Swiping her finger across the screen, she answered. “Hello?”

  “God, Keira,” she breathed out, relieved. “Ian and I have been trying to get ahold of you. Where are you?” The worry in Molly’s voice was clear. She could also hear Ian rattling off a string of questions in the background about if Keira was okay.

  “I’m fine, and I had Alex come and get me. I’m home.”

  “Keira.” Molly’s voice dropped to a soft volume. “Are you okay?”

  The tears started again, and dammit, Molly heard the catch in her voice.

  “I am so sorry, Keira.”

  “Everyone knows already, don’t they?”

  Molly’s deep exhale answered her question. “You know BMA is full of nosy, catty bitches.”

  “Lindy is right, Molly. I was nothing but a shiny new toy he could use.” Keira hadn’t told Molly yet about losing her virginity to Reese, but by the sharp inhalation over the line, she read between the lines.

  “Have you talked to Reese?”

  Keira laid back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. “Not yet. I don’t know what to say. I’m afraid he won’t deny it, and I’ll feel and look like an idiot.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  Keira laughed, but it was forced and hardly humorous. “And Alex now knows something obviously went down and is pissed. Wanted to go to the school and kick Reese’s ass.” Keira closed her eyes, feeling so damn tired. “It’s a huge mess.”

  “He went crazy, Keira.” Molly’s words were low through the receiver.

  “I bet he did, getting caught and all that.” She opened her eyes and sat up. She’d just get it done and over with concerning Reese, talk to him, let him know she was fine, that this didn’t bother her. It would be the biggest lie of her life, but she could put a poker face on.

  Or try.

  “No, Keira. Like he went crazy.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Reese went full-on psychotic when he found out you saw the pictures and left. Like, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look so… panicked.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe he was hoping to keep me as his side piece.” How stupid she had been to allow herself to fall in love with him.

  “He peeled out in his truck like five minutes ago.”

  Keira shook her head, even though no one saw her. “He was upset that he was caught.”

  “I don’t know, Keira. The way he was acting was damn near frightening. His expression… God, Keira. It was scary as hell. He was cursing and screaming, but I couldn’t really make out what he said.”

  It didn’t matter in the end. He could be pissed. He could be whatever he wanted. She was the one who had to deal with herself and how she felt.

  After she got off the phone, she tossed it aside. Dammit, why did she have to love him?

  Her phone started buzzing again, but she let it go to voicemail. Minutes later, the sound of tires squealing right outside had her getting off the bed and pulling the curtains aside to look down into the driveway.

  Oh God.

  Reese slammed his truck into park, was out of the vehicle in a matter of seconds, and stormed toward the entrance of her house.

  “Keira!” he shouted her name over and over again, and before he disappeared from her view, he stopped and looked up at her window.

  The anguish on his face was clear, and the stupid, foolishly in love part of her just wanted to go to him, to feel him. But she held her place, refusing to be weak. They’d talk, she’d hear what he had to say, but she wouldn’t let sweet words, lies, or anything else cloud her judgment ever again.

  Reese whipped his head toward the front door, and a moment later, she heard Alex’s muffled, deep voice as he talked to Reese. She saw Alex step closer, his hands shoved in the front pockets of his jeans. He didn’t know Reese, but she couldn’t imagine he was just asking Reese who the hell he was and what he wanted.

  And then as Reese started talking with animation, his hands moving between him and where she was upstairs, Keira saw the anger start to morph Alex’s face. He now knew Reese was the cause of why she’d been upset.

  Shit.

  Before she could tear herself away from the window and go down there to stop what was about to inevitably happen, Alex reared his arm back and slammed his fist into the side of Reese’s face. Reese stumbled back, clearly blindsided by the punch, but was up on his feet seconds later. Even from where she stood two stories up, she saw the blood start to trickle out his nose.

  Reese wiped it away with the back of his hand and turned his head to spit out a mouthful of blood. He held up his hands, a clear act of surrender, but the anger on Alex’s face was like lightning across the sky, getting stronger by the second.

  He charged forward and punched Reese again and again, sending him to the ground. Alex was on top of him seconds later and kept hitting him like a madman. Everything was happening so fast, yet it felt like it transpired in slow motion. What shocked her most was that Reese refused to defend himself.

  Keira rushed down the stairs and out the front door. As soon as she was outside, she could hear the rage-filled words Alex spoke. They were vile and harsh and like nothing she’d ever heard her brother say.

  “I don’t know what the fuck you did, asshole,” Alex seethed out, “but my little sister has never looked so brokenhearted.” He punched Reese again.

  “Alex. Stop, please. You’re going to kill him!” she screamed over and over again, but her brother was like a machine. And Reese refused to fight back and defend himself. He just took blow after blow from her brother.

  She ran up to Alex and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him back. But he was built just as solidly as Reese, and it was like moving a mountain.

  In the next second, she found herself sprawled on her ass several feet away. The air left her, and her hands burned from where they’d scraped against the pavement. For a moment, she didn’t know what happened, but then she realized her mistake. She shouldn’t have gone to Alex when he was clearly that upset, when he was in a blind rage. He must have pushed her back on instinct without thinking.

  The sound of Alex grunting in pain had her looking over at the guys and watching Reese slam his fist into her brother’s gut.

  “You can hit me all you want, but when you put your hands on my girl, then me and you have some real fucking problems.”

  Alex picked himself up off the ground and rubbed his jaw, and then the two men stared at each other for long moments, the intensity thick enough she felt it.

  And then Alex was by her side a second later, helping her off the ground and checking for any injuries. His expression was remorseful. “Keira, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push you back like that. I was just so angry and didn’t even realize what I’d done until after the fact.” He stared into my eyes. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, Alex.” She looked over his shoulder and saw Reese watching her with his emotions so raw and tangible she couldn’t stop the flow of tears. His nose and mouth were bloody, he held his side as if in pain, and a bruise was starting to form on his cheek.

  God, Alex had beaten the shit out of him.

  “Keira.” Reese’s voice was strained, and he cleared it before talking again. “If you’ll just talk to me, let me explain.”

  “There isn’t anything to talk about, asshole. I may not know what you did, but you hurt my sister, and that makes you my problem,” Alex growled.

  Reese closed his eyes and grimaced. “Please, Keira. Just give me five minutes. I can clear the air about what you think happened.”

  She knew this needed to be resolved now. Pulling away from Alex, she looked up at her brother. “I’ll be okay. I need to do this, and I’d like some privacy.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not leaving you alone with him.” He cut a nasty glare at Reese before looking at her again.

  “Alex, I’ll be fine. Just give me a few minutes alone, okay?”

  It took her brother several moments to agree, and when he went back in the house, she felt the weight of the awkwardness hanging in the air.

  And this was where the moment of truth spilled forth. And she feared it would break her all over again.

  31

  Reese’s expression grew more torn the longer he stood there and stared at her. “Keira….” He didn’t say anything else, maybe trying to decide what he was going to say. She stood there and let him take his time.

  She wanted this resolved so she could start to move on if need be.

  “I know what you think you saw me doing in those pictures, but I swear it isn’t what they seem.” He took another step, and she shook her head, causing him to stop advancing.

  His nostrils flared, and he ground his teeth before continuing. “I know it looked like I fucked up, holding that girl, maybe even kissing her…” He shook his head, the sound of his teeth gnashing together seeming loud around them. “But I swear on everything, Keira, I did not do any of that shit.” He exhaled roughly. “She was drunk, lost her footing. I reached out before she crashed into me. Someone snapped the pictures, and how it looks sure as shit isn’t what went down.”

  Keira dropped her gaze to the ground and closed her eyes. He sounded so sincere, and she couldn’t help but believe him. How could she not when he’d made her feel so good every time she was with him, when he’d said things she never envisioned someone would say to her?

  “Baby, you have to believe me.” He sounded closer, and she lifted her head and looked at him. His emotions were out in the open, cut like glass, severe and raw.

  She thought about what was going on, what the plans were… for the future. Maybe this was the wakeup call she needed, a clean break before she started college, before she got too deep with Reese nothing else made sense.

  “Reese, what are we doing?” she whispered, seeing the way confusion filtered across his face, how his eyebrows pulled down to intensify the look.

  “What are you talking about? I know what we’re doing, and I thought you did too. I felt it from you, Keira.” He moved closer, and she didn’t retreat. “You believe me. I can see in your eyes that you know I’d never do anything to hurt you. I’d never fucking risk it.”

  “Reese, have you thought about what will happen when we graduate and I go to college?”

  A hard look crossed his face.

  She looked in his face, saw the sincerity, heard it in his voice. She believed him about the pictures, how they weren’t what she thought. That was easy. What wasn’t so easy was the reality that this would have never worked. There would have been someone or something that got in their way, shoved them apart. They were so different, and it wasn’t even about money or social status. It was about her plans for the future, what Reese wanted to do with his life.

  It was so much more than what they were doing now.

  But she decided to put him out of his misery about one problem before moving fully onto the next. “I believe you, Reese. I don’t think you would do anything to hurt me.” The relief she saw wash across his face had her heart aching.

  “Good, because I’d rather cut off my own arm than ever hurt you.” He took another step closer.

  Her chest clenched tighter, harder. Her heart hurt even more. He stopped right in front of her but didn’t make a move to touch her. She didn’t think she could have handled it if he touched her, not with her tremulous emotions. She would have said forget the reality of their situation. She would have fallen into his arms and begged him to be with her.

  “God, the thought that I almost lost you, that you wouldn’t be in my life….” He shook his head, that anguish in his expression back full force, as if the very thought of not being with her was too much to even think about. “I can’t explain why people do the things they do, why they want to start shit and rumors, destroy something good in people's lives, but fuck them. They don’t know what we have. They don’t know how I feel about you.”

  She couldn’t help it. She started crying.

  “Keira, baby, I swear that everything will be okay. We are stronger than this, than everyone who wants to ruin us because they don’t think we should be together, because they want to fuck up and ruin what we have.”

  She shook her head slowly. “Reese, this is bigger than the pictures or rumors or speculation.” She stared into his eyes. “This is about us and what we are… what we would be to each at the end of it all.”

  “I don’t understand.” His voice was strained.

  After exhaling roughly, she felt that weariness settle in. She didn't want to end things. She loved him. But it had taken this moment to understand they really couldn’t be together. They had two separate lives. She was going in one direction, and although they’d never talked about those kinds of plans, she knew he was going in another. She had college after graduation. She had that to focus on. If this one thing could break her so much, how was that healthy? For either of them?

  “I just need some time to think, to figure out what I’m doing.”

  His stare was void of any kind of emotion, like he was staring right through her.

  “Maybe all this was a sign or something.” She sighed.

  He still had yet to say anything else, and she felt the weight of his silence surround her.

  The truth was, she didn’t want time, didn’t want any space between them, but all this drama made her realize they didn’t really know each other.

  You just need to go to him, embrace him, and have him tell you everything will be okay. Yes, that was exactly what she needed to do, because her thoughts were wild from her emotions, and she couldn’t possibly be thinking clearly. Things will be good, right?

  Before she could make a move, he was speaking.

  “You need time to think…” He let those words hang between them before he looked away, and for several long, agonizing seconds, he didn’t move. When he faced her again, he said, “You believe me, but need time, and you think this may be a sign?”

  She exhaled roughly and nodded, but it was weak at best.

  “So that basically means you’re just giving up on us?”

  Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. Everything was unraveling right before her eyes, and it was like someone had stolen her voice.

  “You’re giving up on us?” he asked again, his voice stronger, his expression hard as anger started morphing his features.

  “No, that’s not what I’m doing. I’m just trying to be realistic.”

  His chest rose and fell harshly. “I care about you, I...” He stopped before he finished, closed his eyes, and she watched him take a deep breath in. He opened his eyes and she saw… nothing. No emotion. “I don’t want to hurt you or stop you from thinking things through. I’m a patient guy. I have all the fucking time in the world when it comes to you.” He cleared his throat. “The truth is, I don’t deserve you. I never did. But I was a lucky bastard that you became mine. This is just the way I figured—feared—things would go. I knew you’d realize I was trash. I was just waiting for that other shoe to drop.”

  “Reese—” Before she could get any other words out, she found herself in his arms, his lips on hers. This kiss felt like… closure.

  Then he was gone, moving away from her, getting in his truck, and leaving.

  Her knees threatened to buckle as she watched him drive off.

  She felt Alex move up behind her, felt his hands on her shoulders, giving her the silent support she needed. She wanted to bring Reese back, to tell him he wasn’t trash, that he deserved her as much as she deserved him. She wanted to tell him she’d never wanted anyone or anything more than him.

  She wanted to tell Reese she was in love with him.

  But instead, she turned around, gripped onto her brother, and cried into his chest.

  32

  The last weeks of school for seniors had passed quickly, and during that time, Keira hadn’t seen much of Reese. The times they did cross paths, he never looked at her or spoke, despite her wanting him to pull her in and embrace her every single time.

  When she did attempt to speak with him, because she didn’t want things to be this way, he was distracted, flippant even.

  It was her fault he felt the need to give her “space.” He was taking it literally, as in no contact.

  Graduation had come and gone, yet she didn’t feel any kind of excitement with the prospect of starting a new chapter of her life. Reese hadn’t even walked for his diploma, even though she knew he’d had honors.

  The pain she felt at the thought of him not being there, of him not accepting such a great accomplishment all because of her, had her regretting so many things. She wanted to go to him, to tell him the things that seemed bottled up inside her, that she’d made a mistake. Time wasn’t making things easier. In fact, it was so much harder.

  He consumed her thoughts, night and day, and all she wanted were his big, strong arms wrapped around her. She’d kept the majority of her feelings to herself, only speaking with Molly and Ian about a little of what she felt. It was too personal, too hard to say the things she felt out loud.

  She sat on her bed and stared out the window. She couldn't see much aside from the clouds, but it didn’t matter what her focal point was. All she thought about was Reese.

  “Keira, you aren’t even listening to me.”

  Keira looked to her side. Molly had come over to talk about classes she’d be taking when she started school. But Keira hadn’t been able to focus on anything her best friend said.

  “I know you’re thinking about him,” Molly said softly. “You’re always thinking about him.”

  She exhaled. It was the truth.

  “Why don’t you just go talk to him?”

  She slowly shook her head. “He’s avoiding me. He’s giving me time like I stupidly asked for.”

  Molly was silent for a second before saying, “Why didn’t you tell me you’re in love with him?”

  Keira closed her eyes and shifted so she was now on her back. “That obvious, huh?”

  Molly snorted. “It’s been obvious since day one, girl.”