The Promise (Neighbor from Hell #10)(83)

“Why would they think we were going to end up together?” Reed asked Jackson, who simply glared at him, something that he was getting really fucking sick of.

“Tradition,” his father said, chuckling.

“But, how would they know about that?” Reed asked because he knew for a fact that his parents never told anyone, not after what they’d gone through and he’d never said anything to them, which left…

“Matt,” Jackson said, confirming his suspicions that his brother had a big fucking mouth.

“When?” his father asked, looking amused.

“After Joey’s eighth birthday party when the asshole that knocked up my sister decided to take it upon himself to have a word with our father and they started wondering about his obsession with Joey. For the price of another slice of cake, Matt told us everything,” Jackson explained while Reed glared at him.

“And that’s the real reason you didn’t sell the house,” Reed guessed, correctly by the look on his brother-in-law’s face.

“You wanted to make sure that she had a reason to come back here,” his father said, chuckling as he continued adding food on Joey’s plate while Reed stood there, glaring at the bastard.

“Why did you try to talk me into letting her go then?” Reed demanded, thankful that he hadn’t listened to the stubborn bastard because he never would have survived without Joey.

“You were taking too long. Besides, I always knew that Joey would come work for me if she ever left the university,” Jackson said, making Reed’s eyes narrow.

“This is priceless!” his father said, laughing as he headed to the back door, pausing on the way to hand Joey’s plate to Jackson, and add, “Your mother’s going to love this one!”

“You still haven’t told me how you figured it out,” Reed said, watching as his father left with a heartfelt sigh and an “Absolutely priceless.”

“The Eeyore keychain.”

“What about it?” Reed asked absently as he watched his father walk over to his Uncle Ethan and—

Watched the traitorous bastards struggle to stop laughing a minute later as his father recounted the tale that had guaranteed a painful death for the little bastard with the big mouth.

“She hasn’t found it yet, has she?”

“No,” Reed said only to narrow his eyes as he watched his father wave over the rest of his brothers to join them.

“I slipped it under her pillow where she would have found it if she’d been sleeping in her bed,” Jackson said and if Reed hadn’t been focused on the large bastards laughing their asses off at his expense, he probably would have been impressed.

“When?” he asked, forcing his attention away from the window when his Uncle Jared decided to call his mother over.

“Well, there were a few things that had me wondering, but it was when Matt told me that she was sleeping on the couch that told me everything that I needed to know. But, just in case I was wrong, I placed the keychain under her pillow when my sister, who is terrified of anything that wiggles, announced that she was going camping.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Reed said, leaving the kitchen and headed to the front door and away from the sight of half his family laughing their asses off at his expense.

“He’s a wealth of information,” Jackson said, chuckling as he joined him as he walked outside and-

“What the hell are they doing?” Reed couldn’t help but wonder as he watched his cousins drag one of the large picnic tables that his family had been using for family gatherings since he was little, over to the road.

That question, of course, led Jackson to wonder, “Why’s the asshole touching my sister?”

Shoving the plate in Jackson’s free hand, Reed decided to go find out. A minute later, he was standing over his wife, who was curled up on a lounge chair in the arms of a man who clearly had a death wish.

“Joey?” he asked, folding his arms over his chest as he glared down at the woman who he noticed was ignoring the book on her lap, a first for her.

“Hmm?” she murmured, barely acknowledging his existence as she continued staring at something.

Frowning, he followed his wife’s gaze and-

“You had no fucking right!” Garrett yelled only to duck with a “Damn it!” when their mysterious neighbor threw what appeared to be a book at his head.

“What the hell is going on?” Reed asked as he watched his cousin move to go after their mysterious neighbor only to curse and duck again when she reached inside a large box and grabbed another book.

“With today’s entertainment or the asshole holding your wife?” Kenzie, or Mac if you wanted her to bitch slap you, asked as she joined him as they watched her brother duck out of the way of another book.

“Both,” Reed said, unable to look away as he watched Garrett try to regroup and-

“Ohhhhhh!” came the resounding wince when Garrett took a book to the leg.

“That’s definitely going to leave a mark,” his wife whispered, sounding intrigued.

“Well, as much as I would love to watch someone slap him around and make him cry, I’m going to have to ask you to wait until the show’s over since he’s the only one that seems to be able to get your wife to stop begging for a quick death, which was making it difficult to follow what’s going on,” Kenzie explained as Jackson joined them and Reed narrowed his eyes on Roger, his cousin Reese’s one-time best friend and the bastard currently touching his wife.