Finally (Neighbor from Hell #12) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,24

Devin didn’t say anything, she decided that it would probably be a good time to stop talking. Well, that and the fact that she was close to crying. God, her foot really hurt, Charlie thought as she carefully rolled over onto her side, shifting her injured foot so that it was resting on her other foot. She slowly exhaled as she slid her trembling hand under her pillow and grabbed hold of the sheet while she took a shaky breath.

Knowing just how close she was to crying, Charlie said, “Thank you for helping me,” hoping that he would take that as the excuse that he needed to leave so that she could-

“God, you really are a pain in the ass,” Devin said, not really sounding all that happy about something that Ben learned to accept when they were little as she watched him leave.

“What are you doing?” she couldn’t help but ask a few seconds later when he walked back into her apartment carrying a chair.

“You should have been more careful,” Devin said, sounding pissed as he placed the chair next to her bed, sat down, and glared as he reached over and pulled her hand free so that he could wrap his hand around it.

“Didn’t exactly do this on purpose,” Charlie said, squeezing his hand as she tried to breathe through the pain, wondering when that painkiller that he’d forced her to take was going to finally kick in and put her out of her misery.

There was a pause and then…

“Why did you do it?” he asked, sounding curious as he absently ran his thumb over the back of her hand.

“Do what?” Charlie absently asked, wondering if he had any idea just how good his touch felt.

“The glass. Why did you do that for Dustin?”

“Why wouldn’t I do that for him? He’s my B.F.F.,” Charlie said, watching as his lips twitched.

“I had noticed that you’ve stolen my son,” Devin said, chuckling as she closed her eyes even as she had to admit that he had an incredibly sexy smile.

“He’s everything that I could ask for in a B.F.F.,” Charlie murmured sleepily, noting that the pill was finally starting to work.

There was a pause and then, “What about Ben?”

“Shhh, we do not speak his name,” she whispered softly.

“I see and how long have you and he who must not be named been friends?” he asked, making her lips twitch.

“Since we were five and we decided to run away,” Charlie mumbled around a yawn.

“Run away from what?” Devin asked, continuing to gently caress her hand.

“Our evil foster mom,” she said, unable to help but smile for poor Mrs. Manford, who’d had no idea what she’d gotten herself into by taking them both in.

“You grew up in foster care?” came the curious question.

“Sort of,” Charlie said, smiling as she explained, “We were both placed in this foster home with this woman that didn’t know what she was getting into when she agreed to take both of us in. It was Christmas time and she didn’t have a Christmas tree, so we took it upon ourselves to go find one during a blizzard.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan,” he drawled as she felt his hand tighten around hers. “What happened?”

“Well, we made it all the way across the street before we realized that it was too cold to find a Christmas tree in our pajamas. That was followed by deciding that it was too late to turn back and that we were going to have to live the rest of our lives in an igloo. But, thankfully, Grandma Bea spotted us trying to build an igloo in her front yard and decided that it would probably be for the best if she took us inside before we froze to death.”

“How did your foster mom handle it when she realized that you were gone?”

“She may have umm, had a nervous breakdown for which we apologized once the paramedics assured us that she couldn’t break out of her restraints,” Charlie explained, really thankful that the EMTs had doubled the restraints since Mrs. Manford had seemed determined to wring their necks for scaring the hell out of her.

Not that Charlie blamed her, because she really couldn’t.

“And Grandma Bea…”

“Was a retired high school principal as it turned out who had a soft spot for troublemakers. After she got us cleaned up, she sat us down with some hot cocoa and some sugar cookies and explained how important it was to follow the rules. That was followed by