Replace Me (Kin #2)(58)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“Babe, you need to get to the part where he broke your heart.”

I faked a smile. “He didn’t. I left him.” I shook my head and covered my face again. “After much consideration, I decided to come home, where my life is. It wasn’t like I could just move there and be with him. My parents would disown me.”

“He’ll be back, right? He isn’t stayin’ there forever?”

I thought about why Shayne would ask that. A part of me wondered if he wished that Joey never came back. It was no secret that he hated me being with the guy. “He’ll be there six months to a year. I don’t know all the details, because I got too upset when he started to tell me.” I was fighting back the tears again, while thinking about him being that far away. He’d have gotten my letter by now and I knew it would hurt him. In my experiences, when a man gives his heart to a woman and she breaks it, he’s kind of broken from opening up ever again. It hurt me knowing that I was hurting him. “Look, I left Joey because it’s impossible for me to trust a man who is living half way around the world. I can’t even trust a guy that lives thirty minutes away.”

Shayne disregarded my comment and chose to ignore the fact that he was the reason for my distrust. “So, he just let you go? He just let you walk away and hop back on a plane, all hurt and messed up like you are?”

I shook my head. “Not exactly. I waited for him to go to work and then I left him a note. He’s probably just finding out.”

“Jesus Christ. Are you f**kin’ with me right now?”

“No. I’m not kidding. We outweighed our options and it was clear that it wasn’t going to work out, so I took it upon myself to find a resolution. Joey needs to focus on his career, because it’s all he’s ever wanted. I can’t ask him to give that up for me. I also know that I wouldn’t be able to handle him living so far away. Since he’s never been one to settle down, a long-distance relationship is out of the question. I made things easier for him. He didn’t have to watch me walk away. He didn’t have to hear me telling him that we weren’t going to work out. It’s for the best.”

Shayne and I were both in the backseat and he was giving me the most concerned look that I’d ever seen him give. “Lacey, don’t you see what you’ve done? You raced on a plane to get to him and then you just come home, giving up. I’m not buyin’ it. I’m not buyin’ how you’re okay with this decision. It’s not for the best. It’s f**kin’ bullshit. Look at you.” He motioned toward me. “You look like Hell and I’ve never seen you so upset, not even when we broke up. Don’t sit there and tell me it’s for the best, when clearly, it’s not what you want.”

I cried even more and felt him pulling me into his arms. He said something to the girl who was driving, albeit I was too caught up in my own sobbing to hear him. “It hurts so much.”

I sniffled, sobbed and then bawled some more. By the time we’d made it back to my parent’s house, I was done talking and just wanted to go to sleep. Shayne walked me to the door and said hello to my mom, before he started to walk away. I stopped him halfway down the sidewalk. “Shayne wait!”

He turned and faced me. “You good, Lace?”

“I’m not good, but I wanted to say thank you. Tell your friend thanks as well. I didn’t mean to c**k block you on a date, if that’s what it was.”

“It wasn’t a date, not really. She offered to come. Look, no matter what I’m doin’, you will always be more important. Remember that.” He kissed the top of my head before walking to the car.

My parents wanted an explanation, even though I knew they assumed I’d been at Sky’s the whole time. Instead of worrying them, for now, I lied and said that’s where I was and I’d forgotten my cell phone charger. When my mother saw my eyes, she asked if Shayne and I had been fighting. They were so out of the loop that they thought I was still seeing him. It reminded me how against it they would be about me moving to Italy to be with a man they knew nothing of.

I found my way to my room and locked the door behind me. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. All I wanted to do was cry myself to sleep.

I’d never felt so depressed and alone. My heart had been so full of love and excitement just days ago. Being in Joey’s arms felt like Heaven. Now, I was left vulnerable, wishing I could turn back time.

I had a chance at happiness and I threw it away.

Was I making the biggest mistake of my life?

Chapter 28

Shayne

“Maybe I was wrong about you, Shayne.” Megan’s comment caught me off guard. We were pulling out of Lacey’s driveway and I figured she’d had enough of me after being ignored for the whole drive.

“I’m really sorry things were so weird. I’ve never seen her like that.”

“You really care about her, don’t you?”

“I’ll always care about Lacey. After she broke things off with me, I thought I wanted to do whatever it took to get her back. The thing is, we aren’t good together. She wanted a forever kind of love and I don’t know what that feels like yet. It wouldn’t have been fair for me to lead her on. She deserves happiness.”

We pulled onto the main highway and she was quiet for a few minutes before she replied. “I am guessing you hate the Joey guy?”

“Me and Joy share a cousin. It’s complicated. I’ve got to see him on holidays and him bein’ with Lace is difficult. You think my track record is ridiculous, well, you’ve never met Joey. The guy is a gigolo. He f**ks for amusement and nothin’ else. I don’t get how Lacey fell for him, but she did.”

“If he’s such a player, why would she want him?”

“Because, apparently, he’s in love with her.” I shook my head and looked out the window. “It figures right? The one girl I care about and she falls for someone I loathe. I suppose I deserve the torture, in some ways.”

Megan kept watching the road as she spoke. I wasn’t sure if she was just conversing with me because she was curious or because it was helping with the drive. “So, she got on a plane and went to Italy, then broke up with him and came home? It makes no sense.”

She had a point. Why was Lacey willing to give up so much? Had I really messed with her head that bad that she wasn’t willing to wait for what she wanted. Did she really think it would be better if she walked away and tried to move on? “I’m not one to root for the other guy, but you’re right. The only person that can make Lacey happy is herself. The sooner she realizes it, the sooner she can follow her heart.”