Page 44 of Guarded Secrets
She wore a bandage on her forehead over stitches because of an injury that should’ve never happened. It fucking pissed him off that she’d been attacked. He’d let her go home by herself and she’d been hurt. That wasn’t happening again.
He’d been an idiot, admitting he had a thing for her, putting his hands on her, kissing her, brief as it was, as if he had the right. He might as well pull his beating heart out of his chest and offer it to her because getting involved with her would end with the same result. He’d fuck it up, and he’d hurt her, and he’d still end up destroyed.
He was used to being left, but with Keeley, he wouldn’t survive when she did.
He held fast against the desire to touch her, to brush her hair off her forehead, to stroke her cheek until she woke and then catch her lips in a kiss that could only lead down the path to perdition.
He left the bedroom, closing the door quietly behind him.
Waiting for the coffee to brew, he pulled his phone from his pocket and found a couple dozen messages. Most were from Delaney demanding to know what was going on.
Since it was Sawyer he wanted to talk to, he texted his friend the basics of Keeley’s night with directions to pass the info to Delaney. He wanted to forestall her coming by to check on her friend for herself. He also asked Sawyer to come to the cottage so they could strategize.
He looked in the refrigerator and found mostly what he considered girly food: yogurt, avocados, kombucha.
What the hell was kombucha?
He grabbed a loaf of bread and read the bag that identified it as twelve-seed.
Who needed twelve seeds in a piece of toast?
He spied a small bowl with eggs marked with an X on the end and figured they were hard-boiled. He rummaged around and came up with provolone cheese and decided breakfast sandwiches were on the menu.
When Sawyer drove his truck up the driveway, Owen was sitting at a little table on Keeley’s postage-stamp-size patio eating his sandwich and working on his second cup of coffee while scrolling through the news on his phone.
While still chilly, the sun shone strongly, and the day promised to be a truly warm spring day.
“Where’s Keels?” Sawyer took the chair across the table from him, a travel mug in his hand.
“Still asleep.”
“That so?” Sawyer grinned.
“Not what you’re thinking, bro. I may want that, but that’s not where we’re going.”
“Why the fuck not? You’ve been into her for a while.”
“I’ll screw it up, and I don’t want her hurt.”
Sawyer cocked his head as if trying to figure out a complex math problem. “Of course you’ll screw it up. We all do. But if you love each other, you’ll work it out. That’s life.”
Owen was already shaking his head. “I’m too fucked up for her, and she’s too smart to love me.”
“We’re all fucked up, but our women love us anyway. Look at Walker. Dude was so fucked up he didn’t come home for the good part of a decade. But when he finally did, he and Delaney worked it out, and now look what he’s got. The woman he loves married him and they have a baby coming. Nothing better than that.”
Owen kept his mouth shut.
Sawyer wasn’t ready to give up. “You tell Keels what’s holding you back?”
“No, and I’m not going to.”
Sawyer shook his head as if gravely disappointed. “You’re a good man, and I think you two would be great together. But if you can’t pull your head out of your ass to figure that out, then don’t fuck with her by sleeping with her. She’s not a hookup.”
“You her big brother all the sudden?”
“I’ve always been her big brother. Same for Delaney.”
“You’re such a Boy Scout.”
