Second Hand Heart

SHH: 04

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."