Page 26 of Keep Me

“What are you doing out here?” he asks. I pick up the scent of something smoky on his clothes.

“Getting some air,” I reply, turning my back on him. “What areyoudoing out here? That’syourfamily.”

“Aye, but they don’t like me much. That’s the whole reason you’re here. Make them like you, and then they’ll like me.” He reaches into the small leather pouch tied around his waist and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. I screw up my nose and turn away from him, wrapping my arms around myself to keep warm in the cool fall air.

“Disgusting habit,” I mutter quietly as he lights up.

“Thanks for letting me know,” he replies. “Since your opinion does matter so much to me.”

I scoff, spinning back to face him. “How do you expect your family to like me when you clearly despise me so much?”

“Och, you’ll fit right in,” he replies with a sarcastic chuckle. “You’re selfish and entitled, just like them.”

“You are literally the rudest and most entitled person I have ever met!” I shriek.

“Well, when your family conspires against you to take your house, how kind and gracious would you be? What’s your excuse?”

“Ugh!” I stomp away from him, not getting far before my retort comes flying to the forefront of my mind, so I turn back his way. “You do realize that all you need to do to get your family off your back is take care of yourself, get your life together, and be a responsible adult? You don’t need me here at all.”

He chuckles around his cigarette, and I quickly look awayfrom that siren song of a smile. “It’s my fucking life. I can live it however I want. They have no rights tomyhouse or my privacy. But don’t worry. You won’t be here long, darling. I predict you won’t make it a month before you’re boarding a plane back to America.”

I take a slow step toward him. “Technically, it’s your family’s house, Killian. It’s not wrong of them to want to preserve it before you burn it to the ground. And second, I will make it the year because as much as I hope your family does get that house from you, I want the money they’re offering me more.” By the time I finish, we’re practically toe-to-toe, but I have to crane my neck to see his face.

We’re in the middle of a stare-off when I hear a set of footsteps on the veranda. I don’t pull away before Lachy spots us standing so close together.

“Uh-oh. What am I interrupting?” he asks with a charming smile.

“Nothing,” Killian mutters as he finishes his cigarette and stubs it into the ground with his shoe. Then he storms back up the stairs without another word, and I’m left alone with his younger brother.

“Don’t mind him,” Lachy says with a crooked smile. There are deep dimples on both sides of his cheeks, and I never truly understood the power of good dimples until he aimed that beaming grin in my direction.

“Oh, I don’t,” I reply, looking off into the distance. It’s nearly dusk. The sun has set, but there’s just enough light left in the sky to give the world a sepia filter. Light without the sun is eerie, like we are caught in between two days.

And maybe that’s what my life is right now. A mystic dusk. Not quite day and not yet night; just stuck in the middle. A yearlong dusk.

Once this whole thing is over, I’ll be free. No longer living in my parents’ shadows. I won’t need them anymore, and it’ll finallygive me the peace to just be happy.

“Everything all right?”

I’ve nearly forgotten Lachy was standing there when he interrupts me from my thoughts. I tear my gaze away from the misty glen in the distance and turn my attention to him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lie.

He scrutinizes me for a moment before he speaks. “Listen, I know this whole thing is just…a farce. But you’ll be around, part of the family, for the next twelve months. And I know you have your own reasons for doing it, but I just want you to know that you’re really helping him more than you think.”

“Helping him?” I ask, astounded.

“Yeah. It sounds strange, and I’m sure you think we’re terrible for lying to him, but there’s so much you don’t know about Killian. He needs this.”

I kick some gravel with the toe of my shoe. “It’s a bit elaborate if you ask me.”

Lachy laughs. “I know. But when I tell you we’ve tried everything, I mean it.”

“Is it really that big of a deal to you that he moves out?”

Lachy’s face falls. “It’s not about the house. Not to us. If Anna made it sound that way, it’s because Anna is pragmatic.”

I raise a brow as I take a step toward him. “Then, what’s it about?” I whisper.

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