The Wrong Perfect Match (Fullilove in the House Book 1)

by Sidney Bristol

She put her palm in his. He wrapped his strong fingers around her and her stomach did a little somersault.

  No. Stop that!

  He pulled and she rose to her feet as quickly as she could without jumping up.

  “What was your family like growing up?” she asked to change the subject.

  His face froze in a plastic sort of smile. “Which one?”

  “Uh, I’m sorry?” She stood there, her hand in his, frozen.

  Which family?

  What kind of question was that?

  “Nicole and I never talked about family much.” He swiped his thumb over the back of her hand before releasing her. “My birth mother wasn’t very good at looking after two boys and herself. We were foster kids for a while before our Mom and Dad found us.”

  “Oh.”

  “It’s not something I lead with when meeting someone new.” His smile was tight and it didn’t reach his eyes.

  She wanted to ease the pain she saw there.

  If only he knew the kind of fucked up family lives, he’d just stumbled into.

  “I can’t tell you Nicole’s story, but—neither of us are the type to judge anyone based on the quality of their family. Mine kicked me out.” She shrugged. “I haven’t spoken to them since I was nineteen. Almost ten years.”

  Her heart ached at the thought. When she’d left, her grandparents' health had been declining. How were they now? Better? Worse? Would anyone have told her if one passed?

  Jayden’s eyes widened. “Wait, your family kicked you out?”

  “Yeah.” Brandi didn’t feel the old pang in her chest talking about it anymore.

  “H-how could they?” He recoiled a little.

  “It was a long time ago.” She’d healed and forgiven. Forgetting it wasn’t happening, but she’d moved on with her life.

  She grabbed the bucket with her kit for cleaning up the hutches and crossed to the one Jayden had been working on.

  “But, why?” He followed her, clearly still shaken with the knowledge.

  Normally Brandi wouldn’t volunteer this information. People got weird when discussing family, and she had no intention of mending bridges with her mother. She was happy with things as they were. She was free. But with Jayden, she felt as though she owed him. Besides, he’d hear worse from Nicole. Her story made Brandi’s seem pleasant.

  “My answer has changed over the years.” She picked up a spray bottle of solution and a rag to give her hands something to do while she talked. Working on furniture was a mindless exercise she enjoyed. “When it happened, I thought it was just an excuse. My step-father wanted me out. My mother wanted him to be happy. When they figured out I was sleeping with my boyfriend, they decided to use that as an excuse to kick me out.”

  Jayden stood on the other side of the piece, using what would have been Nicole’s bucket of supplies. “And now?”

  She blew out a breath. “I still think part of the reason was to get me out of the picture. It was a hypocritical thing to do considering my mother got pregnant with me while sleeping around in her early twenties. I remember being a teen and really pressing her to figure out who my dad was for the first time. It got ugly. I think a lot of the reasoning goes back to my mother’s feelings of shame and guilt. I am a living reminder her life wasn’t perfect.”

  “None of that is your fault though.”

  “No, it isn’t. I lost count of how many tubs of ice cream it took me to really learn that.”

  “So, what happened? You got kicked out and what?”

  Brandi smiled. “That is the beginning of the Nicole and Brandi show.”

  “That’s when you met?”

  “No.” Brandi paused and looked at him. “Has she not told you anything about her family?”

  “No.”

  “Oh.” She blinked a few times. Under normal circumstances, she would have thought Nicole would have shared some of this. If for no other reason than to prepare potential dates. Was she hiding this history? “I think that’s the kind of story you should hear from her. Or both of us.”

  “Okay.” He didn’t push, but he kept looking at her. He had questions and she couldn’t blame him.

  “You don’t know who your sperm donor is?” he asked instead.

  “Nope.”

  “Neither do I.”

  That made Brandi pause.

  Jayden focused on the woodwork now, not her. But her? She watched him.

  He had a well-defined profile with clean lines. If he were a style of furniture, she’d say American Empire, with its French influence, curved, flourishing lines and graceful stretches.

  “I barely remember our mother. Asher—that’s my twin brother—we disagree about what we remember. I have this vivid memory where I’m sitting at a folding table at some apartment. Mom rarely had her own place. Normally we got a room at someone’s house or split apartments when we weren’t in a shelter or bumming a sofa off someone. Anyway, I’m sitting at the table drinking one of those juice pouch things and I remember Mom telling someone we were Black, white and Filipino. But my twin insists she said we were was Black, Cuban and something else.”

  Brandi grinned at him. “Okay, not a story I’m proud of. Growing up whenever I had to fill out those forms I’d always mark that I was Hispanic. It pissed Mom off. It really upset her when I picked Spanish as my high school language class, too. I practiced every day and made sure I got the highest grade. Joke is on me, though. My horrible ability to speak Spanish helped me get my job back in college.”

  Jayden laughed. But he was laughing with her. In that moment, she knew he got her. Even Nicole didn’t understand why the checkbox was a big deal. She’d assumed Brandi was doing it just to get a rise out of her mother. In reality, it was one of the few ways Brandi had of connecting to this mysterious other part of herself. A part she’d never get the chance to know.

  “Oh, man. And she had no idea for you? None at all about your dad?” he asked.

  She quirked a brow at him. “No. Which I guess says a lot about what she was doing at twenty. See the hypocrisy?”

  Jayden stared at the glass he’d worked so hard on. “Do you ever want to find out more about that other half of you?”

  “Yes. All the time. I don’t have dreams of meeting my father and getting the family I never had. I just... I want to know more about myself. Are some personality traits because of my father? Or are these uniquely me?”

  “Have you considered one of those DNA ancestry tests?” He looked at her through the warped glass, his face distorted except for his eyes. Those were serious. He was genuine in his interest.

  She didn’t know why she paused to consider her answer. It was something about the way he looked at her. This was important to him for some reason.

  “Funny you should bring that up.” She smiled back at him. “I’m currently waiting on results from two services. I decided a few months ago to get serious about finding my dad and figuring stuff out. Chances are slim I’ll actually find my father. I figure, at the very least, I will know some general information about myself. I mean, I already know my hair is so dark brown it’s a half-shade away from being black and I’m way too tan for a white girl. There is no way my sperm donor is a totally white bread, American male.”

  He leaned to his right, looking at her around the hutch. “You’ll finally know which box to check.”

  She laughed. “Very true. I figure it can’t hurt. And the worst thing that happens will be that I get my hopes up about...something.”

  “Something?”

  She shrugged. “A test can’t give me what I really want. It’s just information for me to use to make decisions.”

  “What is it you really want?” He stepped to the side, his intense gaze still on her.

  Brandi swallowed. This was personal. She should make a joke, something to diffuse the situation. And yet, that part of her that liked him wanted him to know her.

  “A real family. I mean, I had that with my grandparents for the first ten years or so when it was
just us. But Mom screwed that up when they all moved in.”

  “Wait. Hold up a second. What?”

  Brandi sighed. “I probably should have explained all this. My mom had me when she was twenty. Because my grandparents were worried about her going to school and not ruining her chances at a good job and a future, they raised me. I was ten when Mom got married and they moved in with us. I think the plan was so they could save up to buy their own house, but that’s never happened. They moved me downstairs into the office then had three kids.”

  “Okay, so how did your mom kick you out of your grandparent’s house?”

  “Grandpa had a minor stroke about four months before I got kicked out. Grandma doesn’t get around well anymore. Throw into it my grandparents burned through their savings helping my parents and now everyone is screwed.”

  Jayden scowled. “They’re dependent on your mother and step-father to care for them.”

  “You got it.”

  He shook his head. “That’s messed up.”

  “It’s a lot.”

  “I totally understand wanting a real family. I... I feel pretty damn lucky the Fulliloves took us in the way they did. I don’t want to hate on our bio-mother. She did the very best she could. But the Fulliloves have done so much for us she wasn’t able to do.”

  Her heart swooned at his words.

  No, Brandi didn’t know the details of his life or how he’d gotten here, but he was showing her what kind of man he was. It was impossible to not respect him for going after what he wanted.

  Nicole was so damn lucky.

  “Have you considered finding her now? See where she is?” Brandi asked.

  “Asher and I talked about that a few years back. She did a closed adoption. That was her decision, and I chose to respect that.” Jayden went back to scrubbing the wood, all his focus on the grain. “When do you think you’ll get results back?”

  Brandi swiped her rag over the wood, her mind not on the task. “Soon. Any day now, I guess.”

  “I hope you learn something.” He glanced at her. “Would it be out of line if I texted and asked how it turned out?”

  Brandi paused. He wanted to know?

  She shrugged. “Sure. Knock yourself out.”

  Inside she didn’t know if she wanted to squirm or what.

  Nicole, bless her, was as supportive a friend as a girl could want. But she didn’t understand and probably never would. Jayden, on the other hand, knew this struggle. He might not wrestle with it like she was. He’d found his own peace, and God, she wanted that. She wanted to feel like she belonged somewhere instead of adrift on her own.

  Brandi needed to change the topic. She wasn’t keen on discussing herself all that much. Especially now, when she’d finally committed to a path.

  For the next year, all she wanted to do was find herself. It felt as though for the last ten years all she’d done was scramble to survive. Now, things were slowing down. She could think and work through all her baggage, and she wanted to. But Jayden wasn’t the right person to talk to about all of it. Just this one piece.

  “You said you have a twin?” Brandi asked.

  “Asher. Yeah.”

  “Is he single?” She grinned, but the question wasn’t entirely a joke. No, she didn’t intend on dating until January. It didn’t hurt to keep tabs of where and who the good ones were.

  “I don’t know,” Jayden said slowly. “Actually no one has heard from him recently. I wish I could say that was unusual. He’s...got his own path.”

  “No one has heard from him? In how long?” She frowned.

  Jayden paused and pulled out his phone. “Last text I have from him is about two weeks old. I haven’t seen him in maybe three weeks. But it’s not unusual for us to not talk. Normally though, he’d at least hang out with Maddox or Axl or something. And they said he’s been MIA for a week.”

  “And Maddox and Axl are...?”

  “Our brothers.”

  “There’s three of you?”

  “Eight.”

  “Eight? Wow. All boys or is it a mix?”

  “Eight boys. Two of them are the Fullilove’s biological kids. That’s Maddox and Sawyer.”

  She grinned. “Man, think if you’d been seven boys. It would be like the musical.”

  Jayden paused to give her a flat stare.

  “What?” She couldn’t help grinning.

  “There are few things in this world I hate as much as I hate that movie.”

  “I’m going to have to re-watch it. Nicole loves musicals, by the way.” And Brandi was going to enjoy giving Jayden hell.

  She focused her attention on the work.

  No part of her had expected to actually like Jayden. Now that she did, she needed to fall out of lust with him for the sake of her best friend.

  Day 3: Tuesday

  Jayden watched the clock tick down. Normally he made an effort to not mind the time. Work was done when it was done, not before. He often left half an hour to an hour after he was scheduled to be off. It was that hard work and determination that had gotten him where he was now.

  But tonight was different.

  At least he wanted it to be.

  He was excited to go back to Brandi’s and hang out.

  It was such a rarely felt sensation he almost didn’t know what to do with it or what it could mean.

  He hadn’t expected to have fun hanging out with Brandi last night. She’d surprised him in a good way. After their first interactions on Sunday, he’d been prepared for everything to go wrong. Instead, he’d spent a night talking about complicated family dynamics and history with someone who got it. Someone whose situation was as complicated as his own. Maybe more so.

  Their circumstances were different, and yet they related to each other in ways he’d only ever had with Asher.

  “Hey?” Maddox tapped on the glass partition separating Jayden’s office space from the cubicles.

  Inwardly Jayden groaned.

  What now? Five minutes before clocking out? Today of all days? What had Maddox screwed up this time?

  “What’s up?” Jayden leaned back in his chair and focused on Maddox.

  He leaned against the open doorway. “I was wondering if you heard from Asher last night?”

  “No. Did you?”

  “Nah, was just curious if you reached out to him.”

  “I texted him, but he never replied.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Maddox tapped the glass with his knuckles. “Would you maybe text again? I feel like if you reached out again, he might take it more serious and finally check in. He’ll ignore something from me.”

  “No, I’m not going to text again.” Jayden sighed and leaned forward on his desk, fixing Maddox with a serious stare. “Look, Asher is an adult. Wherever he is, he’s doing what he wants. And he’s not going to appreciate or want people checking up on him.”

  Concern creased Maddox’s face. “But, this is too long. Don’t you think?”

  Jayden shrugged. He understood Maddox’s concern. Hell, Jayden was worried. And yet, one of the hardest lessons he’d had to learn was that people had to make their own mistakes. He reminded himself of that every time Maddox screwed up at work or did something Jayden had advised him not to.

  He softened his voice and said, “I think my brother is an adult.”

  Maddox screwed up his mouth. He clearly didn’t like Jayden’s stance on the issue.

  Jayden and Asher had taken very different paths in life. Jayden feared his brother was too much like their mother. Asher was always with a new girl, on to some new hot plan, or checking out a new party. He lived dangerously at times.

  Once, Jayden had to sneak out of the house and drive a hundred miles to pick up Asher. He’d gotten permission to sleep at a friend’s house. Only the boys went to a house party and Asher let people think he was older. Then he’d wound up in the DJ’s van, headed to the next gig. Only, Asher hadn’t paused to consider where the next job was. Jayden still recalled sweating bullets all the w
ay to his brother and all the way home.

  Mom and Dad still didn’t know about that trip. Jayden had covered for Asher, but that was one of the last times. Jayden wished he could save Asher from himself. If Asher didn’t change, if he didn’t start making different choices, he’d get into something he couldn’t handle someday.

  But Jayden knew he couldn’t force his brother to be different. All his life he’d seen people try to do exactly that and fail. First, it had been their mother. Most of Jayden’s memories of his grandmother included his mother and yelling. Grandma would brandish whatever cooking utensil she was currently using while yelling at her daughter to change her ways.

  She never had. Instead, Jayden had watched their mother struggle and flounder.

  Things were better at the Fulliloves, but even there they’d watched Mom and Dad struggle to help kids who didn’t want their help. Kids who didn’t understand they’d finally come to a good place.

  There wasn’t a person on the planet who could save someone who didn’t want to be saved. Not even Mom and Dad.

  Whatever Asher was working through, he had to do it himself. And if he didn’t want to work through it, if he wanted to stay as he was, that was his right, too.

  “Okay, well, are you still going shopping? With us” Maddox tugged at the tie hanging a little too low.

  “Sure.” Jayden paused. “What are we shopping for?”

  “Have you really forgotten already? This last Sunday? We talked about it? Axl wants to shop after this crunch is over.”

  He nodded, recalling the conversation.

  Interesting.

  Jayden had written off the comments about needing to update wardrobes. Maddox was especially bad about bringing up ideas he never carried through on. And Axl was so focused on his work he often forgot other things. Like showers and haircuts.

  Neither Axl nor Maddox would want to shop where Jayden did. Still, if they wanted to make a bit more of an effort, why not help them? Jayden had lost count of how often he’d tried telling Maddox that he needed to wear more appropriate clothes to the office. If he was finally taking some interest in looking like an adult, the least Jayden could do was help out.

  “Okay, well, see you tomorrow,” Maddox said.