Playing for Keeps (Neighbor from Hell 1)

He paused near her carriage ignoring her cute little glare and dumped all his things into her basket.

"Hey!" she said, trying to stop him. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I need more room in my carriage for food," he simply said. He headed towards the dairy section, hoping she wouldn't just ditch his shit to get back at him. Then again she should know that if she did he would take it as an invitation to walk around na**d the entire week.

"Why do you need bubble bath?" she asked as she came up next to him in front of the dairy coolers.

He placed two gallons of milk in the carriage. "It's for you," he said in a tone that let her know it should be more than obvious. His little grasshopper loved taking long hot bubble baths to relax and he really needed her to relax if he was going to convince her to forgive him and forget about that breakup nonsense.

"O-kay," she said slowly, picking up a familiar black cardboard box. "And what about these? A twenty pack and magnum size no less, someone thinks awfully highly of himself."

Sighing, Jason reached over and snatched the box of condoms out of her hands. "Only one box? I thought I grabbed three," he murmured, making a show of looking in her carriage for the other boxes. Finally with a resigned sigh he threw the box back. "Remind me to grab a few boxes on the way out."

With that he headed over to the cookie section, knowing she was definitely going to follow this time.

"Why the hell would I remind you? We're not going need one box, never mind three!"

Jason really couldn't help but smile at that little announcement. "Okay," he said, grabbing the box of condoms and sticking it on the top shelf between some figs and jelly cookies. "I was hoping you'd say that."

The damage had already been done last night. Granted if it had been any other woman he would have dragged her ass to the emergency room for the morning after pill, but with Haley he felt oddly calm about the whole thing. Actually, he felt a little excited at the idea of Haley having his child.

Up until a few hours ago he hadn't given much thought to the consequences of last night. He'd been too scared that he'd lost Haley for good to really give it some thought, but once he found himself squeezed into his little hiding place he hadn't had much to do but think.

When he allowed himself to consider having a kid he may have freaked out just a little. Thankfully Haley had been blasting the radio so she probably didn't hear him hyperventilating. After he finally managed to calm down he allowed himself to think about Haley pregnant with his child. He'd been a little shocked when the idea didn't freak him out.

Soon he was picturing little girls with mischievous green eyes and pigtails asking him to play tea. Of course he'd bring real food to the tea party. None of that pretend food bullshit for his little girls.

By the time Haley had stopped for breakfast he'd been calmer about everything. He'd already decided to ignore that breakup nonsense. It was just ridiculous and he knew sooner or later Haley would realize that so they could get started on making their all girl baseball team.

"You were?" Haley asked, looking so damn confused and adorable.

"Damn straight," he said, grabbing several cookie packages and tossing them into his carriage. "Nothing should come between us when we're making love," he explained, loving the way her little face went bright red.

"We're not doing that again!" she hissed quietly.

Not doing it again? Puhlease. If there was one thing he knew about his little grasshopper it was that she was as insatiable in the bedroom as he was. He'd have her in his bed by the end of the day, guaranteed.

Chapter 21

"Can I have my keys back?" Haley asked, holding out her hand expectantly just as Jason placed the last bag in the back seat.

"Nope," he said, making the word pop, stepping past her and climbing into the driver's seat.

Sighing, Haley climbed into the passenger side, knowing there was no point in arguing with him and she really didn't have the energy. All she wanted to do was find the cottage, take a bath and sleep for the next day or two.

She pulled her hand away when Jason tried to hold it. Instead of arguing he acted like nothing happened and focused on the printed driving directions. After a few minutes he took her hand into his again.

After a two minute tug of war Haley gave up and let him have his sad little victory, mentally promising herself all kinds of revenge when he smiled smugly. She was too tired to argue so she sat back against the cool leather seat and tried not to doze off.

Her eyes darted to the rearview mirror and narrowed on the large pile of grocery bags. She turned her glare onto Jason. "I hope you don't expect me to cook for you." She decided that if he so much as pouted over that announcement she was going to break out the fists of fury on his ass.

He shook his head. "You're not allowed to cook this week," he said, surprising the hell out of her.

"What?"

"You're on vacation. I don't want you to lift a finger," he said, raising their entwined hands and pressing a sweet kiss to the back of her hand. When she felt herself starting to melt she reminded herself what he did last night and why.

After one last useless attempt to tug her hand back, Haley sighed and sat back in her seat, watching as they passed small houses, apartment complexes, small business. Ten minutes later they passed through a quaint downtown shopping area and onto a scenic road that took them past several large hotels along the beachfront.

Haley was just about to drift off when Jason said, "I think this is it."

She forced her eyes open and watched as they drove past several small cottages. A minute later they were pulling onto the long driveway of a small one level cottage.

"Do you have a key?" Jason asked, throwing the car into park and shutting it off.

Biting back a yawn, she nodded. Without a word she climbed out of the car and trudged up the short crushed sea shell walkway and let herself into the house, deciding she'd handle Jason later. Right now she was too tired to do anything more than take a bath and nap. She looked around the cottage and noted that it was cuter than the pictures her grandmother's realtor sent her.

The wicker furniture in the living room was small, but looked surprisingly comfortable, she noted as she walked through the open doorway into the small eat-in kitchen and looked out the double glass doors. She frowned as she watched the waves crash against the smooth sandy beach. There was no way a cottage on a private beach was only a thousand dollars to rent for a week.

"Damn it," Haley cursed, stomping her foot. Once again her grandmother had tricked her. When Haley asked Grandma to see if her realtor could look into rental properties for her, she should have known Grandma wouldn't be able to stop herself from swooping in and taking care of it.