“Do what you gotta do. Good luck with that. I know one person here that may tie your balls up and burn you alive. Have you considered what this is goin’ to do to Lacey when you announce that you cheated on her and made a kid, then tried to blame it on your brother? She’s going to flip.”
“Make sure Sky knows, Ford. When the shock has died down and I’ve gone, she can pull Lace aside and tell her the truth. I don’t expect her to take me back, but I want her to know the truth.”
“You’re a damn fool. That chick is crazy about your ass. She’s done cried every time she’s been here. You didn’t know what you had there.”
“I know. It’s too late now. I can’t change the past.”
“Whatever, man. This is your life you’re fuckin’ up.”
“Wait, you think I have a chance at bein’ with Lacey again? You think she’d take me back?”
“I think that when you’re ready to admit your mistakes and grow a set of balls, she’ll consider it. Although, I’m goin’ to warn ya, she’s been gettin’ to know Joey. I can’t say for sure, but you may have lost your opportunity, while you were dickin’ around your convoluted ideas to save Parker.”
“What the hell are you talkin’ about? Joey is a dog. Why would she want to be with him?”
“I need to go.”
He hung up before I could ask him anything else. Immediately, my blood began to boil, just imagining her being cozy with that douche. She thought I was bad, but this guy cared about nobody except for himself.
Right away, my priorities changed as I considered ways to get Lacey back in my good graces. Even if she didn’t want me, I had to save her from being with him.
Then I thought about the baby.
I felt sick again. Ford may not have argued with me, but he didn’t have a choice either. After all, the baby was a part of our family. Like it or not, we were all going to have to live with the result of that one drunken night, no matter which one of us donated the sperm.
My drive to his new place was difficult. There were so many times that I wanted to turn around, instead of having to look into Lacey’s eyes.
Lacey
“Your cousin is the biggest dick I’ve ever met.” My comment made Ford smile.
“What did he do now, and are we talkin’ about Joey or Shayne?”
I leaned my elbows on the counter. “Joey, of course. He thinks he can just get me to drop my pants and bend over. Who does that?”
Ford laughed as he placed small items on a baking sheet and then shoved them in the oven. “I hate to burst your bubble, but Joey usually gets what he wants. I’m just tellin’ it like it is, though. Maybe you’ll be the first person to set him straight with the world.”
I rubbed my temple, unable to take yet another man driving me bonkers. “I’m going to just write off men in general. If they aren’t out cheating, they are thinking about who they can bang next.”
Ford gave me a funny look. “Lace, not all men are like that. I certainly don’t go lookin’ for a piece of ass every time I walk out the door.”
“Obviously, because you have someone spreading her legs every chance she gets.” I said it as a joke, but Sky came in the room with her hands on her hips.
She looked from me to Ford. “I’ll have you know that I don’t lay around waiting with my legs spread.”
I rolled my eyes and decided not to argue with them. They took offense to something that wasn’t meant to be. “Forget it. All I was saying is that Joey needs to back off. I don’t want him now and I’m not going to want him in the future. In fact, I am steering clear of anyone that Ford is related to, from now on.”
Ford pulled Sky into his arms and kissed her neck before adding his two-cents. “I have a lot of cousins, Lace. I wouldn’t go makin’ promises that you won’t be able to keep.”
I tossed a washrag at him. “This isn’t the dating game. I’m not interested. End of story.”
They both started to laugh at my comment and I decided that it was best to walk out of the room. I’d gotten to be so bitter towards anyone that was in a happy and stable relationship. It wasn’t fair for me to pull them into my miserable existence. They deserved to be happy and in love.
If I could stop picking assholes, my life would be a lot better as well. Just thinking about Joey and his lame attempts at getting me to bend over made me cringe. He knew how to push my buttons, that’s for sure.
After people started arriving, it was easier to be able to avoid Joey. The two apartments weren’t combined from the inside, so the guest would walk around and probably congregate on the back patio. As long as I stayed at Sky and Ford’s place, it was unlikely I’d run into him at all.
For the most part, I kept myself busy. Like Sky, I’d been around Ford’s family enough to know most of them. I’d met several at Ford’s mother’s party, except for Joey. I was so hung up on Shayne that I didn’t even know if he’d been there. I suppose he could have been working at the diner for his mother, since it was the weekend. Here lately, he only worked in the mornings, since he was doing so well at his other job.
I realized that while trying to stay occupied, my mind kept going back to Joey. Unconsciously, I was thinking about him and I hated it.
Then Shayne walked through the door. He had a card in his hand and walked right over to Ford. I could sense the animosity between them, but they shook hands anyway. Ford said something that I couldn’t make out, before Shayne walked away disappointed. He spotted me immediately. Maybe I should have ran out the door as fast as I could, but I just stood there watching him approach me.
“Hi, Lace.” He placed his hands in his pockets and gave me a half smile. He was so handsome and I imagined myself being in his arms, for only a brief second.
“Hi.” I tried to avoid eye contact. “I didn’t think you’d be here.”
“I’m not stayin’. I came to talk to you.”
“So talk.” Right away I felt like it was going to be bad.
“I’m about to do something and I know you won’t understand. I just want you to know that I was wrong to hurt you. I don’t expect you to forgive me for this, but I hope one day you’ll be able to.”
I shoved him away from me. “Save me the details. I don’t care anymore. Shayne, you’re not the guy that I waited forever to be with. Do you have any idea how long I waited for you to be able to settle down? I thought you’d changed.”
“I have. I’m tryin’ to make things right.” Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Joey walk into the room. He was carrying a case of beer and handing it to Ford to put in his refrigerator. He winked when our eyes met and when I looked back at Shayne he was aware of what had caught my gaze. “You’ve got a lot of room to talk about me not bein’ what you thought, seein’ as you’re fuckin’ someone that’s worse than I’ve ever been.”
Hearing him accuse me of being with Joey added fuel to the fire. It didn’t even matter that I wasn’t with him, or had no intention to be. “I can see who I want.”
“I highly doubt that you would call it ‘seein’.” He crossed his arms and waited for my response, like I was the guilty one.
I felt like I needed to defend myself. “Screw you. I can be with whoever I want. You lost your say in what I did the day you lied to me.”
Joey started to walk out of the apartment again, but Shayne grabbed his arm. “So it’s true? You’re doin’ my girlfriend?”
Joey looked from Shayne then back to me. He pulled his arm out of Shayne’s grasp. “Back off, Shayne. Last I heard, she wasn’t your anything.”
People were starting to watch them and I felt uncomfortable. I had to do something and siding with Shayne wasn’t an option, so I threw myself in between them and put my arms around Joey’s waist. He looked at me with a puzzled look. I took a deep breath and said words to Joey that I never wanted to say. “Let’s just go back to your place.”
He motioned to the two of us and I could tell he was at a loss for words. “I don’t believe you, Lace. You wouldn’t be with someone like him. This is all an act, isn’t it?”
I felt Joey’s dirty hands wrapping around my back. “It’s true. She’s with me, Shayne. Sorry you had to find out about it here, man. No hard feelin’s.”
Shayne said nothing as I was being pulled out of the door by Joey’s hand. He looked devastated and a part of me ached for him. Not only had I just lied, but was being groped by someone I hated.
He pulled me all the way into his apartment, past his family and into his bedroom, kicking the door with his boot. “Don’t you dare do somethin’ like that without warnin’ me. I ain’t havin’ my mother upset because I had to beat the shit out of Shayne in the middle of this party, you got it?”
I nodded. “Sorry. It just happened. I didn’t think about what I was doing. Can I leave now?”
I put my hand on the doorknob and felt him pulling me back by the elastic of my pants. “Not so fast.”
We were face-to-face, so close that I could lean over and touch his nose with mine. I hated being so close to him. “You have ten seconds to get your hands off of me, before I ruin any chance of you ever having children again.”
Joey did as I asked and let go of his hold on me. “I thought you wanted to play house.”
“The game is over. I could see how hurt he was and now I feel like shit.”
“He should feel like shit.”
I looked down and sat on his bed. “Maybe, but it doesn’t solve anything.”
“You want to be with him, don’t you?”
I looked over at Joey, and for the first time, I realized he was being sincere. “I can’t help it. Maybe I’m glutton for punishment, but I still love him. I’ve liked him since we were younger. My summers were spent chasing him around when we were teenagers. He didn’t even know my name back then, and all I knew was that he was the hot guy that had a place close to ours. Then one party changed everything. I never looked back, because I thought he felt the same way I did. I was wrong.”
He cleared his throat and knelt down in front of me. “If you want him so bad, then why did you tell him you were with me? That was a game endin’ blow, you know that right?”
I shrugged. “I wanted to hurt him, like he’d hurt me. It was stupid.”
“I can help you, but you’re not goin’ to like the idea.”
I looked right at him and laughed. “Does it involve me sleeping with you?”
“In theory, maybe. Look, if you want Shayne back, maybe you need to show him what he lost. We got a rise out of him back there. I think it’s an option you should consider.”
I rolled my eyes. “And I would want you to help me with that?”
“It’s just a suggestion.”
“What’s in it for you? Obviously you want to sleep with me. I’m not trading my vagina for your help.”
He chuckled and shook his head at me. “Look, we both need to get out there and mingle. Meet me down here when everyone leaves. I promise that I won’t lay a hand on you, unless you ask me to.”
“I won’t.”
“I’ll still be nice and help you. I’ll pretend we’re a couple and play fair. If I can’t have you then I’d want you to be happy anyway.”
“Are you drunk?” I couldn’t understand why he was being so kind.
“Not drunk enough, that’s’ for sure.” Joey stood up and walked out of the room, leaving me to pout alone.
I waited a while before I made my way back to Sky and Ford’s. Shayne wasn’t anywhere to be found, but Peyton located me right away. “Is it true? You’re seein’ Joey now?”
I couldn’t believe that he’d told her that already. Then I knew that if I told her the truth, she’d run back to him. “Yeah, it’s true.”
“Don’t tell Shayne, but he’s really hot. I mean, I wish you were still with my brother, but Joey is a lot of man. What’s he like in bed?”
I slapped her. “Peyton, I’m not discussing that with you.”
“I bet he’s amazing. I can tell from the way his jeans fit him. That man is hung like a racehorse. One night with him and you probably forgot all about Shayne.”
She was so wrong. Little did she know that I could never forget about her brother. That’s what happens when you let yourself fall in love. “I would have stayed with your brother, had he not done what he did.
She froze and looked right at me. “After what just happened, I don’t blame you for movin’ on.”
“What are you talkin’ about? I was only gone for about thirty minutes. What did I miss?”
“Shayne’s the father of Ashley’s baby. I guess you knew that already. It was probably why you two really broke up. Anyway, he told the family just now. My dad is pissed. He told him he has to move out and get his own place before he brings a child into the world. Shayne left right after and then my dad got mad and they left too.”
I was at a complete loss for words.
Shayne had come to tell me that he was taking the responsibility of Ashley’s baby. Was he crazy?
I burst into tears and felt Peyton’s arms wrapping around me. “I’m so sorry, Lace. I thought you knew. I didn’t know he cheated with her. That’s just wrong. Ashley was with Ford. That goes against the guy-code, big time. My aunt wouldn’t even look at Shayne, and Ford looked like he was in disbelief. It all makes sense though. Ashley called him all the time and he was being sneaky right before you guys broke up. This sucks.”
I kept crying, not really taking in anything that she was saying to me. “Yeah, it really does.”
I didn’t care about making Shayne jealous anymore. All I wanted to do was crawl in a dark cave and die. I thought his brother was the father of the baby, but what if it was Shayne all along? Had he said it was his brother to keep me hanging on? It made no sense. He acted like he hated Ashley. Now they were having a child?
I pulled away from Peyton and went running out of the apartment. Joey was standing there, putting out his cigarette. I slammed into his chest and didn’t pull away. His hands reached around my back and I looked up at him with tear filled eyes. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
I don’t know why I did it, or even if I had control over my actions at all. “Please, just get me out of here.”
Chapter 8
Shayne
After making the announcement, which went over as well as could be expected, I was left having to move out of my parent’s house. It wasn’t that I didn’t expect that outcome, but I also hadn’t planned on having to look for a new place to live.