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“Because if he did, then I might be forced to tell him that you had a boy over tonight,” Katie said, making her roll her eyes because that was just pathetic.

“And who was this boy that had nothing better to do than to hang out here on a Friday night?” Chloe asked in a mocking tone as she grabbed the plastic cup off the shelf and found herself slowly turning around when Katie pointed behind her and said, “Him,” with so much disgust that she knew, just knew, who she was going to see standing in her hallway before she turned around. When she saw Cole standing there, leaning back against the wall with his arms folded over his chest, she may have, ummm, freaked out a little.

*-*-*-*

“You might as well open the door. I know you’re in there,” Cole said, smiling at the memory of Chloe releasing the cutest damn startled gasp that he’d ever heard before she raced toward the bathroom door, stumbling over her feet twice before she managed to slam the door shut.

That had been followed by frantic whispers and then silence. Since they’d been busy at the moment, he’d decided to make himself useful by seeing what was in the fridge. That had led him to ordering pizza when he realized that the only thing in the fridge was expired lunchmeat and an insane amount of frozen dinners.

“No, you don’t!” Katie yelled back, making his lips twitch.

“If I didn’t, I do now,” he pointed out, taking great satisfaction from her startled gasp.

That was followed by, “No! You can’t talk to my archnemesis!” as the bathroom door opened and Chloe stuck her head out the door. “What are you doing here, Cole?”

“Why wouldn’t I be here?” he asked, mostly because he liked the way that she narrowed her eyes on him when she was thinking about killing him.

“Besides the fact that no one invited you and you let yourself in?”

“Yes, besides that,” Cole said, waving it off.

“You don’t live here?” Chloe pointed out only to roll her eyes when Katie yelled, “Stop talking to my archnemesis and help me out of this tub so that I can finish what I started!”

“But I live next door,” Cole pointed out, watching as her mouth worked soundlessly as she tried to think of how she should respond to that only to frown and ask, “Who’s that?” when the sound of someone knocking on the front door caught their attention.

“Pizza,” was all Cole said as he pushed away from the wall and headed for the front door where a Blackjack’s pizza delivery driver waited, shooting nervously glances toward Sebastian’s house next-door as he noticeably swallowed.

&nbs

p; “Thirty-five fifty-eight,” the guy said, never taking his eyes off Cole’s house as Cole pulled the money out of his pocket and paid him.

“Do the Bradfords still live there?” the guy asked, swallowing nervously as he risked a glance at Cole before looking back at his house.

“I think they moved,” Cole murmured thoughtfully, wondering if that would be enough to get his house off the banned list so that they could start getting Blackjack’s delivered to their house again.

“I’ve heard stories,” the guy said hollowly.

“Really?” Cole said absently as he double-checked his order to make sure that they didn’t forget anything.

“We’re not supposed to talk about it,” he said, noticeably swallowing as he glanced back at Cole’s house.

“Isn’t the owner married to a Bradford?” Cole asked, wondering when Uncle Arik was going to lift the ban, but then again, since he was a Bradford…

“I heard she lost a bet and had to marry him,” the guy said, making Cole nod with a murmured, “That’s what I heard, too.”

“Well, I better get going,” the guy said with one last look at Cole’s house and muttered, “Goodnight,” as he left.

Chuckling, Cole turned around and wasn’t exactly surprised to find Chloe standing behind him, struggling to hold Katie back, who somehow managed to get all that mayonnaise out of her hair, from killing him.

“Pizza?” Cole said, raising the stack of pizzas in his arms as he headed toward the living room.

“Look, you can’t be here,” Chloe said as she followed him.

“Why not?” Cole asked as he placed the pizza on the coffee table and grabbed a slice.

“I’ll get the plates!” Katie said with an enthusiastic nod as she rushed off to the kitchen, making him frown.

He glanced at Chloe to find her shrugging. “She can be bought.”