Delectable (Neighbor from Hell 9)

“Holy-” he started to say only to have the sentiment finished by Jason.

“Shit. There’s no way that he’s going to be able to do this on time without help,” Jason said with an excited gleam in his eye, because this was the type of thing that every man in their family would kill to work on.

The only question that remained, of course, was…

“Where did he learn how to do this?” he couldn’t help but ask as he shifted his gaze to the side to take in the intricate floor that Reese had designed, seriously wondering if his cousin was going to be able to pull this one off.

“Rory,” Mac said with a shrug as she dug a candy bar out of her bag and proceeded to open it in front of them.

“When?” Trevor had to ask even as he snatched the candy bar away and took a huge bite.

Narrowing her eyes on him, she snatched it back. “Dad started to send him to spend summers with them when he turned fifteen. I think he was hoping that the time apart would help Reese figure some things out for himself instead of always letting Darrin call the shots,” she said with a shrug as she went to take a bite only to end up glaring when Jason snatched the rest of the candy bar out of her hand and finished it off.

“And Rory showed him how to use the saw?” Jason asked, which explained so damn much, because if there was one person in their family who could pull this project off it was Rory.

And apparently Reese, Trevor thought, absently noting that Mac was taking another candy bar out of her bag and snatched it, needing the sustenance to figure a few things out about his cousin, who clearly required his help with this project among other things…

“He smiled,” Mac noted with a soft smile of her own as she reached over and-

“Ow! What the hell?” he snapped as she did what needed to be done in order to reclaim her candy bar, because they both knew that he never would have given it back otherwise.

“Who smiled?” Jason asked, still going through the designs that Reese had created.

“Reese,” she said, looking quite pleased with herself.

“What about him?” Trevor asked, rubbing the back of his head even as his other hand started to go after that candy bar.

“He’s smiling,” she said around a small bite of chocolate. “She has him smiling.”

“How do you know it’s not because of us?” Jason asked with a pointed look that Mac chose to ignore.

“Yeah, so I’m gonna go call in reinforcements before the two of you screw this up,” she said, popping the rest of the candy bar in her mouth as she pulled out her phone and began texting, which given their track record in the past was completely understandable.

Then again, given the history every man in their family had of fucking things up on their own maybe she should be a little more concerned about Reese screwing this up.

Chapter 21

“Please, don’t leave me!” Mikey begged and as much as she wished that she could say that heartfelt plea was for her, she couldn’t.

“Mikey,” she said, sighing heavily as she tried to pull her daughter away, but unfortunately for Reese, she had one hell of a hold on his arm.

“Please!”

Already exhausted and it was barely seven in the morning, she released her hold on Mikey to rub the bridge of her nose, mostly to hide the smile that she knew that Eric wouldn’t appreciate at the moment and said, “It’s just for today.”

“But…” Mikey started to say only to let the word hang there as she looked from the man that she was trying to stop from leaving to the one that was most likely going to wring her neck the moment they left.

“We’ll be back before you know it,” she promised, dropping her hand away so that she could gesture for Mikey to go back inside.

With a stubborn set of her shoulders, Mikey shook her head. “No.”

“You don’t have a choice. The camp lost power last night and it’s still not up so you have to spend the day with Eric,” she said, using her firmest mom voice only to earn an eye roll from the little traitor as she tightened her hold around Reese’s arm.

“Please, don’t make me go,” she begged as she closed her eyes and held on for dear life.

“Since I have absolutely no idea what’s going on,” Reese drawled as he stood there, looking more amused than anything, “would someone care to explain?”

“That mean lady right there,” Mikey said, freeing one arm so that she could point in Kasey’s direction, “is trying to make me spend the day at a soul sucking office.”

“Hey!” Eric gasped in outrage as Kasey sighed, “Mikey,” as she was once again forced to rub the bridge of her nose as she struggled not to laugh.

“I see,” Reese murmured, clearly sharing her struggle.

“My office is not boring!” Eric sputtered in outrage, earning an accusing glare from Mikey.

“No, but your job is!” she snapped back.

“How dare you?” Eric gasped, and god, it would really not help if she started laughing.

Clearing her throat as she fought for control, Kasey said, “It’s not that bad.”

“Not that bad?” Mikey demanded, releasing her hold on Reese’s arm so that she could gesture wildly as she said, “The last time you made me go they ended up high-fiving each other for twenty minutes straight, because they’d figured out a quicker way to download IRS forms!”

“It wasn’t twenty minutes!” Eric said, but sadly, Kasey had a feeling that it had probably gone on longer than that since she’d experienced the boredom that was Eric’s office a time or two in the past.

“It was!” Mikey shot back. “I timed it!”

Eric gasped in outrage. “I was going to let you use the new pencil sharpener and everything!”

Deciding to ignore the fact that Eric had just proven Mikey’s point, Kasey cleared her throat and tried to push on. “Aunt Sara is going to swing by to take you to lunch. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Mikey said, “No, no it really doesn’t.”

“It sounds like fun to me,” Reese said with a smile, obviously trying to help, but god love him, he’d just made it worse.

“Really?” Mikey asked whirling on him. “Have you ever tried edible twigs?”

“Mikey,” Kasey groaned with a heavy sigh, because she really couldn’t argue this one, not when she was the reason why Sara was dragging Mikey off to try a naturalist restaurant that she’d absolutely refused to go near.

“They actually have edible twigs there. I know, because I Googled it last night when she told me that we were going there,” Mikey said with a look that dared her to try arguing about this one, which she couldn’t and they both knew it.

“Fine. Then I’ll take you out to lunch,” Eric said with exaggerated patience as he once again gestured for Mikey to go back in the house, which only made Mikey more determined.

“Your idea of going out to lunch is to come home and see what mom made!” Mikey pointed out, which was sadly true.

“How is it my fault that she’s ruined lunch for me?” Eric asked, throwing his hands up in a helpless gesture that had her rolling her eyes and looking at Mikey, who was either going to get stuck eating edible twigs today or whatever Eric could find leftover in the break room at work.

She just couldn’t do that to her, which meant that she was going to have to put this off for another day or drag Mikey along with her and…

That actually wasn’t a bad idea, she decided, realizing that having Mikey along would probably be her best bet at surviving spending the entire day with the man that she found herself thinking about a little too much, a little too often, and making her think about things that she’d sworn off years ago. She liked him, more and more with every passing day. The fact that she’d only known him for a week and she was already feeling like this was absolutely terrifying.

Her only consolation was that he wasn’t interested in her and even if he was, he was only here for the summer. She could survive two months with him, she decided eve

n as she admitted that she really liked spending time with him, which meant that she was going to need a buffer with her at all times.

For some reason, she didn’t think that was going to be a problem.

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