Misunderstood (A Neighbor from Hell YA #1) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,12

a Christmas party at his house a few years ago.

“He’s here for Mikey,” Jessica said only to add, “You make me sad sometimes,” with a sad shake of her head before heading off to catch up with her friends.

“That’s not true!” Mathew called after his sister. “He misses me!”

“He really doesn’t,” Mikey threw over her shoulder as she hurried across the street and headed toward her best friend, noting the strain around his eyes as he reached into his sweatshirt pocket and pulled out a baseball. Without a word, he tossed it to her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, absently catching the ball and began rolling it between her hands.

Sebastian released a shuddering sigh as he shoved his hands into his sweatshirt pocket and sadly mumbled, “I just missed Mathew so much.”

“Really?” Mathew asked, grinning hugely as he joined them.

Chuckling, Sebastian said, “No,” making his little brother narrow his eyes on him as Mathew headed toward the fields where a game of touch football was already underway.

“You know you missed me!” Mathew threw over his shoulder as he ditched them.

“What’s going on?” Mikey asked as they cut across the park.

“Nothing,” Sebastian said, shaking his head as they made their way toward the picnic tables at the back of the park.

“Did I ever tell you how much I loved it when you lied to me?” she asked with a heartfelt sigh as she hopped up onto the bench and jumped onto his back.

“What makes you think I’m lying to you?” Sebastian asked, pausing to grab hold of her legs and shifted her higher before heading toward the sidewalk.

“Because I know you,” Mikey pointed out as she laid her chin on his shoulder.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” he said, sounding amused as he carried her down the street toward their houses.

“It really did though,” she said, wondering when he was going to realize that it would make things easier if he just told her what she wanted to know.

Sometimes he was just so damn difficult…

“It really didn’t,” he said when they reached her driveway.

“I’ll find out eventually,” Mikey reminded him as he headed toward her house.

“There’s nothing to find out,” he said, lowering her to the ground when they reached the back door and moved to place his hands back in his pocket, but not before she saw the dried blood staining the back of his hand.

“What the hell happened to your hand?” Mikey demanded as she grabbed his hand only to have him pull it away with a muttered, “Nothing,” as he turned around to leave, for some reason thinking that she would just let it go. He had a lot to learn, Mikey decided as she grabbed his other hand and dragged him inside, noting that the normally busy kitchen was empty.

“It’s nothing,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as Mikey released his hand so that she could drop her backpack on the floor and pull her sweatshirt off, watching his every move the entire time with a look that dared him to try to leave again.

When he only stood there, she narrowed her eyes on him until he got the hint and pulled off his sweatshirt. As soon as his sweatshirt was hung on a peg, Mikey was dragging him through the insanely large kitchen that Reese had built for her mother. Her stepfather had his eye on this house for a long time, but it wasn’t until he’d fallen in love with her mother that he’d decided to buy it. He’d torn the house apart to its frame, redesigned the layout, combining the old kitchen, pantry, and dining room into her mother’s dream kitchen with a customized kitchen island, two commercial refrigerators, multiple ovens, and enough cabinet space to make all of her mother’s cooking fantasies come true.

Once the first set of twins were born, her mother had taken advantage of all the extra workspace and started her own catering company to compliment her online recipe business, KaseyCooks.com. Reese had offered to build her mom a separate building for her catering business, but her mom had loved being able to spend time with Mikey when she was little and wanted to be able to do the same with the boys.

So, her stepfather had built a small play area in the corner of the kitchen for the boys and added a large bathroom, which made it convenient for interrogating teenage boys. With that in mind, Mikey threw the bathroom door open, dragged Sebastian inside and leveled a glare on him. “Start talking,” she