Perfection (Neighbor from Hell #2)(71)

That was something, he thought, not much, but more than they'd been doing for her.

"Haley, why did you make a pumpkin pie with a 'Z' on it?" Jason asked as he walked into the dining room with his daughter happily sleeping in one arm, Cole wrapped around his leg, and carrying the second platter of turkey Aunt Megan had asked him to get a few minutes ago. He was actually surprised there was any meat left on the plate or that his aunt trusted Jason or any of the Bradford males to go into the kitchen unsupervised after last Christmas.

As Haley struggled to pull Cole off Jason's leg, she said, "I was hoping Zoe would come, but just in case I figured I'd send the pie home with Trevor."

Jared snorted at that. "It will never make it to the house," he said, although he did throw Trevor and his untouched plate a curious look.

"It better make it there," Haley said, giving him what she probably thought was a stern look, but even he had to admit she was really too damn cute to pull it off, not like his Zoe. Now that woman knew how to glare, he thought with a wistful sigh.

"I tried to get her to come, but I think she's still mad at me," Jared grumbled, sounding truly unhappy.

"She's not mad at you and you did what you had to do," Trevor said, knowing it was the truth, but he knew his uncle felt bad for making Zoe cry. It didn't matter that Zoe went out of her way to show the man how much she appreciated Jared caring enough to talk to her or the dozen cupcakes that she'd bought him, the man simply couldn't tolerate a woman crying.

"She has no family or anywhere to go for the holidays. If she wasn't mad at me she would have come," Jared grumbled, sighing as he pushed his food around his own plate.

The fork in his hand dropped with a loud clink as his uncle's words sank in. "She doesn't have any family?" he asked, wondering why the hell she never told him.

"She grew up in foster care," Haley said softly.

He shoved away from the table, holding back several choice words as he shared a look with an equally stunned Jason.

"Well, let's go get her then," Jason said, handing his baby girl over to Jared and swiping a roll off Haley's plate before heading for the door.

Trevor was about to tell him that he didn't need any help, but then he realized that having a witness just might stop him from throttling Zoe's pretty little neck.

************

"Don't worry I ordered a little something special for the two of you," Zoe said as she hung up the phone. Toby and Max gave her little puppy barks of approval as she gave them each a quick pat and headed back upstairs to grab a pillow and a blanket.

As she headed downstairs her stomach growled loudly, demanding food and making her groan. She really hoped she was able to keep down her special Thanksgiving lunch. It was something she looked forward to every year and something she allowed herself to have whether she was on a diet or not.

P.B. Chang's was the best Chinese food in the area and something she normally didn't allow herself because she usually couldn't afford it, which is why she only treated herself to it twice a year. It also didn't hurt that the two days she allowed herself the treat were also the two days P.B. Chang's automatically doubled the amount of food for free. While other people were going to be eating turkey for several days she'd be eating Chinese food.

"Let's get set up, guys," she said cheerfully, earning several barks of approval.

After depositing her blanket and pillow on the couch she took the dogs out for a quick walk and quickly changed into a Red Sox tee shirt, baby pink flannel pajamas and a pair of Trevor's thick white socks. She was just sliding the first disc of her "X-Files" DVD collection into the DVD player for her Thanksgiving Day "X-File" marathon when a knock sounded at the door.

She grabbed her wallet and headed to the door, giving the dogs a stern look to stay put. With small groans they did just that. As she opened the door the aroma of fried chicken fingers, pork fried rice, and beef teriyaki hit her hard and made her mouth water. She could not wait to tear into her food, which was a good thing considering how much food there was. Maybe she'd ordered too much, she thought as she frowned down at the two large brown paper bags that were overflowing with food. She may have gone overboard ordering this year, forgetting that they'd double whatever she ordered, but that was okay because she was starving.

It was only after the delivery boy left that she realized that he didn't bring her orange soda, not that she could complain. She paused the movie and quickly grabbed two cold cans of Coke, knowing she'd go through them and returned to the living room to find her boys sniffing around the bags.

"Be good and I'll give you something yummy," she said teasingly as she opened the bags and quickly found the beef and broccoli she'd ordered for them. After she split the small carton between them she sat on the couch, pulled the coffee table closer and hit the "Play" button as she got comfortable.

After Trevor's little announcement this morning she really needed this. She wasn't sure what was going on with Trevor, but she knew that she couldn't go much further with him before she broke. She loved him so much that she was actually afraid to take any chances on him.

Not that it was much of a risk considering that he hadn't exactly offered his undying love or anything. The only thing he'd offered her was convenience, whatever that meant. She loved him and she was pretty sure that he cared about her, more than just for the arrangement, but he didn't have anything else to offer her and she'd be stupid to sit here depressing herself over something that she had no control over at the moment.