Chapter Two
Kolton
“You’re home late,” my brother says as I walk through the door of my apartment, shedding my coat and suit jacket along the way. “Actually, now that I think about it, you’ve been getting home late a lot lately.” Keegan crosses his arms over his chest and quirks a single brow. “You have a secret nightlife I don’t know about?”
I set my briefcase on the coffee table and drop onto the couch. “Wasn’t aware that you staying here temporarily meant suddenly becoming my parent. Do I have a curfew, too, Dad? Am I grounded?”
“Ha-ha. Seriously, though, what gives?” He sits across from me on the other couch and props his shoe-clad feet on my table. I eye it in annoyance, and he laughs, removing his feet.
“How much longer are you going to be crashing here?”
“Not sure.” He shrugs. “Stop deflecting.”
I sigh, knowing he won’t give up. My brother knows me too damn well. A downfall to being in each other’s lives for almost twenty-five years—you get to see every part of the other person.
“There’s this woman…” I begin, barely getting the words out before Keegan hoots.
“Oh, shit! Seriously? Took you long enough to get back in the game.”
“Well, I’m not exactly back in.” I release a harsh breath. “More like sitting on the sidelines and begging to get put into the game.”
Keegan laughs. “She turned you down?”
“Five times.”
He scoffs. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“She told me I’m ugly,” I joke.
He cracks up. “That can’t be true. I happen to know you’re a sexy-ass specimen of a man.” He waggles his brows, and I throw my pillow at him. “But that’s not what I meant. What the hell is wrong with you that you asked out the same woman five times? You didn’t get the hint the first four times she said no?”
“I know… I know I should let her go, but you’re not there. You should see the way she looks at me when she doesn’t think I’m paying attention.”
I lean forward, my elbows landing on my knees, and scrub the sides of my face in frustration. “And the way she smiles when she doesn’t know I’m watching her. She has the most beautiful smile, but there’s something about it that’s just the tiniest bit sad…”
I close my eyes, replaying the way her heart-shaped lips purse when she tries to hold back her smile. “Something about her has me drawn to her, has me wanting to reach inside her and find out everything there is to know about her.” And then tonight, when we ran into each other, and I kept her from falling… When she looked at me and told me to kiss her? Fuck! I should’ve done it. I should’ve kissed her. But I didn’t because I want more from her, and I knew if I kissed her, she would regret it, and then I wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Jesus, man,” Keegan says. “I haven’t heard you sound this passionate about anything since…” He flinches, his words trailing off, not wanting to finish his thought.
“Since I killed Keith,” I finish for him, needing to say the words out loud.
“Will you stop that shit?” Keegan hisses. “You didn’t kill him. That piece of shit did.”
My family loves to baby me, but I refuse to take the coward’s way out. I can’t change what happened, but I won’t pretend my choices and actions weren’t what led to the moment that ended our brother’s life. The only way to truly move forward is to admit the truth and deal with it.
“We’ll agree to disagree.” I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s for the best that she’s not interested. I have a shit ton of baggage and—”
“Stop,” Keegan barks. “You want to blame yourself for Keith’s death? I can’t stop you, even if I don’t agree with it, but I refuse to sit here and listen to you be self-deprecating. You’ve punished yourself for long enough, and you deserve to be happy. So if you think she’ll make you happy, I say go for it. Keep at it until she agrees to go out with you.” He laughs and stands. “Or until she calls the police and gets a restraining order.”
I slowly raise my middle finger, silently expressing how I feel about his comment.
“No, thanks,” he quips. “You might be hot, but you’re still blood.”
“What can I get you?” a raven-haired woman standing on the other side of the bar asks.
“Umm…” I glance around, hoping to locate Sierra. “I was wondering if—”
Before I can finish my sentence, the woman present in all my thoughts and fantasies walks out from the back. She’s dressed in her work uniform: tight black dress slacks and a collared shirt with the restaurant's logo in the left corner. Her purse is strewn over her shoulder as she strolls in her black heels toward the door.