“Oh, dear, I hope everything’s okay,” Mrs. MacArthur said, sounding worried as Reed stepped into the closet and waited for the cat to make his escape before he closed the door behind him.
“Everything’s fine,” he promised her as he watched the small woman that was definitely going to drive him crazy reach up and pull his zipper down.
“Do you think you’ll be in tomorrow?” she asked as he was forced to slap a hand against the wall when Joey wrapped her hand around him and-
“No, I’m afraid I’ll be out tomorrow as well,” he managed to get out as he watched Joey pull back and-
“And just in case, you might want to find a sub for Dr. Lawson tomorrow,” he managed to get out before he was forced to hang up the phone and grab onto the doorframe when Joey wrapped her hand back around him and showed him the benefits of taking another day off.
*-*-*-*
Friday
“What are you reading?”
“I’m not really sure,” she said, trying to make sense of the words in front of her as Reed slowly kissed his way up her spine.
“Sounds like a great book,” Reed said, chuckling as he kissed his way up to her neck.
“It is. It really is,” she readily agreed only to moan when he settled between her legs so that the very large appendage that she’d become well acquainted with over the past month and a half, brushed against her bottom.
“It looks it,” he said softly as he turned his head so that he could kiss her as he slowly ground the aforementioned appendage against her bottom and made her realize that she had plenty of time to read whatever this was later.
Much later.
Chapter 42
“This just isn’t going to work for me,” the woman that was quickly destroying what was left of his will to live said as he sat there, rubbing his temple as he willed the headache that had started seven interviews ago to go away.
“What’s not going to work?” Reed asked, immediately regretting the question as he dropped his hands away and sat back so that he could search his desk for something to get rid of this headache.
“This schedule,” the woman barely out of college said, not bothering to look up from her phone as she continued texting.
“What’s wrong with the schedule?” he absently asked as he searched his desk, hoping to find some Advil only to remember that he’d taken the last Advil after last month’s school board meeting.
“Well, for starters, it starts at seven-thirty in the morning,” she said with a heavy sigh as she shook her head with disgust while he shifted his attention to finding something, anything, with caffeine because there was no way in hell that he was going to survive this without caffeine.
“That’s when school starts,” he said, grabbing his bag with the hope that Joey packed a soda with his lunch today only to add killing the little bastard to his list when he found a sticky note with the word “Dibs” written across it sitting at the bottom of his empty lunch bag.
“I really can’t be expected to be able to teach that early,” she said with another sad shake of her head as she continued texting.
“And why’s that?” he asked, deciding to grab something from the cafeteria only to sigh when he saw what time it was and resigned himself to hitting the teacher’s lounge after the next interview instead.
“Because I won’t be able to function on less than nine hours of sleep,” the reason that he was starting to lose faith in humanity said.
“We start at seven,” he said, seriously tempted to let the school board handle the interviews only with his luck they’d end up hiring someone like the woman gawking at him.
“Seven?” she asked, only to snort in disgust as she furiously texted something on her phone.
“We start the morning meeting at seven,” he said as he shoved his bag aside and sat back in his chair with a sigh.
“Is this negotiable?” she said, shaking her head in disgust as she continued texting.
“No.”
“Then maybe we could talk about this salary?” she mumbled distractedly as she stopped texting to read something only to shake her head with a sigh and started texting again.
“It’s non-negotiable,” he said, drumming his fingertips against his desk as he glanced at the pile of work that he still needed to get through before he could call it a night only to smile when his gaze landed on the framed picture that he’d taken of Joey last week. She’d looked so fucking adorable curled up in his office, lost in another book, that he hadn’t been able to help himself.
“Well, it’s just that I have a bachelor’s degree in education and an associate’s in history. So, I just feel that with my qualifications that I should be earning more than what you’re offering,” she said, not bothering to look up from her phone.
“How much more were you thinking?” he asked absently, thinking about last week and just how much he’d needed it. It had been too damn long since he’d taken a day off and relaxed. It had probably been the best week of his life and it had everything to do with the woman that he’d realized that he couldn’t live without.
“At least ten thousand dollars,” she said, making his eyebrows arch.
“The woman currently filling this position has two Ph.D.’s, is published, and is a world-renowned professor at an ivy league university,” he said, wishing that he could offer the job to Joey since it would make things easier. But he’d never be able to offer her anything close to what she was worth, which meant that he was going to have to settle for one of the unqualified applicants making his life a living hell.
“What about five?” she asked, barely looking up from her phone to frown at him only to find himself drawn to the window to his left just in time to see Joey rush over to the table, yank up the tablecloth and-
“Get out.”
“What?” the woman that was never coming near his school again, said, barely looking up from her phone to frown at him.
“Thank you for coming,” he said, pushing away from his desk.
“Wait, the interview’s over? But we didn’t discuss my work history,” she said, sighing heavily as he headed for the door.
“Do you have any?” he asked absently as he opened the door and realized that Joey was already gone.
“Well, no, but-”
“Then it was nice meeting you,” he threw over his shoulder as he walked past his secretary trying to get his attention and the unqualified applicants filling the waiting area and decided to find out why Joey was bleeding.
*-*-*-*
“This can’t be happening,” Joey said, worrying her bottom lip as she did her best not to panic, but given the situation she actually felt that panicking was an acceptable response.
What the hell was she going to do? she couldn’t help but wonder as she pushed the door open and stepped outside. One thing was clear, Reed was going to kill her when he found out, she thought as she absently wiped the blood off her eyebrow. Not that this was her fault, she reminded herself as she headed towards the teachers’ parking lot. She should have-
“He’s over here!” Jen yelled, waving her hands in the air to draw Joey’s attention to the old oak tree that she’d hid in a time or two when she’d needed a few extra minutes to prepare herself for the bus ride home with angry hormonal teenagers.
“Oh, thank god,” Joey said, sighing with relief as she quickly made her way through the small parking lot and headed in their direction.
“Look, I’m really sorry, but it was an accident. I never would have done it if I’d known that Shawn was going to open the door,” Jen said, licking her lips nervously as she wrung her hands together. “But he’s fine and I already called my uncle to get him down.”
“Then why’s he in a tree?” Joey asked as she handed the mask that had sent poor Shawn running, back to Jen before she reached up and grabbed hold of a branch and pulled herself up.
It took a lot longer than she’d expected, but she eventually made her way to Shawn and realized that the tree was a lot b
igger than she remembered. Trying not to think about how high up they were, she settled herself on the branch next to Shawn and-
“Why can’t I be like everyone else?” he asked, glancing at her.
“What do you mean?” she asked as she glanced down, wondering how she was going to get him down from here without breaking their necks.
“You know what I mean.”
“I really don’t,” Joey said, shaking her head as she leaned back against the trunk with a sigh because Reed was definitely going to kill her.
“I ran,” he said, shaking his head as he reached up and wiped his eyes with the back of his hands.
“And if I didn’t need to lose at least twenty pounds I would have run, too,” she promised him, making his lips twitch.
“But, you’re not autistic,” he said weakly as he stared off towards the school.
“True,” she murmured in agreement, “but that’s what makes you special,” she said, repeating the same words that her grandmother used to make her feel better whenever she complained about being the only twelve-year-old in high school.
“I don’t want to be special.”
“Then what do you want to be?”
“I want to be like everyone else,” he said, absently toying with a small twig.
“Then you wouldn’t be Shawn,” she said, reaching over and brushing his hair out of his face.
“I could be someone else,” he mumbled with a shrug.
“And who would you be?” she asked, her heart breaking for him.
“I don’t know. Maybe someone like Mr. Bradford,” he said with a shrug, making her smile.
“So, you want to be incredibly handsome, smart, kind, and funny?” she asked with a teasing smile.
When he nodded, she said, “You already are, Shawn,” making him smile.
“You are an incredibly kind, sweet, funny, and very handsome boy, who still owes me a second castle with an ocean view,” she said, making his eyes narrow.
“We didn’t discuss a second castle.”
“Well, we’re discussing it now,” she said, making his lips twitch.
“Fine, but you’re only getting one moat,” he said, sighing heavily as he grabbed hold of her branch and started climbing down.
“That’s just not going to work for me,” she said, watching him as he quickly made his way down the tree.
“I’m still working on your town,” Shawn said when he safely reached the ground.
“Village, Shawn. We’ve discussed this. It’s a village and I’m going to need another one for my new castle,” Joey said, slowly exhaling as she reached over and grabbed onto the branch across from her, telling herself that this was a piece of cake.
She should have told herself something else, she realized a few seconds later when she misjudged the distance to the branch beneath her, slipped, and-
Decided that she was actually okay where she was at the moment.
“Are you okay?” Jen yelled up.
“Couldn’t be better,” she said, tightening her hold around the tree even as she decided that it would probably be for the best if she squeezed her eyes shut so that she wouldn’t have to see the ground rushing up towards her if the branch that she was currently straddling decided to give out.
“That’s definitely going to leave a mark,” she said with a sigh, deciding to add climbing trees to the list of the things that she was better off avoiding.
“It’s good to see that you haven’t changed, Joey,” someone said, making her frown as she risked opening her eyes to find a somewhat familiar looking man wearing a fireman’s uniform pulling himself up beside her.
“Do I know you?” she couldn’t help but ask only to decide that it was time to close her eyes again when the branch that was keeping her from falling to what promised to be a very painful death, shook.
“Aaron Gordon,” he said as she felt him examine the small cut on her eyebrow before he dropped his hand away. “We went to school together.”
“Oh,” she said lamely, really hoping that he wasn’t the type of man to hold a grudge, but just in case…
“I’m sorry,” she said, deciding that it would probably be for the best if she skipped the normal social pleasantries and got right to that five-step apology process and hope for the best.
“For what?” he asked as her branch continued to shake.
“Many things, but mainly for the unfortunate incident that caused the school to close for a week and-”
“That was you?” he asked, chuckling, which she took as a good sign that he wasn’t about to get revenge.
“Yes, yes, it was,” she said, tightening her hold on the tree trunk when more jostling ensued, threatening to make this a memorable reunion.
“I see,” he murmured, sounding amused.
“I’m sure that you do,” she said, starting to nod only to decide to stop when the move caused her queasy stomach to do things that she really didn’t want it to do.
“Is there a reason why my niece is holding a Freddy Kreuger mask?” he asked conversationally.
“Prank gone wrong,” Jen yelled up. “I found an old Kreuger mask in lost and found, couldn’t resist the temptation, hid in Dr. Lawson’s closet, and accidentally scared Shawn for which I will profusely apologize for. Now, about this incident that has my full attention. How exactly did you shut the school down for a whole week?”
“Never mind,” Aaron said, laughing as she felt a rope wrap around her waist. “Are you ready to get down now, Joey?”
“Yes, please,” she said, nodding only to frown when he followed that up with, “You’re going to have let go of the tree first.”
“I really don’t think that I can do that,” she said, making him chuckle.
“I promise I won’t drop you.”
She worried her bottom lip and shook her head because she really couldn’t-
“Let go, baby. I’ve got you,” Reed said as she felt his arm wrap around her.
Without a second thought, she let go.
“What happened to your forehead?” Reed asked as they slowly made their way down the tree.
“Discovered that I can’t run without tripping over my own two feet.”
“I thought you learned that lesson when you were ten,” he said, tightening his hold around her.
“I was hoping that I outgrew that phase.”
“You didn’t.”
“I know,” she mumbled sadly as they finally made it to the ground and-
“Where’s Jen?” she couldn’t help but wonder as she looked around and noted that the teenager that she was looking forward to tormenting with a ten-page paper was nowhere in sight.
“Praying for mercy,” Reed said, releasing her and-
“Run,” he said, making her frown.
“What?” she asked as she looked back at Reed and quickly decided that this was probably one of those times that she should keep her mouth shut and-
“Run.”
“Good idea,” she said, noting that the muscle in his jaw had already started to tick as she began to make her way back to the school only to turn around, go up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek with a murmured, “Thank you,” before she turned right back around, grabbed Shawn’s hand, and headed back to school, missing that smile that would have told her everything she needed to know.
He loved her.
Chapter 43
“So, who is it?” Matt asked while Joey sat there, struggling to stay awake.
“Who are we talking about?” she asked, giving up on trying to stay awake and folded her arms around the large book on ancient civilizations that she’d helped herself to from the school’s library and closed her eyes.
“Reed’s mystery woman.”
“There’s no mystery woman,” Joey mumbled into the book that she’d planned on reading to keep her mind off the fact that she wasn’t going on the field trip today. Not that she wanted to go on the field trip, because she didn’t, she told herself as she did her best not to pout.
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She’d been looking forward to going on her first field trip but ended up having to change her mind when she found out that Shawn wouldn’t be able to go since his mother couldn’t get the day off. Joey volunteered to be his field trip buddy so that he could go, but there weren’t enough chaperones to make that possible. So, she’d decided to switch places with John so that Shawn wouldn’t have to stay behind alone.
“Then you do know who it is,” Matt said, sounding intrigued.
“Please don’t make me kill you,” Joey said with a pathetic whimper, wondering why he wouldn’t just let her sleep.
“At first, I thought it was some bar bunny, but then I remembered who we were talking about here and realized that there was something more to it,” he explained.
“Uh huh,” she mumbled sleepily.
“Then he went out of his way to sneak her in here when I was out back in the shop working every night. That got me thinking, she’s either a teacher or a parent, which makes the most sense since he never goes out,” Matt murmured, sounding thoughtful and making her sigh.
“It’s me,” Joey said, hoping that would be enough to get him to shut up so that she could sleep.
“Sure it is,” the little bastard said with a condescending pat on the head and a sigh.
“It is,” Joey said, raising her head to glare at him to find Garrett, who looked like he’d had another run-in with their mystery neighbor across the street, running his hands roughly down his mud-splattered face with a “You really can’t be this fucking stupid,” as he headed back towards the back door. For a moment, she considered following him, but even the prospect of finally finding out who their mystery neighbor was, wasn’t enough to temp her into getting up.
“So, who do you think it is?” Matt asked, ignoring them.
“I give up,” Joey said, dropping her head back onto her folded arms with a sigh.
She considered going upstairs and crawling back in bed and passing out, but she didn’t have the energy to move. Not after last night. They’d made love against his truck, in the back of his truck before they came home and made out in his truck, against the front door, on the stairs, against his bedroom door before moving to the bed where he’d made love to her one last time before he’d carried her into the shower where he’d taken his time caressing her. Once he’d had her boneless and ready to fall into a coma, he’d given her a quick kiss and a playful slap on her butt and told her to get ready for work.
The Promise (Neighbor from Hell Book 10) Page 22
