Page 10 of Coastal Runaway

I guess she has a type.

“I already hate him.” I admitted.

“We all hate him. But Keegs is stubborn and does what she wants.”

Aiden thought I was acting protective. He saw me as another brother figure to his sisters, which was true for Maeve and Ryleigh, but he didn't know that Keegan was different. I didn't want someone touching what was once mine.

Even if it was for one night.

I kept staring at her and the Ken doll until Aiden started laughing next to me.

“Dude, you look like someone just pissed in your cheerios.” He said, nudging me with his shoulder, “so, what’s up with that? Are you going to try to talk to her?”

“I doubt she’ll talk to me.”

“Oh got it, so you two are just going to just fight until one of you burns the house down.”

I looked him in the eyes, arching a brow with a devious smile, as I asked, “where are the matches?”

four

Luke

As the party went on I tried to forget about the bombshell that was Keegan Kelly. From where I sat, she floated around my periphery like the popular socialite that she had become. Her change was startling; gone was the girl who hid herself in a crowd with loose sweats and in her place was a woman who commanded the room.

I sipped on my beer, just watching. Nolan wasn’t joking when he told me that she had a personality transplant as soon as she moved here. It’s like she turned into one of the very girls that she despised in high school.

I never understood why she left. I knew that Keegan was a runner but I never understood why she never came to her senses and called me.

What happened in the twenty minutes that I was getting her coffee?

She threw that all away. She threw you away.

Frustrated, I stood. Being around her was dangerous. I knew that I should have hated her. She took off without an explanation and without caring enough about me to say goodbye. I knew that she didn’t care enough to stick around, but my heart still ached for the girl who once held it. I wanted to protect myself. I had to avoid getting drunk on her laugh or her sarcasm when she was in the room.

I needed to take a walk, clear my head. I chugged my beer and went to search for a bathroom. I rounded a corner in the general direction that Nolan pointed. Just as I reached for the handle, the door opened, and I ran smack dab into the one person that I had been avoiding all night.

Out of habit, I said “Hey, Tig.”

The words were dry in my mouth.

God, how was she even more stunning now than she was three years ago?

She glanced up at me with fire in her eyes. I expected her to look away, but she didn't. Gone was the girl who got so nervous that she couldn’t look me in the eye when I smiled at her, and in her place was a woman who didn't take anyone’s bullshit. The little dork that I once knew was nowhere in sight; this was a different beast entirely. She looked at me with defiance… and something else.

Hatred.

Rolling her eyes, she bitterly spat, “Don’t call me that.”

When she shoulder-checked me to leave, I grabbed her elbow. I couldn’t stop myself from the traitorous way that my body reacted to her—she was like a magnet. I spun her until we were tucked against the wall. Furious, and eyes wide at the restraint, Keegan glared up at me. The music of the party continued faintly over the roaring that suddenly filled my ears.

“Are you ever going to tell me why you ran? What the fuck happened, Tig?” I demanded. She winced at the use of her nickname.

She scoffed, “Don’t act like you are so clueless. Stupid isn’t a good look on you.”

Her sarcasm pulled me in slightly closer, and I said, “Glad to see that your attitude survived your transformation.”

She rolled her eyes again, apparently her new favorite gesture these days, and sneered, “be careful, your jealousy is showing.”