The Promise (Neighbor from Hell #10)(11)

It was actually an idea that he’d been toying with for a while now. When he was a kid, he’d learned the family business like the rest of the men in his family. He used to sit on his father’s workbench and watch his father work, amazed at all the things that he could make out of a pile of wood. He’d learned how to handle a hammer before he could ride a bike and by the time that he was ten he could make just about anything that his father showed him. By the time he was fourteen, he was spending half his summers with his Uncle Jared, learning how to build houses. He’d loved working with his hands, creating something out of nothing, and fixing up old houses. He’d been able to keep working for his family when he went to college.

But then he got his first teaching job…

After that the only time he had to work with his father was during the summer and school vacations and once he became vice principal even less. Three years ago, when he took over as principal at his old high school, he’d promised himself that he’d make more time to work with his family. It was the reason why he bought this house off his parents when they’d decided that they wanted to move closer to the rest of the family.

But every time he thought about going out back and putting his great-great-great-great grandfather’s old workshop to good use he was too fucking exhausted to do anything more than pull out his old sketchpad and make a few sketches of pieces that didn’t really do anything for him. His brother had taken over the old shop a few years ago, continuing the family business. The only thing that drew Reed’s interest was the decrepit old house next door that his family had built almost two hundred years ago.

His family had built quite a few of the houses around town, most of them were still standing as beautiful as ever, but a few of them like the one next door had been neglected over the years. His father had actually considered buying the old house and restoring it to its former glory, but then he’d met Mr. Lawson and realized just how much the old man loved the house. So, he’d stepped aside and left it up to Mr. Lawson to restore the old house.

Mr. Lawson managed to replace the roof and fix the foundation by the time his daughter died, and his son-in-law decided to dump Jackson and Joey on his doorstep. After that…

He’d barely had any time for the old house, which wasn’t all that surprising considering the hell the little demon downstairs raised. God, she’d been a nightmare, always getting into trouble and saying the wrong thing. But she’d always managed to get out of trouble thanks to that adorable fucking smile of hers and the fact that Jackson would have killed anyone that hurt her.

Then again, most people simply settled for glaring at the little pain in the ass and walking away since they knew that he would have made their lives a living hell if they said or did anything to make the little brat cry. It was probably the reason why Mrs. Lawson asked him to look after her because she knew that he would never let anyone hurt her. She probably would have asked someone else to look after the little nightmare if she’d known what the little brat had planned for him when…when…

“What the hell?” he said absently as he opened his eyes and shifted his attention to his closed office door where the most enticing aroma that he’d ever encountered drew his attention.

Before he realized what he was doing, he was leaving his office and walking downstairs, groaning when the scent of freshly baked bread teased him. It had been so long since he’d smelled freshly baked bread, but it was a scent that he would never forget. It brought back memories of lazy afternoons spent at the Lawson’s when the only thing that he had to worry about was getting his homework done before he went outside and played. Wondering what that other enticing aroma was, Reed headed for the kitchen door only to reluctantly turn around and head for the front door, praying that whoever was ringing his doorbell wasn’t here to make his night worse.

He should have prayed harder, he realized when he saw who was standing on his front step. It also made him realize that he’d forgotten to return that text, because if he had, the reason that he was going to kill his brother wouldn’t be standing on his front step, holding what smelled like another chicken and cream of mushroom soup casserole and giving him a smile that should have made his night. Instead, it was just a reminder that there was something seriously fucking wrong with him.

“Hey, Reed,” Julie, his next-door neighbor, who also just happened to be a school teacher, a decent cook, tall, incredibly beautiful with just the right amount of curves, smart, kind and his type in every single way that mattered and he had no idea why he didn’t want her, and it was driving him out of his fucking mind.

“Hey, Julie,” he said, holding the door open for her so that she could step inside while he ran his eyes over her, taking in the way her jeans hugged her ass just right before showcasing her long legs to perfection, and—

Nothing.

Absolutely fucking nothing.

“What is that incredible smell?” she asked with a warm smile as she headed toward the kitchen, leaving him with no other choice but to follow her even as he couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with him.

It was actually something that was starting to worry him. When she’d moved in last year he’d thought that she might be the one, had actually hoped that she was so that he finally had something more to come home to at night instead of an empty house, a stack of paperwork that he never seemed to finish, and a brother who went out of his way to piss him off. He just wanted…