Page 10 of I Knew He Was Trouble
I narrow my gaze. “Not if I see you first, Tyler Reed.”
Shayna walks him back to the front door, and Alyssa fans herself with a throw pillow. “Girl, I think we need to call the fire department from the sparks flying between you two.”
“Oh, stop.” I shake my head.
“No, seriously, you could cut the romantic tension with a knife.”
I look at Mallory, wanting her to agree with me about how ridiculous Alyssa’s comments are. She shrugs. “As much as I don’t like him for how he wakes you up all the time, Lyss isn’t wrong.”
“There has never been and never will beanythingbetween me and Tyler freaking Reed except loathing.”
They look at each other with playful grins.
“I give it two months.” Alyssa pulls up a streaming platform on the television and scrolls through the romantic comedy section.
“I give it three.”
“You’re on.” Mallory and Alyssa shake hands as I watch in abject horror that they’re betting that I’ll fall for our jerk of a neighbor.
“What are we betting about?” Shayna eyes them as she takes a seat on the couch.
“How long it’ll take for Tyler and Kelsey to fall in love,” Mallory says matter-of-factly.
I grab a piece of popcorn from the bowl and throw it at her.
“Oooh,” she squeals. “I give it a month.”
I grab another popcorn kernel and throw it at her. “Do you all have such little faith in me?”
“It’s just the law of attraction, Kels.” Alyssa grabs the piece of popcorn that landed on Mallory’s hot-pink sweatshirt and tosses it in her mouth.
Okay, sure,objectively, Tyler is handsome. Being a pediatrician might move him up a notch on the hotness scale too. But I’m not focused on romance when all my time and energy is going into saving to open my dog rescue. Even if I wasn’t, I’d never date the man who has been a nuisance for the past two years.
“Let’s up the ante a little bit, then.” I lean in closer. “If any of you are correct, I’ll buy a nice espresso maker and make you good coffee every day for a month straight. But if I don’t fall in love with him—which I won’t—y’all have to make me dinner for a month.”
They smile at each other and rise from the couch. All four of us come together and cross our arms, making hand hearts with each other in a little circle. It’s been our version of a pinky promise since middle school.
“You’d better start saving your pennies now, Kels,” Mallory says as she falls back onto the couch.
As Alyssa puts on one of our favorite romcoms where the enemies become lovers, I smile because I know that will never be how my story ends with Tyler. I don’t have to worry about spending the money on a fancy espresso machine because I know there’s no way I could possibly lose this bet.
Right?
There'snoexplanationforwhat came over me last night.
I’m just going to say it was a desperate moment of exhaustion and defeat that led to me asking my female neighbors for help watching my niece. We’re not even going to mention that Kelsey Anderson is coming over in five minutes to discuss the details of potentially hiring her.
I’m in a bind.
A big bind.
An I-don’t-have-a-nanny-for-my-niece-and-need-one-to-start-in-two-days kind of bind.
When I went next door yesterday, I’d hoped one of Kelsey’s three roommates would be able to help. But I hesitated when it came down to the only option being Kelsey. From my minimal encounters with her over the past two years, I’m not sure I can trust her. I mean, if she lets her dogs pee all over my lawn, what is she going to teach my niece?
Although, her roommate did say that Kelsey was a nanny in college, so at least she has some experience…but I wish there was any other option.
A knock sounds at my front door. I didn’t even know a knock could sound annoyed, but if anyone’s can, it makes sense that it’s Kelsey’s. How do I know it’s her? It’s 8:01. Of course she’d be one minute late to annoy me.
