His fingers twitched with the need to snatch the food out of the guy’s hands and make a run for it.
“That’ll be $26.50. I’m sorry it took so...wait a minute,” the guy said, frowning. “You’re not a Bradford, are you?” he asked, quickly taking in Trevor’s dark hair, good looks, and large muscular build.
“No, no, of course, I’m not,” Trevor said quickly, fully prepared to tackle the bastard if the kid tried to leave with his food.
Granted, that may have been one of the reasons why he’d been placed on the banned list at Black Jack’s in the first place, but they really should have known better than to show up at his door at eleven o’clock at night with someone else’s order. Besides, he’d only scared the hell out of the guy. He hadn’t really harmed the kid. At least, that’s what the Judge decided when he’d dismissed the case against him.
He wasn’t exactly sure what the rest of the men in his family did to earn a place on the banned list, but he could guess. The kid took a cautious step back as Trevor prepared to lunge at him. The deliveryman gestured with his chin towards the mailbox even as he prepared to flee. “It says Bradford on the mailbox.”
“That’s my neighbor,” Trevor said, forcing himself to remain calm as he pulled his wallet out of his back pants pocket. He pulled out two twenties and handed them to the guy who was still looking unsure about the whole thing. “Keep the change.”
That seemed to help clear things up. He handed Trevor the food along with a two-liter bottle of Coke and smiled. “Thank you, sir. You have a nice night.”
“I will now,” Trevor mumbled as his mouth watered. He closed the door and turned around only to find his little tenant standing in front of him, glaring at the food in his hands.
“Is that my order?” Zoe demanded as she pushed a strand of her wet mahogany hair behind her ear, narrowing her baby blue eyes on his face.
“Um, no?” Trevor said, clearing his throat, realizing that sounded more like a question than an answer. “This is my order.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “Sorry,” Zoe mumbled, heading back to her apartment. He wasn’t too surprised that she hadn’t bitched about him stealing the washer from her. She never bitched, making her his favorite kind of tenant.
He walked into his apartment and shut the door behind him, eager to dig into his food. He set the boxes down on the coffee table and turned on the game, which was, thankfully, still in the second inning. He headed to the kitchen to grab a glass and a handful of napkins.
Just as he was about to sit down and help himself to the first slice, someone knocked on his door. Having a pretty good idea who it was, he ignored it. The knocking continued for another minute before it thankfully stopped. He picked up a thick slice of that beautiful pizza and almost wept. It had been too damn long since he’d had a slice of the most perfect pizza ever made.
He was just about to take a bite when the slice of pizza was ripped out of his hands. It took him a minute to realize what the hell had just happened. By the time he figured it out, his eyes were narrowing dangerously on his frumpy little neighbor as she tossed the slice of pizza back in the box and closed it. He watched as she placed the box of chicken tenders on top, picked them both up, and headed for the door only to pause and return for the bottle of soda.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Trevor demanded, getting to his feet.
“Getting my order. I called. Not only did you not order this, but apparently, you’re on some sort of banned list,” Zoe said, heading for the door once again.
Trevor was up and over the couch in seconds, blocking her way. “That’s my food!” he snapped.
“No, it’s not!”
“Yes, it is!”
“I ordered it!”
“So what? I paid for it. Put it back and get the hell out of my apartment!”
Her eyes narrowed on him as she squared her shoulders. “Look, I’ve put up with a lot of crap from you over the last two months, but stealing my Black Jack’s pizza after I’ve had the worst day of my life is the last straw. So, I really don’t give a damn if you go crying to your aunt about this and get me evicted. I’m taking my pizza home and I’m going to enjoy it.”
A lot of what she said and how she’d said it pissed him off, but he forced himself to focus as he reached out over snatched the box of pizza from her hands, earning a surprised gasp and a rather cute little growl as he stepped away from her. Glaring, she stalked after him. He couldn’t blame her. It was Black Jack’s pizza, after all.
“What the hell have I put you through? I’ve been a fucking perfect neighbor,” Trevor pointed out, sidestepping her as she tried to steal his chicken tenders.
She snorted at that. “Puhlease.”
“I have!”
“Really?” Zoe demanded, folding her arms over her faded blue tee-shirt and rather large chest.
“Yes, really!” Trevor snapped back, forcing his eyes away from her chest. Shit. If he was checking out a woman like her, then it really had been too long since the last time he got laid.
For some reason, she took that as her cue to share.
“You park in my spot so that I’m forced to park on the street. I’ve gotten four parking tickets thanks to you,” Zoe snapped, making him frown. “You steal my paper every morning. You run the hot water when I’m taking a shower, leaving me to freeze my ass off with no water pressure! You blast your television all night. You’re loud and so are your friends. Every time I go to use the washing machine you steal it, or worse, you take my clothes out of the dryer before they’re done drying and throw them on top of my dirty clothes and on the floor.”
