Page 177 of The Keeper

Xavier

Inever used to like surprises. I still don’t if I’m being honest. They’re notorious for catching a person off guard and wreaking havoc. I always preferred to control situations. And then let my impulsiveness have its way.

Now?

Oh, I’m still as impulsive as fuck. That won’t ever change.

And the surprise thing?

If someone told me I’d be celebrating the 4th of July (of all things) with my best mates and my American girlfriend at a gorgeous lakeside house in New York I would have laughed my arse off.

SURPRISE. Here I am.

In fact, once this cookout is over, I plan to grab the stunning redhead over by the water in the black two piece bathing suit and emerald green cover-up and ravage her body until she gasps my name. And then do it again.

But first, hamburgers.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Maxim derided Cade, watching over him like a hawk.

“I am a master griller, thank you very much,” Cade pouted. “It’s just meat patties, for fuck’s sake. And what does this even have to do with American independence?”

I grabbed an ice cube from the cooler and threw it at my friend. “Did you miss that day in school, Gallagher? Something about Thomas Jefferson and a document and some bloke named Hancock moaning about there not being any food.”

“Stop talking bollocks, Maddox,” he shouted with a smile.

“Harden the fuck up, Cade,” I retorted, lobbing another ice cube at him. It ricocheted off his arm and hit Bennet in the head.

“Would the two of you knock it off,” Bennet groused from his lounger. “I’m trying to read.”

Cade and I shared a glance. I reached for a plastic cup and filled it with ice and water. Cade ambled over to our prim and proper friend, blocking the sun as best he could with his tall, muscular frame.

“Gallagher, you’re in the way,” Bennet huffed.

“That’s the point, genius.”

I crept up behind the chair and waited for Cade’s signal. I also pleaded silently with Hannah not to say anything. She’d been sitting in the lounger next to Bennet, observing what we were up to. She grinned and shook her blonde head.

“I think the lord of the manor got too much sun. He needs to cool off,” Cade suggested.

And with those words, I dumped the cup of ice and water on Bennet’s head and hoped to Christ he wouldn’t flip out too much. Forgiveness instead of permission and all that.

“Maddox,” he roared, sitting up in the sharp way people do when they’re doused in something cold.

He whipped his head around and glared at me. I shrugged and feigned innocence.

“This has your name written all over it,” he grumbled.

“Maddox, one. Logan, nil,” Cade exclaimed.

Hannah reached over and stroked her boyfriend’s leg, unable to hold in her laughter. The commotion caused Noah and Tre to stop throwing around the football and stare.

Yeah, that’s right. Noah and Tre. Who’s not a jealous boyfriend anymore?

Tracey, Victoria, and Killian wandered over from where they’d been sitting by the water.

“I can’t leave you boys alone for two minutes,” Victoria scolded, looking from me to Cade. She perched her sunglasses on her head, resting her dark green gaze on me.

No matter how many times I looked at her, I always had the same reaction. Her beauty weakens me. It rocks me to my core and steals my breath.

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