Keeley couldn't sleep. She tried everything from counting sheep to wearing an eye mask. At one point she even started listening to soothing music that sounded like waves crashing on the beach. It was supposed to lull her to sleep, but all it did was rev up her bladder. After a quick visit to the toilet—and a good look in the mirror—Keeley realized sleep was the least of her worries.
Not only did she look like she just survived a desert storm—red, puffy eyes and dry, cracked lips—but she felt it too. Her emotions were in tatters, rubbed raw by his words. Briefly, she wondered if he experienced the same feeling after seeing Zach and Claire together. Had his emotions been stripped to the bone? Had he felt worn and bruised that night, lying awake, thinking about them? She pushed back the twinge of sympathy. He deserved no such thing. Not from her.
Turning over, she curled into a ball and tucked her hands under her pillow. Her fingertips touched the smooth surface of her phone. She'd shoved it there after receiving a text from him. She hadn't been able to look at it, to read whatever lie he was going to tell. Had he lied often? Had everything out of his mouth been a fabrication meant to manipulate her?
Ignoring Tucker's whimper of protest, she rolled onto her back and pulled out her phone. Three text messages and two missed calls from Talon. Finger trembling, she tapped the screen.
Just finished hanging out with my family and I've come to the realization that I'm the only sane one. What are you up to? –T
Called but you didn't pick up. You're probably working on that math assignment. Call me when you're done. I need some normalcy in my life. –T
You must still be studying. Baby doll, don't stress too much about it. It's just one assignment. Sweet dreams and I'll talk to you tomorrow. J –T
Her eyes pricked as she read his words. She should be angry, furious at his deception, but all she felt was an overwhelming sense of loss. Their relationship started out rocky. A series of twists and tribulations that made her head spin. However, she knew those trials were worth the headache because at the heart of it all, was a feeling so pure, so true, it radiated through the darkness. Now that beacon of light was no more than a flickering candle—one that was on the brink of being extinguished. The thought frightened her. As much as she hated his lies, she didn't want the candle to burn out. As long as there was light, there was hope.
The words on the screen blurred as her eyes filled. Stupid, she berated herself. So incredibly stupid. How could she carry a torch for someone who used her so callously?
Her fingers hovered over the screen. With one swipe she could delete the messages, delete the voicemails, delete him. The temptation was strong but what good would it do? Deleting his number from her phone wouldn't delete him from her heart. Quelling her tears, she turned off her phone and pushed it back under her pillow.
Getting to her feet, she walked downstairs with Tucker padding softly behind her. She turned the corner and was surprised to see the kitchen light on.
"Zach?" she croaked. He was seated at the small table in the breakfast nook. A partially eaten pie was in front of him as well as his phone. His head, which was resting on his hand, came up at the sound of his name.
"Keels," he said, his eyes widening, "what are you doing up so late?"
She pulled out a chair across from him. "I could ask you the same thing."
He put his fork down and nudged his phone to the side with his elbow. "Couldn't sleep."
"Welcome to the club." She reached over and plucked one of the plastic forks her mother kept in a basket. "What's keeping you up?"
"Stuff." He pushed the pie towards the middle of the table. "How about you?"
"Stuff," she parroted. She ignored his questioning look and concentrated on the pie. Taking a big bite, she groaned as cinnamon and apple accosted her senses. This was comfort food at its finest. Getting up, she opened the refrigerator.
"Milk?"
At his nod, she poured two glasses and sat back down. The mood was quiet and pensive as they shared the apple pie, each taking a turn after the other. The only noise was the humming of the refrigerator and the occasional whimper as Tucker begged for a piece.
Breaking the silence, Zach asked, "Want to talk about what's bothering you?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Contrary to popular belief guys aren't complete morons. We do pay attention, especially when the girl in question is our sister. So..." he motioned to her, "let's hear it. The last time you were up late it was because you were failing chemistry and didn't know how to tell Mom and Dad."
She winced at the memory. "I'm not failing anything."
"It's still early in the year."
"Hey! Not everyone can be born with a brain like yours." When he started to preen, she threw a piece of piecrust at him. It sailed over his head and onto the floor.
His lips quirked. "Apparently some aren't born with a sense of aim either."
Another piece flew, but this time it hit it's target. Wiping the crumbs off his face, Zach grumbled, "Or a sense of humor." He reached down and tapped the tiles, gaining Tucker's attention. Immediately, he came over and started licking up the buttery morsels.
Folding his arms, Zach settled back into the chair. "If it's not about school then it must be about Nicky....or that jerk wad."
"Jerk wad?" An eyebrow lifted. The slur was tame compared to his usual barrage of insults.
"I'm feeling generous tonight. Besides..." he patted his stomach, "pie puts me in a good mood."
That may be true now, but it wouldn't last long if she told him what happened. Knowing Zach, he wouldn't waste a second to start planning a form of revenge. And isn't that what got her heartbroken in the first place? This nasty cycle between the two of them had to stop before another person got hurt.
"I couldn't sleep, that's all," she told him.
"Oh?"
She knew that tone of voice. Knew that he didn't believe a word she said. Buying herself time, she collected the dirty dishes and placed them in the sink. "Yes, I have lots on my mind. Lots going on," she sputtered. "School, work, friends—"
"Word of advice," he interrupted. "Don't start playing poker anytime soon. You'd lose a fortune."
Scowling, she sat back down. "I'm an excellent bluffer."
"Keep telling yourself that."
"Well, why are you sitting here binge eating in the middle of the night?" If she hadn't been watching closely, she would have missed the covert look to his phone. Reaching over, she grabbed it before he could stop her. "Maybe it has something to do with this," she taunted.
"Give it back," he demanded. When she ignored his request, he tried to snatch it out of her hands but she was too quick. Slipping it into her pocket, she pushed her seat back till she was out of reach.
"Keeley!"
"You used my full name. This must be important," she teased, her lips curling into a grin. Rotating in her seat, she pulled out his phone. Her smile faded as the screen lit.
It was a photograph of Zach and a black-haired girl sitting together on a bench at the beach. His arms were circled around her waist while her hands were clutched together in her lap. The girl's body was angled so she could lean into him, her shoulder and head resting against his chest. There was a small smile on her face as she looked up at him, her eyes shining bright. His head was tipped back, his mouth open with laughter. They looked good together and incredibly happy.
Stunned, Keeley sat back in the chair. This was the last thing she expected to see on his phone. In all honesty, she thought the reason he couldn't sleep was because of football...not a girl. She glanced at the photo again. She couldn't make out the girl's face because her head was turned, but she looked pretty. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore jeans and a loose fitting top. She seemed delicate and not at all like the girls Zach usually went for.
"Give me my phone, Keeley," Zach snarled. His hands were gripping the table so hard they were turning white.
"Who is she?"
"No one."
"Now who's the one bluffing?"
"It's none of your business."
Zach's hair was shorter in the picture and his cheeks were slightly fuller make him appear boyish. By the looks of him, she surmised it was taken a couple years ago. Something in the photo caught her attention. She zoomed in on the girl's hand. Displayed on her middle finger was Zach's supposedly missing silver and blue class ring.
"Lost it, huh?" she asked lightly, speculation brewing in her eyes.
Glowering, he jerked the phone out of her hand. "Like I said, none of your business."
His refusal to answer only solidified her theory. "Oh contraire brother. This is huge. Miracles do happen!"
"What are you talking about?"
"This proves you do have a beating heart under there. I told Nicky you weren't really a robot." She smiled and leaned in. "So, who's the girl? And when can I meet her?"
"She doesn't live here anymore and I highly doubt you want to meet her."
"Why not? Does she have a contagious disease or something?"
His face remained dark. Clearly, he was not seeing her humor. "The girl in the photograph is Claire."
"Claire? That's Claire?" Her stomach turned. Eating half of that pie didn't seem like such a good idea now.
Zach didn't respond as he carefully shut of his phone, but not before one long look at the photograph.
"Wait, you really like her." The implication made her head spin. Then she let out a loud snort. "Oh this is rich. You kept harping on me about dating Talon while the whole time you were crushing on a girl like that."
"A girl like what?" he challenged.
"Come on, Zach. You know what I mean. Her moral code isn't exactly high on the barometer."
"You don't know a thing about her."
"I know she cheated on Talon," she countered back. "He genuinely cared about her and she stomped over his feelings without a backwards glance." Why she felt the need to defend Talon was beyond her but she didn't question it.
"She isn't like that."
"She's exactly like that. I know her type. She flirts and dates a guy till a better one comes along. Why would you even care about a girl who acts so superficial?"
"She's not! You don't know what we had, what we shared."
"Please. What makes you think she wouldn't have done the exact same thing to you? Once a cheat, always a cheat."
Zach's eyes flashed at her insult, his temper growing exponentially. "And what about your precious boyfriend? You think he was so innocent in the matter? Who do you think made her move away? Because I can guarantee you it wasn't me."
"You can't make someone move away. She was a high school student."
"Exactly!" he shouted, his chest rising and falling in rapid rates. "She was only a high school student and what he did to her was disgusting." The chair scraped against the floor as he stood up. "Next time you talk to that bastard, ask him what he did to drive her away."
She grabbed the end of his shirt before he could walk away. "Why do I have to ask him? Why can't you just tell me?"
"Because I made a promise not to speak of it again."
"Just tell me. I promise I'll keep it a secret." When he shook his head in denial, she wheedled, "Don't you trust me?"
"It's not a matter of trust. I made mistakes, a lot of them, and they hurt the person I cared about. I can't undo the damage, but I can keep the one promise she asked of me. Please don't make me break that." Hearing the pleading in his voice, she released him.
Stopping at the doorway, he turned around. "Make him tell you, Keels. Then you'll see what I know."
****
"You going to answer that?" Van asked from the front of the store. He unlocked the door and flipped the sign, declaring The Shack officially open for business.
Keeley didn't even bother to look at her phone. She knew who it was. The same person who'd been calling her for the past hour. She hadn't talked to Talon in two days. Not a text, not a phone, nothing.
"Seems like someone really wants to talk to you," he added offhandedly.
"Since when did you become Mr. Nosey?"
"Since I've had to endure hearing your annoying ringtone for the third time the morning."
"Fourth," she corrected. Not that she was counting or anything.
He walked to the back room with a stack of papers. "Just pick up the damn thing or shut it off."
"Happy to see sobriety hasn't dulled your good nature," she called after him. She heard a brief growl and then a door slamming. "Lovely. So glad I came to work today."
"Talking to oneself already?" Nicky commented, strolling into the store carrying a large tote.
"Hey," she greeted in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Doing my duty as a best friend and offering you moral support."
"I'm fine."
"Not from what I just witnessed." She plunked down a thin, black book. "Good thing I stopped by the library and got you this."
Keeley picked it up and read the cover. "The Five Stages of Grief: Tips on How to Survive Your Emotional Journey." Her eyebrows shot up. "Seriously?"
"I stayed up all night reading it and I'm one hundred percent ready."
"Ready for what?"
A mischievous grin lightened her face as she pressed a hand to her chest. "I am so glad you asked that. Step one—denial." She pulled out a quarter with a piece of paper glued to each side and the word 'revenge' written in bright red. "Every time you are in denial about the break-up you look at this coin and remember he used you."
"Step two is anger." Nicky yanked out a dartboard with his picture pasted on and five darts sticking out of his mouth.
"I think that one's self-explanatory," Keeley remarked.
"Step three—bargaining." Nicky grabbed Keeley's phone and fiddled around with it. A few seconds later, she showed her the empty screen. "I deleted his number and all his text messages so you won't be tempted to contact him and try to get back together."
Keeley felt a moment of panic rising at the thought of all those texts gone, but she forced it down. This was good. She wouldn't obsess over them at night when she was trying to sleep.
"Step four is depression." Nicky took out a number of sad, romantic movies and a jumbo-sized tissue box. "And my personal favorite, step five—acceptance." She busted out a party hat with the word 'celebration' in bright neon colors and matching pom-poms.
Keeley reached over the counter and hugged her. "I love you."
"It would be hard not too."
Her phone rang again, numbers popping up on the screen. Before she knew what was happening, Nicky grabbed it and answered. "Keeley's phone," she said sweetly. Her face morphed in the matter of seconds.
"Listen here you scumbag, my friend doesn't want to see you anymore so I suggest you stop calling." A long pause. "The jig is up. She knows all about your little plan to use her so you can get revenge on Zach, which, by the way, makes you lower than dirt." Another pause. "Don't tempt me, buddy. I know a bee farmer who owes me a favor!" Nicky hung up and pushed a button before handing back her phone.
"What did he say?"
Nicky rolled her shoulders and cracked her knuckles. "Wanted to know where you were and what was going on. Don't worry. I took care of it. I also blocked his number."
"I think you enjoyed that a little too much."
"It got my blood flowing." She pumped her arms and then showed off her non-existent muscles.
Keeley laughed at her antics. "Go home. I'm good," she said when Nicky yawned.
"You sure?"
"Positive. Catch up on your sleep. I'll call you when I get home."
Four hours later, Keeley was helping a customer when she heard her name being shouted.
"Keeley!"
She looked over to see Talon pushing his way through the crowd of customers. His hair was mussed and his clothes were in disarray, but that was nothing compared to the look of pure aggravation on his face.
"What are you doing here?"
His eyes shot her daggers. "You weren't answering my calls."
"So you decide to track me down at work?"
"Well, you weren't exactly rolling out the welcome carpet anywhere else. I took what I could find."
"Go away Talon. I don't want to talk to you." She shouldered past him, but he just followed her through the crowd.
Grabbing her arm from behind, he hissed in her ear, "Will you just listen to me for a second?"
"No."
"You're being rude."
"Let me repeat myself. Go away." She wretched her arm out of his grasp and began walking again.
He huffed and threw up his hands. "You know what? Fine. Be that way. Just know beneath all that righteous indignation you are nothing but a hypocrite."
She stopped in her tracks. "What did you call me?"
"You heard me. You're a hypocrite."
"How dare you!" she snapped.
"Oh, I dare all right. Do you remember what you made me swear in front of your locker?"
"What does that have anything to do with—"
"You made me promise I would talk to you before jumping to conclusions," he said loudly, talking over her, "but it appears those same rules don't apply you, do they sweetheart?"
"That was an entirely different situation. I'm not jumping to conclusions here. I know for a fact you used me to get back at my brother."
"And how do you know that?"
She averted her eyes so he wouldn't glimpse the guilt buried within. How could she tell him she eavesdropped?
"Well?" he prompted, finger tapping against his jeans impatiently.
Not wanting to admit to her own folly, she asked, "Did you use me to get back at my brother?"
"An answer for an answer, sweetheart. You want to play? Well, those are the rules."
She hated that particular term of endearment. He only said it when he was angry with her. Drawing in a deep breath, she blurted out the truth. "Nicky and I were there that night at the park. We eavesdropped on you and your cousins. I overheard you admitting you were using me to get back at Zach."
"Damn it, Keeley!" He pointed a finger at her then slashed it through the air. "You had no right to do that. No right."
"I know." A hot torrent of shame spread over her. What she did was wrong, but at the same time, if she hadn't, she would never have found out the truth. "I overheard one of your conversations on the phone and I thought you were meeting up with another girl."
"Here's a novel idea—ask me! I would have told you I was meeting my cousins. And that's a whole lot better than automatically assuming I'm cheating on you!"
"Can you blame me? Your track record of girls doesn't exactly evoke feelings of trust."
"Oh no, don't put this on me," he spat. "Those girls knew the score."
"And what about me? Am I just another score?"
"You're impossible."
"And you didn't answer the question."
He prowled up to her and looked her straight in the eye. "You are my girlfriend. And for the record, I would never cheat. Not on you, not on anyone."
"I'm sorry for not trusting you, but I'm not sorry for eavesdropping. How else would I have heard what I did?" The anger started welling up inside again. "You used me to get revenge on my brother!"
"Only at first," he swore with an intensity that made her heart jump. "And even then, not really."
His vague answer infuriated her further. "What does that even mean? You did, but didn't?"
"Sort of." His growled then let out a stream of air. "You see, I—"
"Listen kiddies," Van interrupted. "Fascinating as this whole high school soap opera is, I really need you to move. Preferably not in an area where customers shop."
Talon grabbed her arm and steered her into the back room. After closing the door, he sat her on a chair and kneeled in between her legs. His arms reached behind her and latched onto the chair, caging her in.
"Listen, I have been interested in you since the beginning. You fascinated me and the more we talked, the more I grew to like you. When we exchanged phones and I found out who you were, it was a punch in the gut. Here's this girl who I was starting to really care for, but was the twin sister of the guy I hated. I won't lie....I planned on putting a stop to things then and there."
"But you didn't," she interjected, remembering his drunken phone call.
"I couldn't stop thinking about you. I bugged Gavin till he would tell me everything he knew." A rueful smile. "Then I got drunk that night with my friends and called you. When I hung up, they wanted to know who I was talking too. They immediately started ragging on me, making me promise I wasn't serious about you. In my drunken haze, I must have said something about revenge because the next thing you know, they're talking about making you fall for me as some part of an elaborate plan." He shrugged. "I never corrected them because it killed two birds with one stone. I got to keep seeing you and they got off my back."
"But why would you even need to validate dating me? Was I not good enough for your friends?"
"Absolutely not. In fact you're the opposite, baby doll," he assured, brushing the back of his fingers over the curve of her cheek. "It's just that you're a Brewer."
"And that makes me automatically un-datable? They don't even know me. What right do they have to judge?"
He ran a hand over his face. "I'm not explaining this right. Look, those guys have been with me through thick and thin for the past four years. I love them like brothers, but they can be assholes. They know how much I hate Zach and worried you'd be another way to hurt me."
"So what? Go on the offense before having to be on the defense?" She didn't need to hear his answer. His sheepish expression said enough. Needing space, she leaned back. As she did, her arms rubbed against his, the heat of his skin only making her more aware of him.
"Tell me what's going on in that pretty head of yours."
She took a moment to gather her thoughts before meeting his eyes. She sucked in a breath as her own pain was mirrored in his. And even though both were hurting because of the other, a knowing look passed between them. It was hard to argue against that type of connection.
"I guess I'm wondering why you weren't willing to fight for me. Why your friends' opinions were so important that you had to lie and make excuses."
"Because sometimes I'm an idiot." He brought his hands to her face, gently cupping the sides. His thumb ran over the curve of her ear as he softly swore, "I have always liked you, Keeley. I hate that I wasn't strong enough to stand up for my growing feelings, but I am now. I'm here and I'm willing to fight for you, for me, and most importantly, I'm here to fight for us."
His impassioned speech cooled some of the fire that'd been building up and while she adored the sentiment, she still had doubts....and questions. Particularly where Claire was concerned. Talon seemed a master of telling half-truths. She would have to word her questions carefully to get the whole answer.
"I can see those wheels turning," he teased, grabbing her hand and entwining their fingers. "We don't have to figure everything out now. The world isn't going to end tomorrow. We have time, baby doll."
She tried not to be swayed by his pretty words. "There are more things I want to ask you."
"As much as I'd like to answer them right now, I have a feeling your co-worker wouldn't be too thrilled." He motioned over to the door where Van stood. Startled, she tried to drop Talon's hand, but he tightened his hold.
"Everything okay in here?" he asked, zooming in on the movement. His stance reminded her of Zach.
"Yeah. Sorry Van, I'll get back to work in a second."
"Okay. I'm out here if you need me."
When he ambled off, Talon drew their hands up to his lips and placed a tender kiss on the back of it. "How about we grab dinner together after your shift?"
She offered him a jerky nod. It would give her time to prepare. Talon insisted he was fighting for them; well, she was fighting for the truth and hopefully those objectives didn't clash.