“I can and I will,” he answered unapologetically. I don’t know why I bothered to tell him otherwise. Keiran would always do what he wanted but he wasn’t God, no matter how much he pretended to be.

“I won’t let you.”

“You can’t stop me. Do you even really want to or are you trying to save face?”

“I – I don’t know.” It was the truth. I really didn’t know.

“Listen. Trevor may be there. Don’t approach him and don’t provoke him. If he gets near you then you call me. Immediately. Do you understand?”

“Keiran, he can’t come within a thousand feet of me. I will be fine.”

“Do you need me to repeat myself again?” The look in his eyes told me to drop, which I did reluctantly. His body tensed when he mentioned Trevor, which was weird for someone who claimed not to care.

“Are we ever going to talk about it?” I looked up at him from my place on his chest but his eyes were closed. A deep frown line marred his features.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“How can you say that?” I stated at him incredulously. “What if I get pregnant?” Being pregnant at my age would be the biggest threat to my future but being pregnant with Keiran’s baby would be the biggest threat to my sanity.

“No more questions. Get dressed,” he said, lifting from the bed and displaying his nakedness shamelessly.  It took everything in me not to drool, watching his butt flex as he pulled on his discarded jeans.

“Why aren’t you coming to the fair?”

“Not my thing.”

“Oh…well…”

“What?”

How do you tell they guy who is supposed to be your enemy that you wanted to do all the corny things couples usually do like win prizes for each other and ride the Ferris wheel, holding hands without sounding like a lunatic? I wasn’t supposed to want these things with him. We were two people who hated each other and got lost in each other’s bodies. He’d said he didn’t hate me anymore but I knew that wasn’t true. He still carried hate in his eyes for me but it was clouded by lust.

“Nothing,” I answered dejectedly.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The sound of children’s laughter and the smell of fried food greeted me as we entered the fair. It was a fairly warm, clear night. We ended up arriving over an hour late because Pepé decided to hide Willow’s keys to keep her from leaving. It took us a while to find them and in the end we brought him along with us even though I wasn’t too sure pets were allowed.

“First things first. I need a smoked turkey leg and funnel cake in that order and you bitches better get your own cause I’m not sharing.” Sheldon announced. The girl could really put it away.

We headed for the nearest food stand, weaving our way through the thick crowd. “So Lake, does your aunt know about Keiran?” Willow asked. I wasn’t expecting her to ask me that considering she shied away from questioning our “relationship”.

“Uh, somewhat. He came over once and met her but she doesn’t know anything. I feel guilty actually. She trusts me to keep my head but I’ve been keeping secrets.”

“Yeah and so has every other teenager to ever live. She knows what it was like to be eighteen.”

“Yeah, but –”

“Talk to her when she gets home. Lay it all out on the table. She still has no idea the house was broken into?” Sheldon asked.

“No. I didn’t want to ruin her tour by stressing her out. I’m worried she may not trust me again.”

“Disappointing parents is a part of the circle of life. You could have done much worse, if you ask me.”

“It’s just new territory. With sex in the equation, I’m no longer sure of the rules and boundaries. The law says I’m of legal age but the circumstances make everything skewed.”

“And isn’t it ironic that the very person who kept your love life non-existent now consumes it?” Willow let out a wry chuckle before purchasing a turkey leg and soda.

We grabbed our food and quickly found seats to eat. “Is Keenan talking to you yet?” I asked Sheldon.

“No. Strangely enough I haven’t heard from him this afternoon. I think he mentioned his dad coming home earlier this morning.”

“What does his dad do that keeps him away all the time?”

“He does construction work for his company and takes jobs all over the country for the right price, but I think it has more to do with him wanting to be away. I’ve been with Keenan for over two years and have only seen him a handful of times. He makes sure Keiran and Keenan are taken care of but mostly he stays away. I know it hurts Keenan but he ignores it. I actually heard that John used to be a very outgoing man long ago but after Keenan’s mother ran off, he shut down.”

“But there has to be more. Keiran doesn’t care for his uncle and I don’t think it is just because he is an absentee parent.”

“You may be right but neither of them are willing to talk. Keenan doesn’t seem to know much anyway.”

“But Keiran does. I know he does.”

“And his parents are dead, right?” She shrugged and bit into her turkey. “You don’t think so?”

“There was never any proof. They both just vanished.”

“Vanished?” Willow asked. I thought about the articles Jesse found a couple of days ago. He was still searching for any trace of his father with no luck so far.

“Yeah. Keenan once told me that Keiran’s father was disowned by their family and ran off years ago. He’s probably never even met Keiran if his mother was a one-night stand. He’s been with his uncle for years with no sign of his father.”

A disturbing thought popped into my head when she’d said that last part. “Wait, so he’d just moved here when I came to Six Forks?”

“Yeah, about three or four months before, I think.”

“Talk about Lifetime.”

“I wish I could get Keiran to tell me about his past. I feel like it has everything to do with why he is this way.”

“You ever think he might just have a really dominant personality?” Sheldon asked.

“You mean he’s an asshole?” Willow asked. “People’s parents split all the time. Your parents are gone and you’re just fine.”

I ignored the pain I felt at the reminder that my parents were gone and I had no idea why. Besides…was I really okay?

“Guys, he told me he was a bad person because he did bad things. That people made him do bad things. He never once mentioned his mother but he did tell me she was a prostitute and drug addict.

“So what are you thinking?” Willow asked.

“I don’t know for sure but what if – what if he wasn’t with his mother?”

“Where else would he have been?” Sheldon asked.

“Maybe her family took care of him until they couldn’t anymore? People are plural. Wherever he was for eight years his mother wasn’t the only person around him and whatever bad things they made him do followed him. It still follows him and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to help him.”

“You mean fix him?” Sheldon asked.

“I think what you are doing is what works. He seems a lot less…broody…these days. Maybe that’s enough.” Willow offered.

“Besides, he may not like the idea of you trying to fix him. He could take it the wrong way.”

“Guys, he told me I made him have nightmares! What am I supposed to do?” Sheldon coughed and spit out soda at my outburst.

“Wow,” she stated still coughing.

“That’s romantic,” Willow finished sarcastically.

“Nightmares of what?” Sheldon asked once her coughing fit was over. I ran down everything he told me last night and when I finished they looked more than a little disturbed and it wasn’t even a complete story.

“Do you think Dash and Keenan know?”

“Dash, maybe. Keenan, no.” Sheldon answered.

“Why Dash and not Keenan?”

“Because he has Dash’s back but he protects Keenan. Keenan looks up to him. He cares more than he lets on so he won’t want to taint that. ”

“I know what you are thinking Lake, but Dash won’t say a word. He’s loyal to a fault.” Willow stated.