“Yeah, well, better luck next time,” Kiegan replied before getting up to leave. We went and paid for breakfast, but I could tell Kiegan was still pissed. As for me, it had all happened so fast, I wasn’t really sure what to think.
From time to time Kiegan would get hounded by the paparazzi. That was normal, it came with the celebrity, and it had only been getting worse the more popular his show got. But never like this! They were always either waiting outside the clubs where Kiegan was attending, or outside his hotel, but he had never been accosted randomly while eating at a restaurant like this. At least not yet.
The owner of Duke’s came out and apologized, he told Kiegan that in the future he would have his security team patrol the beach behind the restaurant. Kiegan accepted the apology and we were back on our way to his island home.
“Fuck. Sorry about that,” Kiegan told me as we sped along in his Ferrari.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I know. But it is. If I wasn’t so famous…”
“Well there’s a compliment to yourself if I’ve ever heard one.”
Kiegan couldn’t help but smile at my joke.
“Seriously. It’s fine. Don’t let it bother you, it hasn’t bothered me. Anyway, when we get home I have a present for you.”
“Is it your body covered in whipped cream?”
“It’s not, but I could be convinced to give you two presents pretty easily,” I teased.
“Oooh, nice. I also have something for you,” he told me.
When we got into the house I went up to our room and got the present I’d been hiding inside my travel bag for about a week. After we’d decided to spend Christmas together, I went out and bought Kiegan something I figured he’d really love. He wasn’t an easy person to buy for; what do you get the person who can buy themselves anything? Still, I figured I’d outdone myself.
I pulled out the bottle of 100-year-old scotch I’d found in a high end liquor store when we were in New York and packed in a bag. It was the first time I’d used the fake ID Kiegan gave me, though when you’re buying booze worth hundreds of dollars, the person at the counter doesn’t tend to look too closely at your ID. He probably figured it was for my dad, anyway.
“Here you go. I figured one day you should try for quality over quantity.”
Kiegan pulled the bottle out of the bag and laughed.
“This is awesome. This is celebration scotch. Thank you, Tina!” he told me, kissing me softly.
“I’m glad you like it,” I replied, and I could tell from Kiegan’s reaction that he did.
“I’ll have to get some fancy glasses for this, and keep it in my office, and toast something whenever I have a sip,” he joked.
“It’ll be like you’re a real adult!” I told him.
“Exactly. Now here, I want to give you your present.”
Kiegan pulled out a light blue box that could only belong to one company.
My eyes widened as I pulled the top off the box to reveal the most exquisite necklace I’d ever seen. Light gold filaments wrapped around what looked like a million tiny diamonds, each one sparkling individually in the light, in a wave pattern.
“Wow,” I whispered, my voice hushed as I looked at the gift. It was hands down the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I was almost too scared to touch it, so I just stared, moving the box around to make the diamonds glitter in the light.
“Do you like it?” Kiegan asked.
“Like it? I love it!” I replied, falling back on the cliché, but it was true. I did love it. I had never owned anything that nice before in my life.
“Well let’s see how it looks on you,” he told me, and took the box out of my hands, took out the necklace and did up the clasp at the back of my neck. I moved over to a mirror hanging on the wall and smiled. It looked amazing.
If someone had told me just three months ago that I’d get the best Christmas present ever from my brother, that he would have bought me something like this, I would have never believed them. It seemed so impossible. And yet here we were. Maybe Kiegan really wasn’t such a bad guy. Maybe he had grown up after all.
We spent the rest of the day enjoying Christmas in bed, before finally getting up and going out to dinner to an amazing seafood restaurant, then headed back to Kiegan’s place.
As we walked along the beach in Waikiki heading back to his car after dinner, hand in hand, in silence, I thought about what I felt for my brother. I had always been attracted to him, physically. There was no denying that. But could I possibly be feeling more than that for him?
Either way, as I felt the little grains of sand wrapping themselves around my feet like perfectly fitting socks, with my brother’s hand in mine, I knew that there was nothing that could ruin what we had right now. Absolutely nothing.
Chapter Sixteen
The next day we woke up to Kiegan’s phone ringing at six in the morning.
“What the hell?” he muttered as he sleepily grabbed the phone off the nightstand and looked at the number.