NFH 02 Perfection (41 page)

Trevor's deep chuckle drew her
attention. "Looks like your cousins are ready to pounce," he said,
nodding towards the front of the house where Cole, Elizabeth and
Joshua stood waiting no doubt to help "relieve" them of the food.
They were so much like their father sometimes it was
scary.

"You kids want to play a game?" Trevor
asked as he climbed out of the car. The loud excited chorus of
"yes" nearly made her head pop, but she was laughing too as she
climbed out of the car and helped the kids out. They immediately
ran around to the back of the car to learn about the
game.

"I'm going to give you each a box,"
Trevor said, gesturing to the four large boxes of baked goods, "and
your job is to get these to your Uncle Jason, whom I'm willing to
bet is out back near the grill."

"What do we get if we win?" Sebastian
asked, taking a box and shifting excitedly as he eyed his
cousins.

"Your uncle's undying love," Trevor
said, laughing. "And the knowledge that you won."

"And probably a cookie or two," Zoe
added, knowing how the Bradford mind worked.

Johnnie nodded firmly. "Let's go."
With that all four children strolled casually towards the side of
the house until their cousins narrowed their eyes on them and gave
chase. Several excited squeals later and all seven kids were
running towards the backyard, leaving them to follow at a leisurely
stroll.

*********

"It's so beautiful and peaceful here,"
Zoe said, sighing contently the way she did every time they came
here, which was often. A lesser man might be insulted that his wife
got a dreamy eyed expression on her face every time she looked at
another man's house, but he knew his wife absolutely adored the
house that he'd fixed up for her. The few times he'd offered to
build a house for her she glared at him as if he'd said something
insulting.

It always made him feel good to know
that he made her happy. After the really fucked up start they had
he was glad that he was finally doing something right, well right
with a lot of little mishaps along the way. But they were happy,
unfucking-believably happy, which still surprised him every now and
then. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have found the
perfect woman.

She was beautiful, smart, funny, a
great wife and mother, a horrible singer, a decent cook and baked
things that even their dogs wouldn't touch and she was his and he
wouldn't change a damn thing about her. Zoe still didn't bother
with makeup or care about the latest fashions, but she still
managed to turn him on with very little effort and probably always
would.

"Did you bring your bathing suit,
sweetheart?" he asked, already picturing her in that black one
piece that showed off a decent amount of cleavage and her shapely
hips. He'd kill to get her into a two piece, but the stubborn woman
only laughed like he was joking when he suggested it.

He wasn't.

He was in love with his wife's body
and it truly pissed him off when she thought there was something
wrong with it. Her body was perfect. She hadn't lost any weight
since they came together all those years ago, but she also hadn't
gained any even with the pregnancies and if she ever lost the extra
weight that made her soft and curvy he was pretty sure he'd
cry.

"I left it at home," she said with a
shrug as if she hadn't just wrecked his plans for the afternoon.
He'd been looking forward to sitting back with an ice cold beer as
he ogled his wife. Now he'd have to settle for having her luscious
ass resting on his lap, he thought with a shit eating grin as she
released his hand so that she could place the anniversary gift
they'd brought for Jason and Haley on a table overflowing with
gifts for the happy couple.

He let his eyes run over the pretty
pink cotton sun dress she'd worn for the occasion and damn near
sighed. She was so damn beautiful she made him ache.

"Trevor!" Jason yelled, grabbing his
attention. He looked up from his wife's beautiful legs, hesitantly,
to find Jason gesturing him over towards a new large gas grill and
several tables filled with food.

As he walked past Zoe he ran his hand
over her bottom, giving it an affectionate squeeze that he knew had
her blushing without having to look, but he did. She looked so
pretty standing there that he couldn't help himself. He bent down
and gave her a quick kiss before she playfully pushed him
away.

"Your children are punks," Jason said
affectionately as Trevor grabbed a beer from one of the large
coolers and joined him

"So are yours," Trevor said, chuckling
as he gestured to the trio who were currently wrestling with their
grandfather Jared in front of what appeared to be a large platter
of cupcakes while two of Trevor's kids egged them on.

He wasn't too surprised when he
spotted Sebastian and Mathew sneak in around the little distracted
crowd and lift the platter of cupcakes and make a hasty retreat.
They signaled their brother and sister with a soft whistle as they
made their way towards the back of the pool with the large platter
of cupcakes.

"Your children truly frighten me,"
Jason said even as he caught the little sneaks' attention with a
low whistle. The boys paused a few feet away from the pool fence
and freedom and shot their father and uncle a calculating look,
probably trying to figure what the odds of escaping with all their
ill gotten cupcakes were. Between him and Jason, they weren't
good.

"They frighten me as well," Trevor
admitted even as pride filled him. His kids were fucking brilliant,
devious, and entertaining as hell.

He took another sip of his beer as he
watched his children walk towards them, shooting nervous glances
over their shoulders every few feet to see if Jared or any of their
cousins had realized they'd been duped. They hadn't.

Jason sighed heavily as he grabbed an
ice cold root beer and walked over to his grandmother-in-law just
as the feisty old woman tried to steal an abandoned beer off the
table. Without a word he grabbed the beer out of the woman's hand
and replaced it with the root beer, earning a tiny little glare
that Trevor wasn't buying for one minute. Everyone knew the old
woman had a soft spot for Jason.

He watched as his four children
stopped less than five feet away from them as they kept the large
platter of cupcakes between them.

"You can have one each," Sebastian
said firmly as the children eyed them.

Trevor and Jason shared a look and
snorted out a laugh before they looked back at the
children.

"We get eighty percent of the haul,"
Jason informed them.

"That's not fair!" Jessica said,
crossing her arms over her chest as she tried to glare up at her
favorite Uncle. When that failed she let her bottom lip and chin
tremble as her eyes filled up with unshed tears.

Jason rolled his eyes. "How many times
do I have to tell you, Jessie? Don't start with a glare, go with a
hurt look and never try it on another Bradford when food is
involved," he explained patiently.

Just as quickly as they came the tears
were gone and she was frowning. "I forgot."

"It's okay. You'll learn," Trevor
said, knowing she would probably have it mastered by Christmas.
"Now," he said, gesturing for them to bring the cupcakes closer,
"give us our eighty percent."

Johnnie and Sebastian frowned. "But
that's twenty cupcakes, leaving us with five cupcakes," Sebastian
pointed out.

"And there's four of us," Johnnie
added. "That's not fair. How about a forty-sixty split? That will
give you five a piece and fifteen for us."

"How about we get a hundred percent
and we won't tell your cousins that you ate them all?" Trevor
suggested, trying not to laugh at Jason's expression. Even though
the man knew the kids had their mother's talent with numbers and
were freakishly brilliant it still caught him off guard when the
kids showed off their skills.

Granted it had freaked him out a bit
the first time he realized how smart his kids were, but that
probably had more to do with their elaborate escape from their
nursery and finding his two and a half year old sons calmly
snacking away on cookies as they sat on top of the refrigerator at
two in the morning.

Both sets of twins shared a look and
nodded before they turned their attention back to them. Trevor knew
that look and didn't like it one bit. They were up to
something.

"Here," Sebastian and Johnnie said,
handing the platter over to him and before they could stop them all
four children somehow managed to grab three cupcakes each and were
making a run for it.

"Uncle Jared, daddy stole your
cupcakes!" his children announced, making him and Jason suck in a
startled gasp.

"Those little traitors," Jason
gasped.

"Yup," Trevor said, placing the tray
of cupcakes on the table and snatching one up as he watched Jared
and Jason's three kids descend on them. Jason grabbed one as well
and Trevor considered selling out his cousin and his best friend,
but then decided he'd rather save his energy to hunt down his
little wife and cuddle with her on one of the lounge chairs while
they watched their kids torment the rest of the family.

"Those are our cupcakes, you
bastards," Jared snapped, glaring at them as he grabbed the tray of
cupcakes and marched off with Jason's kids running after him before
they could make a lunge for the cupcakes.

"You still want to take the kids for
two weeks?" Trevor asked, not too surprised when Jason snatched the
cupcake out of his hand and finished it off in one large
bite.

"Hell yeah," Jason said, sounding like
he meant it, which he knew he did. Jason was one hell of a family
man and really loved having the kids over since they kept him
entertained.

"Thanks," Trevor said, grabbing an ice
cold Coke for his wife who was slowly making her way towards him
with Haley by her side.

"Not a problem. Have you told her
yet?" Jason asked, grabbing a soda for Haley.

"About the cruise?" he asked. When
Jason nodded he shook his head. "I want this to be a
surprise."

"You don't think she knows you've
planned a second honeymoon?" Jason asked, throwing his
grandmother-in-law a look of warning as the woman tried to roll
over to the beer cooler. She simply huffed and gestured for Mitch,
who was currently snuggling with his wife a few feet away, to push
her back in the shade. After giving his wife one last kiss he did
just that and then was right back with his wife. Ten years ago
Trevor would have made fun of the love sick bastard, but now he
understood all too well what it was like to be utterly devoted to a
woman.

"She doesn't have a clue," he said,
smiling when his wife leaned down to give Brad's three year old
daughter a hug and a kiss.

"You realize you're going to have to
watch my kids next month so that I can take Haley away, don't you?
After she finds out about this little romantic trip of yours she's
going to twist my arm into taking her to a tropical island," Jason
pointed out as he flipped a few burgers.

Trevor chuckled. "Like she really has
to twist your arm into taking her someplace where she'll probably
lounge around in a bikini all day."

"Good point," Jason said,
chuckling.

"What's so funny?" Haley asked as she
slid her arms around Jason.

"Nothing, my little grasshopper,"
Jason said, leaning down to kiss his wife.

"Trevor, can you give me a hand?" Zoe
asked, taking his hand and giving it a little tug.

"Sure," he said, placing his beer on
the table.

As they walked towards the garage he
put his arm around her, wondering how he was going to convince her
to wear a bikini during their trip and how to get her to take it
off, he thought with a smile.

"What do you need help with?" he
asked, holding the door to the garage open for her. "Did Haley need
us to grab beers or something?"

Zoe nibbled her bottom lip
as she reached back and locked the door with a loud
click
. "No," she said,
already reaching for him and he gladly went to her, "I'm in need of
our arrangement."

"I guess I can help with that," he
said, walking her backwards until her back hit the wall.

"You're a very considerate guy," she
said teasingly.

"Exactly."

For a sneak peek at the
next:

A Neighbor From Hell
novel, where two neighbors, childhood enemies
truly live up to the series title.........

A peek at the 3rd
installation of
A Neighbor From
Hell
series

Chapter 1

"Come on, come on, come on," Rory
mumbled as she waited for the only traffic light in town to turn
green. Just as it did she sighed with immense relief which ended
abruptly when Mrs. Church, Golden, New Hampshire's oldest citizen,
took the green light as the signal to walk across the street using
her walker.

Her eyes shot to the dimly lit clock in
her dashboard and whimpered. She was five minutes late! She could
not be five minutes late. Not today. Normally it would just
irritate her, but today it felt like it was a matter of life or
death. She needed Mrs. Church to haul her ninety-six year old ass
across the street before the light turned red.