"No, it doesn't matter they're here." I tried to sound convincing but my voice wobbled.
"Why don't we get something to-go," Keagan said, taking my hand and giving it a squeeze. "You can wait in the car while I order. Veggie for you, right?"
Nodding with a grateful smile, I squeezed back.
Before I could move out the door, Billy's obnoxious voice stopped me as he shouted from ten feet away. "Tara-girl. Where's my wingman, Liam?"
"We're both going," Keagan whispered to me and, with his guiding hand at the small of my back, we turned to push out the door.
"Hey," Quinn said. "She's here with his brother."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Billy jump off his stool as we exited. Billy followed us outside with Quinn at his heels. Billy grabbed my shoulder to pull me around just as Keagan and I reached the front of my car.
"You're here with him?" Billy demanded.
"Yes." I nodded and cleared my throat. "I'm with him on a date."
"Hands off her Billy or I'll make your head into a hood ornament," Keagan warned, shoving Billy.
"You and what army, dog breath?" Quinn joined in with a child-like taunt so ridiculous I wanted to come back with yes you are but what am I?
Billy stepped back. Lifting both hands, he released me as if I had cooties. Then he shook his head and gave a snort. "You aren't worth it. You're a traitor to Double Dick as well as a slut."
Keagan made a motion, his arm twitching, and I had to grab him to stop him from swinging on Billy. "No," I said. "Please. No fighting."
He subsided into a huffing glower first at Billy then Quinn then back again. Keagan's angry breath chugged in and out.
With a disgusted, wave of his hand and a pfffffffft, Billy turned on one heel and sauntered back to the door of the restaurant. Quinn got out his phone, and held it up as if taking a photo, before trotting after Billy.
My hand shook as I reached in my purse for the car keys. Finally, getting them out of where they had seemed caught, I held them up triumphantly. Keagan took them from me and unlocked the passenger door. He opened it wide and motioned for me to get in.
"I'm driving," he said. "You're too shaken up."
"I'm all right," I insisted, but slipped gratefully into the passenger seat anyway.
"Yeah sure," he muttered. "You're about as right as a feather in a hurricane."
He closed the door and then rounded the front bumper to the other side. Billy stuck his head out of the restaurant door and shouted something I, thankfully, couldn't make out.
I heard the ping of my cell phone as Keagan opened the driver's side door. Pulling the cell out to examine its face, I then saw a message from Liam: Whas'up? A photo of Keagan and me outside the restaurant accompanied the text. Omigod, Quinn had wasted no time.
Oh well, Liam would know soon enough anyway. With shaking fingers I texted back: Imona d8 w/ K. And then I stared at the phone waiting for a reply. The silence hurt my ears, so I powered the cell off and threw it in my purse.
After getting in the car himself, Keagan shoved the key into the ignition and fired the engine. He glanced at me and swore. "You look terrible."
I couldn't say anything, not even a sarcastic "thanks."
"Put on your seatbelt."
I still couldn't say anything. Neither could I move. At that moment, with my mind on how Liam must be reacting, I don't think I even understood what he said.
"Jesus," he muttered as he reached around me to grab the buckle and bring it down across my shoulder and lap. It locked into place with a snap.
The next thing I knew the car peeled out into a left turn before joining the traffic on the adjacent street.
Off to my next trauma, I thought. At the reserve.
But then Keagan made another turn in the opposite direction and suddenly I didn't know where we were going. Was that better or worse?
* * * * *
By the time we reached Tybee Island, I'd recovered. We stopped to pick up a take-out cheese pizza before heading to the beach. Keagan parked the Camry on an access road. We climbed out of the car and Keagan pulled two blankets off the backseat.
"Those are dog blankets for Harry," I said, referring to our Cockapoo. "We'll be covered with dog hair if we use those."
Keagan smiled as he bundled them into his arms before closing the door to lock it. "That's okay. Better hair than sand. Besides, I love animals."
Even at this time of year, the night was a moderate sixty degrees but a cool breeze smelling of salt and sea came in off the Atlantic. As we crossed the boardwalk over the dunes, I was glad Keagan had thought of the blankets, hair or no hair. An almost full moon shone like a spotlight over our heads and the few lamps lining the path were just a small supplement.
After the boardwalk, we took off our shoes and made our way over the rough area of stone, shell and sand mixture to the packed granules. From here I could see the ocean was calm. The water merely lapped at the shore, ebbing and flowing gently, instead of the usual pounding wave assaults. The peace of the night, with no one else in sight, calmed my jangled nerves ever so slightly.
Keagan spread out one of the blankets for us to sit on and weighed down its four corners with his shoes and mine. I settled into a seated position with my legs curled to the side. He kneeled down and reached inside the pizza box to extract a slice. He handed it to me along with one of the soda cans.
The greasy cheese smell made me feel sick. The idea of putting anything in my rolling, lurching stomach didn't seem smart. Puking all over Keagan would hardly be the romantic date of anyone's dream—if romance were even what we were going for here. I laid the slice down on the box lid but pulled at the tab of the soda can. The familiar fizzy burst sound of it opening made my parched mouth water so I took a heavy swig.
My date was halfway through a slice. Eyeing me, he finished chewing and then swallowed.
"Are you cold?" Without waiting for an answer, he tossed the remainder of his slice down on top of the box and retrieved the second blanket from where he'd dumped it.
"No." I said.
He wrapped the blanket around my shoulders anyway.
"Okay, thanks." I pulled it tight around me.
He sat back. "You're not eating your pizza."
"Maybe later."
He picked up the slice and pushed it toward my mouth. "Come on. Take it."
"No," I replied in a belligerent tone.
Keagan pushed it closer with a smile and a gleam in his eye. "Doesn't the wittle baby wanna eat? Open up the itty bitty tunnel and let the choo choo train come in."
"Stop that, silly." I pushed it away. "You'll make me laugh then I'll choke on it."
"You have to eat. We don't want you getting anorexic." His serious tone made me laugh.
"No chance of that," I scoffed.
"You're too thin."
"Thanks so much," I said. "You're just full of compliments tonight. First I look 'terrible' now I'm 'too thin'."
"You know you're gorgeous," he said softly. "The most beautiful girl in school."
"Now you're buttering me up." I slapped the pizza slice out of his hand so hard it landed in the sand. "Don't lay on the flowery stuff so thick. It just makes me mad."
His brows converged into a vee and he sat back on his heels. "I'm not buttering you up. Jeese. I'm trying to give you a compliment."
"An insincere one," I accused. "I already told you I'd sleep with you. You don't have to lie to me to get in my panties."
Except that we were on the beach we would've heard crickets in the silence that followed my crass statement.
"Sorry," I said after a few long seconds. "I didn't mean to be so bitchy. It's been a difficult night."
"Yeah," he acknowledged with a nod. "But I wasn't being insincere. I do think you're gorgeous."
"Right." Sarcasm dripped from my response like the sweat drops off the soda can.
"You shoulda won the Miss Savannah contest last year," he said.
"Now you're just being mean,"
I shouted.
"No I'm not."
"I'll have you know I didn't want to enter that stupid contest. My grandmother wanted me to because of the scholarship the winner got."
"What are you so mad about? I said you shoulda won. I'm not the only one who thinks you're beautiful. You're a cheerleader. They don't choose ugly girls for the squad."
"I didn't say I was ugly. But I'm on the squad because I'm really good at being enthusiastic and perky."
Keagan's gaze drifted down to my boobs. "You are perky."
"Hey," I said wrapping the blanket across my chest. "I thought we were in a lewd-comment-free zone tonight."
"Sorry. Habits die hard," he said, shrugging. "But my saying you're gorgeous wasn't lewd. Why can't you take a compliment about your looks?"
"Okay. Okay." I rolled my eyes. "I'm gorgeous. I should win a dozen beauty contests. All right? Can we go on to another topic?"
"Okay," he said. "Eat some pizza."
"Aghhhhhhhhhhhhh," I growled. After grabbing another slice out of the box, I pushed half of it in my mouth and bit down taking a huge chunk between my teeth.
While chewing I said, "Satisfied?" And it sounded more like "shartifish."
"Gorgeous," he said with a laugh.
I swallowed hard, pushing the glop halfway down my throat. A swig of soda pushed it the rest of the way. "I'm gorgeous and I have excellent table manners."
"But not so great beach blanket manners."
We both laughed at that.
After eating in silence for a few minutes, I managed to get through the rest of my one slice as Keagan finished off a second.
"Billy and Quinn are going to tell Liam about us even if my parents don't, you know," he said.
"They already did. Liam texted me."
"Crap."
"Don't tell me you're sorry," I said. "You insisted I tell your parents."
"I know. I guess I didn't think things through about how this would affect you. I just thought about myself." His eyes locked with mine.
The shadows of the night made it impossible to see too deeply into their depths. How I wished I could. What was he feeling? Sheesh —What was I feeling? Too much for sure. I'd crossed a line. No turning back now, Tara.
"Don't worry about it," I whispered. "I asked you out remember?"
Keagan didn't answer. Turning his gaze out to the ocean, he shivered.
I held one side of the blanket in invitation. "You're cold. Why don't you get under here? The dog hair will warm you up."
With a nod, Keagan moved to my side. We fumbled with the fabric until we were huddled together, both wearing it like a shawl. Arm-to-arm, hip-to-hip, and with our heads close together, the faint scent of shampoo and cologne invaded my senses. We were wrapped in an intimacy that made my breath hitch. I struggled to keep to a smooth in-and-out pattern so he wouldn't notice my reaction to his nearness.
Our hands—his left and my right—rested side-by-side on the blanket and I longed to twine my fingers with his. What would happen if I reached over and just ran an index finger over his? What if I let my finger drift up his arm? What if I brought my touch to his face?
"This is a strange night," Keagan said, breaking into my thoughts. "Starting with my parents. That was just surreal."
"I've known you and Liam for so many years and I've always wanted to know something. Why do your parents act the way they do towards you?"
Keagan stared down into his lap.
The longer the time between my question and an answer, the more uncomfortable I became. Obviously, the topic hurt him. "You don't have to—" I started.
"They hate me," he blurted out. "They hate me because...I killed my sister."
"What? No," I objected. Keagan might have done a lot of bad things but they'd been in the category of naughty. I knew he couldn't be so evil. "I don't believe you did any such thing."
"It's true."
"Prove it to me. What happened?" I demanded.
"My mother was six months pregnant..." He struggled out the words and choked on the last one.
I touched his hand now, tangling my fingers with his until he could continue.
"The baby was a girl. They knew because of one of those ultrasound tests." The words were tumbling out now so fast they were like a runaway train. "One day I left a toy truck on the stairs and mom fell over it. She went into premature labor and the baby died."
The train crashed and left silence.
"How old were you?" I asked after a few moments. "You must've been young."
"Four," he said.
"What? Then it definitely wasn't your fault." I squeezed his hand.
"Yes it was. They'd told me before to pick up my toys and I didn't do it."
"No." I reached up with my other hand to cup his face with my palm. Staring into his eyes, I tried to convince him. The blanket fell away with my movement and I didn't care. "Anyway, how do you know it wasn't Liam who left the truck? He was four too. I bet you two shared the toys."
"I never thought...They just always said it was me."
"Kids that young leave stuff around the house. You weren't to blame and neither was Liam. It was just an accident. You shouldn't blame yourself for that."
"Well you blame yourself for your parents. I've heard you say so. But you never say why."
My hand dropped from his face. "That's different. I just...I just..." I tried to turn away from him but Keagan took me by the shoulders.
"What?" he asked.
"I should have kept them from going out the night of the accident and I didn't," I finally admitted.
"You're more ridiculous than me." He gave me a little shake. "How could you know something would happen that night?"
"What if I did know?"
"You mean like a premonition?" With a touch to my chin, he brought my face around and our eyes met. "That's not possible."
"But assume I did have a vision. Assume I saw what was going to happen."
"You still wouldn't be to blame. You were a kid. What were you? Five? You couldn't stop them."
I tried to look down but the lock he had on my eyes wouldn't let go.
"I'm not buying that you were to blame," he whispered. "You're too compassionate and loving. You would never let someone you loved get hurt if you could stop it."
"I told them. But they didn't believe me. Then the accident happened."
"See. I was right," he said. "You told them about your vision. You did what you could. You were too young."
"A year older than you when your mom had her accident."
He seemed to consider this for a few seconds as the ocean lapped one, two, three, four times against the shore.
"We were both too young to be to blame," he finally pronounced. Keagan took my face between his palms and planted a light kiss on my lips. That kiss was like an absolution. A kiss that was a balm that seemed to, if not heal, at least start a scab over the wound of my guilt.
"Neither of us has anything to feel guilty about," he insisted. "I won't feel guilty any more if you won't. Agreed?"
"Agreed," I replied.
He smiled and then leaned in for another quick kiss. But this time when our lips touched, mine moved under his. Instead of pulling quickly away as before, his lips lingered, soft and tentative. Leaning up and forward, I moved onto his lap. His arms wrapped around me, clutching me to him as I deepened the kiss, putting my own arms around his neck. One hand went to his nape while the other sifted through his hair. Then our mouths were moving, each on the others', searching and devouring. The kiss included a generous amount of tongue. So much tongue I couldn't tell were his ended and mine began.
This kiss wasn't absolution. This kiss was sin. But right now I didn't care. I gloried in it. No more Goody for me.
Keagan was the first one to pull away, pushing me back. "Stop," he said, lifting me off his body and placing me back on the blanket. "If we don't stop now, I won't be able to."
"I don't understand. Did I do something wrong?" My question couldn't h
ide my burgeoning humiliation.
"Jeese, no. You did everything right." He framed my face with his hands, caressing my cheekbone with his thumb. "Too right. It's getting dangerous. You must know what I mean."
"But I thought that was what you wanted?"
"Yeah. Me too," he mumbled, releasing me and sitting back. "But it's going too fast. Too fast for you. This is your first time, right?"
"But I want you to do it," I said and was surprised to realize I meant what I'd said.
My mind raced. How could I want to have sex with Keagan but not with Liam? Liam was the brother I was in love with, wasn't he? I was just doing this for him, wasn't I?
"Okay, but let's take it slow." Keagan reached for our fallen blanket/shawl. "Let's just lie here a while and talk."
As he wrapped us in the blanket, his arm went around my shoulder. A little scooching and we were prone, me with my cheek against his chest and the sound of his heart in my ear. He began rambling on about his new science teacher and how his idea of teaching was a surprise pop quiz every day.
"Not quite a surprise," Keagan joked and the rumble of his laugh vibrated against my face, making me want to kiss his chest. I restrained myself. "My math teacher is even more lame," he said. "He has to make everything into a story problem. Sometimes I'd like x just to be an x without representing the quantity of farm animals or tinker toys. What the hell is a tinker toy anyway? Couldn't he at least choose something cool like iPads or cars?"
The next thing I knew, my eyes were fluttering open. I had only a second to realize I'd just woken from sleep, when a vision hit me with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. An old man, gray and wrinkled but with a full head of hair, was walking next to an old woman in a park under bright sunshine. He smiled down at his companion, but then his smile turned to a grimace and he reached up a hand to his chest. He was having a heart attack. The woman cried out when he fell to one knee. As he clutched at the fabric of his shirt, I saw the tattoo around his wrist.
Keagan. I was seeing a new death for Keagan.
I came to myself still lying against his chest, with one hand to my head.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Removing my hand, I glanced up and saw him staring down at me with worried eyes. "Yes. It's just a headache," I answered.
Paranormal Realities Box Set Page 30
