Unstoppable (Forehead Kisses #4)

by Abby Reynolds

  “Shut up, Ash.”

  “So defensive…”

  “You would be too if you were picked on all the time.”

  “Then prove me wrong. Have a good time and hook up with a guy tonight.”

  “I don’t hook up.”

  “Maybe you should.” He shook his head. “I would rather have a slutty sister that can’t keep her legs closed and parties too much instead of one that sits in the dark and paints Satan.”

  “I don’t paint Satan,” I snapped.

  “My point is, live a little. You used to be fun. Now you’re…blah.”

  “Blah?”

  “Yeah.”

  I was sick of hearing this from him. “This is who I am. Accept me, or just stop seeing me.”

  His eyes filled with sadness. “But this isn’t who you are.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Yes, it is. Now drop the subject.”

  Ash leaned back in his chair and sighed. It looked like he’d finally given up.

  A guy approached our table. “Hey, man.” He pounded his fist against Ash’s. “Awesome fight, huh?”

  “Definitely.” He looked at me. “Bran, this is my annoying sister, Livia.”

  He took me in quickly, his eyes resting on my chest a little too long for comfort. “Hi, I’m Bran.” He extended his hand to shake mine.

  Regretfully, I took it then looked away. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “And she’s single,” Ash offered.

  I shot him a glare.

  Bran’s face reddened slightly. “Uh, cool. Anyway, we’re playing ball this Saturday. Some of my friends will be there. You want to join?”

  He shook his head. “I have too much school work during the day. I reserve my nights for fucking around.”

  Bran laughed. “I respect your time management skills.”

  He seemed like a sleazeball.

  “But take my sister,” he offered. “She loves sports.”

  Uh, what? “I love watching them, not playing them.”

  Ash shook his head. “She was the softball captain every year of high school and made it to the championships. Plus, she’s athletic and a good runner. She’ll be a good baseball player.”

  “I have plans,” I blurted.

  “No, she doesn’t,” Ash said. “Take her. She has no friends.”

  I glared at him with hatred.

  Bran looked confused. “Well, you’re welcome to join us if you want...”

  “I’m good,” I said immediately.

  Ash pulled out money from his wallet. “Take her and you get to keep this.”

  I was about to slap my brother across the face. “Knock it off!”

  He sighed then stuffed the money back into his pocket. “Nevermind. She’s about to have a breakdown.”

  “You’re such an ass,” I snapped.

  “I’m just trying to give you a nudge out the door.” Ash stood up. “I need another beer.” He headed to the bar. I expected Bran to walk away but he didn’t.

  “So…you’re his sister?” he asked.

  Obviously. “Something like that.”

  “Cool. I can faintly see the resemblance.”

  I hated small talk.

  “Can I buy you another drink?”

  I hadn’t even drunk half of this one. “No, thanks.”

  He sat down in the chair beside me, making me flinch. Then he leaned toward me, making me uncomfortable. “I know you said you aren’t interested in baseball, but maybe we could do something else…”

  Why did men only think with their dicks? “I’m not dating right now.” I couldn’t think of a nicer way of saying it. At least this way they didn’t think it was just them, which it wasn’t. It was all men.

  “Well, we don’t have to date…” The meaning was in his words. “I live just a mile away.”

  Fucking pig. “Go away.”

  “Whoa…I didn’t mean to offend you. I guess I just misunderstood your meaning.”

  I looked for my brother, hoping he would come back soon. “Well, it was nice meeting you.” Now go away.

  “How about we get ice cream tomorrow?”

  This guy just wouldn’t give up. “No, thank you.”

  “What if we—”

  Scotty appeared then put his hand on Bran’s shoulder. “Leave the pretty girl alone. If she rejected you three times, she’s just going to reject you again.”

  Bran looked irritated. “She didn’t reject me.”

  “Yes, she did.” He pulled him out of the chair. “Now let’s go. Some blonde keeps asking for you.”

  “Ooh. Who?”

  “Let’s walk over there and see.” Scotty stepped aside and let Bran leave first.

  Then he looked at me, his green eyes shining bright. There was no emotion there. I couldn’t read him at all. Why did he help me? I was a total jerk to him before. “We’ll leave you alone now.” With a sad look, he turned and walked away.

  I tried to process what happened. Scotty pursued me but now he saved me from another creep. And he seemed sad, like something was on his mind. I wanted to apologize to him but he was already gone, on the other side of the bar. He sat at the table and watched TV while all his friends flirted with their dates. He was all alone.

  Just like me.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Scotty

  I recognized Ash from around campus. We ran into each other at parties or the bar. We were acquaintances more than friends, so I didn’t know him very well. But I knew he scored tail just as much as I did.

  When I saw her with him, I assumed the worst. She wouldn’t give me the time of day but she would date the biggest player on campus? When I overheard their conversation, it was pretty clear they were siblings.

  Thank god.

  Not that I had a chance with her. The venom she gave me was enough to make me loathe myself forever. When Bran was bothering her, I felt compelled to help her. I didn’t want to see those tears fall down her face again. It killed me last time. There was obviously something emotional going on below the surface.

  And I’d do anything to know what it was.

  After I steered Bran away from her, I left her in peace. Even if she despised me, I’d come to her defense anyway. We’d never had a real conversation before and I didn’t know a single thing about her, not even her name, but I felt protective of her in an innate way. Maybe it was because I took care of Keira for so long. Maybe it was because I was obsessed with her beauty.

  Who knows?

  When I went to my psychology class, I sat in the back row and didn’t look at her. She didn’t want my attention so I didn’t give it to her. It was clear she had no interest in getting to know me, so why should I torture myself? I needed to hook up with someone new and just forget about her. I’d sleep with enough girls to forget her face.

  “We’ll be having a partner assignment for this chapter. Each pair will come up with their own experiment to explain conformity.”

  My thoughts were shattered by the professor’s announcement. Group work? Why were teachers so obsessed with it? Obviously, it reduced the number of papers to grade by half, but every teacher knew only one partner did the majority of the work. The other slacked off.

  Whatever. I didn’t have any other projects in my other classes so I could push through this. I didn’t know anybody else in the class so I’d have to make a friend.

  “I’ll be assigning you,” he announced.

  Now this just got a million times worse. What if I was stuck with a weirdo?

  He read off the names, coming to mine toward the end since my last name was toward the end of the alphabet. “Scotty Strately, you’ll be working with Livia James.”

  I didn’t have a clue who that was.

  He finished assigning the rest of the students while I slumped deeper into my chair. I didn’t want to develop my own experiment to prove the theory of conformity. This was a general education course, not my major.

  School sucked.

  I looked around the roo
m, wondering who she was. Hopefully, she was hot. She could distract me from the mysterious girl who stole my undivided focus the moment I laid eyes on her.

  “Scotty?”

  The beautiful sound of the voice caught me off guard. I turned, seeing my muse stare back at me. She wore dark jeans and a white shirt. It was loose around her body, but her curves couldn’t be denied. She didn’t wear any make up but her eyes still shined noticeably.

  Why did this girl have this affect on me? She pooped and farted just like everyone else.

  I was so surprised she was speaking to me that I was caught off guard. “Uh, hi.” Why was she talking to me? To tell me off for something else?

  “I guess we should get started soon. It sounds like a lot of work.”

  What the hell was she talking about? “Sorry?”

  “The project…”

  Oh. “Livia? That’s your name?”

  “Yeah.” Her eyes were guarded again. I could tell she was self-conscious by the look I was giving her.

  Even her name was hot. “Sorry. I didn’t realize it was you.”

  “That’s okay.” She sat down, leaving a seat between us.

  The rest of the class was speaking to their partners in quiet whispers.

  It was awkward sitting so close to her. What do I say? I tried not to look at her, wanting to give her as much as space as possible. I didn’t want to repeat our last encounter from the library.

  “When did you want to start working on this?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “I’m free during the week before nine.”

  “Nine?” she asked.

  “I have to work.”

  “At night?” She seemed surprised.

  “I do construction on the highways.” My job wasn’t flashy and I wasn’t proud of it. I really needed to get out of it and into the ring.

  “Wow.”

  “What?” I blurted.

  “That’s a dangerous job.”

  I shrugged. “It pays well.”

  “So, you operate fork lifts and stuff?”

  I nodded. “I can do everything.”

  “When did you get into that?”

  Why did she care? “A few years ago. I needed money and a friend helped me get a job. I moved up through time.”

  “When did you start?”

  “When I was seventeen.”

  ‘That’s really young…”

  I didn’t want to explain why. “So, anytime before nine works for me.”

  “Me too.” She looked at the clock then back to me. “I can just do the project by myself and put your name on it…”

  I was extremely insulted by the offer. I may not care too much for school, but I didn’t cheat and I was never dishonest. “I’d rather not.”

  “Okay.” I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

  “Do you want to come to my place and work on it?” When I saw the tension in her shoulders and the alarm in her eyes, I realized how that may have sounded to her. “I live alone in a house. I just meant it’s quiet and no one will bother us.” Shit, I did it again. “I mean—it won’t be distracting and we can get a lot of work done.”

  “Let’s just work in the library…” She turned her body away, closing herself off from me.

  “Okay.” I didn’t care where we did it. “When should we start?”

  “I guess today.” She pulled out a calendar and looked at it. “I have a lot of stuff to do this week.”

  “In the afternoon after class is over?”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay. I’ll meet you by the tables.”

  “Alright.”

  The bell was about to ring so I packed my bag and walked out, not saying goodbye to her or looking at those gorgeous legs.

  When I walked to the library, I felt the anxiety pool in my stomach. I never expected this odd turn of events. She and I were working on a project together, so now I actually had the opportunity to get to know her. But she made it abundantly clear she had no interest in me. It was a dead end.

  I headed toward the back table and spotted her in the corner. Her silky brown hair was over one shoulder. I’d give anything to run my fingers through the strands. I sat a few seats over, purposely putting space between us.

  She eyed me across the table then dropped her look. “Have any ideas?”

  “Not really,” I said honestly. “For these type of experiments, we need enough people to utilize as the control group and the experimental group. I have friends that would help, but we would probably need more people.”

  She twirled her highlighter in her fingers. “And we should make the experiment simple, like making all males wear pink or something. It would be cheap and easy to do.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

  We flipped through our textbooks while we researched the boundaries of our project.

  “Scotty?”

  “Yeah?” I kept my gaze focused on the text. If I let myself look at her, I would gawk.

  “I’m sorry for the way I…snapped at you.” Her voice carried her emotion. “It just came out.”

  When I thought about her painful reaction, it made me want to comfort her, to ask what was on her mind. But I was in no position to do that. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Okay.”

  More silence ensued.

  Just because she and I couldn’t date didn’t mean I couldn’t get to know her better. There was no harm in that, right? “Do you work anywhere?”

  “Yeah…I work for an art gallery.”

  I wasn’t expecting that. She seemed too fearful to work with other people. “Are you a curator? Or do you run the register?” It must be a job flexible with school.

  “No, I’m an artist. I paint and sell my work in the gallery.”

  Seriously? That was the coolest thing I ever heard. No wonder why she was scribbling the other day. “Wow. That’s really awesome.”

  She flashed me a look of surprise. Her eyes narrowed while she took me in. “Awesome?”

  “Yeah…it’s really cool.” Did that offend her?

  She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear then looked at her notebook.

  What the hell was going on in that pretty little head of hers? “Have you been doing it for long?”

  “I’ve been painting my whole life. But I didn’t start doing it professionally until a few years ago.”

  “Are you majoring in art?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, it sounds like you’re already a pro.”

  “An artist is always learning,” she said vaguely.

  “I’d love to see your work sometime,” I blurted. I wasn’t a fan of art, but anything she made would fascinate me.

  She didn’t respond, not that I was surprised.

  “Ash is a cool guy.” I felt compelled to fill the dead air.

  “Yeah…he’s alright.”

  I smirked. “Your brother is just alright?”

  “He can be a jerk sometimes…but I do love him.”

  “I think he loves you too.”

  “How do you know him?” she asked.

  Because he pounded as much pussy as I did. “I’ve seen him around.”

  “He seems to be pretty popular.”

  “Life of the party.”

  “Sounds about right.” Bitterness came from her voice.

  “Were you born in San Diego?”

  “I’ve lived in La Jolla my whole life.”

  “Cool.” I wondered why I’d never seen her around before. “Where did you go to high school?”

  “I was home-schooled.”

  Oh. That explained it. “Do you live at home still?”

  “No, I have my own place.”

  Impressive.

  She made a few notes on her notebook, and a strand of hair fell loose from behind her ear.

  Everything she did caught my attention. “Can I ask you something?”

  Her body stiffened noticeably. “I guess.”

  “Why won’t you give me a c
hance?” I felt brave and decided to take a risk. “I’m not asking for a date. I’m just wondering why I didn’t get one.” I stayed on my side of the table, not crowding her.

  “I’m just not interested in dating.”

  That was an odd response. “Recent break up?”

  She looked away again. “No.”

  “Were you burned?”

  Her voice came out lifeless. “No.”

  “Will you always not be interested in dating?”

  Her eyes met mine. “Yes.” The truth rang in her words.

  Whatever demons she had her in her closet were keeping her out of the game for good. It was clear she would never change her mind. I could see it in her eyes. Instead of wasting my time chasing a girl I could never get, I decided to let her go. “I understand.”

  She relaxed visibly.

  “But I would really love it if we could be friends—real friends. If we’re going to work together on this project, I would like it if you weren’t so tense and uncomfortable around me. I’ll be a perfect gentleman and never ask anything of you.”

  She looked into my eyes, the conflict darting back and forth. Trust was something that didn’t come naturally to her, if it ever came at all. “I can try.”

  “That’s enough for me.”

  I stopped by Liam’s house on the way home. I rang the doorbell because I knew they could be anywhere in the house, probably upstairs…

  Liam opened it, shirtless. He was sweaty so he must have been working out. “Hey.” He stepped aside and let me enter. “What’s up?”

  “You have a minute?”

  “Barely.”

  “I’ll cut to the chase. I want to be in the ring. I’m committing to this.”

  He studied my face, looking for hesitation. “You’re sure?”

  “Definitely.”

  “It’s a lot of time and sacrifice.”

  “I’m okay with that.”

  “You’ll probably need to quit your job.”

  “Consider it done.” I didn’t like working night shift. I was constantly tired during the day.

  “Then you have my blessing.”

  “I need a trainer. Do you know of anyone?”

  “Yeah. My old one is still in Burbank. I’ll give you his name.”

  “Thanks.” Liam walked to the kitchen counter and made a few notes.

  Keira came from the basement, just as sweaty. “Hey, Scotty.”