A Mysterious Man novel Chapter 10

"And that affects me how?"

"Well," he said, drawing the word out longer than it should have been, "I thought you might miss me."

I couldn't help but snort out a laugh - unattractive, but it was the way I laughed. He looked at me with an expression of attempted hurt, but the reality was that he knew I wouldn't miss him, and he was just trying to annoy me more than he already had.

"Good luck with that," I said. "Feel free to stay away for several days - it would give me a chance to get settled in without you lurking around every corner and irritating me further."

Of course it would figure that the devil would just happen to hear that comment.

"Jonah!" My mother snapped out. "What have I told you about your manners?"

"Um, to be polite?" I asked her sarcastically, hoping without any real base that she wouldn't respond. I would have had a better chance hoping that a hurricane would suddenly destroy the house and wash me away to Canada.

There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that it would happen.

"Jonah…" her tone was a warning that I had learned to listen to. My eyes widened and I turned to face her fully, so tempted to shrink under her stern gaze and agree to whatever the hell she was demanding. It was a tone she had perfected, and everyone - my father, my sisters, her coworkers, even her boss - scurried toward her and bowed under her will when she used it. That tone could stop a bank robbery with one word.

"Yes?"

"Manners," was all she said before going back to the dishes from our meal. I resisted the urge to say Yes, Mother and be perfectly sweet to Grayson for the rest of her stay. Instead I looked at Grayson, gave him the most evil and murderous glare I could and then shoved past him and rushed out of the room to get away from my crazy family and the delectable, horrible handyman as fast as possible.

Kennedy caught up with me before I was even able to get off of the first floor and onto the second. My room seemed like the best escape at this point - it had my computer and a lock on the door. Although after Grayson's appearance in my bathroom last night, I wasn't sure about the reliability of the lock. At the very least I thought I could get started on some work.

"What?" I asked her, some of my irritation leaking through in my voice.

Kennedy didn't say anything and I groaned in frustration. My steps thudded on the stairs as I continued climbing. Kennedy didn't follow me, instead choosing to go back to the first level and do who knows what with my mother. They were probably ordering the flowers for my wedding that didn't exist. Yet. There was no way of knowing what my mother was capable of accomplishing.

My laptop took forever to warm up and let me into my email, but when I was actually able to check it, I saw a new file awaiting me that I immediately opened and began working on.

My mom came into my room within fifteen minutes - without knocking of course - and saw me on the bed, typing on my laptop.

"What story is it now?" She asked as she plopped down unceremoniously.

"A wonderful story about a demon," I said sarcastically without looking up at her.

"Someone wrote a book about your cat?" Her attempt at joking didn't make me feel anything more than a slight detached amusement. What I really wanted was to continue working. I was a literary editor - it was my job to read books and catch typos and other minor errors. I found things like plot holes and grammar mistakes along with the casual word misspelling. I really enjoyed my work - the thing I hadn't enjoyed was all the grammar courses I had needed to take for my degree. I cringed at the memory.