Double Dare (Neighbor from Hell #6)(26)

“It will be fine. I promise,” Danny said, raising their hands so that he could kiss the back of hers.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t supposed to be here tonight. I don’t want to interfere,” she said, looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here.

“It’ll be fine. Besides, I want you here,” Danny promised her with an adoring smile that had Darrin rolling his eyes and shaking his head, because it seemed that his brother was already whipped.

Fucking pathetic, Darrin thought with disgust as he pulled his phone out to see if Marybeth had called or texted him in the past five minutes.

“Fine,” she said on a drawn out sigh with a miserable little pout that had Danny stopping so that he could lean down and kiss her. “No worries, Tinkerbelle. Everything will be fine.”

Something told Darrin that wasn’t exactly true, but he didn’t say anything, mostly because he was too busy coming up with appropriate dares for Marybeth’s latest betrayal.

*-*-*-*

“You want to tell me why you’re glaring at me?” Darrin asked, already knowing why his sister was glaring at him as he helped himself to another chicken breast and not really caring.

“The fact that you’re eating all the food isn’t a good enough reason?” Kenzie asked, sounding put out as she grabbed a plate and started loading it with fried chicken and mashed potatoes before dropping it on the kitchen island in front of him.

“No,” he simply said as he grabbed a fork and dug in.

“Is she coming?” she demanded coldly as she crossed her arms over her chest and did her best to glare him down.

“Yes,” he said, not bothering to ask who she was or really caring that his sister hated Marybeth, always had and probably always would.

Sighing heavily, Kenzie shook her head in disgust as she walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed two bottles of water. “I don’t know why you let her treat you like that.”

“Stay out of it,” he warned, focusing his attention back on his food, in absolutely no mood to argue with his sister about something that was none of her f*cking business.

“You deserve better,” she said, placing a bottle of water in front of him.

“It’s none of your f*ck-”

“Stay out of it, Kenzie,” their father said firmly as he walked into the kitchen, cutting him off before he could say something that he would probably regret later.

“Someone should say something to him!” she snapped, gesturing to him as he took one last bite of chicken before he shoved his plate away.

“It’s not our place, Mackenzie,” their father said firmly as Darrin headed for the door, in absolutely no mood to get in a shouting match with his kid sister over Marybeth, again. Not when he was still f*cking exhausted because his * cousins had refused to leave him alone and had kept bugging the shit out of him about Marybeth until he’d been forced to get up and throw them out on their asses.

As he walked out of the kitchen, praying that Kenzie let it go for once, he considered sneaking up to his old room and catching up on some sleep before dinner. He turned down the back hall to do just that when he heard his brother Danny ask, “Where’s Mom and Kenzie?” reminding him that he needed to help his brother out tonight.

“In the kitchen,” Darrin said as he joined his cousins and brothers in the foyer, his attention locking on the small woman that had his brother wrapped around her little finger.

“Is Marybeth here?” Danny asked, releasing Jodi’s hand.

“That bitch is dead to me,” Darrin said, glaring at the small woman, shifting nervously as she shot hopeful glances towards the front door.

“Uh huh, that’s nice,” Danny mumbled absently as he shifted his attention back to the small woman. “I’ll be right back,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and heading off towards the small hallway that would take him to the kitchen.

“O-okay,” Jodi said, swallowing nervously his brothers and cousins watched her with varying degrees of suspicion.

“So, umm, big family, huh?” she mumbled, shooting another glance towards the door.

“What are your intentions towards our brother?” he asked before she could make a run for it, and judging by the expression on her face, she desperately wanted to do just that.

*-*-*-*

“Please, stop!” Jodi managed to choke out, laughing as they all took turns shoving the most embarrassing pictures they could find of Danny in her face. Once Darrin managed to find the collection of school pictures their mother had organized over the years, he’d dropped them by her feet and walked over to the loveseat in the corner where he settled in for what was no doubt going to end up being a very entertaining night.

“Wait! I found the home videos!” Arik announced triumphantly as he held up the large stack of DVDs they’d made over the years.

“You…Bastards!” Danny snarled as he stormed over to Jodi and snatched the photo album off her lap.

“Oh, come on!” his brothers whined as Danny snatched the rest of the photo albums away from them.

“Betraying bastards,” he grumbled with a murderous glare aimed at the rest of their brothers as he slammed the photo albums down on the coffee table.

“Stop being an *,” Duncan said with a roll of his eyes as he reached down to-