Page 10 of The Best Bad Decision

He just had to be adorable.

“I’d have liked that.” Blushing faintly, he nodded toward the restaurant. “Are you ready?”

Since he needed me to change the subject, I nodded. “Let’s go. I’m starved.”

And very tempted to do something I shouldn’t, so giving us some space was the best idea.

****

“No, I’m serious. They put the house up for sale the very next week and even took what I heard was a ridiculous lowball offer.” Some people made terrible decisions. “The wife said she couldn’t handle being around so many old people and kept screaming about everyone bringing casseroles.”

That house was cursed.

Atlee looked pleased as fuck with himself. “Their real estate agent was so frazzled when she talked to mine, she basically gave away how desperate they were to sell.”

Oh.

Whatever he saw on my face made him chuckle. “They were so strange, I did a search to make sure the house didn’t come up as one where someone was murdered.”

That might’ve explained the insanity of everyone who seemed to have lived there.

“Not that I’ve heard but she just couldn’t handle everyone being nice to her.” I could understand moving for a lot of different reasons…but not that. “I hadn’t even met them officially yet or done anything inappropriate, so I knew it wasn’t me.”

And everyone else had claimed not it too.

“She honestly seemed to have an issue with people wanting to get to know them and being invited to community events. Evidently the BUNCO invitation made her eye twitch and Betty was incredibly offended by what the crazy woman said about the BINGO invitation.” Everyone got those, so I couldn’t figure out why they’d made her crazy.

“That was the real issue?” Leaning back in his seat, Atlee shook his head. “That just doesn’t make any sense.”

“She thought the suburbs would give her a lot of privacy?” That was the dumbest assumption ever but some people just weren’t smart. “I still maintain the Wit Sec family was the weirdest, though.”

They hadn’t been able to keep their lies straight and had been moved out of the area within the month.

Atlee tried not to laugh but it was hard. “I honestly didn’t understand what was going on. He kept saying they’d come from New York but had a Deep South accent and she kept saying they’d just moved from Las Vegas, California.”

“They must be giving their handler an ulcer.” I hoped they stayed safe, but while they’d been nice, they hadn’t been smart. “I love the suburbs.”

And he laughed.

“You are probably the only person I’ve ever heard say that, but I’m starting to see why you enjoy it so much.” Shaking his head, he tried to put his serious expression back in place. “I have to admit it’s a lot sometimes.”

“I think that’s because you’ve been the focus of the drama so long you’ve forgotten all the fun of watching other people’s lives go crazy.” It wasn’t our fault they’d fought so much and were better than any daytime talk show. “We’re moving past that and we’re giving everyone something new to talk about. It’ll be much more fun.”

His eyes rolled but he didn’t push back as much as he probably wanted to. “We’ll see.”

I’d won.

“Nope. We’ve got that pink house for sale at the end of the street and on the other end there’s that family that’s still pretending not to speak any English at all.” I had good stuff on them, but he was going to have to work for that. “There’s lots of other chaos we can watch and encourage.”

Atlee tried to look bored but I could see his inner drama queen peeking out. “We shouldn’t be watching other people’s lives fall apart.”

Bullshit.

“Yes, we can. Especially when they do it to themselves by being weird.” Then they were fair game. “When all you put out to the universe is attention-seeking behavior, you have to expect to get crazy back.”

That seemed to be how he’d been put right in front of my path…and I was very grateful for it.

“I have no idea how to respond to that.” His ability to admit when I was confusing was a strong point in his favor. “So how about I change the subject and show you why my phone started exploding just before you went to the restroom.”