Repair Me (Kin #1)(60)
Author: Jennifer Foor

He hugged me tightly and leaned against his truck. “Please don’t fight with me on this. I know what I’m doin’.”

I hugged him back, not knowing if I could trust his optimism. Too much was at stake and I didn’t know if I wanted to risk it all, when we could just wait and play our cards right. “I’m scared. I don’t want to lose you. It gets harder every time I watch you walk out of my life. After last night, I don’t know if I can handle it again.”

Ford kissed my forehead and then pushed my face back so he could look into my eyes. “I’m not walkin’ away from us. I thought we made that clear last night.”

I shrugged. “It feels like it, though.”

He brushed my hair back. “I won’t let anythin’ come between us, Sky. I promise.”

“Okay.” I was still unsure, but he wasn’t going to leave unless I agreed that things were going to be alright. “Promise you’ll call me when you get home safely?”

“Of course.” He smiled and looked into my eyes again. I appreciated the sincerity on his face, considering how messed up everything was. “I better get on the road.”

His eyes looked tired and I worried about him driving on no sleep. “Are you going to dose off and end up in a ditch?”

“After the night I just had, I’m wide awake. Besides, I have too much to look forward to than to have somethin’ like that happen.”

Ford and I kissed for a few more minutes before he had to leave. Once he pulled away, I began to cry. Maybe it was from the lack of sleep, but I had a bad feeling that something terrible was going to happen. I didn’t want to call him, knowing that she’d be able to see my number. If his plan to come clean backfired, or he changed his mind and didn’t want to hurt his family, I couldn’t take the chance of making things hard for him. I loved him too much to do something like that.

Ford had promised to call me when he could, so I’d just have to wait for that. It wasn’t going to be easy, since “Worry” had become my new middle name.

Ford

Pulling out of that subdivision was as bad as yanking out my own teeth. I didn’t want to leave her standing there. It wasn’t even possible for me to look in my mirror to see if she was waving. I couldn’t imagine driving away from the one good thing in my life.

My phone started ringing about twenty minutes into my drive. Shayne was the person on the other end.

“How did it go last night? Did you get your fill of Sky?”

“I could never be satisfied with just one night with her. Is that the real reason you’re callin’ me?”

“I was just lookin’ out for you. So what happens next? You just goin’ to go home and pretend that you didn’t just cheat on your pregnant girlfriend?

“Fuck you, Shayne. She ain’t my girlfriend. My girl is the person that I just spent the night with. This arrangement with Ash is about to end. I can’t do this shit anymore. It’s hurtin’ Sky and I can’t keep doin’ that to her. She’s innocent in all of this.”

“What about the baby? You have responsibilities.”

“I never wanted to sleep with her! You people just don’t get that I wasn’t in my right head. Ash is the last person that I want to have a baby with. If she wasn’t so hell bent on gettin’ me back she’d realize that we ain’t good for each other. That, combined with the fact that she doesn’t even have a job, makes me wonder why she doesn’t just get an abortion. She thinks that a baby is going to change me. It ain’t even about the child. In my opinion, she could care less about that child.”

“Man, I can’t believe you want her to abort your child. That’s messed up.”

“I don’t want her and I don’t want kids with her. Will I love my child? Of course I will, but I can’t stand imagining bein’ linked to that bitch for the rest of my life. She’s horrible!”

“I get what you’re sayin’. So, I’m assumin’ you had a good time with Sky.”

“It went better than expected. I thought she’d fight me at first. Instead, she came runnin’ over to the truck and the rest is private.”

“Oh sure, lead me on and then don’t give me any details. I see how you are.”

“Sky ain’t like the girls you sleep with, Shayne. She’s special. I know you claim to be a one woman kind of guy, but we both know that ain’t true.”

“What she don’t know won’t hurt her. Besides, she is free to see other people.”

“Does Lacey know that?”

“I don’t know. We don’t talk about it. It ain’t like I pulled her to the side and asked her to be exclusive. She has never asked.”

“You are a dick. One day you’ll learn when you get your heart ripped out of your chest.”

“Dude, please. I have to have a heart to give it out.”

“Whatever, man. Are we done? I didn’t sleep last night and I have to drive an hour.”

“Later, cuz!”

My cousin didn’t have a clue when it came to relationships. He was currently in his longest one and wasn’t as serious as the poor girl thought he was. Before Lacey, he’d screwed anything that walked, especially when he was lifeguarding at the beach. I was surprised that his dick hadn’t fallen off yet. What was more surprising was the fact that Lacey trusted him. She claimed she knew him for a while before they started dating. Anyone that knew Shayne, knew that he was a player. It wasn’t my business, and since I had enough problems of my own, I didn’t even care.

I’d been driving for a while, but the traffic was heavy. It wasn’t like I could just hop on the interstate and make it home in no time. The way from Sky’s house to mine was mostly heavy populated highway roads. When you add the red lights, it made the ride even worse.

Since it was beginning to be rush hour, I caught every single light. With nothing but news on the radio, it was hard to stay focused on the road. Finally, after smacking myself in the face a few dozen times, I made it to the main road that led me home. I was almost there and couldn’t wait to go to sleep for a couple of hours. Exhaustion had hit and I could feel my eyes closing. With no service to call anyone, I knew I had to tough it out. If I could just close my eyes for a second to blink it might help.

When I opened my eyes the truck was rolling in a field. I had my seatbelt on, so my body clung to the seat as the jarring sent me slamming around. When I finally came to a stop I was wide awake, but pinned. I could feel blood dripping down the side of my head, but my arm hurt too bad to lift it to feel around. I tried to look for my phone, but everything began to spin. First I heard ringing in my ears and then my eyesight wouldn’t focus. I knew I was blacking out and there was nothing I could do to stop it.