Page 22 of Consequences

“His new wife that he married six months ago doesn’t exactly like me. I think he invited me to stay for the summer out of guilt because I didn’t get an invite to the wedding. Which is weird because he’s never bothered to invite me to any of the others.”

There is so much packed into those three sentences, and he stares in shock, unsure which question to ask first. “Just how many weddings has your dad had?” he decides to start with.

“Um, Mom was his first, and this one makes wife number…” Jamie’s hazel eyes look up at the ceiling as she counts, “eight.”

Choking, Undertaker coughs and tries to figure out what the hell this guy could have that gets him so many women. He has to be rich. Or well-hung. Or richandwell-hung. “Holy shit.”

“He and Mom divorced when I was eight,” she says with a small laugh as he takes a drink of soda to clear his airway.

Wait, that’s seven marriages in… what? She’s twenty-two, minus eight… Fuck, I hate math. Okay, that would be fourteen years. Holy fuck, he’s been married roughly every two years?“What the actual fuck?”

“Right?” she asks and sighs. “Haven’t had to buy a single wedding present since I wasn’t invited to any of them.”

“Why doesn’t this bird like you?”

From everything Undertaker sees, not only is Jamie pretty, she’s intelligent and seems nice. What wife would openly dislike her new stepdaughter, especially after only half a year of marriage?

“The moment she saw me, she scrunched up her nose like she’d stepped in dog poop. She asked if I lost my luggage becausemy comfortable clothes weren’t good enough for her. My dad booked flights that took sixteen hours… but I guess I should have freshened up first.”

“Is that a real thing? Freshening up after a flight?”

Jamie tosses her hands up as she shakes her head and laughs. “I don’t know. I think it’s just another thing she doesn’t like about me. Nothing I do is suitable for her. In fact, she keeps mentioning how much she’d love to help me liven up my wardrobe for me.If I lose a few pounds.”

“And your dad just lets her get away with that? He doesn’t say anything?”

Pulling more bread from the sub in front of her, she sighs. “He always sides with his girlfriends and wives. He did offer to buy me a gym membership, which might not be a bad idea. At night, they lock the kitchen, and I’m the only one in the house without a key.”

“What the fuck?”

“Guess Dad thinks I’m too fat, too.”

“You’re not fat,” he says, finishing his meal and taking a long drink of soda.

Off-limits. She’s so far off-limits, Undertaker, you may as well get struck by lightning for thinking what you’re thinking.

“Because you’re one of, like, five people bigger than me around here,” Jamie says and refuses to meet his gaze. “Except you’re muscle, and I’m blubber.”

“Don’t say that,” he says. “You’re pretty. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a thicker girl. What guy really wants to date a girl who feels no different than sleeping next to a bunch of tools from his toolbox?”

She turns and looks out the window. “Every guy I’ve ever met. Not to mention the fact that I’m taller than most guys, it seems. That’s another issue. If I’m not too fat, I’m too tall. Usually both.”

“How’d the rest of the party go?” he asks, opting away from the path she’s on.

He’ll never convince her that she’s not fat or unattractive. Not right now, anyway. Sure, she’s thick, but she doesn’t need to be locked out of a fucking kitchen at night. If she wasn’t so young, he’d entertain thoughts of just how great those hips would feel in his hands as he pounds into her from behind. Or how great those thighs would be squeezing his face as he buries his face in what he can only assume is a gorgeous and sweet pussy.

Shifting as he strains against his jeans, he reminds himself not to go there. She’s too young, and she’s not ready for the type of relationship he requires with women. No one really is, which is why he’s alone.

“I don’t know. I left right after you did, but Ron told my dad that I embarrassed him. If I wasn’t twenty-two, I think I’d be grounded.”

“Grounded?”

Her eyes finally meet his. “He’s never going to love me. I realized it that next morning. No matter how much I try to get him to see how great I am, it never works.” She pauses and lets out a sigh. “Is it so wrong to want my parents to love me? I’ve been invisible to both of them since I was eight. I took care of myself, and I’m so… tired.”

“You’ll find someone who makes you feel the love you deserve. Someone who can see exactly how great you are. Hopefully, that guy stands up to your father and asshole stepbrother. They need to be told to fuck off.”

“You’re one of the only people who seems to actually like me. Maybe I should date you.”

Undertaker made the mistake of taking the final drink from his soda, and he swallows wrong, nearly spitting it out at her. “That wouldn’t work, baby doll,” he chokes out.

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