Playing for Keeps (Neighbor from Hell #1)(60)

Now, Jason could very easily fix this little problem for his little grasshopper by picking her up, but he was following her rules. He only had four days left to convince her that she couldn't live without him, and if that meant he had to follow her rules to spend time with her than he was damn well going to follow them to a tee. He wasn't about to give her a reason to break their agreement.

That's why an hour ago when he woke up to find Haley curled up in his arms, he quickly jumped out of bed and the hell away from her. She looked a little confused and hurt, and he almost ignored her rules and took her into his arms, but he forced himself to keep his head in the game. He said good morning and left her to take a shower, and not joining her had almost killed him, and made them lunch.

After lunch it had taken a little prompting and about a dozen reminders that she promised to spend the last four days with him. With a resigned sigh she followed him to the beach. For the first time since he wrecked her flowers a heavy awkward silence rose between them.

He bit back another apology, remembering what his father said, and walked next to her, trying to figure out what the hell he should say to her. Unfortunately Haley seemed to be just as uncomfortable as he was. He knew she was on the verge of suggesting that they go home again, when thankfully they'd found the little crab hell bent on attacking her.

Now they both laughed, watching the little crab's antics, the awkward silence forgotten.

"Jason!" Haley shrieked as the crab made a grab for her toes.

Sighing, Jason bent over and plucked the small crab up. He raised it so he could look at its tiny little buggy eyes. "It's kind of cute."

Haley squished up her face adorably. "If you say so."

He noticed that she didn't make any move to take a closer look. In fact, it looked as if she was trying to discretely step away. Jason bit back a smile as he held it out to her. She squealed, jumping back and almost fell on her ass in the ocean.

"Get it away from me!"

"Aw, come on, Haley. He just wants a little kiss," Jason said, shoving the crab towards her once again. "Just a little kiss."

Haley giggled even as she ducked out of the way.

"Come on, he likes you!" Jason said, chuckling as he chased after her.

"Go away!" Haley said, laughing so hard that she stumbled several times, but somehow managed to take off when the crab came within her personal space.

"I swear to god, I'm going to kick your ass for this!"

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

Haley dropped her book as she latched onto Jason's arm and tried to drag him away.

"That's false advertisement!" Jason said, heading back for the door that they'd been unceremoniously kicked out of ten minutes ago. "The sign says, 'All you can eat.'"

Thankfully the last several months in Jason's company had pretty much cured her problem of embarrassing easily, otherwise she'd probably be turning bright red right now and wishing for a hole in the ground to open up and swallow her whole as people stopped to gawk at them.

"They were closing," she pointed out softly.

"That's no excuse," he said, glaring at the wait staff that watched them nervously from behind the curtains.

"I think they ran out of food," Haley said, doing her best not to laugh when he pouted.

"Bastards," Jason muttered.

"Come on, I'll let you treat me to a late movie," she said, tugging on his arm. He reluctantly let her lead him away, only throwing the occasional look of longing towards the restaurant. Haley did her best not to roll her eyes. The man was way too obsessed with food. As they stepped into the long line outside the movie theatre a thought occurred to her.

"You never brought me to a buffet restaurant at home," she pointed out. Now that she thought about it she was really surprised that he hadn't. It seemed like the perfect type of restaurant for Jason, heck, for Jason and his father. They both adored food, which is probably why his parents stopped with just one child. Just the thought of a bunch of little Jason's running around eating their parents out of house and home was frightening.

Jason mumbled something.

"What?" she asked, tearing her eyes away from the list of movies playing.

"I said, I've been banned," he grumbled unhappily. "It's all political," he sniffed.

"Uh huh.......and your father?" she asked, already having a sneaking suspicion of what his answer was going to be.

"He's been banned since 1995," Jason said with a shrug.

"I see," she said, her lips twitching.

"In two years the band in Las Vegas will be lifted. We're planning a big trip," he said, looking at her hopefully.

Haley opened her mouth to remind him that they weren't going to be doing anything together in two years when she realized what he said.

"You've been banned from Las Vegas?"

"Not from Las Vegas, just from all the buffets," Jason said with a shrug as if it was no big deal.

"All the buffets?" she asked, unable to hide her shock. There had to be hundreds of buffets in Las Vegas.

"I guess they had a meeting or something. As I said before, it's all political," Jason said, gesturing for her to move up in line.

She was too stunned to say anything for a few minutes. She knew they loved food, but wow......