“Well, I don’t want to get her anything like that,” he said, his voice laced with sarcasm as he joined me.
My eyes flashed up at him. “I’m serious. If you are going to get her a necklace, make it something more personal, like a stone that says something special about her. Or a locket with a memory inside. It doesn’t have to be a picture, even a coin or some keepsake from a date you had or something…” I thought about the locket that I had helped James pick out only a few days ago for my mother. Instead of a picture inside, he had an engraving inscribed. But that part was a secret just for my mum, he’d said with a wink.
For a long moment, Keenan stared down at me, his expression amused.
“What?” I asked, wondering what he was thinking.
“You’re quite the little romantic, aren’t you? Got a boyfriend?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah right! Shay would lose his mind! And I’m only eleven. I’m too young for dating.”
“Is he protective?”
“Just a bit.” I made another face. As I got older, James and Shay were constantly telling me to let them know if any boys tried talking to me. When I asked them why, they said it was so they could start polishing their shotguns. My eyes caught sight of a beautiful pink pearl necklace on a silver chain. “Ohhh, how about that?”
“A pearl?”
“Why not?”
“I haven’t taken my girl to the ocean or anything. It’s not personal to us.”
I sighed, frustrated by his ignorance. Boys really were clueless sometimes. I thought back to third grade when a boy in my class, Jamie, revealed that he had a crush on me. But his way of showing it was to pull my hair and trip me on the playground. “Dummy, don’t you know anything about girls? We like mermaids, and pearls make me think of mermaids.” I paused for a moment, thinking of one of my favourite Disney movies. “If your girlfriend likes Ariel, then she’ll like a pearl necklace.”
“I have no idea what she likes.” He seemed to be amused as I berated him and acted like my scolding was funny, judging by the way the corner of his mouth lifted and his blue eyes seemed to sparkle. “I cannot remember the last time I’ve been so casually insulted.” He said, sounding delighted and aghast all at once.
“Shouldn’t you know that stuff if you’re her boyfriend?” I furrowed my brow at him, ignoring his last remark. “If not, then why are you with her?”
“She’s a hot piece of ass.”
I scrunched up my nose as those words echoed again and again in my mind. That was what Shay said my mum was to his father. I’d heard him yell those words at her more than once. I shook the words away before muttering, “Men…” and heard Keenan chuckle.
“What about for your mother, then?”
He tilted his head in thought, like he was considering it.
“And since your girlfriend is just eye-candy to you…” I went on with sass, and he made a choking sound of laughter at my words, “How about crystal earrings, to make her a little more sparkly so you can show her off?” My voice was dripping with sarcasm and Keenan burst out laughing, causing several shoppers to look up at him curiously.
“Aren’t you a feisty little firecracker?” he said, grinning wide.
I smirked up at him. “Just calling it like it is, Mathers,” I teased, addressing him by his last name like Shay had.
He reached out and seized a lock of my hair and gave it an affectionate tug. “I’ll think about those options, Sunshine.” He turned and looked around the store, spotting the little café near the front, “How about I treat you to some hot chocolate while we wait for your mum to finish her shopping?”
I readily agreed, unable to say no to the promise of chocolate in any form, and took his hand again as he led us up front. He bought me a large, whipped cream, sprinkled affair and we sat at a free table, watching as shoppers paid for their purchases and kept an eye out for my mother.
“Isn’t your mum at all concerned that you aren’t with her?” he asked after several minutes, sipping his own hot beverage, which was just plain black coffee.
I shrugged. “Sometimes… she’s been stressed lately,” I mumbled, thinking about the other day at the club. “She gets distracted.”
“Hmmm…” he mused, watching as a pretty brunette sauntered by. The girl grinned at him the same way the girls at the club smiled at my brother and his friends, and put a little more sashay to her step, making her butt sway side to side, and he watched her leave.
“Pig.”
Keenan’s icy blue eyes moved to me. I grinned at him with a knowing smile. I don’t know why boys checked out girl’s butts, but it was so obvious when they did it. I felt some whipped cream smear onto my nose as I took a sip, and quickly cleaned it off with my napkin.
“Are you and Shay still mad at each other?” I asked him as thoughts of my brother reminded me of the last time we had all been together in the woods.
His eyes flicked to me and his grin vanished. “Mad at each other…” he said slowly, sounding a little puzzled.
“Yeah. Last time I saw you, you guys were fighting… is he still doing bad things to your friends?” This had been something that was very much on my mind since that day. I knew he liked to fight, but I didn’t think he took it that far. Hearing that Shay had seriously hurt people, to the point of putting them in the hospital, had been a shock. I wanted to make sure he was keeping his promise to Keenan. If not, I was going to make sure he paid for breaking his word.
Keenan stared hard at me, his gaze penetrating, but finally let out a long breath and a tight smile curled up on his lips. “Naw, it’s all good, Cutie. No beef there at the moment.”
“Good. Or else I’d have to return the Christmas gift I got him as punishment,” I said, deciding that would be a worthy price for him to pay.
Keenan chuckled and watched as I took another sip of my hot chocolate. I got some more whipped cream on my face; I could feel it at the corner of my mouth. Before I could wipe it off, he reached out and removed it with the pad of his thumb, bringing it to his own lips to lick off. I raised my brows at him in surprise.
“I can use a napkin, you know. You’ll get my germs if you do that.”
He grinned wide and chuckled again. “I’m not worried, hon.”
I made a face and shrugged, taking another sip, but was more careful this time about not getting any more whipped cream on me. I let my gaze move about the store, keeping an eye out for my mother. Whenever I glanced back at Keenan, though, his blue eyes were locked on to me. He looked confused, a little worried, and I wondered what he was thinking. “What is it?” I asked him.
“Your doe-like eyes make you look like a china doll,” he said. “If Shay was protective of you now, he’s going to have his work cut out for him when you become a teenager.” He lazily relaxed in his chair, tilting it onto its back legs. I blushed hard at his comment.
“Yeah, right,” I scoffed, dismissing it.
“No, you’re going to be a real pretty girl when you get older, Sunshine,” Keenan insisted. I avoided his stare and fixed my eyes on the rows of busy lineups at the cash registers. “With your green eyes, blonde hair, and sweet smile…”