes while Trevor did a half-assed job of explaining to his wife why he’d dragged another woman out of bed. She walked out her front door and across the hallway where she knocked on Danny’s door.

A minute later he was standing in his doorway wearing a pair of unbuttoned jeans, a sleepy smile and looking incredibly sexy first thing in the morning.

“I just thought you should know that two of your cousins are in my apartment eating the pancakes that I’d planned on surprising you with,” she said with a shrug before he had a chance to say anything.

His sleepy smile quickly faded only to be replaced with a grim frown a second later as he walked past her and headed straight for her apartment. She took her time following him, deciding that it was probably for the best if she wasn’t within throwing distance of them since she’d seen firsthand how badly things could end when the men in this family had a disagreement over food.

“Those are my pancakes, you bastard!”

“Ow!”

“Stop!”

“No, don’t do-”

Seconds later everything went quiet. Afraid that things had gone too far, she walked into the kitchen in time to see Danny yank his cousins off the floor and in a move that had her brows shooting up in astonishment, twisted their arms behind their backs and used his hold on them to force them to walk.

“You’ll regret this, you son of a bitch!” Trevor snapped as Danny calmly escorted him and a pouting Jason past her. He paused briefly next to her so that he could lean down and plant a quick kiss on her stunned lips. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“O-okay,” she mumbled, not exactly sure what the correct response was and after a slight pause she shrugged it off, decided that she really didn’t care as long as he got rid of her interrogators.

She walked back into the kitchen in time to flip the pancakes and add a little more batter to the griddle. While she waited for them to cook she cleaned up the small mess the men had left behind, grabbed another clean plate, another bottle of maple syrup and more butter. She’d just shut off the griddle and started removing the pancakes when two large arms wrapped around her and pulled her back against a rather large warm body.

“I’m sorry,” Danny said, pressing a very distracting kiss against her neck.

“It’s fine,” she said, wondering if he’d noticed the way that she couldn’t stop trembling every time he touched her.

“They won’t be bothering you again,” he said, pressing another kiss against her neck. Since she had a feeling that his cousins weren’t done interrogating her, she didn’t say anything.

“What are your plans for lunch?” he asked, pressing another kiss against her neck.

“I’ll be spending this lovely Sunday afternoon boxing up whatever’s left at the library,” she said, adding the last pancake to the stack and stepped out of his arms, gesturing to the plate of pancakes.

“What about you?” he asked, frowning down at the plate stacked high with pancakes.

“Coffee,” she said, picking up her mug in answer.

“Have dinner with me tonight?” he asked, picking up the bottle of maple syrup.

“Can’t,” she said, heading towards the doorway. “I’m meeting the guys at Joe’s Tavern after work for a drink.”

“The guys, huh?” he murmured thoughtfully, absently adding more butter to his pancakes.

“Mmmhmmm, and if you behave, you can tag along,” she said, watching as the corner of his lips kicked up into a pleased smile.

“I’m sure that I can manage.”

“Pick me up at seven!” she threw over her shoulder as she left the room to get ready for a fun filled day of sifting through rotted boxes, dust and the moldy basement that she normally avoided at all costs. She wanted to try to salvage whatever she could before tomorrow when the old library was demolished along with all its old treasures that had been long ago forgotten.

*-*-*-*

“Where are you?”

“Ummm, nowhere special,” she muttered, worrying her bottom lip as she watched the man lying on the gurney next to hers vomit all over himself, again.

“Nurse!” his nervous wife yelled, making Jodi cringe, because she knew without a doubt that Greg had also heard it.

There was a long-suffering sigh on the other end of the phone before Greg said, “You’re at the hospital, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” she mumbled, looking down at her arm where a large ice pack sat, concealing the reason why Mr. Tate had felt it was necessary to browbeat her into going to the hospital.

It wasn’t a big deal, but he’d refused to listen. Instead, he’d mumbled something about liability, lawsuits and unnecessary paperwork that would pull him away from his bridge game as he’d dragged her to his car, shoved her inside and drove her to the hospital where he’d made sure the doctor knew the extent of her injuries before he’d wished her luck and ditched her ass to the tender mercies of the emergency room staff.