Текст книги "Playing for Keeps"

Автор книги: R. L. Mathewson

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Playing For Keeps

A Neighbor From Hell Novel

Copyright 2011

ISBN 13 9780983212539

Smashwords Edition

by

R.L. Mathewson

Other titles by R.L. Mathewson:

Playing For Keeps: A Neighbor From Hell Novel

Tall, Dark & Lonely: A Pyte Series Novel

A Humble Heart: A Hollywood Heart Novel

Perfection: A Neighbor From Hell Novel

Without Regret: A Sentinel Novel

Reclusive Heart: A Hollywood Heart Novel

Sudden Response: An EMS novel

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events described in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

Playing for Keeps © R.L. Mathewson 2011. All rights reserved.

http://www.rlmathewson.com

Rerum Publishing House

eBook ISBN-13 9780983212539

ISBN-13 9780983212546

This book is dedicated to everyone who was willing to take a chance on me.

Thank you.

Also, to my mother, grandmother, and Cousin Jamie who keep me entertained with online Scrabble games.

And of course to my children who will always be my inspiration and my little buddies.

Playing for Keeps

Chapter 1

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no!” Haley murmured in disbelief as she watched her pink, white, and yellow tulips being yanked viciously out of the ground. She shoved back from her computer desk and stormed towards the front door. She was going to kill him this time there was no doubt about it.

After five long years of juvenile nonsense he’d finally gone too far. Her college roommate hadn’t even been able to aggravate her this much, even when she went through her six month period of not showering, or using deodorant to “save the planet.”

Five years ago she’d been proud to buy her first house at the ripe old age of twenty-four. She'd worked her butt off to buy her dream home, a one level two bedroom ranch. The experience of owning her own home was better than anything she could have ever imagined.

She spent countless hours picking out the perfect color scheme for each room, cleaning, organizing, and hitting every yard sale within a thirty mile radius, trying to turn wood and plaster into a real home. None of that work could even begin to compare to the countless hours she spent on her lawn and garden. With countless blisters, cuts, bee stings and back aches she turned her dull yard into a paradise.

Her enjoyment lasted for all of four months. That’s when he moved into the house next door. At first she was excited to have a neighbor, one that wasn’t elderly and well, cranky. All of her enjoyment ended the moment she met Jason Bradford.

Within the first ten minutes of his arrival he’d backed into her mailbox, spilled fast food wrappers from his car onto his property, which quickly made their way onto her immaculate lawn, and relieved himself on the great old oak tree in his front lawn with a sheepish smile and a shrug in her horrified direction.

The man was a barbarian.

For the next five years he turned her picturesque life into a nightmare. She wasn’t sure how one person managed to take so much control over her happiness, but he did. Over the years she dealt with paintball pellets decorating the laundry hanging on her clothesline and the side of her house, loud music, parties, twice she found naked people trying to climb the fence to skinny dip in her pool, three a.m. drunken basketball games, women throwing hissy fits on his front lawn and sometimes on hers when the jerk refused to come out and deal with them.

What made it worse was that they both worked at the same private high school, in the same department, with adjoining classrooms, and parking spots. It didn’t take long for him to turn her dream job and house into a nightmare. At work she had to deal with him constantly “borrowing” things from her room like paper, pens, books, and even her desk one time.

He seemed to think he was the most charming man on earth and had no problem with using it to get his way, leaving her with extra work and responsibilities while he got to be the laid back teacher. It didn’t take her long to figure out that she would have to suck it up at work. There was no way at her age she was going to be able to land a better job. She'd been lucky to land this one. So the only option left for her was to move.

After the first year she tried to sell her house, unsuccessfully. Every time a prospective buyer came around he scared them off by just being Jason. She gave up the idea of selling her house for the next two years and put it up again last year when he took up golf and shot out three of her windows. After he managed to scare off fifteen prospective buyers by walking out to get the mail in his boxers, a particularly memorable fit of rage when he threw his computer out the window accompanied with a loud roar, and of course there was the upkeep or rather lack thereof of his property.

His lawn was covered in crab grass and weeds. He only paid the neighborhood kid to mow it once a month. The rest of the time it was the chosen habitat of little woodland creatures. The house needed a serious paint job, or at the very least a cleanup of all paint chips that had fallen to the ground over the years. If he didn’t personally scare someone off his house did the job. She gave up the dream of moving away five months ago and settled for praying that he would move soon, very soon.

Now he was going after her babies. This was not happening. Enough was enough. Over the last five years she bit her tongue, too afraid to complain. She’d always been like that, even as a little kid.

She was always the shy quiet girl with her nose buried in a book, hoping no one would notice her. It wasn’t so much that she wasn’t a very social person, she was. It had more to do with the fact that she was a huge chicken. When the other kids picked on her or pushed her around she cowered, unable to deal with confrontation. That nasty habit followed her into adulthood.

It was made even worse with good looking men like Jason. His ebony hair, ocean blue eyes and chiseled good looks made her nervous. She just wasn’t any good at handling people. Throw good looks onto a guy that was being particularly jerkish and she turned into a blubbering idiot. Pushy people just sucked and it really sucked that she never learned how to deal with them.

When she caught her roommate stealing her papers, food, and money what did she do? She avoided her room until well after two in the morning when she knew Angel would be asleep and then hurried the hell out of there before she woke up in the morning. The same could be said when the few boyfriends she did manage to have over the years took advantage of her.

Instead of throwing them to the curb like she should have done she pulled back into herself, knowing they would get bored eventually and move on. Yes, she was a chicken. That was the only reason why Jason Bradford had gotten away with his behavior for the past five years. No more. The flowers were the last straw. Her grandmother had given her the bulbs from her own garden when she bought the house and she loved them.

She spied the rolled up hose and made a snap decision. This ended here and now. The days of being the world’s biggest pushover were over.

*************

“What the hell!”

Jason jumped to his feet as a torrent of ice cold water hit him.

He didn’t know what he expected to see, but it certainly wasn’t his timid little neighbor and co-worker aiming her very long hose at him. Clearly she’d lost her damned mind.

“Step away from my tulips,” she ordered in a tone of authority.

He really couldn’t help grinning at her. She looked so damn cute standing there with her long bronze hair pulled back into a twisted pony tail, green eyes full of fire hidden behind large glasses making her look adorable, and of course her rather tight black tee shirt with the word “Nerd” written across her very decent size chest made her look rather hot. His eyes dropped to the cute little shorts that revealed short, but very nice curvy tanned legs, very nice indeed.

Of course he knew his quiet neighbor was stunning. It was the first thing he noticed about her the day he moved in. The second, she was a very shy, very nervous, easily frightened female. He still winced when he thought back to that day. After five hours on the road and three giant gulps he was in desperate need of a bathroom. Unfortunately the realtor hadn't left the keys where she said she would and he had to make a split second decision, piss his pants or water the tree. In the end the tree got a healthy amount of recycled cola.

She hadn't even given him a chance to explain or apologize. Her face reddened before she practically ran into her house. From then on she avoided him at all costs. If he waved or said hello to her she would mutter something or ignore him. If he or one of his asshole buddies broke something on her property she didn’t say a word. If he was a jerk he could have easily gotten away with not paying for all those broken windows or paintball streaked sheets, but he wasn't that big of a prick. He learned she would never speak up for herself so as soon as the shit hit the fan he made a call and replaced whatever he fucked up. It would just make him feel like an even bigger asshole to take advantage of the situation.

It always bothered him that she never spoke up. He couldn’t remember someone disliking him so fast and intensely before in his life. No matter what he did she couldn’t be bothered to speak to him. Hell, he would have kicked his ass years ago, or at least called the cops on him like the other neighbors did or file a complaint with the principal like so many of his other co-workers had. Hell, she never even signed any of those numerous petitions the rest of the neighborhood liked to give him every few months. He checked each and every time.

It wasn’t like he was purposely being an asshole. It just came naturally to him. Everyone understood and accepted it. Probably because even though he was an asshole, he was a likeable asshole…..most of the time.

As happy as he was that she finally came off her throne to talk to him he was also pissed to be soaked to the bone in his favorite shirt and khaki shorts in seventy degree weather. Apparently he didn’t move fast enough because she sprayed him again.

“Are you fucking insane?” he demanded.

She gestured with the hose for him to take a step back. “Get away from my flower bed…..Now.”

“Your flowerbed?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yes, my flowerbed!” Another short spray. “I planted these flowers five years ago, before you moved in!”

Jason ran frustrated fingers through his messy hair. “Then you should have checked the fucking property lines before you wasted your time!” he snapped.

Her eyes narrowed on him. “The flowerbed is my property!”

“I don’t think so, sweetheart. Go check your deed if you don’t believe me. This flowerbed is one hundred percent on my property,” he said harshly. He pointed to the two feet of space that separated their houses where the flower bed continued until it came to the large wooden picket fence that started at the corner of her house and continued to the back, separating their backyards. “You have five inches from the wall of your house out. Your property ends two inches before my flower bed! That’s why the stupid little white picket fence starts against your house instead of on the other side of the flowerbed.”

He watched as she glared at the small space that separated their houses. Whoever built their houses was a real prick. Both of their master bedrooms were built less than two feet apart. Yet, there was more than thirty feet of space between each house and the other neighboring houses. There was no privacy with the way the identical houses were designed. He had no choice but to place his large bed directly at the window and from what he could see neither had she. Taking the smaller bedroom was out of the question. His bed would never fit in it.

It felt odd sleeping less than two feet away from a woman who thought him less than dirt. During the summer they both refused to open their windows until the heat became oppressive, leaving them with no other choice. Forget about bringing a woman to his bedroom. He’d never been one for PDA’s never mind having sex in public and having sex in his room would definitely feel like a public performance.

No matter how many times he tried to remind himself that they were in separate houses and separated by more than just a stupid little flower garden he couldn’t bring himself to allow a woman in his bed. Not that he did that normally. He never invited a woman to his home. That was one of his top ten rules of dating. The only time they ever came to his house was to bitch him out when he moved on and that was done from the outside.

He never in his entire adult life shared a bed with a woman. That was too much intimacy and sent the wrong message. The few times he made the mistake of relaxing in a woman’s bed after a quick lay proved to be serious mistakes. They wanted to coddle and always asked the questions that made him cringe, “What are you thinking?”, “Do you love me?”, “Where do you see this going?”, “Are you as happy as I am?’, "Why do you keep calling me by my sister's name?", or his personal favorite “I wonder what our babies will look like.” No, sex was best kept at a woman’s house, hotel room or better yet in the backseat of a car.

Thank god his neighbor seemed to share the same attitude. He hated the idea of waking up to the sounds of another man grunting and moaning. With his luck the sounds would filter into his dream and he would end up having a gay dream. Thankfully that never happened otherwise he’d be sleeping on his couch.

It wasn’t as if his beautiful neighbor was without male attention. He’d seen several losers sniffing around her in the last five years. She was easily out of their league, at least physically. Personality wise, well even from afar he could tell they were all pricks. He wasn’t a prince, not by any measure, but he found himself eager to deck a few of them over the years with the way they treated her. They never hit her, otherwise he would have killed the bastards. He didn’t go for hitting a woman no matter what. Sometimes he felt like they were using her, or not treating her right. He didn’t know why he cared, he just did.

Haley eyed the fence and then the remaining length of the flower bed. She sighed heavily. “Fine. If I made a mistake I’m sorry. I replaced the last flower bed with the tulips.”

He nodded in relief, glad that it was settled. The damn flowers were out of here and not a moment too soon. He couldn’t take another night like last night. Besides he was running out of cornstarch.

“I’ll just move the flowers over into my five inches of space,” she announced.

His eyes widened with that announcement. “The hell you will!”

Chapter 2

Haley’s eyes widened in total disbelief as Jason threw himself back onto the plants, tearing them up like a man possessed.

“Stop!” she shrieked. He ignored her and continued to rip the tulips from the ground, making sure those damn bulbs came with them. He tossed them far onto his property so she couldn’t get her hands on them to re-plant them.

She squeezed the nozzle, sending a full blast of cold water on him. Still he continued to tear up the flowerbed.

“Stop! Please stop!” she cried. He only slowed down when he reached the tight space between their houses.

Jason had to shift his shoulders so he could lodge himself into the tight space. Thankfully she gave up on squirting him. It might be April, but they were in New England and that meant a bright sun with a cold breeze. His body shivered violently as he reached forward to grab handfuls of tulips. Suddenly something clamped around his ankles.

“What the hell-omph!” He was pulled off balance, landing face first into the thick mud she created with her little water meltdown. Before he could push himself up she was crawling over his back to get to those damn flowers.

Haley used her small frame to her advantage. After quickly crawling over Jason she began digging up as many tulips with her hands as she could and setting them gently, yet quickly, against the side of her house.

“Hey! Stop that!” he demanded as he leaned over her to grab her hands.

“Get off of me!” she snapped, digging faster.

“I wouldn’t be on you if you weren’t on my damn property!”

She threw back an elbow to dislodge him. He cursed under his breath as he pushed himself in further until her entire body was snuggled tightly beneath his. She instantly froze beneath him. He took advantage of her stunned reaction and grabbed as many flowers as he could.

“I said get off me, not crush me!” she clarified. It was all she could do to control her breathing. She was going to hyperventilate and pass out. No doubt about it. A large muscular man was on top of her!

Her senses went into overload as she tried to focus. But all she could think about was how the feel of his strong hard stomach felt pressed against her back. Suddenly a shiver shot through her body that had nothing to do with the cold water seeping through her clothes.

Then realization sank in. A very large man was on top of her! “That better not be what I think it is,” she hissed between clenched teeth.

“It’s not.” It was. “Don’t flatter yourself, sweetheart,” he snapped, trying not to groan or grind into her. He was a little shocked himself. Not that he ever had a problem getting it up. He didn’t. Of course these days his interest in sex had waned a bit. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he had sex, which in itself was pathetic.

He made a half ass attempt to pull out more flowers. That seemed to distract her enough from her pert little ass being snuggled against his lap. His eyes closed as he nuzzled his face against her neck and inhaled slowly. She didn’t seem to notice so he did it again. He would swear on his life that she smelled like blackberries and cream. It was damn enticing.

She groaned her irritation. “I don’t know what your problem is. I made a mistake planting them on your property. Just let me move them over a few inches and everything will be settled.”

That snapped him out of his daze. “No!” He reached past her and began ripping flowers out. She swore under her breath as she crawled out from under him to save whatever flowers she could. He simply followed her, assuming the same position each time and frustrating the hell out of her.

“You’re being a jerk! I just want my bulbs!” she said, trying to not to cry. These were her Grandmother’s bulbs. Her Grandfather bought them for her after the war to celebrate the success of their first business.

“No, you’re not going to plant them here! They can’t stay!” he said, digging faster.

“Why?” she demanded, coming closer and closer to frustrated tears. “I don’t understand you! You do nothing with your property at all. Why do you care if there’s a flower bed here or a few inches over? They’re not hurting you!”

“The hell they’re not!” he snapped, thinking of all the spots on his back and neck that still throbbed.

She scoffed. “They’re just flowers. What could they possibly do to aggravate you to this level?” She heard a buzzing pass her ear and absently waved it off.

“Bees!” he said, trying to back up, but couldn’t. His large frame was trapped between their houses.

“Yes, it’s a bee,” she said slowly as if she were talking to a child.

He groaned as he tried to twist his large frame loose. When that didn't work he tried to shove backwards. His arm snaked around her waist, trying to pull her along with him.

“Hey, get your hands-“

“It’s a fucking nest and we just disturbed it!” he yelled.

Haley’s eyes shot forward and then widened. Sure enough, two feet in front of her the end of what appeared to be a very large ground nest was now poking out of the ground thanks to the flowers they yanked up. Yellow jackets began swarming just above the nest. It wouldn’t be long before they descended on them.

“Move!”

“I can’t!”

Haley clenched her teeth as she slammed back as hard as she could against him. He groaned low in her ear, but didn’t stop trying to move back. She moved forward and slammed back again, and again. Each time was met by a groan and a gain of a few inches.

“One more time!” he grated out.

She moved forward and this time when she slammed back into him she pushed up with her shoulders, dislodging him. Jason used the momentum to pull them both back several feet. He kept his arm snaked around her waist as he dragged her away from the nest.

“They’re swarming!” Haley cried.

“Shit!” Jason looked frantically around for a safe place.

“My house!” she said, gesturing wildly towards her front door.

“Good idea,” he said as he ran towards the house, dragging her along. The buzzing sound became louder and louder as the swarm began circling them. Once they reached the front door he opened it, relieved that she'd left it unlocked, and they ran inside, slamming the door shut behind them.

“Bees!” Haley cried, gesturing to the bees that had followed them inside.

He quickly released her and grabbed two magazines from a small pile on a coffee table and threw one to her. Without a word they rolled the magazines up and began to attack the dozen or so bees that managed to follow them inside. Neither spoke until the last bee was squashed.

“Five nights….in….a….row…..stung…,” Jason bit out while he tried to catch his breath.

“You knew there were yellow jackets and you still tore up the flowers?” she asked in disbelief. Her grandmother had taught her well. A ground nest was not something to mess with. It could be as small as a stack or quarters or several feet long.

Jason gestured in the direction of his house. “I was trying to kill them.”

She shook her head in disbelief. He knew there was a nest and he didn’t tell her?

“Why didn’t you tell me there was a nest? You know I work in that flowerbed,” she said, working hard on keeping her tone even. They could have been killed!

“I did!”

“No, you didn’t!”

He threw his hands up. “I’ve been trying to tell you for last few weeks, but each time I approached you, you ran off!”

She opened her mouth to argue, but shut it as quickly and winced. Yeah, that really did sound like something she would do where he was concerned. “Oh,” she finally said.

“Yeah, oh,” he snapped. He peeked out the window and groaned. “They’re still swarming.”

Haley sighed. “They’re going to be a problem for a few hours. We need to call an exterminator.”

************

Man he was freezing. He was soaked to the bone and it didn’t look like he was going to be able to go to his house anytime soon to change. Normally he’d strip down to his boxers, but his neighbor was already skittish around him. He didn’t want to give the poor thing a stroke. He looked down at her very clean and obviously well cared for wood floor and cringed.

“Shit, maybe I should step out the back and dry off,” he said as he raised his eyes to look into her adjoining kitchen. His brows flew up as he watched the windows darken.

“I don’t think that will be happening for a while,” Haley said softly as she rubbed her forehead. “Why don’t you go take a shower and I’ll see if I can find you something to wear. While you’re taking your shower I’ll call for an exterminator.”

“If you’re sure,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t change her mind. He was freezing his balls off. Hell, at this point he’d squeeze his ass into a dress to get warm.

She nodded absently as she watched the bees swarm around her backyard. “Yeah, let me show you where the bathroom is.”

Ten minutes later the shivering finally stopped and he was really enjoying his shower. Never in his life had hot water felt so good. This was the best shower ever. It didn’t hurt that his little shy neighbor shared his appreciation for the simple things in life like a normal bar of soap and none of that overly perfumed expensive shit that never lathered properly and always left a rash on his skin. It also didn’t hurt that the bathroom looked like a bathroom and wasn’t covered from head to toe in lace and makeup. This was a bathroom a man could comfortably use without worrying about his masculinity.

He was just pulling on the tee shirt she'd left him when he heard her scream, “No! Don’t do it!”

Jason was out of the bathroom in less than a second, running towards her ready to kill whatever bastard was trying to hurt her. He came to skidding stop in front of her.

She smiled sweetly as she said, “God, I love you.”

His brows nearly shot through his hairline as his heart pounded. Shit, this was worse than he thought. She hadn’t been avoiding him all these years because she was shy. No, she was head over heels in love with him. Shit. This was awkward, especially since he was stuck here until an exterminator could come out here. Now he hoped it was soon.

Really soon.

He opened his mouth to say something only to find himself gestured impatiently out of the way with a dough covered wooden spoon. He stepped back frowning, afraid of getting dough all over him, and wondering what was wrong with the woman professing her love for him one moment and shooing him out of the way the next.

“Never come between me and the man I love,” she said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Jason followed her gaze and chuckled. “Derek Jeter?”

She frowned as if questioning her love for the man was stupid. “Of course.”

He couldn’t help but grin. Damn. How had he missed this? She had a huge television. Bigger than his even and that was really saying something since his television was the one thing he'd really splurged on.

“That’s a really big TV for such a tiny woman,” he said teasingly.

“Well, how else am I supposed to watch my games and feel like I’m there?” she countered back. “Plus, this way I get to see my future husband better.”

“Does he know?” he asked, looking back at her.

She scrunched her face up adorably. “Not yet, but I can wait,” she said with a smile that made her face go from utterly adorable and sweet to heartbreakingly beautiful in less than ten seconds.

Damn.

He shifted his feet awkwardly for a moment while she watched the game with rapt attention.

“Are you a Red Sox fan?” she suddenly asked.

“Hell no!” he said, insulted by the question. He may live knee deep in Red Sox territory, but that didn’t mean he was a betraying bastard. Yankees were his first love and would be his last.

She sighed with obvious relief. “Thank god.” She sent the game one last look of longing before returning to her kitchen counter where he noted with a chuckle that she had a small flat screen with the game playing. This woman really loved her Yankees, or at least one in particular.

What the hell was it with women and Derek Jeter?

He took a moment to look around her house. The damn bees were still covering all of her windows, but his attention was elsewhere. Her walls were covered in Yankees memorabilia. He wasn't too surprised when he spotted a signed photo of Derek Jeter above the television.

“Looks like we’re stuck inside until after dark,” she said, pulling his attention back to the kitchen. “The exterminator said he has to wait for the nest to calm down. That will happen when the sun goes down. He’ll come and spray them and remove the nest if he can.”

He ran his fingers through his damp hair and sighed. “I guess you’re stuck with me for a little while.”

She shrugged. “It’s fine. There’s a good game on so it should help pass the time.”

“True,” he agreed.

“I’m making homemade pizza. I hope you don’t mind. I was planning on ordering pizza today for the game, but with the bees and all…..,” she trailed off, shrugging.

“No, that sounds great. I’m sorry that I’m intruding," he said, feeling like an ass. This woman spent the last five years avoiding him and now he was being forced on her by Mother Nature.

“Not a problem,” she said and he got the feeling that she was lying. She never liked to be around him before. Whenever he stood too close to her at work or went to sit next to her she found an excuse to move. Now she was forced to have him in her house. That couldn’t make her all that happy. His eyes drifted off to the television when she sighed dreamily. Then again her attention was elsewhere at the moment.

“Beer?”

"What?" he asked a little confused.

“Beer,” she said, gesturing towards the fridge without taking her eyes off the television.

“Oh,” he said with a chuckle as he retrieved two bottles. He handed her one and she took it with a mumbled thanks and then a few choice words for one of the players.

Jason leaned back and watched the show. Not really the game, but Haley as she cooked and ranted. Soon it became obvious if the vegetables were going to get cut and not mangled every time she didn’t agree with a call he’d have to do it.

For the next six hours they cooked, watched the game, laughed, swore and screamed at the television, ate and got into an hour long fight with the exterminator over the insane amount he wanted to charge them before the argument shifted to the game. By the end of the night Haley seemed to have come completely out of her shell around him and he counted himself fortunate to have another buddy. One who actually knew the stats without messing up or having to look them up. Not like several of his friends he wouldn’t mention. It didn’t hurt that she was incredibly hot. That was just a bonus.

A nice bonus, but a bonus nonetheless for his newest buddy.