Page 43 of Trails of Temptation

Anger bubbled through me as George took a step away from me and slowly turned to face Pete, his best friend, the reason why George had fought so hard to stop what was building between us.

I expected him to back down. I expected him, no matter how badly it would hurt me, to tell Pete he was mistaken, that he hadn’t seen what he thought he saw.

“Can I help you?” George asked, his voice colder and deeper than I’d ever heard it before.

I shifted my sight on Pete, barely moving my neck but just enough that I could see his expression. His eyes were shining in the dim kitchen lighting, but I swore they were several shades darker than normal.

“Keely,” Pete snapped. “Come on, we’re leaving.”

“I’m not—”

“She’s not going anywhere, Pete,” George said with cool calm that send heat licking down my spine.

“This is what you’ve been doing up here, huh? You little—”

George took a step toward Pete and I whipped around just in time to witness my brother’s face flash with rage. George was standing only a foot away from him now, the two men taut, rigid, standing so still it was unnerving.

Like two dogs about to fight.

“Keely and I are together,” George stated coldly. “You better watch your mouth around her, Pete.”

“That’s not happening,” Pete hissed, narrowing his eyes. “What the fuck were you thinking, George, going after my sister?”

“I wasn’t thinking about you, if that’s what you want to know,” George replied casually. My heart cracked, threatening to shatter. This was not how it was supposed to go. We’d talked about this. George was going to tell him when I was ready. He was going go to Pete and tell him the truth—that he loved me. That we wanted to be together and had for some time. He’d wanted to do this two weeks ago, but I’d stopped him, asking him to wait.

Because as much as George believed that Pete would see the good in this, that we were happy… I had known Pete would be angry. So angry that he couldn’t be rational about it.

“Fuck you,” he said to George, his voice so low and full of gravel I barely heard the words. His eyes slowly crept to meet mine. “Couldn’t stay away from my friends, could you?”

“Pete—”

“My dad and mom weren’t enough for you, Keely? You’ve always had everything that was mine.”

George pushed him as Pete’s words settled in my gut. I felt like I was going to be sick. He’d never, and I mean never, spoken to me like that before. He’d never said anything like that before. Never once had be made me feel like my presence in his life was a bad thing, that me showing up like any of what happened in our family had been my fault.

But he’d felt like it, silently, privately.

“Get out of here,” George demanded, pushing Pete toward the door. I turned around but I could still feel Pete’s gaze on the back of my neck.

“George, Pete, wait—” I hurried, trying to step between them but George blocked me.

“Fuck you both,” Pete hissed.

“We’ll talk outside,” George growled, shoving him hard enough to rattle the screen door as Pete’s body collided with it. I closed my eyes, gripping the sink.

“Keely?” Moira’s voice cut through the kitchen, raised in shock. The screen door slammed shut behind Pete but George remained in the kitchen.

I turned around then, noticing the way George’s shoulder slumped as he took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair before righting the hat again. He didn’t turn to look at me. He just… stood there, looking outside, looking after the friend he’d known since childhood that was likely never speak to any of us again.

This was exactly why he had been hesitant.

“George—” I said, but he opened the door and strode outside without even turning to look at me.

“Keely,” Moira said again, harsher this time. I whirled around to face just as she pulled me into a tight hug, the swell of her belly tight and hard against me as she pressed her weight into me. I let out my breath in a choking sob as I began to shake.

“They’re going to kill each other,” I cried, but Moira shook her head. I heard Grant’s heavy footsteps tearing through the dining room, then the kitchen, before took off into the rain after Pete and George.

“I heard what he said to you,” she said hotly, her hand pressing against the back of my head as I buried my face in her shoulder. “Fuck that guy, first of all. Secondly, he didn’t mean it.”

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