Heart's Reflection (5 page)

"Verbal..."
Mr. Ellsworth sputtered. "What abuse? Witness what?"

"Tara,"
Mrs. Ellsworth exclaimed. "I'm going to call your grandmother, young
lady."

"Go right
ahead. She knows what I'm doing." I tugged at Keagan's arm. "C'mon.
Let's go."

Outside, Keagan
abruptly stopped when we reached the end of the block.

I'd been so mad we
strode right past my car. I was just about to say something when he looked up
at the sky. A sound between a scream and a cry erupted. He turned to look at me
and another sound more like a laugh boomed out of him.

"What?"
I asked.

"Goody's not
so goody."

"Yeah. Maybe
now you can give that horrid nickname a rest."

"Not only the
nickname but no more lewd comments," he said but then ruined it with,
"for tonight at least."

"Nice."

He hooted to the
sky again. "My parents—"

"I know.
They'll probably take it out on you later. I'm sor—"

He grabbed my
shoulders and then stopped my word with a quick kiss.

"Don't say
you're sorry. I don't care what happens later. I loved it. I love y—I
loved what you said." Another booming laugh finally trickled to chuckles.
"Did you see their faces? I bet dad'll have to check his pants. He
probably shit so many bricks he can build that retaining wall in the backyard
he's always wanted."

I bit my bottom
lip to stop a laugh, not to mention the tingles that rippled along its surface
from the touch of his mouth on mine.

"Let's
go." Clutching my hand, he tugged me into a run the rest of the way to the
car.

"Where
to?" I asked.

"Anywhere."

Chapter Four

The local organic
burger joint with a vintage car motif seemed like a good idea—meat for
Keagan and vegetarian fare for me. But then I spotted Liam's football teammates
Billy and Quinn, known at school as BQ, seated at the counter. The two were
both engrossed in jamming food into their faces as fast as possible.

With them busy with their private
burger-eating contest, we just might avoid them seeing us,
I thought. Even
so, I couldn't help squirming. If BQ saw us, they'd spread the news all over
school. Liam didn't deserve that humiliation.

 
"Two tonight?" The hostess
asked.

Glancing at
Keagan, anticipating his affirmative answer, I found him staring at me instead.
"Would you rather leave?"

His question surprised
me. He'd insisted I declare our date to his parents and I'd have thought he'd
glory in Liam's embarrassment at the hands of BQ no matter my discomfort with
it.

"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.