The Promise (Neighbor from Hell, #10)(20)

“Jackson,” Joey said on a defeated sigh as she shifted to pull back only to mutter, “Stupid boobs.”

“Why don’t you want me to call him?” he asked as he reluctantly stood up and stepped back, carefully picking up the chair and setting it aside to free the small woman sprawled out on the floor.

“Thank you,” she said as she stood up and dusted herself off as something occurred to him.

“He doesn’t know you’re here, does he?” he asked, watching as she licked her lips, opened her mouth, slowly exhaled while shooting a glance toward the front door before her shoulders sagged and she looked back at him.

“I felt it would be more prudent to keep this from him until I was on my death bed,” she explained, nodding solemnly.

“Why wouldn’t you want him to know you’re here?” he asked, eying her curiously and noting the way that her lips moved soundlessly as she tried to come up with an answer only to mumble, “You wouldn’t understand.”

“What wouldn’t I understand?” he asked, regretting his decision not to call Jackson last night, because something was definitely going on here and when Jackson found out that he didn’t give him a head’s up he was going to fucking kill him.

“Forget it,” she said quietly as she forced a smile. “Thank you for letting me stay last night,” she said, and with that, she headed for the front door.

“Tell me,” Reed said, even as he couldn’t help but wonder how badly she’d fucked up this time.

He’d never understand how someone so bright could fuck everything up so badly. She was always saying the wrong thing, screwing up, getting into trouble, and making everyone’s life a living-

“What it’s like to be an obligation.”





Chapter 12

“Dr. Miller’s office,” Mrs. Weathers said in greeting a few seconds later, making Joey rethink her plan since she wasn’t exactly Mrs. Weathers’ favorite person.

Again, not that she could blame her after what happened sophomore year, but…

Now was not that time to reminisce about the good old days, she reminded herself as she forced herself to focus.

“I was just calling to see how Dr. Miller was doing,” she said, really hoping against hope that Dr. Miller had come through the unfortunate incident unscathed and was willing to overlook the fact that she may have accidentally destroyed his life’s work.

Again, by accident.

“Oh, he’s doing so much better. The doctor says that he’s going to be fine!”

“Thank god,” Joey said as her shoulders sagged in relief.

“But unfortunately, someone sent the poor man roses this morning and they have to keep him for another night. Can you believe someone would do that knowing that he’s allergic to flowers?”

“No, no I can’t,” Joey murmured weakly, deciding that perhaps now wasn't the best time to ask if he’d liked the flowers that she sent.

“He’s going to have to stay in the hospital for another night,” Mrs. Weathers said around a sniffle.

“That sounds horrible,” Joey mumbled, biting back a groan as she resigned herself to making another apology.

This time without the flowers.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to ask who was calling,” she asked while Joey stood there deciding that perhaps she should call back at another time before this got awkward.

“I should probably just go now,” Joey said, nodding to herself as she hit the end button and placed the phone back on the charger by the bed before she dropped her face into her hands and groaned.

“What the hell am I going to do?” she couldn’t help but wonder as she fell face first onto Reed’s bed only to sigh heavily when the man that she couldn’t seem to get rid of decided that he wasn’t done tormenting her yet.

“That’s what I’ve been wondering,” Matt said as he joined her on the bed with a bowl of strawberry ice cream and an iPad even as she couldn’t help but wonder if now was the best time to make her escape only to immediately dismiss the idea since the last time hadn’t ended well.

Then again, if she’d known that Reed was pacing the hallway she never would have opened that door and she sure as hell wouldn’t have tried to make a run for it. She’d barely made it to the stairs before he’d had her thrown over his shoulder and was carrying her back to his room. She hadn’t bothered trying to wiggle her way out of his hold since she knew better.

She’d learned that lesson the hard way when she was seven and Reed had taken it upon himself to save her from a group of very angry fifth graders determined to have a word with her after she’d miscalculated the trajectory of her volcano experiment and turned everything within a fifty-foot radius an interesting shade of orange. In her defense, she’d explained exactly how volatile volcanoes could be during her ten-minute presentation before she’d hit that button, but they’d all ignored her warning.

Except for Reed.

As soon as her volcano exploded, he’d had her thrown over his shoulder and was carrying her toward the gym doors while she’d done her best to wiggle her way to freedom so that she could figure out what went wrong. He hadn’t been prepared for her to lunge, but then again, she hadn’t really been prepared for that metal folding chair to break her fall. After that incident, she’d learned to stay still whenever Reed felt the need to take it upon himself to throw her over his shoulder.