“Can’t,” the little bastard that was determined to piss her off said as she laid there, wondering how she was going to get through the next year with absolutely nothing to do.
God, she was bored already, she thought as she absently noted Reed’s incredible scent coming off the pillow and found herself snuggling closer to it as she rolled over onto her stomach. For comfort purposes only, she told herself as she stared out the window, wishing that she had a class to teach or a paper to grade. She hated downtime, always had and always would. She needed something to do, something productive so that she could stay busy and keep her mind off the fact that she’d probably destroyed her career.
Granted, there really was no question about it, she thought, frowning when she felt something cold placed on her ass. Blinking, she looked over her shoulder and-
“So, I’ve been thinking,” the little bastard that was using her ass as a coffee table, said.
“About?” she mumbled into her pillow, wondering if a politely worded apology and a basket of chocolate dipped strawberries would make up for the fact that she’d ruined someone’s career.
Again, not that she’d done it on purpose.
“What you’re going to do during your sabbatical since you’re selling the house,” Matt said as she felt him shift on the bed next to her.
“I’m supposed to write up my research,” she mumbled into the pillow, really wishing that she had the house to focus on instead.
“Okay, so do that,” Matt said as he reached over and gave her head another one of those patronizing pats that were going to get him maimed.
“Already finished it,” she grumbled, really wishing that she’d stretched it out, but once she’d figured out what was wrong with the research that she’d been sent, she hadn’t been able to wait.
“You’re on sabbatical for a year, right?”
“Unfortunately,” she mumbled, turning her head so that she could continue staring out the window.
“Okay, then take a class.”
“Too late. The semester’s already started,” she mumbled, really wishing that she’d known that they were going to put her on sabbatical so that she could have planned to do something more productive than laying here, staring out the window, and wondering how she was going to survive the next year without losing her damn mind.
“Where are you planning on staying?” he asked,
“Hotel,” she mumbled, not really looking forward to living out of her suitcase for a year.
“So, you’re going to travel?”
“No,” Joey mumbled because she really didn’t think that was an option right now. That and she felt that she should be free on the off-chance that they changed their minds and let her come back early, and she was really hoping that they changed their minds.
“So, you’re planning on pouting and moping for a year until you get your job back?”
“That’s the plan,” she said with a heavy sigh, wondering if she should settle for a regular room or splurge for a room with a view of the parking lot.
“Then why don’t you stay here after your house sells?” Matt suggested and as much as she would love to, she couldn’t.
“That’s not really an option,” she pointed out.
“Why not?”
She shifted so that she could point at the reflection glaring at them from the doorway. “Because he’d probably kill me in my sleep.”
---
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Reed couldn’t help but ask as he released his hold on the back of the little bastard’s neck and shoved him into his office. He threw his bedroom door one last look to make sure that the little pain in the ass wasn’t trying to sneak out again before he closed his office door halfway and leaned back against the wall so that he could keep an eye on his bedroom door.
“Most likely,” Matt said with a careless shrug as he dropped into the large armchair by the desk. “You’re not going to kick her out, are you?”
“No, I’m not going to kick the little pain in the ass out until I know what’s going on,” Reed bit out with a glare at the annoying bastard who had somehow managed to sneak past him and made it into his room without him knowing.
“Then what’s the problem?” Matt asked, frowning in confusion as he gestured lazily around them. “She needs a place to stay and we have plenty of room. Plus, you need to find someone to replace Miss Dawson.”
“No.”
“Why not?” Matt asked, frowning.
“She’s a fucking nightmare,” he said, rubbing his hands roughly down his face.
“She’s fucking adorable,” his brother said with a heartfelt sigh that was going to get him killed.
“She’s a menace,” Reed said still trying to figure out why he was doing this.
He’d barely survived one night with her. There was no way in hell that he was going to be able to handle a year with her living under the same roof and there was no fucking way that he was hiring her. He’d lose his fucking mind if he had to deal with her every day.
“She can’t be that bad,” Matt said, already looking bored and for one very good reason.
He’d been too young to fully understand how lucky they were to have survived Joey Lawson the first time around. While Reed had spent most of his time trying to avoid the little pain in the ass and making sure that no one followed through with their threats to strangle the little brat, Matt had been too busy annoying the shit out of everyone to care.
“Because she’s an annoying pain in the ass that destroys everything in her path,” Reed explained with a heavy sigh because he didn’t need this right now.
He considered sending her Jackson’s way, but he had too much shit going on with work to keep an eye on his sister. Plus, he tended to overreact when it came to his sister. They didn’t have any relatives and Reed sure as hell wasn’t sending her to her father. It would be a cold day in hell when he let that piece of shit near her again. That left her with her friends, and something told him that wasn’t an option or she wouldn’t be here. That meant that whatever had sent her back here had to be bad, he realized even as he tried to tell himself that it was none of his business. But if she was in trouble…
Shit!
“Did she tell you why she came back?” Reed asked, hoping that whatever trouble she’d gotten into was going to be an easy fix.
Matt shook his head. “She didn’t say.”
“And you didn’t ask,” Reed guessed, biting back a curse.
“It wasn’t my place to ask,” his brother said with a shrug, earning a glare, which had his brother’s lips twitching. “You glare a lot when she’s around.”
“Which is just one more reason why she shouldn’t stay,” he said, wondering if there was any way that he could-
“She has nowhere else to go,” Matt said and before he could respond his brother said that one thing that guaranteed that he didn’t have a choice. “And you promised Grandma Lawson that you would look after her.”
“This isn’t a good idea,” Reed bit out, wishing like hell that he hadn’t made that promise.
“Why not?” Matt asked, looking genuinely confused as Reed rubbed the back of his neck, still trying to figure out why her comment had bothered him when they both knew that she was right. She was an obligation. For the next year, whether he liked it or not, and he really didn’t like it, it was his job to keep her out of trouble.
“You won’t even know she’s here,” Matt promised.
“Trust me, I’d know,” Reed said when a thought occurred to him. “We don’t have any extra beds.”
Matt shrugged it off. “I’m sure that we can find something in the barn. Until then, she can sleep on the couch,” he said, which meant that she was going to have to stay in Reed’s bedroom.
“She can’t stay,” Reed said hollowly, trying not to think about what it would be like to have her back in his bed.
“You can’t throw Jackson’s little sister out and we both know it,” Matt said, but he really could, he decided even as he tried to figure out the best way to do it when his brother stressed, “She has nowhere else to go.”