After a few silent seconds of her waiting for a response, her eyebrows slanted down in frustration and she turned to leave my office.

Not more than three seconds later, Eli came walking in doing a slow clap. “That was the best thing I’ve heard all week.”

I scoffed and walked over to my desk to sit down, and he followed. “I guess it was time I start following office rules, or something.”

“Or something.” Eli winked and leaned back to stretch in the chair. “So I just got a call from my nieces.”

My head snapped up from where I’d been looking at my computer, and my eyebrows pulled together. “Did you?”

“Why do you sound surprised? You were just with them.”

“Uh . . .” Well, considering the conversation that just went down, I have every reason to sound surprised. “Not surprised, more interested in what they had to say. They didn’t exactly give me an answer.”

“Really? She said you invited them to a party this weekend and told me to give you their numbers.”

“And by ‘she,’ you mean . . . ?”

Eli shot me a weird look and shrugged. “Kira. Why? Can you even tell the two apart yet?”

Seeing how one of them always looked at me like she hated me, yeah, I could—but that was just another thing that Eli didn’t need to know. “Only when they have their name tags on, but I’m pretty sure your other niece isn’t my biggest fan.”

“Ah, yeah. Kennedy’s very . . . cautious when it comes to men, I guess you could say.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” I responded before I could stop myself. Eli just laughed.

“Well, she definitely has her reasons. Give her a little while; she’ll come around. To be honest, I have a feeling you’ll connect with her more than with Kira,” he said as he stood and walked toward the door. “You two are a lot alike, and she’ll be good to have around you—I’m hoping she knocks your ego down a few notches.”

If only he knew.

“I’ll send you their numbers. Take care of them this weekend.”

“Yes, sir.”

I waited until he was out of my office, then leaned back in my chair and blew out a relieved breath. Kennedy might not have called him, but Kira wouldn’t have known to call Eli if Kennedy hadn’t told her about this weekend. Whether or not Kennedy was ready, or wanted it, I was going to chase the girl who was already consuming my mind.

6

June 11

Kennedy

“WHY DO I have a feeling you won’t be ordering anything, and you would rather be talking to my sister than to me?”

I turned around from where I was washing a few blenders with my forehead scrunched in confusion, but my face immediately fell when I saw Liam standing on the other side of the counter from Kira. Both of them were staring at me with expectant expressions—though somehow Kira’s seemed a little more hopeful.

After hanging out twice with Liam and his friends last weekend, and then meeting up with him and a few other friends at a bar on Wednesday, it was safe to say that my attempts at keeping Liam away were failing. Not just failing. “Crashing and burning a fiery death” would be a better way of describing them, because Liam still wasn’t stopping his advances, which meant he wasn’t getting too discouraged, if at all. And, unfortunately for me, I wanted the advances to stop just as bad as I wanted them to continue.

I was a mess.

“Kennedy?”

“What?” I asked quickly when I was brought back to the present.

Kira’s lips curved up in triumph, and she gestured behind her. “Liam’s inviting us to a bonfire tonight.”

“Ah. That’s nice. I’m tired, but thanks for asking, I’m sure Kira will have fun.”

Liam’s expectant expression didn’t falter, and I was left wondering if he believed anything I said and did around him—as I had so many times over the last week and a half. No matter how many times I told him I didn’t want to be with him, stepped away from him when he got too close, flirted with his friends, and acted as if he was nothing more than a nuisance, he seemed to always look at me with an expression that let me know it was only a matter of time until I stopped pretending.

“Oh, I’m sure I will . . . just like I’m sure you will too.”

My eyes shifted to my sister and narrowed. “I’m not going.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

Kira turned to look at Liam and flashed him a smile. “We’ll be there.”

Liam nodded at her, and slowly walked around the circular drink station. I knew when he stopped directly behind me, but I refused to turn and look at him until he said my name.

“Moon,” his deep voice rumbled, and I shut my eyes and quickly prayed for strength.

Turning around, I kept my annoyed expression as I waited for whatever he would say. When nothing else came from him, I repeated, “I won’t be going tonight.”

A sly smile crossed his face as he nodded and backed away—like my one sentence had been the only thing he needed to hear from me. “See you tonight, then,” he said confidently.

“Liam!” I harshly whispered when he turned. “I said I won’t.”

“Heard you the first time, Moon,” he called over his shoulder, and I stood there with my mouth open as I watched him leave.

“Why does he do that?” I asked when Kira stepped up beside me. “Why does he act like he knows me so damn well?”

Kira sighed, but she sounded annoyed. “Probably because when it comes to Liam Taylor, you’re kind of transparent.”

“I am not transparent. I tell him exactly what he needs to know . . . that I don’t want him or to be near him.”

“You may say those words and have the body language, but nowhere in the tone of your voice or in your eyes do they agree with what your lips say. Or, at least, I think that’s how Liam put it last weekend.”

My head whipped to the side, and I shot her a look. “He said that? When?”

Kira still wasn’t facing me, her forehead was scrunched in confusion and she was mouthing what she’d just told me. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s how he said it.”

“When, Kira?”

“On Sunday after that party at his friend’s resort or whatever it was. You were your normal bitchy self when we were leaving, and I started to apologize to him, but he just laughed and said that.”

“Seriously?”

Kira’s only response was to raise her eyebrows in confirmation. “Besides, he knows just as well as you and I do that you will be at the bonfire tonight. No matter how much you want him to stay away from you, you can’t stay away from him.”

“That’s not true, Kira, and I only end up going to all these places because I don’t want to be left at the condo alone!”

She turned and elbowed me when someone cleared their throat near the register. “Keep telling yourself that when you’re with him tonight,” she said as she walked away to help the customer.

“I must say, I’m surprised you’ve held out this long.”

I turned back to find Kristi standing in front of me, exactly where Liam had just been. “What?”