Double Dare (Neighbor from Hell 6)

“Do you want to move to another table?” Reese asked when Trevor suddenly grabbed Zoe from her chair and dragged her onto his lap.

“I already tried that,” he admitted, nodding his thanks when the waitress placed a cold bottle of beer in front of him. “They followed me.”

Reese chuckled as he sipped his beer. “Is Danny coming?”

“No, his girlfriend is making him dinner tonight,” he said, hating the fact that he was jealous of his brother, especially since Danny deserved some happiness after all the bullshit life had put him through.

“Have you met her yet?” Reese asked, grabbing the small appetizer’s menu positioned between the ketchup and barbeque sauce bottles in the middle of their table.

“No,” he said, shaking his head as he signaled for the waitress.

“Aidan and Uncle Jared can’t say enough nice things about her,” Reese said, looking over the menu.

“That’s because she bakes for them,” he pointed out.

“There is that,” Reese said, his lips twitching with amusement as he gestured to the appetizer menu as the waitress stopped by their table and pulled a small notepad out of her apron. “Four of everything, please.”

“Better make it five if you want the girls to get anything,” Darrin said, gesturing towards Haley and Zoe, who seemed completely besotted with the bastards holding them.

“I’ll put those orders right in,” the waitress said with a smile, not even batting an eye at their request, more than used to dealing with Bradfords and their appetites.

“Did you run a background check on her?” Reese asked once their waitress walked away.

Darrin chuckled as he took a sip of his beer. “Three months ago. You?”

Grinning, Reese nodded as he finished off his beer and signaled for another one. “Dad asked me to do it four months ago,” he admitted ruefully as he grabbed another handful of peanuts.

He wasn’t exactly surprised since their father couldn’t seem to stop worrying about their older brother. Their father was always fretting over Danny, worried that he wasn’t eating enough, that he wasn’t taking care of himself or that he was in pain and wasn’t telling anyone. Darrin worried about his brother, they all did, but they were free to worry about him. Their father on the other hand…

Had seriously fucked up and couldn’t seem to stop fucking up. He was terrified of saying or doing something to push Danny away and Darrin got that, probably more than anyone given his situation with Marybeth, but it was a mistake. His father needed to stop fucking around and face the past before it was too late. When the two of them finally handled this they would probably come to blows, but that was to be expected.

“You grabbing an extra shift tomorrow?” Reese asked, thankfully steering the conversation away from their father and all the other bullshit that he didn’t want to think about tonight.

“No,” he said, shaking his head as he sat back when the waitress walked over with a tray overflowing with cheese fries and Buffalo wings, “I’m going to take a day off and catch up on some sleep before I crash.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Reese agreed as he sat back so that the waitress could place the first part of their order on the table.

He considered suggesting that his brother do the same, but then he rethought it when he realized that would mean that his brother would end up having to spend more time with Missy, a fate that he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy.

“You want to catch a movie tomorrow or are you planning to spend the day lounging in bed with Marybeth?” Reese asked, earning a pointed glare from him and a swift kick beneath the table just in case his brother didn’t get the message.

“Why the hell are you kicking me?” Reese demanded with a glare of his own.

“Because you have a big fucking mouth!” he snapped, tempted to kick his brother again just for the hell of it.

Rolling his eyes, Reese grabbed a plate overflowing with fries, cheese and bacon and pulled it in front of him. “They already know,” he said with a careless shrug as he grabbed a fry and shoved it in his mouth.

“He’s right,” Jason suddenly said as the bastard reached over and snagged the Buffalo wings, “we do.”

“Everyone does,” Trevor added with a shrug as he reached over and stole Darrin’s beer.

Admittedly stunned, he looked over at his cousins for confirmation. Zoe shrugged as she reached over and stole a fry off his plate. “He’s right.”

“We’ve known for years,” Haley admitted as she pushed her glasses back up her nose and also stole one of his fries.

“How?” he asked, throwing a murderous glare at his brother, wondering if the bastard opened his big mouth and-

“I walked in on the two of you kissing in your mother’s kitchen a few years ago,” Zoe announced with a shrug.

“Me, too,” Haley said as she took another fry.

“Same here,” Jason said around a mouthful of fries.

“I walked into the backyard and found you bending Marybeth over the picnic table and-”

With a heavy sigh, he said, “I get the point,” cutting his cousin off and making him wonder how long it would be before Marybeth figured out that their little secret wasn’t such a secret anymore and tried to use it to push him away.

Chapter 9

Would this night never end? he wondered as he tossed his keys and wallet on the bureau and asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”

With a wild look in his eye, Aidan looked up at him before quickly glancing back down at the sleeping woman curled up against him. “Nothing,” he said slowly as he carefully picked up a half-empty bag of Hershey Kisses and moved it away from Marybeth. “What are you doing?” Aidan asked, sneaking a glance down at Marybeth as he grabbed a handful of Kisses and frantically unwrapped them before shoving them in his mouth.

“Checking up on her,” he said, conveniently leaving out the fact that he was planning on taking a shower and climbing in bed with Marybeth as soon as Aidan left.

“Me too,” Aidan agreed distractedly as he rushed to unwrap another handful of Kisses while he kept glancing down at Marybeth, looking as though he expected her to wake up and go for his balls at any second.

“Is that her tampon stash?” he asked, nodding towards the chocolate that his brother was currently devouring.

Aidan froze mid-chew. “Maybe?”

“Shit,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked at the television and nearly groaned when he saw the Lifetime channel emblem flash at the bottom of the screen. This wasn’t good. Lifetime movie/chocolate binges were usually reserved for when he’d fucked up and seriously pissed her off.