Page 2 of The Best Bad Decision

God, I was going to end up dating the grump just because I couldn’t control my penchant for gossip.

“I need a man to date me publicly to help remind my family that I’m not straight and to convince my ex that she really needs to be my ex.” His glare was still sexy but was also making me wonder what the fuck was going on.

I was totally screwed.

He was going to be the craziest man I’d ever dated.

“We’ll come back to how you know I’m single, but for the moment, we’re going to start with why the hell she’s dragging her feet on your divorce.” I had a lot of other questions but that was a good jumping-off point.

Atlee looked around me and deeper into the house. “May I come in?”

This day just kept getting weirder and weirder. “Sure.”

I wasn’t sure how hospitable I was going to be, but we had too many neighbors who were just as nosy as I was and they didn’t need any help figuring out what was going on. With one that could read lips and another who I was pretty sure bought one of those badass mics off of Amazon, we needed walls between us and them.

“Come in and sit down.” Gesturing toward my living room, I shut the door behind my strange neighbor and led him over to the couch. I was smart enough to sit across from him to make sure I didn’t get distracted, but I was still going to enjoy the view.

Because man, did he fill out a pair of jeans…even pressed ones he’d clearly ironed.

“Now, can you explain what’s going on in a bit more detail?” Before I decided if I was going to get pissy or be polite.

“I guess I need to.” He still seemed offended about that part, but it couldn’t be helped, so he was going to have to suck it up. “As you know, I’m in the middle of a slightly contentious divorce.”

Duh.

There’d been enough screaming matches the whole street knew she cheated on him with the office gigolo.

“Yes, I’d heard something about that.” From everyone on our crazy street. Anyone who said that the suburbs were boring had never lived there. It was fabulous and filled with really high-maintenance people. “I’m sorry you’re going through this.”

And sorry he’d stuck around so long if I was being honest.

“Thank you.” Having boring manners stuff to fall back on seemed to make him happier because he relaxed into my comfy couch and didn’t seem as offended. “Well, one thing you might not know is that she’s six months pregnant with her affair partner’s child.”

Wow.

I was getting the good stuff.

Ha.

Mrs. Jessup with that stupid mic could kiss my ass.

How did we not already know this?

“That’s…” I let my response trail off and just shook my head since I wasn’t sure what the right response should be. Giggling manically definitely wasn’t it, so I tried to behave. “I’m assuming that’s not the part that led you here, though.”

This was getting better and better.

“No.” Looking pissed still, the sexy grump took a breath and let it out slowly. “I’m trying to be rational about the whole situation but I’m slightly frustrated.”

“I don’t blame you.” And I was pretty sure I’d get more understanding once he actually explained how we’d gotten to this point. “What makes her think her being pregnant with that asshole’s kid is your problem in any way?”

That got a ghost of a smile out of him. “Everyone knows, huh?”

“That he’s an asshole who can’t keep it in his pants? Yes. We’ve named him Gigolo.” His real name was something close to Giovani but they kept screaming the name at such insane pitches we weren’t completely sure.

And for fuck only knew what reason, it was really hard to find him online.

Groaning, my delightfully ridiculous neighbor scrubbed his hands over his face. “Great. Well, at least I won’t have to go into detail to catch you up to speed.”