She’d learned a long time ago that it was best to keep plenty of deli meat and beer on hand for when her guy friends stopped by. It was either that or hear them bitching about being hungry until she gave in and baked them some cookies. Since baking meant cookies, brownies and cakes, her weaknesses, she made damn sure that her house was always well stocked for company, guy company. Unless she was stressed, then she baked like it was going out of style.

“He can’t be that bad,” Greg said, sighing heavily as he reached for more sugar.

“I now have thirty ways to kill him,” Jodi explained as she refilled his cup of coffee.

“You need to get the hell out of here before you do something stupid,” Greg said as though she wasn’t painfully aware of that fact.

“I can’t afford to move,” she said, focusing her attention on the notes once again and after she read the next paragraph, rolled her eyes in disgust.

“You have a good job, Jodi. It even pays more than the museum. You should be able to afford to buy your own house by now,” Greg pointed out, looking around the kitchen until he spotted the bag of chips that she’d taken out and forgot to put on the table while she tried not to wince.

He had no idea that Jerry had screwed her over financially when he’d walked out on her. If she honestly didn’t believe that he’d grab the rest of the guys and go beat the shit out of Jerry, she probably would have told him. She didn’t want anyone else to pay for her stupidity even if that meant that Jerry got the ass whooping that he’d more than earned.

“Why don’t you ask your Dad for help?” he suggested.

“I can’t,” she mumbled pathetically even though she technically could.

Well, there wasn’t anything technical about it. If she needed money or a place to live, her father would gladly give it to her. If her mother were still alive, she would have already dragged Jodi back home and babied her until she was able to get back on her feet. Some days she was sorely tempted to give in and admit defeat, but then her pride would rear its ugly head and demand that she keep trying.

“Well,” Greg said, getting up so that he could grab the chips off the counter, “you’ve gotta do something. Maybe go back to school.”

She had to snort at that. “So I can be even more overqualified? No thanks,” she said, adding the request for the wall of plaques declaring the members of the City Council heroes and hating herself for it.

“Maybe you could-” he started to suggest only to get cut off by his radio.

“Echo ninety-four, please respond to a twenty-five at 178 Harrison Road.”

Jodi cocked a brow in question even as she stood up and quickly packed the rest of the sandwiches for him.

“Shoplifter,” he said with a heavy sigh as he took the large paper brown bag from her and shoved the large unopened bag of chips inside.

“Well, you have fun with that,” she said dryly, sitting back down in front of her laptop when all she wanted to do was grab the pint of Ben and Jerry’s that she had hidden behind a bag of broccoli and go kill a few hours and a few hundred brain cells with reality television. Anything was better than writing this drivel.

“And try not to kill your neighbor,” Greg said, giving her the customary pat on the head before he headed out.

“I’m not promising anything!” she called after him, hoping that wouldn’t be considered admissible in court later.

*-*-*-*

“Congratulations! You’re getting a raise.”

“Uh huh,” Danny said, using his tee shirt to wipe the sweat off his face as he waited for his Uncle to skip the bullshit and get to the reason why he was about to get screwed over.

“And a promotion,” Uncle Jared said with that forced smile that he knew so well. It was the same smile that Uncle Jared had used when he’d informed him that the stage The Hunter’s Nest, the all male strip club in the next town over, had collapsed and he needed Danny to go there and rebuild it.

What his Uncle had failed to mention was that the club would be open for auditions while he was supposed to be working. If Danny had known that, he probably would have turned down the Yankees tickets that his Uncle had offered to entice Danny to take the job. He definitely would have turned down the job if he had known that half the stripper candidates would try to use him and his tools as props as they did their best to outstrip the competition. It had been one of the most disturbing jobs that he’d ever done and he’d sworn then and there that he would never allow his Uncle to bullshit him into anything else.

“Not interested,” he said, in no mood to have a guy named “Blade” invite him home for a more private audition tonight or any other night for that matter.

“You didn’t even let me tell you-”

“That’s because I’m not interested,” he said, cutting off his Uncle as he got to his feet and headed for the closed office door.

“It’s really not that bad,” his uncle called after him.

“Then you should have no problem finding someone else to do it,” he said, absently noting the large stack of files covering what was supposed to be the secretary’s desk and wondering when his uncle was going to get off his ass and hire somebody new. His Aunt Megan, Haley and Zoe usually put in a couple of hours each week to catch his uncle up on his paperwork, but clearly that wasn’t enough.

“This job is perfect for you!” his uncle said as he hurried to catch up with him.

“Not interested,” Danny said, deciding that since his uncle had dragged him away from finishing dry walling the first floor for this bullshit that he was treating himself to another midmorning snack.

“If you don’t take the job then I’m afraid that I’m going to have to fire you,” Uncle Jared said, stepping into line beside him.

“Uh huh, that’s nice,” he said, absently noting the frightened expression on the cashier’s face as she realized that she had two Bradfords in her line an hour before she had to set up for lunch.

As he grabbed a tray and started loading it up, he noted the exact moment when she considered lying her ass off and telling them that she was closed until lunch. Not that he could blame her. If they cleaned her out this close to lunch she’d have to deal with more than a hundred pissed off men, forty of them Bradfords. It wasn’t a fate that he’d wish on anyone. Well, maybe on his neighbor, he mused with a small chuckle.

She was just so damn much fun to torment. It was probably pathetic, but he looked forward to getting her flustered every day. He liked it when she looked close to going for his throat. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but tormenting Tinkerbelle was probably the most fun he’d had in years.

“It’s only for the summer,” his Uncle continued, obviously hellbent on screwing him over with this job.

“Sorry, I have plans,” he lied, hoping that his Uncle wouldn’t remember which nephew he was talking to.

“Bullshit,” Uncle Jared said, stepping in front of him to grab the peanut butter chocolate chip muffin that he’d been eying. “The only thing you have planned this year is the family getaway and that isn’t until October. You have the summer wide open.”

“How about this?” Danny asked, swiftly snatching the muffin off his uncle’s tray. “I just don’t want to do whatever fucked up job you have that will end with me getting violated.”