Double Dare (A Neighbor from Hell Book 6)

by Mathewson, R. L.

  She was flawed.

  Maybe damaged was a better word. The nurse that had explained exactly what it meant to have endometriosis after the doctor and her mother left to talk in the hallway had certainly seemed to think the word fit her situation. After twelve years of dreading doctor’s appointments and phone calls, the bad news had finally come, she realized numbly, wondering why she wasn’t terrified.

  Actually, now that she thought about it, she was surprised at just how quickly she’d managed to stop crying after Aidan and Duncan had showed up and started shoving food down her throat. One minute she felt like her world was about to end and the next….nothing but peaceful thoughts as she contemplated taking a nap while Aidan got his Lifetime movie marathon fix in.

  “I slipped a sedative in your food,” Aidan explained with a shrug. “You should pass out in a few minutes.”

  “Oh,” she mumbled, knowing that she should be upset, but she just couldn’t seem to care enough to reach over Duncan and grab a plate so that she could chuck it at Aidan’s head.

  “Thank God,” Duncan said, sighing heavily as he pulled her even closer against his side. “Once she passes out we can watch the game.”

  “No, we should leave this on so that it can soothe her in her sleep,” Aidan explained, earning an eye roll from her that ended with her eyes sliding shut and staying that way.

  “You do realize that you’re not fooling anyone with that bullshit excuse, right?” Duncan asked as he settled back against the headboard.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aidan said a bit defensively in her opinion as he shifted on the bed next to her.

  “Uh huh.”

  “I only watch them to keep Marybeth company,” Aidan argued just as she started to doze off.

  “Sure.”

  “I do.”

  “Then why did I find the Lifetime channel saved to your favorites when I was at your house last month?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Aidan said slowly and if her eyelids didn’t suddenly weigh a ton she would have rolled her eyes, again.

  “No, of course you don’t,” Duncan said dryly, making her lips twitch despite the fact that she could barely move.

  There was a slight hesitation before Aidan said, “I don’t,” followed by the sound of a throat clearing. “I only pretend to watch it when I’m with Marybeth.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “I do.”

  “No, I believe you, which is why I’m going to change the channel now.”

  “But, she’s not asleep yet!” Aidan pointed out a bit desperately, at least in her drug hazed opinion.

  “I think she’ll forgive me.”

  “B-but the movie hasn’t ended yet!”

  “I think we’ll survive,” Duncan drawled seconds before the room was suddenly filled with sounds of cheering.

  “You hateful bastard!”

  “What are you going to do about it?” Duncan asked in that same tone that the Bradford boys had used to use when they’d tormented Aidan for the hell of it.

  “I’m gonna tell!” Aidan snapped right around the time that she suddenly found herself facedown on the bed and what sounded like a slap fight commencing.

  *-*-*-*

  Darrin looked from the two men standing by the bed, shifting guiltily, to the beautiful woman curled up on top of the bed, sleeping peacefully and then back at his two brothers, who couldn’t quite meet his eye.

  “She’s fine,” Aidan blurted out, confirming his suspicions that something seriously fucked up had occurred.

  He didn’t say anything as he stood there staring at the two men shooting hopeful glances towards the door, because there was no need to say anything. They would tell him everything that he wanted to know in a few minutes.

  “There were no problems,” Duncan said, swallowing nervously.

  “None,” Aidan parroted, noticeably trying not to look at the bed.

  Darrin simply stared at them.

  “Yeah, umm,” Duncan said, clearing his throat, “she’s been sleeping like a baby for a while now.”

  “She was tired,” Aidan felt the need to add when Darrin didn’t say anything.

  “Yeah,” Duncan said, nodding his head in agreement, “tired.”

  When he still didn’t say anything, Duncan reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous gesture that Darrin was all too familiar with. Knowing exactly how to push his brother’s buttons, Darrin folded his arms over his chest and focused all of his attention on Duncan.

  The weak link in the room.

  “So, ummm,” Duncan said, clearing his throat uncomfortably, “we’re umm, just gonna go now….”

  He simply cocked a brow.

  “Duncan,” Aidan whispered harshly, sending their fidgeting brother a warning glare, but it was too late and they both knew it.

  Duncan’s mouth worked soundlessly as he stared at him, looking helpless beneath his glare. It was only a matter of time now before he-

  “It was Aidan! I had nothing to do with it!”

  “You dumb son of a bitch,” Aidan said, sighing heavily as he closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief, but Duncan was on a roll and there was nothing and no one that would be able to stop him from spilling everything he knew.

  “He snuck her a sedative and then he started bitch slapping me! I had to put him in a headlock! I had to! It wasn’t my fault that Marybeth rolled off the bed! It was that bastard’s fault!” he pointed out frantically as he gestured wildly towards Aidan, who simply stood there, shaking his head in disgust.

  Nodding, he digested that information before he asked, “You drugged my wife?”

  “She needed it,” Aidan said firmly, meeting his gaze head on.

  “I see,” he murmured thoughtfully as he shifted his attention to his wife. “How much longer will the sedative last?”

  “It should last her through the night,” Aidan explained.

  “You’re sure about that?”

  “Pretty sure.”

  “Good,” he said approvingly as he reached back and pulled his phone out of his back pocket, deciding that this was probably the best time to start making some calls.

  Chapter 34

  “Ummm, what exactly are you doing?” she decided to ask when she felt him place something else on her back.

  “Shhh, not while I’m learning,” he whispered, placing what felt like another piece of paper on the growing pile of papers on her back.

  “Umm, learning about what exactly?” she asked, turning her head so that she could see what he was doing.

  “How to take care of you,” he said, throwing her a quick smile before he returned his attention to the large stack of papers on his lap.

  “When exactly did I come with instructions?” she couldn’t help but ask as she awkwardly reached back and grabbed the haphazard stack of papers covering her lower back so she could see what had her husband up at the crack of dawn.

  Gripping the stack of papers, she sat up and leaned back against the headboard. Yawning, she reached up and rubbed her eyes with her free hand, tempted to curl up and go back to sleep, but she was thirsty and needed to use the-

  “What the hell is this?” she asked, blinking her eyes as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

  “Information about endometriosis, treatments, diets, hysterectomies and after care. The surgery won’t cure your endometriosis, but it will stop it from getting any worse. There are a lot of decisions that we have to make before we get back, but I think we should look into natural remedies first before we try hormone replacement drugs,” he explained as he handed over the piece of paper that he’d been reading and picked up the next one off the large pile.

  Frowning, she looked down at the piece of paper that he’d handed her and felt like she was going to be sick. “There’s still time to figure all of this out later,” she said hollowly as she placed the stack of papers down on the small space between them and stood up, needing to put some spac
e between them for this conversation.

  “Dad and Aidan managed to call in a few dozen favors for us. The surgery is scheduled two weeks after we get back,” he explained as he continued to read through all the paperwork covering the bed.

  “I didn’t ask them to do that,” she mumbled, leaning over her suitcase to find some clothes.

  “You didn’t need to ask.”

  Ignoring the way that her hands shook, she grabbed a change of clothes and swallowed hard. “I’m not having the surgery. At least not yet.”

  “This was the best date they could get for us, Marybeth. If we pass it up we might not be able to get in for a few more months,” he explained distractedly as she knelt there, listening to him shuffle through more papers.

  “I’m not having the surgery yet, Darrin,” she said more firmly as she stood up and turned around to face him.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, looking up from the paper in his hands to frown at her.

  “I can’t have the surgery yet.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? You need this surgery!”

  Licking her lips nervously, she hugged the clothes in her arms against her chest. “I’m not saying that I won’t have the surgery,” she hedged, “I’m just not going to have it now.”

  “You need this surgery, Marybeth,” he said evenly as he tossed the papers aside and got up, probably to shake some sense into her.

  “And I’ll have it, but just not yet.”

  Eyes narrowing dangerously on her, he demanded, “What exactly are you trying to say?”

  “I want to have a baby first.”

  *-*-*-*

  Two Days Later…

  “You still not talking to me?”

  “Go to hell,” his loving wife bit out as he sat down next to her on the bus that would take them all to Disneyworld.

  At least she wasn’t throwing things at his head anymore, he thought with a sigh, deciding that he was making some progress since his rather unfortunate response to her announcement the other day. Asking her if she had lost her fucking mind probably hadn’t been the best way to handle his wife’s asinine deceleration to have a baby instead of the surgery that she desperately needed.

  Now that he’d had some time to calm down, read up on the dangers and complications for a woman with a severe case of endometriosis attempting pregnancy and spoken with his father, brother and a few specialists that they’d called yesterday he felt more confident when he said, “You’re out of your fucking mind if you think that I’m going to allow you to do it.”

  “Last time I checked, I didn’t need to ask your permission to do anything,” she said acidly as she grabbed her backpack and squeezed past him, only pausing long enough to discreetly kick him in the shin before she stormed off down the narrow aisle, shoved past Aidan and sat down next to Reese.

  Wondering when she’d become so heartless that she’d willingly drag his twin brother in the middle of this, he got up, shoved Aidan out of the way, ignored Arik who was trying to get his attention, and went after her. He was barely four feet away from her when Reese shifted his attention from Marybeth, who was pointedly glaring out the window, to him. When Reese’s eyes locked on him, he swore soundly as he reached down, grabbed his backpack and jumped up to get out of the way, but unfortunately for him, he hadn’t moved fast enough.

  “Sorry,” Darrin mumbled with a shrug as he grabbed Reese by the back of his neck and shoved him aside.

  “You bastard!” his twin gasped as Darrin sent him flying.

  Ignoring his brother’s pained grunt, he sat down, grabbed Marybeth when she tried to storm off again and yanked her down on his lap where he fully planned on keeping her adorable ass until she started to see reason.

  “Let me go.”

  “Not until we finish this,” he said, settling back in the seat while he kept his arms locked tightly around her.

  “We’re done,” she said, reaching down to shove his arms away, but he simply ignored her.

  “We’re really not.”

  “I’m not having the surgery, Darrin,” she grumbled as she squirmed in his arms as she tried to climb off his lap.

  “You really are.”

  “I’m really not.”

  “We’ll see,” he said confidently as he watched the rest of his family board the bus. When Kenzie stepped onto the bus, she rolled her eyes and muttered something when she spotted Marybeth on his lap. After making a mental note to have a word with his sister so that she would stop the bullshit, he focused his attention back on his wife to find her trying to ignore him.

  It’s like she didn’t know him at all, he thought with a sad shake of his head as he pulled her closer so that he could whisper in her ear. “You aren’t doing this, Marybeth.”

  “It’s not up to you, Darrin,” she whispered back.

  “You really think so? Because the last time I checked, it took two to make a baby.”

  “Just leave me alone,” she whispered, sounding exhausted and making him wonder if she’d spent the entire night missing him as much as he’d missed her.

  “You know that I can’t do that.”

  She shifted on his lap so that she could stare out the window and away from the curious stares of the rest of the bus’s occupants. Shooting them a glare that told them to mind their own fucking business, he shifted his attention back to his wife and said the one thing that had damn near killed him to accept.

  “Children just aren’t in the cards for us, Marybeth.”

  Chapter 35

  “You need to stop screwing with my brother’s head,” Kenzie announced as she sat down on the bench next to her while the others tried to figure out what rides Danny could go on without aggravating the old back injury he’d received courtesy of Uncle Sam and a bullet that had lodged itself a little too close to his spine.

  “And you need to mind your own business,” she said, instantly dismissing the woman who’d made it her personal mission to shove Marybeth out of Darrin’s life since the moment that she’d met the youngest Bradford, who’d made her feelings clear by chucking a juice box at Marybeth’s head.

  “He is my business,” Darrin’s overprotective sister said casually as they both watched Danny pull a blushing Jodi onto his lap and kissed her cheek.

  “Shouldn’t you be hovering over Danny with the rest of your siblings?” she asked, barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes as all the Bradford boys narrowed their eyes on the small woman making their older brother smile.

  “He doesn’t need my help.”

  “And neither does Darrin,” she shot back.

  “It would appear that he does,” Kenzie murmured with a slight tilt of her head, drawing Marybeth’s attention to the left where Darrin stood among his arguing brothers, watching her. “You need to let my brother go.”

  “Oh, but I already did,” she admitted as shifted her attention to the soda bottle in her hands.

  “Doesn’t look like you tried hard enough,” Kenzie said, taking the empty bottle from her hands and tossed it in the trash barrel next to her.

  “Oh, but I did,” she said dryly as she leaned back against the bench and watched her husband laugh at something Garret said.

  “Apparently not hard enough,” Kenzie pointed out with a mocking smile.

  “Apparently not,” she agreed with a nod as she held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger, showing off the Celtic wedding band that Darrin had placed on her finger only an hour ago after he’d stopped by one of the many stores located throughout the park and purchased it along with a matching ring for himself.

  Kenzie froze seconds before her eyes narrowed suspiciously on her. “Is this a joke?”

  “No.”

  “You really married my brother?”

  “I prefer to think of it as the time that I gave into blackmail, but yes, yes I did.”

  “How long ago?”

  “A little over three weeks now.”

  “I see,” Kenzie murmured th
oughtfully as she glanced over at her brothers.

  “I’m sure that you do now.”

  “Well,” Kenzie said, sighing heavily as she got to her feet, “that takes care of that I suppose.”

  “I suppose it does,” Marybeth agreed, wondering if this was going to change things between them now that she’d married Darrin.

  “Hurt my brother and I’ll break every bone in your body,” Kenzie said with a friendly smile and a wink as she sauntered off, leaving Marybeth slumping in her seat.

  Maybe not.

  *-*-*-*

  “Why exactly are we standing in this line?” he had to ask as he joined her in line for what was probably the most hated ride in the history of amusement parks.

  “I just needed a break,” she admitted with a sigh as she reached over and relieved him of the cold drink that he’d purchased for her while he did his best to block out the music playing over the sound system that still had the power to make shudder with dread even after all these years.

  “From…,” he prompted, taking back the cold soda and took a sip before he handed it back.

  Sighing heavily, she looked off. “From everything.”

  “That really narrows it down for me,” he said dryly, earning a mocking glare that had him smiling.

  “I just needed a break from the glares, looks of pity and your mother asking me if I knew any nice men that might be interested in you or Reese,” she said with a shrug as the line came to stop.

  He rubbed his hands roughly down his face. “I’m going to kill those meddling bastards.”

  “As you should,” she murmured in agreement as the line started to move again.

  For several minutes neither one of them said anything as they walked into companionable silence until finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and he had to ask.

  “What do I need to do to fix this, Marybeth?”

  She didn’t pretend to misunderstand him. “I don’t know that this can be fixed, Darrin.”

  “And why’s that?” he asked, placing his hands in his pockets to keep himself from grabbing her and shaking some sense into her.