Finally (Neighbor from Hell #12) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,9

since she really doesn’t seem to know what she’s do-”

“Charlie’s in charge of the website,” he repeated, cutting her off as he made his way downstairs and headed towards the glass wall that cut across the back. It had been the first thing that he’d installed when he bought the building so that his children would have a safe place to play while he worked. He’d divided the large room in half, using one side for his office and the other half for the kids’ playroom so that he could keep an eye on them.

He opened his office door and sighed when he stepped on a pile of Legos. After a glance at his watch, he made quick work of picking up all the toys that had found their way onto his side and tossed them back into the playroom before he grabbed his toolbelt and headed to the computer Charlie set up for them so that he could check which orders needed to go out today.

“How did the meeting go?” T.J. asked as he joined him by the back table.

“They want to hold Dustin back,” Devin said, still trying to figure out how he was going to fix this. Dustin was insanely bright. His teacher kept stressing it over and over again even as she told him that they would have no choice but to keep him back.

Dustin couldn’t read and wasn’t learning his ABCs like the rest of the children and Abbi…

God, he didn’t know what he was going to do about his baby girl. She was determined to make sure that her brother wasn’t left behind, which apparently meant refusing to do her classwork as long as Dustin struggled with his. They wanted to split the twins up and put them in different classrooms, but he didn’t think that would go over well.

He had until May to get Dustin caught up with the rest of the children or they were going to have to talk about other options, including the possibility of putting Dustin in a remedial class. Devin was already doing all the things they’d recommended to help Dustin catch up with the rest of the class. Every day, he worked with Dustin on his homework, went over the alphabet with him, used flashcards, and read a story to him every night. He had no idea what else he was supposed to do to fix this.

“It’s only October and they’re already talking about keeping him behind?” T.J. asked, frowning as he pulled out his phone and-

“What did you do?” T.J. asked, lips twitching as he read something on his phone.

“What are you talking about?” Devin asked as he pulled up today’s orders.

“Just wondering if there was a reason why Charlie was threatening to commit violence if I touched her desk,” his best friend said, looking amused as he slid his phone back in his pocket.

“It’s flawed,” Devin bit out as he angrily scrolled through their orders, wondering why she was being so goddamn stubborn about this. He’d offered to build her a new desk, a better desk, but instead of thanking him, the ungrateful woman had pushed him out of her office and told him to keep his damn hands off her desk.

“She loves that desk,” T.J. murmured absently as he pointed at something on the screen. “That went fast.”

“What went fast?” Devin asked, still debating making her another fucking desk just to piss her off for banning him from her office.

“Charlie barely had a chance to put it online before someone grabbed it,” T.J. said, pointing towards the order for the armoire that he’d finished yesterday.

“You priced it for ten?” he asked, noting that it was an international order.

“Probably could have got fifteen for it,” T.J. said, sighing as he glanced over his shoulder at the armoire that they were going to have to put in a crate. “Charlie’s going to be heartbroken.”

“Why’s that?” Devin absently asked as he clicked on the order to make sure that everything was right before he accepted the offer.

“I think it was love at first sight. She asked how much it was and looked torn when I told her that you’d probably sell it to her for five,” T.J. said as Devin looked over his shoulder at the armoire that had taken him a month to build and would make him a small fortune.

“She liked it?” Devin asked as he stepped away from the computer.

“More like loved it,” T.J. said, chuckling as he took over Devin’s spot to make