She’d grown attached to him—that was clear.
Keira had been thinking about Reese ever since he dropped her off last night. And she felt like she wore a constant smile. She just felt so warm at the thought of him.
Her mom walked in, already done up for the day, dripping in jewels and wearing designer clothes. “Good morning, Keira.”
The clack of her mother’s heels on the tile seemed overly loud. She loved her mom, but right now, seeing the wealth abundant, knowing what Reese went through—not just during his childhood, but now—annoyed her.
“Morning,” she muttered and grabbed her toast.
After her mom poured herself a cup of coffee, she sat at the table across from her. “You came home pretty late.”
She was surprised her mother even noticed. She assumed she would have stayed in the city.
“Not too late.” Honestly, Keira wanted to stay with Reese all night.
“Did you have fun?”
Keira glanced up—not because of the question, not because of her mother seeming interested, but because of the way it was asked.
Suspiciously.
“Reese Trenton, Keira?” Her mother arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow and brought her cup to her mouth.
Her mother could be classified as one word most of the time. Snob. She was pleasant and nice, and didn't judge too harshly when it came to most things, but at the end of the day, what she valued was money, wealth, and status.
Most people who were connected to BMA were the same way.
“How do you know anything about that?” Keira wasn't keeping things secret, and she wasn’t surprised her mother found anything out. This town gossiped. But she was a little shocked she found out this soon.
“He’s nice—”
“You’re too good for trash like that.”
Keira felt her hackles rise. Her mother had said that so nonchalantly, like she hadn’t insulted the boy Keira was falling for. “He’s not trash.” Keira said that last word so strongly her mother raised both eyebrows.
“No?”
Keira slowly shook her head and leaned back in her chair. “He’s smart, damn smart to get a full-ride to BMA.”
Her mother set her mug done and tapped her acrylic nail on the ceramic. “I suppose, but his family are worthless drunks.”
“Parents don’t make up who their kids are.”
“Perhaps not, but when you have a father like Reese does, one who is a drunk and who gambled away any money they had, then brought down his wife to the pits of that hell, it’s not unrealistic that it leaves a lasting impression on a boy.”
Keira said nothing, because she had nothing to say. Reese’s parents didn’t shape who he was, and she wouldn’t let anyone in this fucking town, at Black Mountain Academy, or even her parents, try to talk her out of being without him.
“Molly’s coming over. I have stuff to do before then.” She grabbed her plate, threw away her unfinished toast, and left her mother sitting at the table. She'd never been more thankful that Molly had text her first thing in the morning to swing by and talk about Ian. It had been an excuse—an escape—for Keira to exit that conversation with her mother without Keira losing it. She expected this from people at school, but her parents should know better, should want her happy no matter what.
She stayed in her room, or more so hid until Sharon let Molly in and she was walking through her bedroom door.
Molly sat on the edge of the bed beside Keira, then promptly fell back, her arms outstretched as she exhaled. Molly had the biggest smile on her face.
Keira smirked. “So, I take it things are good with Ian?”
Molly’s smile grew. “So good. I’m so glad you made me see how stupid I was being.”
“You just realized it was time to be honest with him.” She was glad Molly was happy.
Molly turned her head so she could look at her. “You should have seen his face when I told him everything. He was… happy. So happy, Keira.” A beat of silence passed before she sat up and got a serious expression. “He told me he loved me.”
All Keira could do was smile. “And you love him too,” she said without phrasing it like a question.
Molly nodded and whispered, “So much.”
Keira pulled her into a tight hug and murmured against her shoulder, “I’m glad you both found what you were looking for.”
For the next hour, she listened to Molly talk about her and Ian, the plans they made, the things they both wanted. It was serious, far more serious than Keira thought at first, but the happiness she felt for them both was genuine.
And as she practically felt Molly’s love for Ian, she realized she wanted that one day. She wanted someone to look at her like she could give them the world. She wanted to feel butterflies in her belly every time they were near, even if a decade had passed.
She wanted all of that.
And she wanted it with Reese.
21
Reese shouldn’t have agreed to go to the party with Nate. It was a random one, an out of Black Mountain house party that was filled with booze and weed.
He really shouldn’t have come, but his father had come home drunk as usual. The fighting started, the empty beer bottles being tossed at the wall, barely missing Reese’s head. And all through that, he’d wanted one thing, one person.
Keira.
But he didn’t want to bring that toxic shit anywhere near her. He didn’t want the poison that was his life to infect her. So he'd agreed to come to this fucking party simply to numb himself. And after that, when he wasn’t so volatile on the inside, he’d talk to her, let the sound of her voice talk him away from the darkness.
That’s all it would take. Her voice.
He tossed the cards he didn’t want to the center of the table and shook his head. He was out this hand. More people seemed to pour into the too small house by the hour.
Reese lifted his beer bottle to his mouth and took a long drink from it. It was warm and only his second one for the night. He’d been nursing the fucker for the past hour, not really wanting to be here if he were being honest, because nothing was helping with the darkness he felt.
His mind was on Keira. It always was.
Fuck, just thinking about her got him hard. He couldn’t count the number of times he'd jerked off thinking about her, remembering the way she ground herself on his cock, how she tasted so sweet as he licked her cream from his fingers.
“I’m going to have a smoke. Play the next hand without me,” Reese said and stood up, knowing someone outside would be hitting a joint. Maybe some pot would help clear his head, or at least numb the fucker.
“Good, maybe one of us will actually win a hand with your fucking ass gone,” Sully, the only other person at this party from BMA, muttered.
Reese didn’t know Sully that well, and their interactions had been reserved at parties, but the guy was a douche, a real motherfucker who thought he was better than everyone else because his folks were loaded. The handful of times they passed in the halls, the asshole had a slew of chicks hanging from his arms and a perpetual scowl on his face.
Most of the fuckers at Black Mountain were just like Sully, some even worse, others tolerable. But just looking at Sully pissed Reese off. The dude had a big fucking mouth and didn’t know when to shut up.