Tears threatened to flood my eyes as I raced as far away as I could. When I got two blocks away I leaned against a wall, closed my eyes and took three deep breaths. Everything was going to be fine. He couldn’t find me. There was no way. I could just walk away, and once again, never see him again.
I did walk away, but not before getting another couple of bags of chips from the ladies handing them out. The last thing I heard from my brother’s mouth was him bragging about how he was going to beat so many superstars at whatever adrenaline pumping challenge the world could think of. Whatever. Not interesting.
I went home and threw the pile of resumes down on the kitchen counter. What was the point? I’d handed out ten of them before I’d gotten to the Space Needle, but no one was going to return my calls. Just like all those other times. It was stupid. No one wanted to hire me. I had no marketable skills, nothing that could make me more employable. Seeing how perfect Kiegan’s life was, especially compared to how shit mine was, made me want to cry. I wanted to lie down and sob, and feel sorry for myself, and I was about to go do just that when there was a knock on the door.
Weird, I thought to myself. No one ever knocked on the door. Maybe Mrs. Landers from upstairs needed me to call a taxi for her again, she did that from time to time. I opened the front door expecting to see the kindly old lady who stood barely four and a half feet tall in front of me, but instead I looked directly into my brother’s face.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“What, a brother can’t come say hi to his sister?”
“Not when the sister in question hasn’t given him her address, ever. And doesn’t want to see him.”
Kiegan held up his hands.
“Look, sorry. I know I shouldn’t have looked up your address without telling you. But you left so quickly at the Space Needle, so I knew you were here, and I wanted to say hi.”
“Well I don’t want to say hi to you,” I replied, starting to close the door, but he held it open.
“Look. Can I at least buy you a cup of coffee?”
My stomach gurgled again. Was I really going to do this? Kiegan had never asked me to do anything with him before in his life. Maybe he’d changed? Or… was I going to admit it… maybe I just wanted to stare into those eyes for a little bit longer.
“Make it dinner and you’ve got a deal.” If I was going to have to listen to my brother talk to me, I at least wanted a free meal out of it, more than just coffee.
“Fine. Thinking of anywhere in particular?”
“Some Random Bar. It’s on first. Unless you’re too good for bar food these days.”
Kiegan shot me a grin. “You know damn well I’ve never been into the whole wearing a suit to a restaurant scene. I’ll be back here at six thirty. See you soon, sis,” he added with a wink, and I wanted to punch him.
The truth was, I’d never been to Some Random Bar. I’d never really been able to justify the expense, but I’d heard from a few people I’d worked with that it was hands down the food in Seattle, and that I just had to try it. I figured if I was getting a free meal from my brother, this was as good a chance as any.
What frustrated me even more was how much time I spent looking for something semi-decent to wear out. Because deep down, I knew that it wasn’t just because I hadn’t eaten anywhere nice for ages. I knew I was getting dressed up for him. Why on earth did my body have to have the feelings it did?
Chapter Nine
At six forty my brother knocked on the door again. I wasn’t surprised, Kiegan had always been absolutely awful at being on time for anything. I opened up, and my breath caught in my throat.
Wearing tight-fitting, but not quite skinny jeans, and a SeaHawks T-shirt that hugged his muscular body, it really left very little to the imagination. I noticed the tattoos on his bicep, those were new, he hadn’t had those two years ago. I caught a glimpse of another tattoo on his chest, as well as the slightest amount of hair poking out from the top of the shirt. God, he was sexy.
“Ready to go?” he asked. “You look good. You know, for what you have to work with.”
“You could have stopped one sentence earlier,” I replied, blushing despite myself. It was the closest thing to a compliment Kiegan had ever given me.
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“I can still refuse to go with you.”
“You could. I’ve brought a car over, I was going to bike to fit in and all, but you know, I didn’t think you’d be that big a fan.”
“I don’t mind biking, but I don’t have one of my own.”
“Exactly. That’s why the car is even better.”