Wrong Kind of Love (20 page)

The chick
that owns the gallery has been sending off my stuff to other places and I’ve been making a killing. I don’t know what it is about people and their need to have naked people on their walls. I don’t sell the ones I have of Kayla unless they feature her back or neck. As long as her tits or ass aren’t showing, I sell them. No one gets to see that anymore but me.

I hear running up the stairs before Teagan burst into my room. “Oh my god! Grace is here! Sarah won’t let her in the house. Jaden is trying to get mom to move so he can open the door
, but she is being stubborn. Dad is just sitting there with a smile on his face. You have to come!” she says all this in one breath, then she runs right back out the door.

The meds are making my brain fuzzy
, but I still get what she was telling me. I’m sluggish getting up off the bed. For some reason I don’t feel the need to hurry. Kayla will be there when I get to the door.

It takes me
, like, ten whole minutes to make it down the stairs, but once I do Jaden spots me first. “Mom won’t budge.”

I just shrug before crossing the living room to the front door. I bend down in front of mom and pick her up over my shoulder. She wasn’t expecting me to do that so it takes a second before she is pounding on my back to let her down.

Jaden opens the door quickly and lets Kayla in. “Don’t let that hussy in my house!” Mom screams.

I drop her off by dad and turn around to face Kayla. She runs into my arms before I even have a chance to open them. “I’m glad you’re okay.” She
breathes against my neck.

“I wasn’t until you showed up.” I tell her looking up at Jaden over her head. He looks pained
, but I think he is going to make it. Well we can hope anyway.

“I said don’t let her in here! Get her out of my house!”
Mom screams yet again. That is really starting to get on my nerves.

“Mom
, take a chill pill. She isn’t hurting anybody.” Jaden says, even though we all know that’s a lie.

“Bullshit! She is hurting you! I won’t let her in here if she won’t be with you!” And this is why my mother is unique. She has six kids yet she is only invested in one of their love lives.

“So what, mom? It’s called life. She doesn’t want me. She loves your other son. Whether you want to hear it or not. Like the forever kind of love. Yeah it was wrong once upon a time, but right now? No it’s not. Yeah she hurt me, but I hurt Caden more by being with her. So what would you rather have? Me hurting a little bit or Caden hurting for the rest of his life?” Jaden’s face is flushed and his breathing is labored. I don’t even think about it as I stumble over and hug him.

“Is he drunk?” Kayla asks someone behind me. I assume it was Teagan.

“No. Pain meds for his nose and head.” Teagan replies.

“What was that for?” Jaden asks me after
I’ve pulled away.

“At one point you were a horrible brother, but right now you are the best brother I ever had.” Yeah I’m not taking
any more pain meds.

“Well I’m not going to support your relationship with her, Caden. She is a drug using whore and a hussy. She just wants your money. Probably why she went after Jaden to begin with.” Mom crosses her arms over her chest and glares at Kayla.

“It’s freaking pot mom. Everyone smokes pot. And let me tell you, no one has killed anyone while they were stoned. It actually makes people happy. So yeah if she was on meth or something we would have a problem, but she isn’t. So shut up.” Jaden sighs when he’s done talking and rubs a hand over his face.

“Besides, I have two different trust funds. I can take care of myself. I grew up on the upper east side of New York City.” Kayla throws in.

Mom’s eyes widen for a second before she storms out of the room. “Welcome to the family Grace, or Kayla. I’m not quite sure what your real name is. And don’t worry about her, she will come around.” My dad winks before following mom out of the room.

I turn to scoop
Kayla in my arms but she is hugging Teagan. “I wanted to tell you. I just didn’t know how and you were going through so much before I left. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” She pulls away and looks into Teagan’s eyes. “Best friends?”

Teagan laughs before hugging her some more. “I’m still pissed
, but Jaden explained everything to me. I’ll get over it.”

Kayla moves on to Jaden next. “You didn’t have to stick up for me you know.” She tells him looking down at her feet.

“Yeah well, Caden’s too fucked up to do it right now. Besides I have a feeling you might be my sister one day, and I stick up for my sisters.” And when they hug, I don’t get jealous. I just stand there with a stupid grin on my face.

Then my angel walks over to me. “Come on lover boy.” And we head up to my room.

Sadly nothing happens. The monster in my pants isn’t happy about it either. The pain meds are just too much and my eyes are closed before my head even hits the pillow.

It was all worth it though
, because when I wake up the next morning, she’s there. Curled around my chest, her arm thrown over my stomach. One of her legs sits in-between mine and my arms are curled protectively around her.

“Good morning.” She says on a yawn.

“Good morning, Angel.” I reply nuzzling my nose into her neck.

“You slept like the dead.” She tells me sitting up and rubbing the leftover sleep out of her eyes.

“Pills will do that to you. I have to say though, waking up with you in my arms is amazing. We should do this every day.” My arms reluctantly let her go.

“We can…when I get back from Arizona.” She mumbles out looking down at her hands.

I blink several times hoping I didn’t hear her right. “What do you mean when you get back from Arizona?”

She sighs and stands up from the bed. “I have to go see Aiden
. He wanted me to come back. I have to explain to him that I want to stay here. With you.” She pauses staring deeply into my eyes. “I’ll only be gone for a little while.” 

I huff and snuggle back under the covers. I close my eyes and try my hardest to go back to sleep. “What are you doing?”
She asks with a laugh.

“Umm.” I’m going back to sleep
, so when I wake up, I’ll pretend she never said she had to leave. I want to remember the part about being with me.

I feel the bed dip down as she climbs back into it with me. “I’m sorry. This is something I have to do.
He’s my brother, I thought you would understand. He’s the whole reason I met you in the first place.”

I groan and pull
my head from under the covers. I just got her back; I don’t want to lose her all over again. “I’m only going to be gone for a few days. I swear.”

I sigh and toss the pillow to the floor. “You promise?” and then an idea forms in my head. “Can I come with you?” I spit out before she can say anything.

She smiles and shakes her head. “Yeah you can come with me.”

I sit up in the bed and pull her into my lap. I toss my arms around her waist and place my forehead on hers. “Good
, because I want to be where you are. Always.

Caden and I only stayed in Arizona for two days. Aiden decided he wanted to stay there. I wanted to be with Caden, so we came back to Arkansas. It was really hard to leave my brother
, but I think after everything, maybe it was time to be ourselves. No more hiding. No more running.

Besides I never really had a life in Arizona. I never made any friends and I never even thought about dating. There was a man somewhere in Arkansas who held my heart. It took me so long to realize that, but I finally did. I’m just glad it wasn’t too late.

So what’s going on now? A lot actually. I refused to be a college dropout, so I went back. This time I did something simple and something I loved. I graduate next fall and I’ll get to work with game designers. I get to be one of those people who try the game out, report bugs, and help make the game really good. It is my dream job and I couldn’t be happier.

A few weeks after we came home from Arizona, Caden and I got our own apartment. One bedroom, so no roommates. I think we are both very tired of roommates. We still live there
, but I think soon we might move into something bigger. After all you can’t raise a family in an apartment.

Don’t get your hopes up, yet anyway. I’m not pregnant and I don’t plan on being for a long time yet. Though with the huge ass rock Caden put on my finger months ago, it might be sooner rather then later.

Yes the big idiot asked me to marry him. I don’t know what possessed him to do that. He said he was lucky to have me in his life and he wanted to hold on to me forever. I think he’s wrong, mainly for the fact that I’m lucky to have him in my life. I’m lucky to have met him.

Through all of it though, I came out a better person. I learned to stop running away from my problems.
The big things I was running from, also made me want to run from my little problems. I can’t erase the hurt I caused the Harper twins, but maybe I can make up for it.

Caden says I’ve made up for it with him a
thousand times over, simply for the fact that I love him and that I’m with him. Jaden on the other hand, I feel the most regret over. I caused Caden a world of pain, but Jaden got a lot himself. I never intended to make him fall for me. And truth be told I think he fell for the Grace in me. Not the Kayla. I know if Grace were a real person, she would be perfect for Jaden. He needs someone good inside to rub off on his evil ass.

That’s why I invited a certain Ava to the wedding. No one knows but me. She thinks she got invited because she went to high school with the twins but nope. She got invited so I can play
matchmaker. If she really is the love of Jaden’s life, then they deserve to be together. He can only try. That’s all I ask.

Caden’s mom isn’t
too happy about us getting hitched, but Caden says it doesn’t matter what she thinks. He’s spent so much time worrying about having to make his family happy, when they never bothered to spend the time to make him happy. He says they can all kiss his ass.

Teagan and Declan make me sick. They have that love that remains puppy love. She always has stars in
her eyes and he always looks at her like she hung the stars. It is sickening really. I’m happy for them though. I figure they might tie the knot soon. Marcus is moving out in a couple of weeks to head off to college. They will finally have the house to themselves.

“You ready, girl?” Aiden asks from his
position by the church doors.

“Yeah.” I whisper nervous as hell.

This is that day. The day I have been waiting for, for so long. I’m going to marry Caden Gabriel Harper. He said he is refusing to call me his wife. The wedding is just for me and from then on I will be known as his muse. I see a lot of naked paintings of us, paying our bills in the future.

“Really
, this song?” Aiden scowls as “Everytime We Touch” by Casacada plays through the sound system.

“Hey it could have been worse. Caden wanted “Crazy Bitch”. I told him he wouldn’t be marrying me if that was our song.” I place my
hand on the inside of his arm as we get ready to walk out.

“Well you are a crazy bitch.”

There is nothing like coming home after being away for a week. There’s a gallery up in New York that wants to buy several of my pieces. Negotiations and viewings have been my life for the past week. I’m glad to be home.

It also happens to be my
five-year wedding anniversary with Kayla. I’m so ready to be home. I haven’t seen her face in person for so long, I feel like it’s killing me.

I jumped on the
bandwagon with my other brothers and sisters, except Teagan, but we have always known she was different. I bought a house down the street from my parents. I think we have all learned to grow and move on. Mom and Kayla even talk like normal adults to each other now.

I shut the door to my mustang. My new trusty mustang. Our house is a two story brick with white shutters and a wrap around porch. Kayla took one look at it and
screamed, “YES!”

I open the front door slowly and walk in the
entryway. Music finds my ears from somewhere in the back of the house. I smile softly to myself and walk out into the living room. I make my way into the room the music is flowing out of and grin when I open the door.

There is nothing like coming home and seeing your wife and daughter dancing around your
daughter’s bedroom. Kayla throws her arms up in the air and wiggles her butt. The song is some new pop boy bad, Kresley, our daughter loves. The poor thing is only three, she doesn’t know any better.

Jasmine, Teagan and
Declan’s two year old, is trying to dance along as well. Kresley joins Jasmine and tries to help the younger girl dance. Probably not going to happen. The poor thing looks like her mother, but has her dad’s personality. And Declan can’t dance to save his life.

“Daddy!” Kresley yells when she spots me by her bedroom door. Her little brown eyes light up and her blonde hair flies out behind her when she runs into my arms.

“Hey little Angel.” I pull her close to my body and hug her as tight as I can. It’s always hard to leave when I have such beautiful girls waiting for me here.

“Cawen.” Jasmine says running up to me and jumping on my back.

“Jasmine, no jumping on your uncle. That’s not very nice.” Teagan’s voice comes behind me. I turn to see my sister with her huge belly waddling over to hug me. “Sorry, Caden.” She makes a sheepish face when I notice the chocolate all over my suit.

I chuckle and shrug my shoulders. I pick up Kresley and Jasmine, bringing them up to my
shoulders. “No big deal at all. I have a hundred other suits.”

After spinning around with the girls for a minute
, I set them down on unsteady feet. They land softly on the ground and begin to giggle.

I look back up for Kayla and meet her brown eyes. I
fell in love with the blonde, but the natural brunette, I love even more. I never wanted her to be anyone but who she is. “You’re home early.” She tells me after I fold her in my arms.

“I couldn’t stay away any more. I had to see all my favorite girls.” I wink down
to the toddlers and they giggle some more.

“Come on Jasmine, Kresley, I have a snack for you in the kitchen.”
Teagan says to the girls, herding them along. Both girls wave as they leave the room. I don’t think I will ever get used to having all this love around me.

“Have I told you lately I love your sister?” Kayla questions giving me a heart stopping smile.

“Everyday. I’m glad y’all have someone to stay with when Dec and I leave town.” Declan has to travel sometimes for his job. It’s hard on Teagan when he’s gone, but she always ends up at our house. Jasmine has her own bed in Kresley’s room and Teagan has her own room. Those two little girls are going to be best friends. And I’m going to have a hell of a time with the boys.

“What about me? Do I get an I love you today?” I question crowding her back until we end up in our own bedroom.

“No I don’t think so. I don’t know if I love you today.” She replies with a cheeky grin.

I fake a wince and back away. I walk backward until I fall on the bed. “Oh you just shot me through the heart, Angel.”

Kayla appears over me with that same cheeky grin. Then her face gets very serious and she climbs over me. Her face comes very close as she bends down to me. “I love you every day, all day. I will love you every day, all day for the rest of eternity.”

“Well in that case, I love you more.”

No matter how wrong we at the beginning, nothing is more right then what we are now.