Shift Happens (Providence Family Ties 2)

And, bonus, he didn’t have any headaches and had taken over the driving, swearing blind each time I asked him that he felt great.

I remember growing up with the Disney movies every kid watches. In them, they usually make out there’s a fairytale romance waiting for everyone. But, if you watch them as an adult, you’ll see that what most of them actually show is that opposites attract.

A girl locked in the kitchen, who has to cook and clean for her stepmother and sisters while they treat her like dirt. She ends up falling in love with a prince who takes her away from it all.

A mermaid who lives under the sea and wants to walk on land, gives her soul to a wicked witch for the chance to do it. She falls in love with a prince during one of the few days she has legs, and he’s the one who saves her from the witch, and gives her the life she’s always wanted. But they combine their worlds.

Yes, there were discrepancies to some of the tales, like hidden princesses, but their ways of life was vastly different from each other. And, yet, they ended up with a fairytale happy ever after and their worlds merging.

Opposites weren’t always opposites, they just lived in different worlds, and fate brought them together. Well, Jackson had lived in my world, but we were opposites who, like magnets when they were turned the wrong way, forced each other farther away. With age and maturity, one of us stayed as the magnet, and the other one was now the metal that it couldn’t keep away from. Weird analogy, but let’s face it, nothing about us up until now had been normal.

And the first night that I was away from him and on my own in my childhood bedroom at my dads’ house, the impact of what we had together truly hit because I missed him. So much so, I couldn’t sleep.

He’d brought breakfast over for us early the following day and had noticed the dark circles under my eyes.

That night, he’d tapped on my window just after midnight and had snuck into my room. The second he got into bed beside me, my eyes closed, and I finally got a good night’s sleep.

That’s how we played it every night after that, with him sneaking in so that we could both fall asleep together because we couldn’t sleep for shit apart from one another.

That made me also begin thinking seriously about what I was going to do about my apartment in Arizona when we got back.

I hadn’t been there since the accident, and living with Jackson was so much more fun than being on my own. I also felt safe and secure with him, and our argument after I’d gotten my casts off showed he didn’t want me to leave, either.

Decision made, I discussed it with my dads the next morning. After some sighing, they agreed to let me terminate the lease on the property after the holidays. I was lucky the apartment building was based on month-to-month leases because of the high turnover of students, so it wouldn’t cost a whack to break it early.

Right now, we were all out in the backyard because the Townsend-Rossis had come over for a barbecue to discuss who was making what for our large Christmas meal.

I was listening as I played with Bronte, who was happily sitting on my lap, when Sam snapped, “Don’t even think about it, Sasha. We might be okay with you guys moving in together, but if you call us up and say you got knocked up any time soon, I’ll lose my ever-loving mind.”

The silence around the table was uncomfortable, but I was too chicken shit to lift my head to look at anyone. So I kept them on the beautiful little girl, who was innocent to the mortification her parents would one day cause her.

It was Jackson who eventually broke it.

“You’re moving in with me?” He sounded so happy and relieved that I begrudgingly lifted my head and almost smiled when I saw his grin.

“Surprise,” I said weakly.

“Well, the best birth control is an aspirin between your knees,” Jackson’s brother, Webb, declared, leaning back in his chair and saying it like he was full of sage wisdom. “You gotta keep them together to stop it from falling, which means there’s no space for my brother to stick his—”

“Webb,” Ronnie snapped. “You finish that sentence, and I’ll wash your mouth out.”

Taking a big mouthful of beer, he saluted her with the bottle. “Message received.”

After that, everyone returned to their conversations, but Jackson moved so he was sitting beside Bronte and me.

“Thank you,” he whispered, kissing me on the shoulder.

I was just about to reply when Sam stuck his arm between us, having walked up behind where we were sitting.