Page 44 of An Unexpected Turn
I was done with sitting by and just watching Peyton—or pushing her away because it seemed like the right thing to do, but not at all what I wanted to do.
I only hoped I wasn’t watching her slip right through my fingers.
NINETEEN
PEYTON
“You’re a teacher, right?”
“Guidance counselor,” I replied before I took a quick but generous swig of wine. Poor Ron was hanging on my every word, and all I could focus on was the searing heat from Jake’s side of the table. I fought the urge to look. I’d felt his eyes boring into me since I walked through the door. I guessed Jake and Mike were surprise guests because my aunt wouldn’t have blindsided me like that, but I had to suck it up and be an adult—even if I’d had the inclination to bolt as soon as I’d spotted him.
“Oh, like the school shrink?”
“No, school shrink is above my pay grade.” I wanted to correct him about the outdated use of the wordshrink, but I had enough trouble keeping up with the tension at this table tonight. “I’m like a combination of a teacher and a psychologist, I suppose.”
“Peyton, we got the new Mario game. Want to play after dinner?” I met my cousin Aiden’s sweet and hopeful eyes, barbecue sauce smeared all over his mouth. I didn’t have the heart to tell him my plan was to run out the door before coffee.
“Not tonight, bud. But next time, I promise.”
“Peyton takes care of kids for a living. She’s here to visit and relax, so give her a break.” My uncle tousled the tight curls on Aiden’s head.
“My cousin isn’t and could never be work.” Aiden grinned at me as I spoke, his mouth full of meat. “I just can’t stay long.”
“Oh, do you have plans tonight?” I swore I heard Jake growl when Ron leaned in closer. “I was headed to O’Malley’s tonight for some pool. Next to the chief here, they have the best wings.”
“I’ve been there a few times with some friends, but I’ve never eaten there.”
Aunt Maya winced as she surveyed the train wreck at her dining room table.
“Why are you two so quiet?” Uncle Keith squinted at Jake and Mike. “I may or may not have something to do with the extra guards at Kelly Lakes High this week. Punks have no place in this town, especially in the schools. You have an in with the chief, so relax, kid.”
Mike laughed, nodding as he reached for a wing. He’d been picking at his food since he got here, everything from this week obviously weighing on him. I smiled when he glanced in my direction, worrying about him all over again and forgetting for a second how excruciating dinner had been up until that point.
My cousin Brian said nothing, staring at Ron and me as if we were some kind of zoo display. Or maybe that was just how I felt.
“So, you can cheer up too, Russo.”
Jake only shrugged in response, tension radiating off him from head to toe. I’d heard it in the short responses he gave my uncle and the clench of his jaw I’d spotted in a weak moment of glancing back at him. Maybe he thought this was a setup, or that I agreed to come here and meet Ron. Jake and I weren’t technically together, and the sting of him not showing up this morning, even if he owed me nothing, was still fresh.
Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling I was doing something wrong by sitting next to another man with Jake only feet away.
“I wish I had a guidance counselor who looked like you in high school. Maybe I would have shown up to class more often.”
We all turned to Uncle Keith, clearing his throat as he wiped barbecue sauce off his hands.
“I know, I know.” Ron held up his hands, sneaking a smile at me as if we were sharing a private joke. “I’ll stop.”
I managed to swallow two pieces of London broil, my stomach churning too much to tolerate anything else. I chewed on a piece of bread to pad my stomach for the wine I needed to get through the rest of the night.
“I’m thirty-two, Uncle Keith. You don’t have to throw the uncle weight around anymore. I can take care of myself.”
He was simply sitting there, trying to enjoy a meal with his friends and family, but who he was and what he meant to both Jake and me deepened the shame of what had happened between us. At least, it did for me.
It wasn’t Uncle Keith’s fault. It was Jake’s and mine for not respecting him, as we should have been all this time.
The second I met Aunt Maya’s narrowed eyes, I regretted what I said. It had come out harsher than I’d meant it to as frustration at this entire screwed-up situation seeped out of me.
“Excuse me for a minute.” I pushed my chair away from the table and headed upstairs. I opened the bathroom door and fell against it after it shut behind me. I shouldn’t have lashed out at my uncle, and catching the hurt in his eyes made me even more disgusted with myself.
