Chapter 3
Now, normally Jason would either just ignore the asshole or give him a quick nod and continue minding his own business as he pulled the keg of beer out of his backseat, but not today.
Today, he was going to do his normally shy neighbor and co-worker a favor.
After yesterday, he was pretty sure this wouldn’t piss her off and send her back into hiding.
Okay, maybe he wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but he just couldn’t help himself, especially when the jerk actually shoved a condom in his front pocket and gave Jason a conspiratorial wink.
Fuck it.
At that moment, he didn’t care if this sent her running for the hills and she slapped a restraining order on him, he was getting rid of the asshole.
“You’re not here for Haley, are you?” Jason asked, pulling the keg out of the car and set it on the ground.
The man frowned. “Yeah, why?”
Jason made a show of cringing as he quickly looked back at Haley’s house as though he was making sure that she wasn’t watching them.
“I really don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Jason mumbled.
“Why not?”
He gave the man an “Are you kidding?” look and had to stop himself from laughing when the asshole shifted nervously.
“You know...” Jason said, purposely letting his words trail off.
“No, my friend set me up with her,” he said, shooting a nervous glance towards Haley’s house.
Did the curtain just move?
Sighing heavily, Jason rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s really not my place, but I’m not sure that this is such a good idea.”
“Why?” the man practically whined.
After a pause, Jason shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t like talking about it. All I can tell you is that you really need to be careful,” Jason said as he gave the man a pointed look while he stressed, “Really careful.”
The man’s eyes widened as his mouth dropped open. He took several steps back, shooting nervous glances towards Haley’s house. When he reached his car, he said, “I, uh, just suddenly remembered that I have somewhere I’m supposed to be.” With that, he practically jumped into his car and sped away.
Jason chuckled as he made his way to Haley’s front door. He knocked on the door and wasn’t really surprised when a minute passed and there was no answer. He pushed aside his disappointment and knocked again.
Great.
It seemed that last night had been a fluke and that his shy neighbor was here to stay. He really liked spending time with Haley, more than he’d ever thought possible. Feeling like an idiot, Jason headed back to his house and the keg waiting for him.
A loud, wet hacking cough had him pausing halfway down her small walkway.
The front door slowly opened as Haley said, “I’m sorry I took so long,” another hacking cough, “to answer,” another cough, “the,” cough, “door. But the doctor said that I was still,” several loud and disturbing coughs later, “contagious, so I-Oh, it’s only you,” Haley said with a relieved sigh.
Jason’s lips twitched as he took in her outfit.
On her head was one of the ugliest puke green knitted hats that he’d ever seen.
Her oversized ratty bathrobe was worse, but the large ball of tissues in her hand was a nice touch.
There was no doubt in his mind that she was faking it since he’d hung out with her last night and she’d been the picture of health.
“Love the hat,” Jason said, smiling as he walked back to her front step.
Laughing, Haley pulled the offending hat off her head and chucked it at him. He caught it before it could hit him in the face. “What’s all this about?” he asked, gesturing to her outfit with the hat.
“Nothing,” she said quickly.
“Looks like date repellant to me.”
Blinking innocently, Haley said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m sick,” cough, “really sick,” and just to back up her bullshit story, she sniffled.
It was sad, adorable, but sad.
He couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes and chuckling. “I don’t know why you can’t just admit that you were ditching the love of your life.”
“I’m sick,” she stressed. “Really sick. I might very well be dying as we speak,” Haley said as she pushed her glasses back up her cute, little nose.
With a shrug, Jason took a step back towards his house. “That’s a damn shame because I was hoping you’d come to my party today, but since you’re sick...”
She pressed the back of her hand against her forehead. “Hmmm, what do you know? I’m all better. What time is the party?” she asked with the cutest, shy smile he’d ever seen.
“Four o’clock, you little faker,” Jason said, chuckling when she let out an excited squeal as she ran back inside her house.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, Haley thought as she stood on Jason’s doorstep with a large plate of brownies in her arms. With an inward groan, she berated herself for being an idiot.
Who brought brownies to a kegger? Okay, so she was assuming that this was a kegger, but in her defense, she’d witnessed some rather scary behavior going on over the years.
Some of the things she’d heard and seen had scarred her for life, but some of it had intrigued her.
Not that she’d ever admit it, but on more than one occasion, she’d wondered what it would be like to go to one of Jason’s parties, which is probably why she’d jumped at the chance to go to one today.
Jason’s parties had to be the equivalent of the parties the popular kids in high school used to throw and somehow forgot to invite her to, but now, she was about to rectify that.
Maybe not, Haley thought, worrying her bottom lip as she looked down at the brownies.
She was going to look like an idiot bringing brownies to a kegger.
Hoping that no one heard her knocking over the loud music, she decided a quick stop at a liquor store was in order.
She was just about to make her escape when the front door opened.
“What do you want?”
Frowning, Haley quickly took in the woman glaring down at her, noting the sleek black hair, perfect features touched by flawless make-up, and the killer short dress and decided that she was severely underdressed for this party in her jeans and baby pink Yankees long sleeve tee-shirt.
Haley opened her mouth to make an excuse so that she could leave, realizing that she was in way over her head here when the woman snorted.
“You’re the next-door neighbor,” the woman said, sounding amused. “What do you want?” she demanded as her eyes narrowed on the plate in Haley’s hands.
“I just-”
“Amy, who is it?” Jason said from somewhere behind the woman currently glaring at her.
Amy rolled her eyes. “It’s just your neighbor dropping off some brownies,” she said as she reached over to take the plate from Haley. “I’ll just take them so she can go.”
“Brownies?” Jason said, suddenly filling the doorway, causing Amy to stumble back out of the way.
“Hey!” Amy snapped, but Jason didn’t seem to hear her. His eyes were glued to the plate.
“Are those,” he noticeably swallowed, “brownies covered in peanut butter frosting?”
Did he just whimper?
“They’re chocolate chunk fudge brownies with peanut butter frosting,” Haley mumbled absently as she caught the murderous glare Amy was sending her way. She was just about to hand the plate over to Jason and leave when everything in her stilled.
After last night, she was through with getting pushed around.
She was sick of missing out on things because she was too scared to take a risk.
She was a grown woman, damn it, and if she wanted to party it up at her first kegger, then she was damn well going to do it!
She was going to have fun even if it killed her and judging by the mascara-glare being sent her way, that was a good possibility.
“Let me just take those off your hands so you can grab yourself a beer,” Jason said, taking the plate from her while he gazed longingly down at the brownies as he stepped back inside the house, leaving Haley to follow him.
“Hey, those look good! Can I have one?” a man she’d seen hundreds of times around Jason’s house asked, reaching out to take one.
“Back the fuck off! She brought them for me, you bastard!” Jason snapped.
Haley automatically took an anxious step back, afraid of getting caught in the middle of a fight. But instead of yelling at Jason or getting mad like she’d seen a lot of guys do in bars over a lot less, the man just rolled his eyes and turned his attention to her.
“Hi, my name is Brad,” he said, holding out his hand.
After a slight hesitation that she hoped he hadn’t noticed, she shook his hand. “Haley.”
“Haley, it’s nice to finally meet you,” Brad said with a charming smile. “I apologize for my friend’s rudeness. He just learned how to walk upright last year,” he said dryly, earning a chuckle from everyone around them.
Jason threw him a dirty look before making his way towards the kitchen, glaring at anyone that came within touching distance of the plate of brownies.
“There’s pizza, chips, and plenty of drinks in the kitchen as long as Jason doesn’t get to it first, a volleyball game going on in the backyard, and of course, video games in the living room until the game comes on. Make yourself at home,” Brad said with a warm smile.
“Thank you,” Haley murmured, taking it all in.
This was it? Haley wondered as she took in the laidback party and couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Something must have shown on her face because a few seconds later, Brad leaned in and asked, “Were you expecting Animal House?”
“No!” she said quickly, a little too quickly. She had been expecting something along those lines. She definitely hadn’t pictured any of this.
This she could definitely handle.
He chuckled. “Come on out back with me so that I can introduce you to my wife,” Brad said, smiling. “I promise we won’t bite.”
For the first time since she’d walked over here, Haley felt herself relax and realized that she might be able to handle this after all.
“Who’s the hottie kicking Mitch’s ass?”
Without looking up as he loaded his plate with more pizza, Jason said, “Amy.” At least, he hoped it was Amy.
Her clingy behavior was becoming annoying and he hadn’t missed the bitch act she’d put on for Haley or the dirty looks she’d been sending his little neighbor all night.
He knew that he should have sent Amy away when he saw her walking up his driveway earlier.
“No, the cute little thing with glasses.”
Frowning, Jason looked up and followed Pete’s gaze towards the couch where Haley was sitting next to Mitch, playing a game on Xbox.
“She’s my neighbor,” Jason said, not liking the look on Pete’s face one bit.
“Is she here with anyone?” Pete asked, never taking his eyes off Haley.
“No.”
“Good,” Pete said, grinning as he looked back over his shoulder. “I won’t even bother asking to use your room since we can just head over to her place.”
Jason sighed heavily. It seemed that he was going to have to save Haley from two douchebags today.
Frowning, Pete looked back at him. “What was that about?”
“What?” Jason asked innocently.
“That little sigh you just did,” Pete said, gesturing lazily towards him.
“Nothing,” Jason said with a shrug, returning his attention to piling more food on his plate, “I just didn’t think you were into that, that’s all.”
“Into what?” Pete demanded, sounding a little unsure.
Considering the man’s reputation, there probably wasn’t much that he wasn’t into, which was why Jason decided that he wouldn’t do for his shy little neighbor.
It had taken him five years to get Haley to climb out of her shell and he wasn’t about to let this jackass send her back there for good.
“Just forget I said anything,” Jason said, grabbing a cold soda from one of the coolers on the floor.
“But-”
“I don’t want to get involved in this,” Jason said, cutting him off.
He moved to step past Pete only to pause.
“Just...just make sure that she takes her medication and you should be safe. I mean fine,” Jason quickly amended as he walked away before he burst into laughter at his friend’s horrified expression.
Damn, that felt good. He should have done that years ago when he’d spotted the first asshole sniffing around Haley.
Did this make him her wingman? Jason wondered as he walked over to the couch and shoved Mitch off so that he could sit down next to his new little project.
That was fine with him, Jason decided, because by the time he was done with her, she’d be living a much more entertaining and asshole-free life.