The Promise (Neighbor from Hell, #10)(16)

“I really need to get laid,” he decided with a nod as he shut the shower off because that was really the only explanation that he could come up with for the way that he was reacting to her.

He needed to make a point to get out, he decided as he quickly dried off and pulled on a pair of boxers even as he considered giving it another try with Julie only to immediately dismiss the idea since she’d betrayed him last night by leaving him with—

He was running even before Joey’s scream registered in his mind and wondering how he’d fucked this up so quickly. Jackson was going to fucking kill him, he realized as he made it down the stairs and headed for the back of the house, praying that she…that she…

“She dropped her towel,” his brother said hoarsely with a look of wonder as he stood in front of the bathroom door, hugging a large bath towel against his chest.

“What the hell happened?” Reed asked as he joined his brother.

Matt licked his lips, and with a look of pure joy, he gestured with the towel toward the closed bathroom door and repeated, “She dropped her towel.”

“Reed?” came the softly spoken word from the safety of the bathroom.

“Yes?”

“I’m going to kill your brother,” she calmly explained through the door.

Nodding, Matt said, “I’m ready to go,” and headed for the bathroom door, but before he managed to do something to get himself killed, Reed reached out and grabbed him by the back of his neck and dragged him away from the door.

“Let’s go,” he said, dragging the little bastard toward the kitchen.

“But her towel?” Matt said with a wistful sigh that had Reed rolling his eyes and shoving the little bastard into the kitchen.

“She’ll find another one,” Reed said, giving his brother another shove to get him away from the door.

There was a long dreamy sigh and then, “Dibs,” making Reed roll his eyes as he headed for the refrigerator.

“She’s out of your league,” he said, opening the refrigerator doors and frowned when he spotted the small lunch cooler with its lid flipped open and a post-it-note with his name written across it taped to the front.

Curious, he pulled the bag closer, noting that it was heavy and-

“She made me lunch,” he said hollowly as he took in the meatloaf sandwiches stacked in one corner, the small bowl of chunky homemade applesauce left over from last night, two wrapped biscuits, a small bag of chips, a large stack of butterscotch cookies, and a napkin.

No one had made him lunch since he was a kid, he thought as he pulled the bag out and put it on the kitchen island so that he could run his fingers reverently over the sandwiches that probably weren’t going to last until lunch. He’d had a few girlfriends that had tried to play house over the years. They’d show up at his house wearing the sexiest outfit they could find and cooked him dinner, making sure that he knew just how much work had gone into doing it while giving him coy smiles that were meant to entice him into giving them something more. But they’d never done any of it simply because they’d wanted to do something nice for him. They’d never-

“Ouch!” the little bastard said as he pulled his hand away.

“Mine,” Reed said as he made quick work of throwing a few ice packs in the cooler and zipped it closed with a look of warning for his brother.

“Well, technically that should be mine since I called dibs,” Matt pointed out with another wistful glance at the door.

“You have nothing in common,” Reed pointed out as he shifted his attention to the clock above the stove, noting that he had twenty minutes before he had to leave and turned his attention to finding something for breakfast.

“How do you know?” Matt asked, throwing the towel over his shoulder and sat down at the kitchen island.

“Because she’s a college professor and you’re an asshole,” Reed explained as he tossed a box of blueberry Pop-Tarts to the little bastard that was going to get himself killed.

“I’m willing to learn whatever she wants to teach me,” Matt said, nodding solemnly as he ripped open the thin foil seal and took a bite out of a cold Pop Tart with a heartfelt sigh.

“You don’t even know who she is,” Reed pointed out, reluctantly grabbing a box of strawberry Pop-Tarts.

“Doesn’t matter,” Matt said, shifting his attention back to the closed kitchen door.

“It’s Joey,” Reed said, chuckling when Matt choked on his next bite as he threw a panicked look toward the closed kitchen door.

“Joey Lawson?”

“The one and only,” he said as he debated stopping to grab something to eat on the way to work only to immediately dismiss the idea since he had too much shit to do this morning.

“Why’s she here?” Matt asked as he threw him a curious look.

“She’s on sabbatical,” Reed said, still wondering about that, because something told him, mostly the fact that she came back here after she’d sworn that she would never set foot in this town again, that there was something more to this story than she was telling him.

“So, she’s staying here?”

“For now,” Reed said, sighing heavily as he tossed the empty box in the trash.

“She can share my room,” Matt said, making sure to sound put out.

“Speaking of your room…” Reed drawled just as Joey walked into the kitchen.