Page 98 of Tempt Thy Neighbor

“Bingo,” I say to answer his question. “I’m supposed to go to bingo with Sutton’s aunt tomorrow.”

Dean’s brows shoot up. “Bingo? Dude, I fucking love bingo. Can I go?”

I shake my head. “You are such an old man sometimes.”

He sighs. “It’s working with kids, man. They age you fast.”

“It’s still so hard for me to see you as a teacher. Can’t believeyou’reteaching our youth.”

“I can’t believe it either some days.”

“It’s just so weird. You were always supposed to be the one to take over Dad’s business.”

“Yeah, but you were always better suited for the job.”

“Yeah.”

“I haven’t said anything, but I am proud of you for not running back to Dad when shit blew up at your job. I know it would have been easier, but I’m proud of you for sticking to your guns.”

I won’t lie, it took a lot of time and effort to convince myself to not call my father and beg for my job back.

But I couldn’t go through with it. Even though right now it looks like I’m back where I began, I’ve come too far to go back to my father’s company.

It might take a while, but I’ll find something eventually.

“Thanks, Dean.”

“Of course.” He winks, then slaps his thighs and pushes off of the couch. “All right. Enough sentimental crap. We should get out of the house. I start school soon and won’t have much free time. Let’s go do something.”

“Like what?”

“Anything.” He pulls at me, earning a hiss from Artemis. “We can go egg Sutton’s car if you want.”

“Dean!”

“What?” He shrugs. “Not like he doesn’t deserve it. Asshole broke my little sister’s fucking heart,” he mutters.

I love when he gets all big-brotherly.

“We can’t egg Sutton’s car.”

“Why not?”

“Because it could damage it and that’s illegal. Besides, I thought you were the older sibling—I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to encourage your little sister to do illegal things.”

“Excuse me, but you had no problem when I was encouraging you to try pot for the first time.”

“That’s different. It’s legal now. Also, that was like ten years ago. I was still a teenager—of course I’m going to smoke pot.”

“But we can do something else that won’t destroy any property but will annoy him.”

“Like?”

He grins. “Water guns.”

It was immature and ridiculous,but Dean and I had way too much fun waiting around for Sutton so we could pelt him with water guns.

Turned out, we didn’t have to wait long.

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