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"This has nothing to do with her. This is between you and me."
"You think you'll ever be able to convince her of that? Because I know better. For the rest of her life, she's going to think that her falling in love with me is the reason you hate me."
"Jesus Christ," he mutters, clenching his jaw.
"If anyone deserves better, she does. Don't fucking do that to her. She's been through enough, man."
"I don't hate you. I'm not even fucking mad that you're with her, Coby. I'm pissed that you lied about it and were sneaking around behind my back. That's what's fucking me up. How the fuck am I supposed to trust you with her when I can't trust you at all?" He glares at me, his jaw set. "You say she's in love with you, but I don't hear you saying the same thing about her. How the fuck am I supposed to feel about that?"
I laugh abruptly. "Are you kidding me right now? I breathe for that girl, Keegan. If you'd had your goddamn eyes open, you would have noticed it two months ago. I haven't taken mine off her since she got here!"
"My eyes were open! You two acted like you couldn't stand each other."
"For you!" I shout. "We tried like hell to fight it for you. You think I don't know that it's fucked up that she's your baby sister? I know. She's supposed to be off-limits. I get that. But it doesn't fucking matter because I fell for her anyway. You might not see it because she's your sister, but it's impossible not to fall for her, man."
"You didn't try that fucking hard," he mutters wryly. "You lasted two months."
"Yeah, well, you meet the other half of your soul and see how long you last without her." I lean against a column on the porch, eyeing him.
"One year, three months, sixteen days."
I blink at him.
"That's how long I've lasted," he says quietly.
"Jesus Christ. You met someone?"
"The day after I moved here."
"Why aren't you with her?"
"Don't know where she is."
My brows furrow. "This town isn't that big, Keegan."
"No shit. But I bumped into her at the bar. I haven't seen her since." He blows out a breath. "Believe me, I've fucking looked. I've scoured this town for her. She isn't here."
"Jesus," I mutter. "That's fucked."
"Yep. But this?" He motions between us. "This is more fucked than that."
Maybe it is, but I can't let him break his sister's heart. I promised her I wouldn't let this end badly. I intend to keep that promise, even if I have to drag Keegan there, kicking and screaming. "So what we do then, Keegan? How do we fix it?"
"Maybe we don't," he says softly. "Maybe it just is what it is, Coby."
"I'm not willing to accept that, brother. For her sake, I won't."
"Yeah, well, you should have thought about that before you let me walk in on the two of you. That was fucked up."
I open my mouth to respond when a little Honda rounds the corner, damn near on two wheels. It bounces into the driveway, and then I see Gemma and Elodie through the windshield.
Fuck my life.
The car has barely stopped before Elodie flings the door open and jumps out.
"Jesus Christ," Keegan mutters under his breath as she comes running up the driveway toward us.
Gemma beeps the horn and then backs out, leaving us to hash this shit out on our own.
"You're supposed to be at home, princess," I murmur when Elodie stumbles to a stop midway between the two of us, wringing her hands together. The look of pure misery stamped across her face breaks my heart.
"Please don't fight," she pleads.
"We aren't fighting. We're talking."
"I haven't gotten around to hitting him yet," Keegan says.
Her bottom lip quivers, and I shoot him a death glare.
"It's my fault!" she cries to her brother. "I'm the one who made him promise not to tell you, Keegan. I was selfish and stupid and afraid of what would happen if you found out. But every day since I made him make that promise, he's tried to make sure you found out. You've come so close to walking in on us acting like a couple so many times because of him."
"You mean fucking," Keegan mutters. "I almost walked in on you fucking."
"No. I mean kissing or holding each other, or just flirting with each other or being stupid together," she says. "Every single day, he tried to get us caught. And the one freaking time he tried to tell me no, I didn't listen, and you caught us." Tears well in her eyes before spilling over. "I messed everything up, Keegan."
"Jesus." He hauls himself to his feet, stomping forward to pull her into his arms. "You didn't mess up anything, Elodie."
"Yes, I did. You hate him, and it's my fault."
