The Promise (Neighbor from Hell, #10)(57)

“So, you were telling me a story about the pretties?” she said, practically bouncing with excitement as she shifted on his lap and pulled the blanket around her shoulders as she waited for him to tell the story that he’d promised his father that he’d only share with one woman.

“It’s a long story,” he warned her as he reached up and pushed a loose strand of her beautiful auburn hair behind her ear.

“As it happens, I have time,” Joey said with a hopeful smile that had him sitting up with a heavy sigh so that he could wrap his arms around her.

“You’re planning on hiding from your brother, aren’t you?” he asked, secretly pleased when she adjusted the blanket so that it was also wrapped around him and snuggled closer.

“For as long as humanly possible,” she said, nodding solemnly.

“And how exactly were you planning on doing that?” Reed couldn’t help but wonder because they both knew that Jackson wasn’t leaving until he got what he came here for.

“By sneaking out first thing in the morning and hoping for the best.”

“You realize that plan is flawed, right?” he pointed out, pulling her closer as he shifted so that she was sitting more comfortably on his lap.

“Yet, it’s all I have at the moment,” she said with a heartfelt sigh and a wiggle that made it difficult for him to focus. “My pretties?”

“Your pretties,” he said with a nod, and because he couldn’t help himself, he leaned in and kissed her. “My great-great-great-great-great grandfather Noah was born here in Bridgewater. Both his parents came from prominent families in England, but they’d decided to move here for a fresh start after they were married. They ended up having an insane number of children who all managed to get married and start families of their own. Everyone but Noah that is. He moved out, built a small house down by the pond where he helped fill orders for his father’s furniture business and that was it. He’d kept to himself, worked, and wasn’t interested in settling down with any of the women in town.”

“What happened?” she asked as she snuggled closer until her breasts were pressed against his chest and he couldn’t help but notice just how good she felt in his arms.

“There was an accident. A small boy was playing by the river and fell in. By the time anyone realized what happened he’d already been dragged halfway to the old sawmill. Every man within screaming distance came running and tried to grab him, but the current was too strong. Noah was at the mill picking up an order when he saw the boy being dragged toward the wheel. He didn’t think twice. He just jumped. He managed to grab the boy and shift him out of the way before the wheel dragged him under.”

“I don’t know how he managed to keep that boy safe, but he did. He held onto that boy and kept him away from the wheel even as it continued to crush him. One of the mill workers managed to shut the wheel down, otherwise Noah probably would have been crushed to death. It took them two hours to get him free and by the time they did, he’d already lost a lot of blood and broken most of the bones on the right side of his body. They didn’t think that he would live, but somehow he pulled through. It took him a year to heal and by the time that he did, his parents had decided that it was time to hold him to the promise that he’d made,” Reed said, absently noting that the men in his family had a bad habit of making promises and couldn’t help but wonder how badly this one was going to end. But even knowing that this wasn’t going to end well wasn’t enough to make him end this yet.

“What was the promise?” she asked, her eyebrows creasing adorably the same way they used to when she was a little girl and was fascinated by something.

When they were kids, he used to find himself watching her, waiting for that look in her eye and wonder if he would ever love anything that much. She’d made him realize that even though he’d enjoyed working with his hands and with his family that he didn’t love it. Not the way that the he should. The plan had always been for him to take over for his father after he graduated high school, but when the big day finally came and he found himself standing in his father’s workshop, looking down at the blueprint for a replica for one of the antique desks that one of his great-grandfathers had designed, he’d realized that he was making a mistake.

“If he wasn’t married by the time he turned twenty-five, then he would go visit his uncle in England with the hopes that he would find a suitable bride during his stay.”

“Did he?” she asked, laying her head on his shoulder.

“Did he find a suitable bride?” he asked, turning his head so that he could brush his lips against hers.

“Mmmhmmm,” she mumbled with a sleepy little smile.

Chuckling, he said, “Not even close. She was disguised in his uncle’s household as a man. His uncle had originally hired her as a tutor for his grandsons, but they’d proven more than she could handle so he gave her another task, looking after his obstinate nephew.”

“That sounds ominous,” she said with an adorable smile.

“That’s a story for another time,” Reed said, brushing his lips against hers simply because he couldn’t help himself.

“Tease,” she mumbled with a sad little pout that had him chuckling.

“I thought you wanted to hear about the pretties,” he teased.