The Promise (Neighbor from Hell 10)

“So, you want to be incredibly handsome, smart, kind, and funny?” she asked with a teasing smile.

When he nodded, she said, “You already are, Shawn,” making him smile.

“You are an incredibly kind, sweet, funny, and very handsome boy, who still owes me a second castle with an ocean view,” she said, making his eyes narrow.

“We didn’t discuss a second castle.”

“Well, we’re discussing it now,” she said, making his lips twitch.

“Fine, but you’re only getting one moat,” he said, sighing heavily as he grabbed hold of her branch and started climbing down.

“That’s just not going to work for me,” she said, watching him as he quickly made his way down the tree.

“I’m still working on your town,” Shawn said when he safely reached the ground.

“Village, Shawn. We’ve discussed this. It’s a village and I’m going to need another one for my new castle,” Joey said, slowly exhaling as she reached over and grabbed onto the branch across from her, telling herself that this was a piece of cake.

She should have told herself something else, she realized a few seconds later when she misjudged the distance to the branch beneath her, slipped, and-

Decided that she was actually okay where she was at the moment.

“Are you okay?” Jen yelled up.

“Couldn’t be better,” she said, tightening her hold around the tree even as she decided that it would probably be for the best if she squeezed her eyes shut so that she wouldn’t have to see the ground rushing up towards her if the branch that she was currently straddling decided to give out.

“That’s definitely going to leave a mark,” she said with a sigh, deciding to add climbing trees to the list of the things that she was better off avoiding.

“It’s good to see that you haven’t changed, Joey,” someone said, making her frown as she risked opening her eyes to find a somewhat familiar looking man wearing a fireman’s uniform pulling himself up beside her.

“Do I know you?” she couldn’t help but ask only to decide that it was time to close her eyes again when the branch that was keeping her from falling to what promised to be a very painful death, shook.

“Aaron Gordon,” he said as she felt him examine the small cut on her eyebrow before he dropped his hand away. “We went to school together.”

“Oh,” she said lamely, really hoping that he wasn’t the type of man to hold a grudge, but just in case…

“I’m sorry,” she said, deciding that it would probably be for the best if she skipped the normal social pleasantries and got right to that five-step apology process and hope for the best.

“For what?” he asked as her branch continued to shake.

“Many things, but mainly for the unfortunate incident that caused the school to close for a week and-”

“That was you?” he asked, chuckling, which she took as a good sign that he wasn’t about to get revenge.

“Yes, yes, it was,” she said, tightening her hold on the tree trunk when more jostling ensued, threatening to make this a memorable reunion.

“I see,” he murmured, sounding amused.

“I’m sure that you do,” she said, starting to nod only to decide to stop when the move caused her queasy stomach to do things that she really didn’t want it to do.

“Is there a reason why my niece is holding a Freddy Kreuger mask?” he asked conversationally.

“Prank gone wrong,” Jen yelled up. “I found an old Kreuger mask in lost and found, couldn’t resist the temptation, hid in Dr. Lawson’s closet, and accidentally scared Shawn for which I will profusely apologize for. Now, about this incident that has my full attention. How exactly did you shut the school down for a whole week?”

“Never mind,” Aaron said, laughing as she felt a rope wrap around her waist. “Are you ready to get down now, Joey?”

“Yes, please,” she said, nodding only to frown when he followed that up with, “You’re going to have let go of the tree first.”

“I really don’t think that I can do that,” she said, making him chuckle.

“I promise I won’t drop you.”

She worried her bottom lip and shook her head because she really couldn’t-

“Let go, baby. I’ve got you,” Reed said as she felt his arm wrap around her.

Without a second thought, she let go.

“What happened to your forehead?” Reed asked as they slowly made their way down the tree.

“Discovered that I can’t run without tripping over my own two feet.”

“I thought you learned that lesson when you were ten,” he said, tightening his hold around her.

“I was hoping that I outgrew that phase.”

“You didn’t.”

“I know,” she mumbled sadly as they finally made it to the ground and-

“Where’s Jen?” she couldn’t help but wonder as she looked around and noted that the teenager that she was looking forward to tormenting with a ten-page paper was nowhere in sight.

“Praying for mercy,” Reed said, releasing her and-

“Run,” he said, making her frown.

“What?” she asked as she looked back at Reed and quickly decided that this was probably one of those times that she should keep her mouth shut and-

“Run.”

“Good idea,” she said, noting that the muscle in his jaw had already started to tick as she began to make her way back to the school only to turn around, go up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek with a murmured, “Thank you,” before she turned right back around, grabbed Shawn’s hand, and headed back to school, missing that smile that would have told her everything she needed to know.

He loved her.

Chapter 43

“So, who is it?” Matt asked while Joey sat there, struggling to stay awake.

“Who are we talking about?” she asked, giving up on trying to stay awake and folded her arms around the large book on ancient civilizations that she’d helped herself to from the school’s library and closed her eyes.

“Reed’s mystery woman.”

“There’s no mystery woman,” Joey mumbled into the book that she’d planned on reading to keep her mind off the fact that she wasn’t going on the field trip today. Not that she wanted to go on the field trip, because she didn’t, she told herself as she did her best not to pout.

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She’d been looking forward to going on her first field trip but ended up having to change her mind when she found out that Shawn wouldn’t be able to go since his mother couldn’t get the day off. Joey volunteered to be his field trip buddy so that he could go, but there weren’t enough chaperones to make that possible. So, she’d decided to switch places with John so that Shawn wouldn’t have to stay behind alone.

“Then you do know who it is,” Matt said, sounding intrigued.

“Please don’t make me kill you,” Joey said with a pathetic whimper, wondering why he wouldn’t just let her sleep.

“At first, I thought it was some bar bunny, but then I remembered who we were talking about here and realized that there was something more to it,” he explained.

“Uh huh,” she mumbled sleepily.

“Then he went out of his way to sneak her in here when I was out back in the shop working every night. That got me thinking, she’s either a teacher or a parent, which makes the most sense since he never goes out,” Matt murmured, sounding thoughtful and making her sigh.

“It’s me,” Joey said, hoping that would be enough to get him to shut up so that she could sleep.

“Sure it is,” the little bastard said with a condescending pat on the head and a sigh.

“It is,” Joey said, raising her head to glare at him to find Garrett, who looked like he’d had another run-in with their mystery neighbor across the street, running his hands roughly down his mud-splattered face with a “You really can’t be this fucking stupid,” as he headed back towards the back door. For a moment, she considered following him, but even the prospect of finally finding out who their mystery neighbor was, wasn’t enough to temp her into getting up.

“So, who do you think it is?” Matt asked, ignoring them.

“I give up,” Joey said, dropping her head back onto her folded arms with a sigh.

She considered going upstairs and crawling back in bed and passing out, but she didn’t have the energy to move. Not after last night. They’d made love against his truck, in the back of his truck before they came home and made out in his truck, against the front door, on the stairs, against his bedroom door before moving to the bed where he’d made love to her one last time before he’d carried her into the shower where he’d taken his time caressing her. Once he’d had her boneless and ready to fall into a coma, he’d given her a quick kiss and a playful slap on her butt and told her to get ready for work.