I really love comments, so if you want to give me and feelings or feedback, I'd love it! I listened to the song 'Winter Sun' non-stop while editing this chapter and I feel like it fits the mood perfectly.
Sasha discovered that finding an excuse to leave earlier was completely and utterly impossible when faced with Delilah Jennings' notorious puppy dog eyes. As she was later informed, nobody could deny Delilah a thing when she pulled out her secret weapon.
So she sat silently fuming next to Harper, who if his balled fists were anything to go by, was equally angry about the seating arrangements. The whole Jennings family was seated around the dinner table, all awkwardly shuffling their food around their plates.
Clearing her throat, Sasha finally built up the courage to ask the question that had been bubbling up inside her from the moment she stepped foot into this sleepy town in Seattle. "I was just wondering if you might be able to tell me more about . . . Jay."
His name hung in the air like a blanket of grief and before anyone could speak, and to everybody's surprise, it was Cat who answered. "Jay was the best big brother anybody could wish for and because of him, we also have Harper as a big brother too." Her fingers shook as she took a deep drag from her cup, and with a shock, Sasha realised she was already quite inebriated from the unknown substance she was passing off as water.
"I used to hate how protective they were, even when they were young, Jay and Harper fancied themselves soldiers of the USA and I was apparently the precious cargo. As you might guess, teenage boys were the enemies."
A giggle bubbled from behind Sasha's lips and soon the whole table—bar Harper—dissolved into a fit of laughter. "You laugh now," Cat muttered petulantly, "But if it was you trying to shack up with Neil Portermen, our schools hottest catch in the back of his car, only to be thrown over your older brother's shoulder to watch helplessly as Harper made him wet his pants and run for this hills, you wouldn't be laughing."
"He wet his pants, I'm guessing you dodged a bullet on that one!" Sasha abruptly stopped laughing when she noticed the table's panicked looks and Cat's pained one.
Harper all but growled down at her, "She married him, Sasha."
Cat laughed bitterly, "And found him cheating on me with my high school nemesis who I stole him from when we young. It's quite ironically cruel if you ask me, and to think I didn't believe in karma."
"I've only had one boyfriend and it ended similarly, except he was sleeping with his father's secretary. In an ironic twist, so was his father." Biting her lip to keep in her laugher, Sasha watched as Cat erupted into another fit of laughter.
Sasha laughed, "It was almost worth it the moment they both realised they'd been getting busy in the same hole. I think Brad felt sick at the realisation his father had been bagging the same twenty-year-old secretary as he had been."
Delilah gently patted her hand, "How long ago was this, honey?"
Looking at the ceiling, Sasha pushed past the pain. "I found out the week after my mother's funeral. We'd been dating since I was nineteen but he hadn't even bothered to come to my mother's funeral. I was on my way to end it when I walked in on him cheating."
Mason snarled, "He sounds like a fucking prick and I say we go and pay this Brad a visit. We'll give him the same treatment we gave that scum Neil." Every man around the table, including Jay Senior, seemed in agreement and Sasha felt a lick of panic burn her from the inside out.
"No!" Her loud exclamation shocked the whole room and she shifted uncomfortably. "I wouldn't do that unless you wanted life in prison, and I assure you that if you touch a hair on his head, that's where his father will put you."
"What do you mean, you don't still have feelings for him do you? You don't need to put up with that shit, Sasha." Mason's stare was so intense that Sasha could barely hold it together.
"No, it might have taken me a while to realise that Brad was a prick but my eyes are open now and there is no going back. But his father is Senator Lowely."
Senior whistled, "Senator David Lowely? Well then, being a prick must run in the family."
"Actually, being a stubborn prick runs in the family." Smiling sadly, Sasha rubbed her eyes. "Apparently you can't end it with a Lowely without their permission. And I was pencilled into their grand plan, I was meant to marry Brad and stand silently beside him while he followed in his father's footsteps."
Harper, who had been silent the majority of the night suddenly decided to join the conversation. "What do you mean he won't let you leave the relationship without his permission?"
"Neither of the two took it well when I decided to break it off—they expected me to look the other way like Mrs Lowely does. They told me I was to be engaged and married by the end of the year and I had no choice in the matter."
At the table's horrified expressions, she quickly continued. "Getting forced into a marriage obviously wasn't something I wanted, so I accelerated my plans to move to Seattle and well, here I am."
Harper stood suddenly from the table and grabbed Sasha by the shoulders, leaning in too close for Sasha's comfort. "Did he ever touch you?"
Still confused by his close proximity, Sasha didn't quite comprehend the question. "What do you mean did he touch me? We were dating for four years, I'd be a little worried if he never touched me."
Shaking her, Harper's fingers stung as they dug into her shoulders through his thin t-shirt she still wore. "Did. He. Hit. You."
Pushing him away quickly, she stared at him with wide eyes. "No! God no. He was an asshole and forgot our anniversaries and my birthday, but he never laid a finger on me." Gently reaching out for his shaking hands, she stared at him intently. "Who do you know who was abused?"
Without a word, Harper ripped his hand from her soft grasp and stalked out the house.
"I shouldn't have asked that, oh god. I just have word vomit and sometimes things come out and they can't be swallowed back and . . . I ruin everything."
Cat snorted, "You could ask Harper what his favourite colour was and he'd react the same. He's had temper issues since he came back state side, and that scares him to death. He doesn't want to turn out like his father."
"His father?"
Cat opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by Delilah. "The story about his father and childhood is something particularly private for Harper and therefore, is his story to tell. And Cat, you are very much aware of that fact but I'm guessing you're too intoxicated to remember that."
Shaking her head at her daughter, she plucked Cat's suspiciously smelling glass from her hand a proceeded to empty it into the sink. "You're in no state to go home alone and your brother has the couch already, so you'll have to sleep on the floor until you sober up."
Already slurring her words, Cat stood and stumbled towards the door. "I am not sleeping on the floor. I can drive home."
Sensing and argument arising, Sasha quickly stepped in. "There's no need for Cat to sleep on the floor, she can sleep on my couch and I'll keep and eye on her. If she wants of course."
Cat squealed in a very un-sober-Cat fashion and threw her arms tightly around Sasha.
With that settled, the two of them were passed around in tight hugs from the whole family. Both Jay Senior and Mason giving each girls fatherly forehead kisses that left Sasha feeling like she was once again apart of a functioning family.
A loving family.
Mason tucked both girls under his arms, whispering quietly to them. "I know I've said this to you before Cat but now that we have another sister, I'm going to reiterate. If any man doesn't understand that no means no or feels that consent and respect are things they don't need—you call me. Whatever the time, I'll be there with my shotgun, okay? You got it Sasha? Because you're family and I protect my sisters."
Cat shrugged out of her brother's grasp, muttering about being overprotective but Sasha blinked back tears. Wrapping her slim arms around his waist, she buried her blubbering lips into his shirt. "Thank you Mase, you don't understand how much that means. And I'll be here for whatever you need too."
Hugging her back fiercely, Mason left Sasha feeling safe and amused. She'd walked into the dinner tonight determined to keep herself at arms length with anybody connected to Jay, and yet here she was crying in his brother's arms. And she wasn't one bit sorry about it.
Yanking Cat's car keys from her purse, she waved goodbye to the remaining Jennings and started to drive Cat and herself back to her house for her first ever slumber party.
"Cat?"
"Hmm?"
"Why did you hate me when I first arrived in town. You looked at me like I was worse than the dirt on the bottom of your shoes. I guess I just don't understand how you seemed fine with me today after our last meeting."
Leaning her head against the cold window, Cat watched Sasha curiously. "I was angry with you the first time I met you because my mother wasn't the one who tired to contact you all those times. It was me but I always signed as Delilah Jennings. After I gave up, mum took up the duties when I had no hope."
Feeling guilty, Sasha attempted to put her emotions into words. "When I was barely seventeen I was rushed into the emergency room after I passed out during a track race. My heart had stopped for two minutes and it was a miracle I survived. When I got to the hospital they put me on bed rest and started tests that showed I had a dilated and enlarged heart—I was diagnosed with heart disease and put on the donor list. The doctors told my mum that there was a high likelihood that I'd never receive a heart, so I got a pager and was told to wait until it beeped.
By the time it beeped, it had been ten months and I'd come to terms with dying. They told me I might only have months or weeks, it was impossible to tell. But one night my pager beeped to inform me that a B positive heart was available for me and my mum whisked me to the hospital before I could blink."
Cat was crying in the passenger seat silently, "What happened next?"
"I remember sitting there while my mum was crying in relief but I was thinking why now? I'd finally come to terms with the fact that I was going to die, and then I wasn't. When I woke up, I had a new heart and I became obsessed with learning about my heart donor. Once I discovered that the donor was Jay I was hysterical, I felt cheated."
"Cheated?" Cat's tears had stopped and she was staring at Sasha in confusion.
Shifting nervously, Sasha pulled the car up beside her house and hurried towards it, dodging Cat's following questions. Once they were inside, Cat cornered her on the couch. "I want to know the rest of the story."
"It's not a story Cat, it was my teenage life." Sighing, she leaned into the rocky couch. "I felt like I didn't deserve Jay's heart because he was such a perfect person who had already done more good in his life then I would in my entire life. I felt like it was somehow my fault. Like he had died so I could survive."
"Well, that's the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard."
Laughing, Sasha wandered towards the kitchen. "You sound like my mother. She used to harp on about me taking my new life for advantage and it wasn't until a few months later when I met other heart transplant recipients that I realised she was right. It became my mission to live life to the fullest."
At Cat's raised brow, Sasha looked at her uncertainly. "What?"
"You study, you work and you read. How is that living life to the fullest."
"It's hard to explain to some people, but living to the fullest doesn't mean jumping out of planes or hiking up Mount Everest, it means living life to the highest level of contentment. It means being healthy and happy all the time, being happy with your life and the smallest things in life."
Cat watched her quietly. "Now you remind me of Jay."
Popping her necessary pills for the night, the two wandering into Sasha's room where they collapsed onto her bed. "Is it hard living life with a transplant? Having to take medication every day, eat healthy and not drink?"
Turning onto her side, she regarded her new friend. "Not really, I guess I don't remember much else but living in the hospital or dying at home, and living with a transplant is a lot better than that—let me tell you." Staring at the other woman, Sasha felt as if she could almost feel the blanket of grief that was wrapped around her. "Does it get easier, missing somebody you loved after they die?"
"Eventually. You just have to grieve."
Sasha's opened her mouth to respond when heavy bangs on the front door stopped her. And her blood ran cold.
Cat look equally spooked, and without a word, they slowly began creeping towards the front door. "Do you have a baseball bat, crowbar or a gun?" When Sasha responded with a negative to them all, Cat swore quietly.
The banging suddenly stopped and loud laughing took its place. Familiar laughing.
"That, that, that . . . butthole!" Sasha ran towards the door (new and improved, thanks to Mason) and swung it open with considerable strength (and anger). "You butthole!"
Harper didn't flinch as Sasha began advancing towards him with fists raised. "Butthole?" His smirk only infuriated her more. "And Cat, do you really think little innocent Sasha has a gun? The thought is literally laughable."
"What do you want, it's way past midnight." Tacking on as an afterthought, "And I don't even want to see you. I've decided I don't like you."
Cat silently slinked off towards the bedroom when neither of the them acknowledged her throat clearing.
"You've decided you don't like me? Well too bad." Harper stood with his arms crossed.
"And why is that?"
Smirking in an extremely self-satisfied manner, Harper stared down at the fiery Sasha. "Because I've decided I like you."
"Yeah?" At his conformation, Sasha rolled her eyes. "Well you have a funny way of showing that you like me. And that doesn't negate from the fact you have a butthole-y personality or that I don't even like you."
Moving closer to Sasha, he raised an eyebrow. "Does this change anything?"
"Does wha—"
Her words were smothered beneath Harper's hot lips, his tongue teasing her closed lips as his arms wound around her waist. With wandering hands, his fingers set her body alight and a gasp escaped her lips. Not one to miss an opportunity, Harper slid his tongue into her mouth and battled Sasha's for dominance.
Slowly he pulled apart from their kiss, Sasha clinging to him tightly while standing on his shoes for extra height. "That was even better than my best fantasy."
Quickly coming to her senses, Sasha dropped her arms like Harper was on fire. "Get out. Now." Still smiling the very self-satisfied smile he wore so well, Harper left with a wink, the door slamming behind him.
Sitting with her back against the door, she crushed her lips almost painfully behind her fist as if it would erase the tingles that covered them.
"I was getting worried you two might take it to the bedroom, then I'd have nowhere to hide." Cat slid down beside Sash and laughed loudly. "So how was it, please tell me Harper can't kiss for shit."
"He kissed me."
Rolling her eyes at the obvious statement, Cat nudged her hard. "Well I say it took him long enough, the sly way you two looked at each other had me horny."
Innocent Sasha was correct. With all Cat's crude language, a blush covered her pale cheeks. "But what does it mean, he's hot one minute and cold the next. What does it make us?"
"Fuck Buddies?"
"Cat! Be serious."
Sighing, Cat fixed her with a hard look. "He's a serial dater. And by dater, I mean fucker. And by fucker, I mean a one-night-stander with absolutely no commitment strings attached." Offering her hand, they made their way back towards their new sleeping arrangements.
"I love Harper like a brother, but don't fall for his tricks Sasha. He'll break your heart and leave you feeling like it was your fault—he's notorious for it."