Finally (Neighbor from Hell #12) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,18
her that it was more than obvious that she’d done something to piss off the man that she was almost ninety percent sure was still glaring at her.
“That hurts, Benjamin,” Charlie said with a sad shake of her head as she picked up her iPad and returned her attention to the article on small business accounting that she was trying to get through.
“The truth hurts.”
“So would throwing this iPad at your head,” she pointed out as she wiggled her toes, enjoying what was probably going to be the last warm weather they had before fall hit.
There was another grumble and then, “Are you planning on helping me?”
“I’d only get in the way,” Charlie pointed out as she swiped to the next page and-
“Charlie, look what I found!” came the excited announcement that had her looking up in time to watch as Dustin came running up the small stairway with his hand held out only to accidentally knock over her table, sending her glass flying in the process before she could grab it.
The sound of glass crunching followed by a small gasp had her moving, she was off the lounge chair and had Dustin in her arms before the first tear had a chance to roll down his face.
“Shhh, it’s okay,” Charlie said, trying not to panic as she turned around and placed him down on her chair.
“I-It was an accident,” Dustin managed to get out through sobs as she leaned down and felt her stomach drop when she saw the thick piece of glass stuck in the bottom of his shoe.
Forcing her trembling hands to work, Charlie quickly untied his small sneaker as she absently mumbled, “It’s fine, Dustin. Accidents happen,” and carefully pulled his shoe off and-
Felt her shoulders sag with relief when she spotted his pristine white sock covering his small foot.
“You’re okay,” she said, giving him a warm smile as she leaned over and kissed his forehead.
“I’m sorry,” Dustin mumbled softly, making her chuckle.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I didn’t like that glass anyway,” Charlie lied even as she made a mental note to hop onto eBay later and see if she could find another glass with the Slytherin symbol on it.
“Oh, shit…” came the weakly whispered words that had her frowning before Dustin was suddenly plucked off the chair.
Sighing, Charlie looked up to tell Devin that his son was okay, but the look on his face…
Really freaking scared her, especially when he handed Dustin off to T.J., who wasn’t looking so good right now, and followed that up by reaching down and picking her up and placing her on the chair. She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong when the second, “Oh, shit…” drew her attention and had her turning her head to see what was wrong when Devin reached over and stopped her.
“It will be okay,” he said, gently caressing her cheek, but something, mostly Ben’s next, “Oh, shit…” told her that it definitely wasn’t going to be okay.
Then again, Abbi’s hysterical sobs and Dustin’s, “Where did all that blood come from?” clued her into the fact that something was very wrong.
“What’s going on?” Charlie asked, trying not to panic as Devin looked down at the bottom of her foot and clenched his jaw as another, “Oh, shit…” drew her attention to the left and-
“Oh, my god…” Charlie found herself weakly whispering when she saw all the blood covering the deck right around the time that she became aware of the pain tearing through her left foot.
She probably would have been okay if Ben hadn’t followed that up with another, “Oh, shit…”
Chapter 8
“You know, it’s probably nothing. I’ll just go home and put a band-aide on it,” Charlie said absently as her hold around his arm tightened right around the time that she decided to bury her face against his arm, whimper, and mumble, “Oh, god,” when his cousin Aidan reached for the first syringe.
“I’m afraid that you’re going to need stitches,” Aidan said with an apologetic smile as he sat there debating how he was going to pull out the thick pieces of glass stuck in Charlie’s foot as the woman in question began shaking her head with a, “I don’t want to do this,” as her hold on him somehow tightened.
“It will be over before you know it,” Devin promised her even as he shot his cousin a glare that told him what would happen if he fucked this up.