Delectable (Neighbor from Hell 9)

They were here on vacation with their families and she felt like a selfish brat for even suggesting it. For a moment, she looked around, trying to imagine what her kitchen would look like if she gave Mr. Parker a call instead and had him do the job, but she just couldn’t do it. She wanted the kitchen that Reese promised her and that was the only reason why she was about to agree to do this and not because she liked spending time with him, making him smile, or wanted an excuse to do both of those things.

At least, that’s what she was going to tell herself so that she didn’t freak out and call this whole thing off, because apparently she was a horrible little liar and right now, she was actually okay with that as long as he didn’t figure it out.

“Okay, but you’re buying breakfast,” she said, deciding not to mention that he was also buying her as much juice as she could handle for the long drive to wherever he was taking her since he’d figure it out sooner or later on his own.

“Fine. Then you’re buying me lunch,” he said, shooting her a wink as he headed to the door, leaving her standing there, smiling, because he was just so damn cute when he thought he got his way.

“He’s definitely buying me lunch,” she said to herself as she returned to her computer and decided that she should probably get back to work since it appeared that she was going to be taking a day off tomorrow.

Chapter 20

“Oh, God, look at that breast,” Jason said, licking his lips hungrily as Reese was helpless to do anything but look at the breast that he would kill to get his hands on.

“I wish Zoe’s breasts looked that good,” Trevor added with a sad shake of his head as all three men stared down at the iPad in Jason’s hands before reluctantly scrolling to the next page only to break out in identical groans.

“Lord have mercy,” Jason hissed as Reese imagined all the ways that he could devour that breast.

“What are you looking at?” Mac asked, as she joined them at the kitchen table and leaned in to get a look at the iPad before rolling eyes her eyes with a chuckle and headed towards the refrigerator that was most likely empty. “You guys are pathetic.”

“Don’t act like you don’t want to sink your teeth into that delectable morsel,” Trevor said, leaning in closer to get a better look.

“Is there a particular reason why the three of you are gawking at a cooking website?” she asked, smiling easily as she grabbed a bottle of water and sat down at the other end of the kitchen table.

“Reese’s new girlfriend runs the site,” Jason said, scrolling back to the page for desserts.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Reese corrected him as he took one last look at the picture of the triple fudge cake that he would somehow convince Kasey to make for him before this summer was over and returned his attention back to the list of tools that he was going to need for this renovation.

“Then what is she?” Trevor asked, sounding genuinely curious as he took the iPad from Jason and opened up the designs for Kasey’s new kitchen.

“The woman that hired me to do a renovation,” he said instead of admitting that he had absolutely no idea what she was to him or why she intrigued him so damn much, because he honestly had no fucking clue and until he did, he wasn’t going to say anything.

“And you’re taking this job, because…” Jason, the nosy bastard, prompted.

“I want to stay busy,” he said, which was the main reason that he was doing this.

Trevor gave an appreciative whistle as he looked over the plans that Reese had worked on last night. “Whatever she is, this is going to end up being one hell of a profitable job. How much did you quote her? Forty grand?”

“Something like that,” he said, still wondering why he’d agreed to do it for twenty.

“There’s no way this job is going to cost less than forty-five,” Jason said, frowning as they looked over all his plans. “Especially with that custom kitchen island. Jesus, Haley would kill for something like that.”

“Zoe, too,” Trevor said, throwing him a curious look. “You can really do this?”

“Yes,” he said, as he continued to stare down at his list, debating on which skil-saw he was going to need. He had a few that he could grab, including his father’s, but space was going to be an issue unless he took one of his Uncle’s trucks.

“Did you design this?” Jason asked after a slight pause.

“Yes,” he said, adding another saw to his list, already knowing that he would regret it if he didn’t grab it now.

“Oh, my god, mom would kill to have this!” Mac said, shoving her way between their cousins and snatching the iPad from Trevor’s hands.

“Hey!” Trevor snapped, but made no move to get it back, knowing damn well that he would never survive the encounter and if he did, Reese would be honor bound to kick his ass on principle alone.

“When did you design this?” Mac asked, already shoving Jason out of his seat and ignoring his murderous glare as she sat down in the freshly vacated chair.

“Last night,” he said, double-checking his holster before standing up and grabbing his list, eager to get going.

“No fucking way,” Trevor said, momentarily forgetting the danger of pissing off a Bradford female and snatched the iPad back.

“Let me see,” Jason said, leaning in to look at the design that had taken Reese most of the night to create.

“This alone is going to cost five thousand to make,” Trevor said, shaking his head in awe as he took in the design and Reese would have to agree, that is if he was planning on charging her for his labor and time, which he wasn’t.

After checking out her website and seeing just how insanely talented she was, he hadn’t been able to help himself. He’d designed this with her in mind, even adding a little drawer for Mikey’s collection of baseballs that she seemed to like to leave around the house. He’d watched a few of her videos, taking note of the equipment that she liked to use, how she liked to use it, what she used the most and he used all of that information to design this kitchen island for her.

“I’ll be back tonight,” he said, heading towards the front door, hoping to avoid any more questions.

“Are you sure you don’t want help?” Trevor asked, again just like he knew he would when he’d spotted him waiting for him this morning, which was why Reese was trying to get out of here before his plans for the day were ruined.

“All set,” he said, already heading out the door, eager to get next door and see if he could start the day off right with another one of those blushes that he couldn’t seem to get enough of.

*-*-*-*

“What do you think?” Jason asked, as soon as Reese was out the door.

“Every woman in the family is going to want this,” Trevor said, still having a hard time believing that Reese designed this.

It was incredible.

Hell, the entire kitchen that Reese had designed was incredible. As far as he knew, Reese had never designed anything before, but you wouldn’t know it from these designs. They were perfect, absolutely perfect and it made him wonder why Reese hadn’t done this before.

“He’s in the wrong line of work,” Jason said, voicing his opinion as the two of them took their time going through the designs that Reese had created.

“No kidding,” he agreed, shaking his head and wondering if Reese would let him help with this project, because he would kill to work on that kitchen island.

“He’s going to need help,” Jason said, grinning and obviously coming to the same conclusion.

“Yeah, he’s really not going to want your help,” Mac said, as she moved her chair closer so that she could look at her brother’s plans.

“He won’t want it, but he’s going to need it,” Trevor said, swiping the page until he came across the plans Reese had drawn up for the living room floor.