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“And that’s the real reason you didn’t sell the house,” Reed guessed, correctly by the look on brother-in-law’s face.
“You wanted to make sure that she had a reason to come back here,” his father said, chuckling as he continued adding food on Joey’s plate while Reed stood there, glaring at the bastard.
“Why did you try to talk me into letting her go then?” Reed demanded, thankful that he hadn’t listened to the stubborn bastard because he never would have survived without Joey.
“You were taking too long.”
“This is priceless!” his father said, laughing as he headed to the back door, pausing on the way to hand Joey’s plate to Jackson, and add, “Your mother’s going to love this one!”
“You still haven’t told me how you figured it out,” Reed said, watching as his father left with a heartfelt sigh and an “Absolutely priceless.”
“The Eeyore keychain.”
“What about it?” Reed asked absently as he watched his father walk over to his Uncle Ethan and-
Watched the traitorous bastards struggle to stop laughing a minute later as his father recounted the tale that had guaranteed a painful death for the little bastard with the big mouth.
“She hasn’t found it yet, has she?”
“No,” Jackson said only to narrow his eyes as he watched his father wave over the rest of his brothers to join them.
“I slipped it under her pillow where she would have found it if she’d been sleeping in her bed,” Jackson said and if Reed hadn’t been focused on the large bastards laughing their asses off at his expense, he probably would have been impressed.
“When?” he asked, forcing his attention away from the window when his Uncle Jared decided to call his mother over.
“Well, there were a few things that had me wondering, but it was when Matt told me that she was sleeping on the couch that told me everything that I needed to know. But, just in case I was wrong, I placed the keychain under her pillow when my sister, who is terrified of anything that wiggles, announced that she was going camping.”
“I’m going to kill the little bastard,” Reed said, leaving the kitchen and headed to the front door and away from the sight of half his family laughing their asses off at his expense.
“He’s a wealth of information,” Jackson said, chuckling as he joined him as he walked outside and-
“What the hell are they doing?” Reed couldn’t help but wonder as he watched his cousins drag one of the large picnic tables that his family had been using for family gatherings since he was little, over to the road.
That question, of course, led Jackson to wonder, “Why’s the asshole touching my sister?”
Shoving the plate in Jackson’s free hand, Reed decided to go find out. A minute later, he was standing over his wife, who was curled up on a lounge chair in the arms of a man who clearly had a death wish.
“Joey?” he asked, folding his arms over his chest as he glared down at the woman who he noticed was ignoring the book on her lap, a first for her.
“Hmm?” she murmured, barely acknowledging his existence as she continued staring at something.
Frowning, he followed his wife’s gaze and-
“You had no fucking right!” Garrett yelled only to duck with a “Damn it!” when their mysterious neighbor threw what appeared to be a book at his head.
“What the hell is going on?” Reed asked as he watched his cousin move to go after their mysterious neighbor only to curse and duck again when she reached inside a large box and grabbed another book.
“With today’s entertainment or the asshole holding your wife?” Kenzie, or Mac if you wanted her to bitch slap you, asked as she joined him as they watched her brother duck out of the way of another book.
“Both,” Reed said, unable to look away as he watched Garrett try to regroup and-
“Ohhhhhh!” came the resounding wince when Garrett took a book to the leg.
“That’s definitely going to leave a mark,” his wife whispered, sounding intrigued.
“Well, as much as I would love to watch someone slap him around and make him cry, I’m going to have to ask you to wait until the show’s over since he’s the only one that seems to be able to get your wife to stop begging for a quick death, which was making it difficult to follow what’s going on,” Kenzie explained as Jackson joined them and Reed narrowed his eyes on Roger, his cousin Reese’s one-time best friend and the bastard currently touching his wife.
“It really was,” Joey mumbled in agreement.
“I see,” Reed said, glancing back down to find his wife watching the show with rapt attention as she absently popped a piece of brownie in her mouth from the plate he’d made her, making him sigh in relief when she didn’t follow that up with a hand slapped over her mouth and a run for the nearest bathroom.
“Her anti-nausea medication wasn’t strong enough,” Roger said, rubbing her back said as he typed something on his phone. “I’m putting in an order for a stronger prescription.”
“So, she’s feeling better now?” Reed asked, shooting his wife a thoughtful glance.
“She should be-Shit!”
“Thank you,” Reed said, dropping the man that had made his wife feel better on the ground before he took his spot on the lounge chair and pulled her closer.
“You’re welcome,” came the pained groan.
“Why’s he hiding behind a mailbox?” Shawn, his wife’s official date to this party, asked from where he sat on the road next to her.
“Not if he wants to live,” Joey said with a sad shake of her head only to glance at Shawn with a frown. “Shouldn’t you be working on my palace?”
“We didn’t discuss a palace,” Shawn said, narrowing his eyes on her as he helped himself to a cookie off her plate.
“We’re discussing it now, Shawn,” she said, shaking her head with a sigh, “We’re discussing it now.”
“So, someone going to tell me why Garrett is getting his ass kicked?” Reed asked as he wrapped his arms around Joey.
“We’re not really sure,” Hayley began from where she was sitting on her husband’s lap, “but we’re pretty sure that it has something to do with the books currently being thrown at Garrett’s head.”
“He did seem to get upset when it was delivered,” Zoe murmured in agreement.
“He really did,” Kasey murmured in agreement.
“Who is she?” Reed finally asked the question that he’d been wondering for several months now.
“Kristen Haven,” Kenzie said with a sigh. “She grew up across the street from us.”
“That’s not Kristen,” Danny said, shaking his head only to frown when he took in the small woman currently hurling another book at his brother’s head.
“It can’t be Kristen,” Lucifer said, but the look on his face told him that he wasn’t exactly sure.
“Who’s Kristen?” Rebecca asked from where she sat with the rest of the Bradford wives on the large picnic table that they normally liked to use to yell catcalls and ogle their husbands when they were working on Garrett’s house.
“Just some girl that used to live across the street from us. She was a quiet little thing, a bookworm that kept to herself. Garrett used to feel bad for her and would go out of his way to make sure the other kids left her alone,” Arik said with a shrug.
“And who grew up to become K.L. Haven,” Kenzie announced with a devious grin as all the women in their group suddenly went still.
“Who’s K.L. Haven?” Aaron asked as he shot Garrett a sympathetic wince when the woman in question aimed for his balls.
“That’s K.L. Haven?”
“The one and only,” Kenzie said before adding, “And she wrote about Garrett,” just as one of the books landed in front of them.
There was a slight pause and then…
Reed was picking up his wife as Jackson reached past them and grabbed Shawn before all hell broke loose as every Bradford male within twenty feet did whatever it took to get his ha
nds on that book.
“But the pretty,” Joey mumbled with a sniffle that had him sighing as he carried her back to the safety of their house.
“Not happening,” he said as something occurred to him.
Where the hell did Jen go?
*-*-*-*
“Where the hell is it?” Matt bit out, shoving the stack of papers that he’d been meaning to go through aside and-
“What are you looking for?” one of his family’s guest that had wondered into his shop asked.
“Shop’s closed,” he said, shifting his attention to his desk and began shoving empty take-out boxes and wrappers out of the way as he searched for-
“Is this what you’re looking for?” that same someone that should have left asked as the order slip that he’d wasted the last hour for was held in front of his face.
“Thanks,” Matt said, dropping the bag of old McDonald’s wrappers on the floor and grabbed the slip.
“You’re welcome,” his brother’s wayward guest said as Matt glanced down at the slip in his hands and swore when he realized that he’d ordered the wrong wood.
Shit!
“Who are you?” Matt asked, tossing the slip aside and started searching for the purchase order that he was going to need in order to return the wood for full credit.
