Breaking Kate: The Acceptance Series (12 page)

Jake quickly grabs April and puts her on the counter; she’s a bit shorter than him so now they’re face to face. He grabs her and starts kissing her very passionately, and I feel the need to look the other way.

“It’s okay, Kate, they always do this; it must be a high school sweetheart thing,” Daniel explains just as Jake breaks off the kiss.

“Woman,
you know
I’m messing with you! But you getting fired up turns me on—I can’t help it. Marry me first—career, babies, I know the drill. However, you
do
need to get it in your beautiful head I want at
least three, yes
three
kids. Pop them out, adopt them, foster them, one of each—I don’t care—they’ll be the very best of you and me. I want to see your beautiful eyes on our little girl. I want her to wrap me around her finger so tight I’ll never let her go. I can’t wait to have another piece of you to love, so excuse me for being so in love with you that all I think about is multiplying that love.”

Oh no, I’m tearing up again. April looks at Jake with nothing but the purest form of love in her eyes. It’s a beautiful emotion; I want to be someone’s world like that someday.

“Okay, Jake, just as long as we have it straight. I love you more than you will ever know. When the time is right, I can’t wait to grow our family, but right now I just want to enjoy being us for a little while longer, okay? Now, you guys go cook us some food and start the fire pit so we can get to know each other while enjoying the view of
all
your sexy asses as you’re cooking.” April is giggling now and so is Jess.

“They
do
have really sexy asses, don’t they?” Jess admires them from behind and now we’re all laughing. The guys start taking out the food, and April grabs a basket filled with plates, napkins, and utensils and follows them. Jess is blending a batch of strawberry-banana margaritas for us.

Today is a good day. I’m starting to
relax, maybe the tequila is already kicking in. Or maybe it’s because for the first time in a very long time, I feel really happy and loved on my birthday; even my dad didn’t fully wreck it this year. 

I grab the glasses, Jess brings the blender, and we head out to the backyard. It really is beautiful out here. This house is perfect, not too huge, but with a great yard which is hard to find in California unless you’re in an older house, horse property, or a mansion. The houses Jess and I grew up in were both considerably large, over ten thousand square feet, with sprawling lawns in both the front and back. Considering only two family members lived in each house most of the time, it really was a waste of space. My dad still lives in the house, although he’s never home. Thankfully, Chloe gave her house to
Maryanne as a thank you for all she did for her over the years. Even though she can be selfish, she really does love her sister. I just hope Maryanne and her boyfriend settle down soon, get married, and have a family; life is just too short to waste.

I settle into my chair as the guys are getting the grill warmed up. Daniel brought out some beers and warns Jake that it’s his second.

“Thank you, Daniel, for keeping track for him. Jake, Wicked starts in four hours which means we need to leave in two and a half. I’ll drive, but I won’t go with you if you’re drunk. I’m only having one drink so I’ll be fine to drive by then.”

April is cute. I’m surprised she’s so down to earth. I guess I had a pre-conceived notion of how she would be based on the kind of bimbos Connor usually hooks up with. Jake must be a little more down to earth with his female expectations. April’s a lot like me—girl next door kind of looks, about my height, with light brown hair and hazel eyes. She has olive-colored skin and a perfect complexion. She is a little chubby but in a seriously sexy way. She has an ass most girls would die for and fairly large breasts, she’s very voluptuous. Jake must like curvy girls whereas Connor likes them tall, leggy, and typically blonde. I think Jess may be the first dark-haired girl I have ever seen him with.

“So, April, tell us about yourself and Jake; fill us in on your wedding and engagement.”

“Yes, details
please
. I absolutely love, love, love weddings! Especially when the couple’s in love.”

I practically choke on my drink. Leave it to Jess.

“Well, I hope you haven’t been to too many weddings where the couple
isn’t
in love,” April says.

“You’ll have to excuse Jess. She comes from a rather unconventional upbringing.”

Jess rolls her eyes at me. “My mom’s been married five times and each one is a big to-do. Her last marriage lasted five weeks, so I don’t think she’s actually in love, more like lust the way she dumps them and finds another so quickly. One day I’ll get married to the man of my dreams, hopefully with no divorces in my future. I would hate to turn into her.”

Ouch.
Jess says that with so much venom, but if anyone knows how much Chloe has screwed up her vision of love, it’s me.

“Ah, I see. Well then, it
is
understandable why you feel that way. Jake and I met at a high school football game our sophomore year. I was there with a friend who knew him and he just walked up and introduced himself to me. Jake sat with us through the game and at halftime asked me to go with him to the snack bar. I thought he meant for food. Instead, he walked me around back and kissed me. Somehow it was very romantic. It was only my second real kiss but it was so unbelievably great. Afterward, he just grabbed my hand and we went back to watch the game, holding hands the rest of the night. When it was over, he wrote his number on my hand with instructions to call his machine and leave my number for him when I got home. I felt weird about it, but I did it. However, I didn’t get his machine, I got him, and we stayed up all night talking. Within a week we were a couple and have been ever since.

“I got an academic scholarship to UCLA and he got a spot on their football team. It’s strange, most high school romances never work out, but ours just did. I love him with every single piece of my soul and I know he loves me, too. After graduation he proposed, but we agreed to make it a long engagement so we could get settled. Last year we bought our first house. My mom didn’t want us living in sin, but there was no way I was moving back home. The wedding is at the end of June at the
Bacara Resort and Spa in Santa Barbara, overlooking the ocean. The engagement party is in two weeks, which of course you two have been invited to; it will be so nice to have some girls there that aren’t my sisters! I never had a lot of girlfriends. Most of the girls I went to school with were jealous of Jake or trying to get close to Connor or Daniel through me. It’s easier to just have guy friends that understand Jake is my whole world and vice versa. So what about you two? What, or should I say who, were you doing before my boys?” We all laugh, she’s funny.

Jess tops off my margarita and replies, “Well, I dated casually through high school. Kate and I have been best friends since first grade. We had another friend who we were good friends with from second grade up until the end of high school, but he’s Kate’s ex-boyfriend and it didn’t really end on good terms, so we don’t talk to him anymore. I guess you could say I had a semi-serious boyfriend my sophomore year. We dated for about six months but it just didn’t work out. I’ve been waiting for someone to come along that just gets me. Connor and I have fun together, so we’ll see where it goes. I’m not in any rush although I
do
feel like it’s off to a good start. Oh, and by the way, I absolutely
adore
the Bacara Resort—that is a
great
choice for a wedding location.”

“Jess, I hope it works out with you and Connor. I’ve never seen him so head over heels for someone, not ever. As long as I’ve known him, he’s always just played the field. He may have kept one girl and gone out with her often, but never anyone
serious, and he
never
asked her to be his girlfriend. I would say you’re off to a good start. I just hope you’re serious about him because I think you could break him pretty easily.” 

A look of surprise flutters across Jess’s face. “I have no intention of breaking him, just the opposite—I want him to love me,” she whispers so no one can hear but us.

April winks at her. “Good to know,” she says with a smile.

“What about you, Kate? What’s your story?”

I take a sip of my margarita. “Jess filled you in on most of it. We grew up together, I dated my high school sweetheart until college, we had an unpleasant break up, and for the past three years I’ve thrown myself into school and volunteering while ignoring everything else. As you all heard earlier, I don’t get along with my dad and my mom passed away when I was ten so Jess is all I have besides him and Jess’s aunt Maryanne. I’m working toward a degree in child psychology but also getting a degree in business. I’ve been working my butt off for this double major; my dad thinks he’s humoring me by letting me pursue them both. His intentions are for me to work in his office and help take care of the business. I have no intention of ever working there. When he passes away, and if he leaves the company to me, the first thing I’ll do is sell it to the highest bidder. That company, coupled with his greed, has destroyed my family and I want no part of it.”

Okay, that was probably an over share but I’m feeling uninhibited so I don’t care.

“So, what about you and Daniel? It looks like that’s going well?”

Hearing his name, Daniel looks over at us and smiles, I smile back. “Yes, I think that’s going
very
well, almost too well. It seems too good to be true. I haven’t quite figured him out yet. He seems very genuine, and in all honesty, that’s hard for me to wrap my head around. The last truly genuine guy I gave my heart to shattered it into a million pieces and I have only very recently felt like it has been put back together.”

As April finishes her margarita and sets down her glass, she reaches over and takes my hand in hers. “Kate, I’ve known Daniel since we were fourteen years old; I actually met him before I met Jake. Trust
me, he’s the most honest, real, sincere, genuinely nice man I have ever met in my entire life. Even more so than my Jake, but don’t tell him I said that. Daniel has such a good heart, and he tends to give it away easily because he feels that everyone’s intentions are as pure-hearted as his. He has had other relationships, and for one reason or another they didn’t work out, but that bitch Vanessa took the cake.”

Lowering her voice, she whispers to us, “Vanessa cheated on Daniel with Mike. It destroyed his relationship with Vanessa, and the only reason why the guys are still friends with Mike is because they saw it unfold. Mike was with a girl that night who looked a lot like Vanessa. Mike got really wasted, the worst I had ever seen him. By the end of the night, he was telling me he was sorry he was so drunk but it was the anniversary of someone he loved dying. He wanted to stay home that night, but Connor asked him to come as a favor, to be his wingman, and Mike felt like he owed it to Connor to be there.

“It’s no secret Connor hated Vanessa, so he intentionally hooked Mike up with a girl that looked just like her, mostly because he knew it would irritate Vanessa—she always thought she was one of a kind. Seriously, this girl could have been her twin. Well, like I said, Mike was drunk and went upstairs to pass out. Vanessa snuck in his room, and needless to say, he had sex with her. Mike is pretty loud when he’s drunk. Jake and I walked by and heard him moaning over and over ‘Debbie, Debbie, oh yeah’ well, you get the idea. When we came back, we saw Vanessa sneaking out. She passed herself off as the other girl and had the audacity to put her fingers to her lips and sssshhh us, like telling us not to say anything. We went to our room, called Connor, and asked him to come up. We explained everything to Connor and came up with a plan. We told Daniel his mom needed to help her in the morning. The last thing Vanessa wanted was to be around Daniel’s mom, so she made up an excuse to leave almost immediately.

“Connor ended the party early and we told Daniel what happened. He was devastated and so angry. We told him Mike was too drunk to realize what happened, but Daniel wasn’t so sure so they let it play out till the next morning. When Mike came down for breakfast, we just acted normal. Mike was off; he didn’t remember anything. The only thing he remembered was that she kept asking him to call out her name. Daniel and Vanessa put Debbie in a cab home, so Daniel knew Debbie wasn’t in the room with Mike. Vanessa had to have wanted Daniel to find out she had been after Mike on the sly for a while. It was so messed up, and as broken as Daniel was at that point, he was the one that sat Mike down and explained to him what had happened. That was probably one of the saddest things I have ever seen in my life, both of them crying. Mike tried to leave, but Daniel just grabbed him and hugged him tight, all while telling him it wasn’t his fault. So yeah, Kate, Daniel is one hundred percent the real deal. Treat him gently, please.” 

Holy crap.
No wonder Daniel wanted to wait to move on. It’s hard to trust someone again after being betrayed; I know that from firsthand experience. Granted, Michael’s betrayal was different, but still a betrayal none the less.

“That is really harsh. I’ve never understood the mindset of a woman that would do those kinds of things to men. Not only did she screw up her relationship, but she risked messing up theirs. The worst part is that she
knew
what she was doing. How awful for
both
Daniel and Mike. I can assure you, April, I’m nothing like that, probably the exact opposite in fact. I’m not into casual sex; I’m only interested in long-term relationships based on respect, love, and trust. Life is too short to give in to drama. I’m a firm believer in Karmic retribution that bitch slaps back harder than anyone or anything.” And on that note the boys interrupt us.