The Promise (Neighbor from Hell #10)(9)

Still, he said nothing as he headed for the old path in the woods that connected their properties, thinking about the day that he’d stupidly promised to watch over the little brat. If it had been anyone else, he would have told her no and laughed it off, but he couldn’t say no to Mrs. Lawson, not after everything she’d done for him. She’d watched him when he was little, taken care of him when his mother was put on bed rest when she was pregnant with Matt, helped him with his homework, and always made sure that there was a spot at her table for him, which he’d always appreciated since his mother couldn’t cook to save her life. She’d always been there for him, so when she’d asked him to watch over the little brat if anything ever happened to her, he’d forced himself to say yes, knowing damn well that he would regret it.

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“So, how are your parents?” the little demon asked conversationally as she glanced around the large first floor bathroom, shifting her attention here and there, which of course resulted in her feet threatening to go out from under her every few seconds thanks to the large puddle that she was creating on the tiled bathroom floor.

“What the hell are you doing here, Joey?” he asked, rubbing his hands roughly down his face and still unable to believe that this was really Joey, the annoying little pain in the ass that had done her best to give him a heart attack when they were kids.

“Came home,” she said with a shrug as she took in the floor to ceiling cabinets that his grandfather built for his grandmother before shifting her attention to the large shower stall that he’d installed last year.

“I see,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief because he honestly never thought that he would see her again. “So, you flew home and-”

“Oh no, I drove here. It took five hours longer than it should have, but that probably had something to do with the incident at the drive-thru,” she explained with a shrug and that smile that he couldn’t help but find adorable on the mud-caked demon even as he asked, “Drive-thru?”

She pursed her lips up, looking thoughtful. “Now that I think about it, the manager was probably right about the clown.”

“The clown?” he found himself asking against his better judgment.

“The clown at the drive thru. When I didn’t hear anything, I decided to use the call button,” she said with a shrug.

“Sounds reasonable,” he murmured, not really sure that he wanted to know where this was going.

“I thought so, too,” she said, nodding in agreement. “But I couldn’t reach it through the window. So, I opened my door and ended up accidentally hitting the clown, but the fireman said the fire would have happened anyway. Faulty wiring and all that,” she mumbled quickly with a helpless shrug.

“I see,” he said softly as childhood memory after childhood memory hit him, leaving him standing there seriously wondering how she was still alive.

Granted, he’d been wondering that since the day he’d stumbled across her at the playground down the street, barely two-years-old and already pissing off all the other kids. He’d been forced to step in when the rest of the toddlers tried to bury her alive in the sandbox. He still wasn’t sure what she’d done to piss them off, but from that day on it had become his job to keep the little brat out of trouble. He’d lost count of how many times he’d had to step in over the years to save her ass and this time it seemed, wouldn’t be any different.

“My insurance is covering the repairs. The manager said the restaurant should be open again in a week at the latest and thankfully no one got hurt. Well, except for Johnny that is.”

“Johnny?” he said, not really sure that he wanted to hear this.

She waved it away, unconcerned. “Johnny, the burger clown.”

His lips twitched despite the fact that he still wanted to throttle the little brat. “I see.”

“It’s fine. I have really good insurance,” she added absently only to frown as she glanced down at the large muddy puddle that she was creating. “I should probably go back home now,” she mumbled thoughtfully, and as much as he would love to show her to the door and save himself from the nightmare that was Joey Lawson, he didn’t have a choice.

He had to keep the little brat out of trouble.

“Jackson shut the water off years ago,” he said, wondering if he should give her brother a call only to immediately dismiss the idea since he didn’t want to get dragged into the middle of whatever mess the little hellion had gotten herself into.

“Oh,” she said with an adorable frown as she looked back up. “What about the heat?”

Once their grandparents passed away, Jackson stopped staying at the old house and started crashing with him or with whatever bar bunny he’d picked up for the night. Reed couldn’t even remember the last time that Jackson checked on the old place. Between the taxes and the insurance, the old house just wasn’t worth keeping, but every time Reed suggested that he sell it, Jackson would just shrug it off and tell him that he would think about it.

“Broken,” he said, wondering why she really came back here.

Nodding absently, she mumbled, “I see,” as she reached up and pushed her mud-caked hair back before releasing a heavy sigh. “I guess I’ll stay at a hotel until I get it fixed. Is there still a Marriot on Chase Street?”