Finally (Neighbor from Hell #12) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,17
when he saw the first photo of the kids sitting next to him on the bed, giving a thumbs up. The second picture was of Dustin lying across his back, smiling. Another of him surrounded by dinosaurs, one of him with his daughter’s pink princess tiara on his head, one of his son kissing his cheek, one of his daughter kissing his cheek, and one of-
Charlie sitting on his bedroom floor with Dustin and Abbi sitting on her lap, smiling. For a moment, Devin simply stood there, staring down at the picture until he found himself murmuring, “Thank you,” as he saved the picture into his favorites folder.
Chapter 7
At least he wasn’t glaring anymore, Charlie thought, only to bite back a sigh when Devin looked up from whatever T.J. was showing him to narrow his eyes on her.
Great.
Giving up on trying to figure out what she did to piss him off, Charlie shifted to get more comfortable on her new lounge chair as she reached over and grabbed her glass off the small patio table that she’d purchased along with this lounge chair this morning to help her enjoy what was quickly becoming her favorite part about this apartment. She’d never had a deck before, but now, she was definitely hooked, she absently thought as she took a sip of her drink while she watched the man that really seemed to love to glare as he pulled himself back up the tree that they were building a tree house in and-
“I thought you were trying to save money,” came the heavily sighed complaint that drew her attention to the man who really didn’t seem to know what he was doing to find him running his hand through his meticulously cut jet-black hair as he released a frustrated sigh.
“And I did,” Charlie said, taking another sip before she gestured to all the patio furniture that she’d purchased this morning along with the gas grill that didn’t look like it was going to be finished anytime soon before adding, “All this stuff was half off.”
“I don’t understand why they couldn’t put this together at the store,” Ben said, sighing as he tried to make sense out of the directions that came in the box.
“It would have cost twenty more dollars,” she pointed out as she gestured for him to get back to work.
With a grumble, Ben shifted his attention back to the directions in his hands as she glanced over to watch as Dustin chased his sister around the large backyard, trying to show her something in his hand. They were so damn cute, Charlie thought as she found herself glancing back at the tree surrounded by tools and stacks of wood and-
“He looks pissed,” Ben pointed out as she once again found Devin glaring at her.
“He really does, doesn’t he?” Charlie murmured thoughtfully as she watched Devin continue to glare at her as he reached down and grabbed the board that T.J. was handing up to him.
“What did you do?” Ben asked, making her frown as she glanced back to find Ben trying to figure out how to attach the two metal bars in his hands.
“What makes you think that I did something?” Charlie asked, even though she’d been wondering the same thing.
Last night, he’d thanked her for watching his children before gathering them in his arms and brought them upstairs to tuck them in only to come back a few hours later when they snuck back downstairs and crawled back in her bed. That’s when the glaring started or rather, resumed. That had been followed by glaring at her when she made muffins for the kids and offered him one, which led to her deciding to go check out the end of summer sales at the mall, hoping that he’d grow tired of glaring at her by the time she came back.
He didn’t.
No, that short break seemed to rejuvenate his glaring skills. She’d barely had a chance to open the hatch on the back of her SUV when he was there, glaring at her until she stepped aside so that he could unload her car for her. When Ben showed up a few minutes later, mostly because she may have lied to her best friend and offered to make him lunch if he came over, he’d shot her one last glare before tossing the patio chair to Ben, who really needed to work on his reflexes, before heading back inside.
“Because I know you?” Ben said with a look that told