The Promise (Neighbor from Hell, #10)(25)

“That’s a really good question,” Jen said, nodding in agreement as she grabbed another piece of candy and popped it in her mouth while he sat there, narrowing his eyes on her.

“What did you do?” he asked, sighing heavily as the little bastard finished cleaning his claws and settled for flicking his tail at him.

“You’re really going to blame me for this?” Jen asked, shaking her head with a long, drawn-out sigh. “This makes me so sad.”

“I’m sure it does,” Reed murmured absently as he sent a text to his brother.

Keep an eye on the little brat.

“How did the cat get in your bag?” Reed asked as he sat there, really wishing that he’d taken the rest of the day off, but that would have meant spending more time with Joey and he honestly wasn’t sure that was a good idea. He also wasn’t going to think about her, he reminded himself. He definitely wasn’t wondering what she was doing right now, he told himself as he shot a glare at his phone, wondering why the little bastard hadn’t texted him back yet.

“I have no idea,” Jen said with a shrug as Reed forced his attention back to the little pain in the ass in front of him.

“She just crawled into your bag?”

“It would seem that way,” Jen said, nodding as she reached over to pet the kitten that was now fast asleep on top of the stack of resumes that he’d already decided to pass on.

“What are we going to do, Jen?” Reed asked even though he already knew what he had to do, but he wasn’t ready to give up on her yet.

“Pretend that this never happened?” she suggested with a hopeful smile that wasn’t going to help.

Not this time.

“And the cat?” Reed asked as he rubbed his hands roughly down his face, wondering when he was going to catch a break.

“Could really use a good home,” she said, nodding solemnly as he glanced down at his phone and saw his brother’s reply.

Happily.

---

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Joey said because really, there was nothing else to say.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true, she thought as she gave up searching the puddle by the rock that she’d tripped over last night, stood up, stumbled, and headed toward the next puddle, determined to find her keys. It wasn’t much of a plan, but at least looking for her keys gave her something to do. It would also give her a way to hunt down a Dr. Pepper, she thought with a wistful sigh as she knelt down by the next puddle, reached over and—

Fell face first in the cold puddle with a groan.

Pushing herself up, she reached up and wiped away the muddy water with a nod, because this was fine. She could handle mud, she told herself as she reached back into the puddle, determined to find her keys and…

Well, she’d figure it out later.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but for right now it was all she had.

With that in mind, she did one last sweep of the puddle before turning her attention to the one that she was almost eighty percent sure that she’d fallen into last night. Pushing back her hair, she focused on searching for those keys. Five more puddles later and she sighed with relief when her hand closed around the old Eeyore keychain that her brother had given her when she was six.

Relieved that something was finally going her way, she grabbed her keys, brushed herself off and headed to her car only to slip and fall on her ass along the way. Trying not to think about how many times she’d fallen on her ass in the past twenty-four hours, she stumbled the rest of the way to her SUV and-

“Umm, what are you doing?” she couldn’t help but ask as she once again found herself thrown over Reed’s shoulder and heading toward the old path.

“Finishing our discussion,” Reed said as she resigned herself to another interrogation even as she had to wonder, “Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

“Yes,” Reed bit out.

“Okay then,” Joey said, not really knowing what else there was to say.

“Where’s Matt?” he asked, shifting her on his shoulder while she hung there, really hoping that he wasn’t going to make a habit of this.

“In the barn looking for a bed,” she said as she reached up and wiped the mud out of her face even as she resigned herself to another shower without her favorite tea tree shampoo.

“Good,” Reed said firmly and before she got a chance to say anything he asked, “What are your degrees in?”

“Umm, history and biochemistry. Why?” she asked, wondering where he was going with this.

“Are you allowed to take on a full-time teaching position during your sabbatical?” he demanded as he made his way up his front steps and carried her inside.

“Yes,” Joey said only to frown when he followed that up with, “Do you have a criminal record?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” she said, absently noting that he had a really nice ass.

She was a sucker for a nice ass, she thought, biting back a wistful sigh as she forced herself to focus. “Why are you interrogating me?” she couldn’t help but ask as he set her down on her feet.

“I can fit you in, in about an hour. Get dressed and bring your resume,” Reed said absently as he pulled his phone out of his back pocket while she stood there, wondering where the grey kitten currently attaching itself to his leg came from.