Finally (Neighbor from Hell #12) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,38

rinsing cup only to sigh heavily when he beat her to it.

“Why do you say that?” Devin asked as he filled the cup with water and gestured for her to tilt her head back.

“Because she doesn’t like Charlie,” Dustin said, making him frown.

“What makes you think she doesn’t like Charlie?” he asked, curious because he’d asked Charlie about what happened again when he’d helped her inside. She’d told him that it was an accident, but he didn’t believe her.

He also couldn’t prove that it wasn’t, which meant that he couldn’t fire Kelly.

“I just don’t trust her, Daddy,” Dustin said, shrugging as he selected another rubber ducky.

He didn’t trust Kelly either and he wasn’t particularly fond of her, but as long as she stayed out of his way and did her job, he didn’t care. She was good at her job, which was the only reason that he hadn’t fired her. He would have fired her today, but Charlie told him that it was no big deal and…

He couldn’t fire someone just because he didn’t like her. It wasn’t right to fuck with someone’s life like that. As long as she did her job and stayed away from Charlie, then he’d leave it alone, but if she ever made Charlie cry again, nothing would save her.

Chapter 18

December

“I thought you were planning on moving back into your office,” the man that really needed to learn how to focus, said as he moved to hang her Indiana Jones poster on the wall by the window only to sigh and climb back off the stepladder when she pointed at the other wall.

“I was, but then I decided that it would be in my best interest to stay here,” Charlie said as she slowly turned her chair around, looking for the perfect spot to hang her television.

“Because Devin refused to let you leave and turned your office into a storage room so that you couldn’t go back up there?”

Nodding, she said, “There is that, but I also realized that staying here made the most sense. I have a bigger office, two incredibly adorable part-time assistants, a shorter walk to my car, my mail is delivered right to my desk, and-”

“And you don’t have to worry about the woman that you pissed off pushing you down a flight of stairs?” Ben correctly guessed as he carried the stepladder to the other side of the room.

“That may have been a deciding factor,” Charlie murmured in agreement as she found herself watching Devin as he worked.

“Does she still glare when she sees you?” Ben asked, climbing on the ladder and carefully hung the framed poster of Indiana Jones on one of the nails that she’d managed to talk Devin into putting up for her.

“No, now she smiles,” she said, unable to help but notice just how good Devin looked in his Bradford Creations’ shirt today.

“Oh, that’s not so bad,” Ben said, climbing back down the ladder only to sigh and carry the ladder back across the room when she absently pointed at the Slytherin poster that wasn’t going to hang itself.

“It’s actually somehow more terrifying,” Charlie mumbled absently as she watched Devin work until she realized what she was doing and found herself sighing as she continued to turn around in her chair.

“Tell me something,” Ben said as he adjusted the framed poster on the wall.

“What’s that?” she asked, unable to help but notice that her television would go nicely on the wall to her right if she moved her computer monitor to the other side of her desk.

“When are we going to finally have that talk?”

“And what talk is that?” Charlie asked as she debated switching her desk with Devin’s so that she wouldn’t have to move her monitor to the other side only to decide against it since she liked watching the kids play while she was working. It also made it easier to help Dustin with his sight words and go over the alphabet while she kept on Abbi to make sure that she wasn’t trying to lure squirrels through the window so that she could have finally have some fluffiness in her life.

“You have something that you want to tell me?” Ben said as he climbed off the ladder and grabbed her Iron Man poster.

“I love you?” Charlie said as she reached down and released the hidden latch on her desk.

“You worship me,” Ben said with a heartfelt sigh.

“If that’s what you need to tell yourself at night so that you can sleep,” Charlie