Perfection (Neighbor from Hell #2)(63)

"Oh, there's Haley and Jason," she said, gesturing towards the opposite side of the room where Haley and Jason sat with their two little ones. Haley went to gesture them over only to have Jason grab her hand and shake his head.

Frowning, Zoe raised her hand to at least wave to her friend, wondering what Jason's problem was, when she found herself in a similar situation.

"Don't," Trevor said, gently pushing her hand down as he continued to usher her towards a row of empty booths near the large bay windows overlooking the parking lot.

"I was just going to say hello," Zoe explained as Trevor placed their receipt down to claim the table.

"You can't," Trevor said, giving her a little nudge in the direction of one of the buffet lines, the black bag still firmly in his left hand.

"Why not?"

"Because she's with the enemy," Trevor said tightly.

Zoe shot a look over at Haley to find Jason glaring in their direction. "Jason's the enemy?" she asked, starting to feel a little confused. She'd come for entertainment, but instead she'd found a new level of insanity among the Bradford males. Well, it was entertaining, but a different form of entertainment than what she'd been expecting.

"Now you're getting it," Trevor said approvingly. "Every bastard from my family is a potential threat. We need to maintain our distance and watch our backs," he said, sounding completely serious, which she found rather cute.

Really, who would have thought a large paranoid man could be cute? She certainly hadn't, but she just couldn't help but find the dirty looks he was sending his cousin anything but cute, especially the way he scowled when Jason discretely flipped him off.

"Why exactly are they the enemy?" she asked, drawing his attention away from Jason, who appeared to be glaring down at his son as Cole grabbed another fistful of spaghetti from Jason's plate.

"Because one of them is going to get banned today and if we're not careful he'll take us all down with him," Trevor said, handing her a plate. "Now go get some food, some real food."

With a little sigh she took the plate from him and wandered around the long self-serving tables as she looked around to see how many Bradfords were there. After Jason, she spotted Jared and his wife sitting at the far end, but they didn't seem to see her or rather they didn't acknowledge her in any way. She found several of the Bradfords that either worked for Jared or stopped by the office from time to time and several large devastatingly handsome men that could have passed for Bradfords.

As she walked along the buffet tables, trying to figure out what wouldn't upset her sensitive stomach she wondered which Bradford would get banned. That of course led her back to her earlier thoughts.

How exactly did someone get on a restaurant's banned list? Or more importantly how did the entire family get on the list? The possibilities simply boggled the mind.

"You're with Trevor?" a gruff voice demanded, drawing her attention. She looked up from adding French cut green beans onto her dish and kept looking up until she saw a rather stern, yet incredibly handsome older man with peppered short black hair looking down at her and looking way too serious for a man with deeply etched laugh lines around his mouth and eyes.

"Yeah, I guess, I mean we're friends," she said nervously.

The man nodded firmly, once, before shooting a look of what could only be described as a warning across the room at Trevor, who was sitting at the booth with two overflowing plates and several glasses of water. Trevor either didn't realize he was the object of a glare or simply didn't care as he dug into his food.

"You tell him as long as Jared's boys don't screw the rest of the family over like they did in Las Vegas we'll forgive them for Disneyworld," the man said, never taking his eyes away from Trevor.

Wow, there was so much in that warning that caught her attention, but she found herself asking, "Jared's boys?" As far as she knew Jared only had one son.

The man nodded. "Jason and Trevor. Although we all have a soft spot for the boy, Jared's the one who kept the boy in line and was able to be there from the start because he lived closer. He also took over when my beautiful baby sister passed away," he explained, his scowl softening as he continued to look at Trevor.

He looked away from Trevor to send her a faint smile. "That doesn't mean we didn't care. I lost count how many times I asked Sarah to allow Trevor to come live with us, but she was damn determined to raise the boy on her own, of course Jared just ignored her wishes and made sure they had everything they needed and that included keeping Trevor in line."

"Jared's a very good man," Zoe mumbled, feeling close to crying. When the hell did she become this pathetic woman where everything made her cry? Last night when she was watching television one of the old Downy commercials came on with that cute little bear and she found herself bawling her eyes out. Thank god Trevor hadn't been there, but poor Toby didn't fare as well. She'd hugged the dog, crying into his fur until he managed to break free and run to safety in Trevor's apartment.

The man looked at her with a little more than curiosity. "Will we be seeing you this Thursday?"

"For Thanksgiving?" she asked, wondering why the man would think she'd be joining a family dinner. When he nodded she said, "No, I have plans." The same plans she had every year since she was fifteen. It was a tradition mostly because she'd never had another choice, but one she actually enjoyed immensely.