Page 30

I wasn’t going there with him. Rehashing the past. “What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were off playing baseball in California?”
He peered over at me. “I haven’t been there in years, Vaughn. You didn’t know? Came back when my dad died.”
I gaped at him. “O’Malley died?”
“Surely your dad told you? I’ve been working here ever since.”
I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. “No. He would have told me.”
“Yeah, he probably did.”
The meaning behind his words was accusatory. I bristled. “What does that mean? He told me and I just didn’t care?”
Kian shrugged. “Self-centered is your middle name.”
“Fuck you.”
“Tried that once. It sent you running across the other side of the country.”
Heat crept up the back of my neck at the reminder of that night. “I left to start my own company, away from the shadow of my father.” My cheeks blazed with awkward embarrassment. “And I’m married.”
Kian shook his head with a laugh. “Why are you telling me that? In case I get an idea and try to sneak into your bedroom?” He leaned in slowly, inch by inch, until his mouth was barely hovering above mine.
Something in his eyes changed.
Or maybe I just wanted it to.
His gaze flickered to my mouth. “We could pick up right where we left off…”
It was all too fucking familiar. A lifetime ago, but still so fresh in my head because it was something I’d played over and over again for a lifetime. I put two hands on his chest and shoved him out of my way. “I’m not doing this with you. Go home.”
And just like that, whatever had been in his eyes disappeared. He leaned back against the wall and took another swallow from the bottle, like he hadn’t just brought up the elephant in the room. “I am home, dickhead. Room and board came with the job. Got the same room I had as a kid.”
Oh, hell no. I couldn’t stay here with him. But I couldn’t go home either. There was nothing left for me there, even if I had been allowed to leave the state. “You have a week to look for a new job.”
He sat up sharply, the liquid in the bottle sloshing around inside the glass. “What? You’re joking.”
“Wasn’t joking before, not joking now.” I grabbed the bottle from him and staggered to my feet. The room spun around me in dizzying circles. I’d had no idea how drunk I was until I stood up. I staggered toward the stairs that led up to my old room.
The one next door to Kian’s.
Fuck.
I changed direction. I’d sleep on the kitchen table if I had to. As long as I was nowhere near Kian O’Malley.
8
REBEL
“Where is she? No, War, I don’t care! Where is she? Fang’s room, right? Fang! You better open that door right now!”
I cracked open an eye at my bestie’s hollering in the hallway and wasn’t at all surprised when the door rattled a moment later.
Fang groaned beside me but got out of bed, padding across the room to yank the door open. “What?” he snapped.
Bliss was taller than me but still no match for Fang. Not that you’d know it, judging by the way she pushed past his massive frame. She stopped short of throwing herself onto the bed with me and clapped a hand over her mouth. “Your face…”
Fuck. Still no makeup.