Reject Me (Kin #5)(4)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Her name was Angie. She was my friend, Turk’s cousin from New Jersey, and I hadn’t seen her since we’d hooked up, right before I started seeing Peyton. Her smile welcomed me, and I couldn’t help but smile back. It brought me back to the weekend we’d spent together at the beach. “Long time no see,” I said as we started to pull away from my house.

“Yeah.” She licked her glossy lips. “It has been. You look good, Jamey.”

“You too.” I couldn’t lie. Two years had changed her for the better. I looked away and saw Peyton walking out to her car. My jaw clenched as I thought about her finding out that I was spending the day with someone I’d been with. She’d be pissed. Hell, she might even leave. For the first time in a long time it made me rethink going to the cookout with her.

The further we got away from the house, the better I felt about my decision. What Peyton didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. It wasn’t like I was going to nail this chick next to me. My dick was spent for the time being, and she’d come home and give it to me again if I asked.

It was still going to be a long and very hard day.

Chapter 3

Peyton

I watched Jamey out the window speaking to his mother. From inside I could hear his flip comments. It hurt me so much. I knew I needed to be strong and hold my ground, but somehow I couldn’t come up with the strength to do it. Yes, Jamey was cocky and he didn’t always treat me respectfully, but with the bad there was still good in him. I clung to the hope that one day he’d realize how much he meant to me, and that I’d do anything to be with him forever.

I didn’t bother putting on my makeup, knowing that I’d cried off whatever I had on. My family were used to seeing me without it anyway. If they gave me a hard time I still had enough things at Shayne’s house to reapply. Even though I stayed at Jamey’s house, I wasn’t technically moved in with him. Most of my things were still at my brothers. I kept them there for two reasons. Need be, if our fights got too bad I could go there and feel like I wasn’t without my things. The other was that if we were to break up I’d have a place to live. I sort of felt like if I took everything out of the house then Shayne would make it a playroom and I’d lose my resource.

Thanks to my brother, and his new wife, Ashley, I had a job. The pay wasn’t great, but it wasn’t like I had bills. My dad had paid cash for my car, and the insurance was still under his and my moms. My only bill was a cellphone and two credit cards for department stores. I made enough for all three of those in one week. Unlike what my family assumed, I was saving as much as I could in an account. I didn’t always want to rely on my brother, but I was only turning twenty, so I figured I had time to figure out what I wanted to do. My dad, who I never got along with, was too caught up with my brother Parker to worry about me anyway. He spent most of his days gaining gray hairs over the mess my brothers had made.

Shayne raising Parker’s twins wasn’t just hard on my parents. Shayne had taken the brutal blow of almost losing them because of Parker. We’d turned our backs on him because he wouldn’t give up hope of having a future with Ashley.

Their marriage seemed to heal a lot of damaged people. My parents came around and finally really accepted her as being a permanent part of the family, and Shayne had never been happier. Plus, he had the twins, which were the light of his life.

Parker, on the other hand, had stayed away as if we all had the plague. He couldn’t come to grips with the fact that Ashley had given birth to twins after a one-night stand they shared together. After Ashley’s aneurism her memories became distorted. She remembered most things, but little details still escaped her sometimes. I got used to it, being around her everyday while my brother worked. Helping her take care of the twins felt so natural after doing it for so long. To be honest I think they just kept me around because I was family. Ashley was fully capable of doing everything they needed, except for when she had doctor’s appointments. The twins kept me busy enough to not dwell on my relationship with Jamey, or lack there of. I focused on them throughout the day, and went home to deal with him at night.

There was nothing more upsetting than pulling up at my brother’s house without Jamey, again. I spotted Lacey and Joey out in the back yard. She waved when she saw me pull up. I rolled my eyes and looked at the empty seat next to me. Jamey was out somewhere with his friends, probably not thinking about me at all.

I was so sick of everyone, including Lacey, telling me that he was no good for me. I knew how he was, but it was my choice to stick it out.

If Joey could change then there was still hope for Jamey. There had to be. He couldn’t live his whole life controlling women to get what he wanted.

I hated myself more for knowing he was doing it to me and I was doing nothing to stop it. The truth was that I wanted to give him whatever he asked for, because somewhere deep inside I wanted to be his forever.

My sister-in-law, Ashley, greeted me at the door. She was holding a bottle of condiments in each of her hands. “Hey, we were wondering where you were.” She looked past me. “He didn’t come again?”

Ashley was always the easiest for me to talk to. Maybe it was because she grew up knowing Joey and his younger brother, or maybe it was because she was now my sister. I didn’t really care what had bonded us as friends, since most of mine had gone off to college and forgotten all about our tiny ass town, and the people in it.

It wasn’t like I had tons of friends to begin with. My reputation kept girls from trusting me. I was the female that the girls hid their boyfriends from, in fear of me taking them. Sometimes I did it too. In my defense I was young and stupid. Ashley thinks it was because my brother Parker always got all of the attention, leaving me to crave it from wherever I could find some. She’d been taking a few classes online in hopes to become a therapist. She said she didn’t want to be a psychiatrist that could prescribe medication, but wanted to help people by talking about their problems and coming up with other solutions.

She had her own demons, and a father that did his best to ruin her life.

Another reason we were close; our daddy issues.

“He made plans with friends a while back before you told us about the cookout,” I lied. As a matter of fact, I’d say anything to get everyone off my back. Ashley was only the beginning though.

My brother came up to me as soon as I walked out back. I saw my parents pushing the twins on their matching swings. They both acknowledged me as I went to say hello to Lacey. She was sitting with my cousin Ford and his girlfriend Sky. It was still weird seeing all of them together in the same house. I never thought Shayne and Joey would get over themselves to be in the same room, but love had changed them. Even Ford, who used to date Ashley, had come around. I sat down with them and folded my hands, trying to get right into their current conversation.