Finally (Neighbor from Hell #12) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,69

for the office door.

“Because we all have a set of working eyes,” T.J. said with a pointed look as Charlie walked into the shop, ignoring the red line marking the floor, plucked the coffee roll out of Devin’s hands and gestured for him to get back to work as she said, “I need pictures.”

When Devin continued to stand there, she locked eyes with him and finished off his coffee roll, making yummy sounds while she did it as he narrowed his eyes on her. “That was so good.”

Nodding slowly, Devin said, “I want to see other people.”

“And you can do that just as soon as I get my pictures,” Charlie said, gesturing for him to get on with it.

“No,” Devin said evenly as he glared down at the evil woman who’d stolen his precious baked good.

“You promised,” she pointed out, once again gesturing for him to get on with it.

“Looks like I’m breaking my promise.”

“Are you sure that you really want to do that?” she asked with a pitying look that had him grinding his teeth.

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Devin said, glaring down at the small woman as he waited for her to tell him what happened with Kelly.

“Fine. I’ll get them later when the kids are here,” Charlie said, shrugging it off as she turned around and headed back to the office only to stop with a heavy sigh when he said, “Do you have something that you want to tell me?”

“My ten o’clock has a big mouth?” Charlie offered as she turned around to face him.

“You manhandled me, woman!” T.J. snapped in outrage.

Blinking, she said, “And you should be thankful that I didn’t charge extra for that.”

Sighing heavily, Devin ran his hands roughly down his face as he muttered, “You’re not a whore.”

“Please don’t try to limit me,” the woman that was driving him crazy, said.

“Don’t make me spank you,” he said, dropping his hands away.

“That’ll cost extra,” Charlie pointed out with a nod, making his lips twitch.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” he asked, reaching over and cupped her face in his hands.

“And ruin my street cred? I don’t think so,” Charlie said, sighing heavily as she stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss before once again heading back to their office.

Devin watched her walk away as he asked, “Should I fire her?”

“Who?” T.J. asked, walking over to check out the designs for the kitchen cart that Devin had been working on since he saw that she’d bookmarked a page on kitchen cats in one of his magazines.

He was building this one for Charlie, but it had given him an idea. He was curious to see what he could do with kitchen furniture, something that he’d been toying with doing for a few years now. His cousin Reese was coming in next week to show him a few of his designs so that Devin could see what he could do with them. It should be interesting, he thought as he said, “Kelly.”

“I wouldn’t. Charlie handled herself and she doesn’t really seem all that upset about it,” T.J. pointed out.

True, but…

He really wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to let this go.

*-*-*-*

“Your father’s going to kill me,” Charlie said hollowly, wondering if it had always been this difficult to breathe.

“We’ll miss you,” Abbi said with the biggest smile that Charlie had ever seen as she carefully cuddled the rabbit that Devin was going to kill her for.

She still wasn’t sure how it happened.

One minute, she was telling the kids that she had to stop by the post office to drop something off and the next…

“Your father’s going to kill me,” Charlie mumbled again, hoping that one of the kids would tell her that she was worrying over nothing.

They didn’t.

No, what they did was continue snuggling and pet the bunny that was going to get her killed. This was bad. This was very bad, Charlie thought even as she glanced around her apartment, looking for somewhere to hide the large cage that the pet store owner had managed to talk her into buying and-

This wasn’t going to work.

She opened her mouth to suggest that they bring the bunny back only to end up closing it with a groan when Abbi said, “I love my bunny,” damning Charlie to hell.

“We should keep her in the living room,” Dustin said, reaching over to run his hand over the bunny’s white back while she nudged her light grey face against Abbi’s hand, demanding more carrots while Charlie