Cecily's face fell again; this time when she tried to cover it, there was worry in her eyes. "If you're having a rough day, I can always help you out. You should know that by now."

Stepping back to the door, I gestured toward the hall outside my office. "You need to go."

"What is your deal the past week?" she asked, her tone harsh as she pushed away from the desk and stood to walk over to me. "I haven't heard from you at all, and now that I'm here waiting for you, you're just going to send me away like a damn dog?"

I didn't say anything, because there was nothing to say. Normally telling her to leave wouldn't have been an issue, but it was obvious she knew things between us had ended if she was getting mad.

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?"

"With Liam."

My brows slanted down over my eyes, and I shook my head once. "I don't-what?"

Kristi smiled and rolled her eyes. "It's not hard to see that he has his eyes set on you. Anyone could've seen it from that first day he ran into you here. I'm going to be straight with you and tell you that for him, girls are more of a . . . when-he-wants-them type of thing. And Liam is incapable of loving anyone who isn't family."

"I don't believe in love."

"Well then, looks like the two of you would be perfect if you wanted to be with him, and if he was the kind of guy who did relationships. But I can honestly say, I haven't seen a girl turn him down since sometime in high school. Once he has his mind set on a girl, it's only a matter of seconds before he has her. It's disgusting, really. But like I said, I'm surprised you've held out this long."

Lovely. "Well, I won't be giving-"

"We've all made bets."

"I'm sorry . . . what? Who has?"

"Everyone who works here," she said matter-of-factly. Like the fact that they were bidding on my will to continue pushing away her brother was nothing more than what day of the week it was.

"Well, I hate to break it to everyone, but it won't be happening. Your brother already knows that."

Kristi drummed her hands against the countertop for a few seconds before backing away and saying in a singsong voice, "If you say so!"

As if I wasn't already having my own problems trying to stay away from him, I now had every person I knew in California waiting for me to give up and give in. If only they knew I was doing it to protect myself because of a past that still felt too present . . .

If only I could remember my reasons for needing to stay away when he was near me.

EIGHT HOURS LATER and I was at the fucking bonfire. And trust me . . . it wasn't by choice. Honestly. Kira and I had sat down and had a long talk when we'd gotten home from work about why I couldn't be with Liam-as well as why I wouldn't be with him. Because as I'd come to find out while talking with her, there were differences between the two.

Kira had actually seemed sympathetic once I laid it all out for her, and finally agreed to stop pushing the whole thing on me. An hour later, after more talking about work and California, she'd asked if I wanted to go out to dinner since our only other options were ordering in or going to the grocery store. We'd already ordered in almost every night that week, and on a Thursday night, grocery shopping was the last thing I wanted to do.

Well, second to last, as I'd come to find out another thirty minutes later after we'd gotten ready and driven to the restaurant-a restaurant that at that moment was conveniently and suspiciously disguised to look like the beach with a bonfire not far in the distance.

Unfortunately for me, Kira had immediately gotten out and taken the car keys with her.

So I was now standing there surrounded by a few people I'd met over the previous week, and many others I was almost positive I'd never seen before. And what made it even better? Kira had taken off an hour before because Zane had called her, as I'd found out from Liam. Which meant that not only was I stuck at the beach until Liam gave me a ride home, I was also wondering if I actually loved or hated my twin, and contemplating all the ways to shatter and destroy her beloved phone. All the while trying not to go cross-eyed from the one-sided conversation I was a part of.

"You look like you could use another one of these," a gravelly voice said in my ear, and I turned to look up at Liam. He was standing just off to my side holding a beer in his hand, and right then I wouldn't have cared if he were offering me sand. I would've taken anything from him if it meant I got a few seconds of distraction from the guy in front of me.

"Thank you. Is there another one for you?" I asked unnecessarily. One, there was only one can in his hand, and two, I already knew Liam wasn't drinking since he'd driven.

"Nah, I'm good." Liam's ice-blue eyes stayed locked on mine for a few silent seconds, and just when I was about to look away, they drifted to the side and a smile crossed his face. "And he's gone."

I looked quickly in front of me to find that the guy I'd been talking to was in fact gone. Well, if you could consider five feet away gone. But at least he was focused on someone else now. "Seriously, thank you so much!" I whispered in relief to Liam, and sank down onto the blanket I'd been standing on. Shoving the cool can of beer into the sand, I took a sip of the one I'd already had that was still completely full.

Liam sat down in front of me, but kept his eyes averted. "I figured you needed to be saved from him, and I couldn't think of a good enough reason."

My eyebrows rose once in confirmation, and I laughed softly. "He was . . . well, he's something else," I said as I glanced back at the man in question.

"I don't know why he comes to these things. He never drinks or eats, he never brings anyone with him, and he only talks to people about how his radish is going to save the world-"

"Avocado," I interrupted. "He said the radish wasn't going to produce the right kind of energy. He's trying an avocado pit now." Liam rolled his eyes, but his smile was contagious. "How do you even know him?," I said.

"We don't! He just joined in on a party one day when we were out here, and it never fails, if we're at the beach he'll show up at some point. I don't think I even know his name, we all just try to avoid getting stuck in a conversation with him," I said.

"Howie," I answered before taking another sip. "He has an employee ID card clipped onto his shirt from some company."

"Well, you've now met Howie. You can consider it a rite of passage here."

"Yay me," I mumbled sarcastically.

Both Liam and I were silent for a few moments as we watched Howie go into an overly excited and detailed explanation to a girl who looked like she couldn't get away fast enough, and I laughed when her expression clearly showed she'd given up on trying to find a way out.

"I want to know more about you," Liam muttered, bringing my attention back to him.

My smile faded and I shook my head faintly. "Liam, I-why? Why do you keep pushing for something between us?"

"I just want to know more about you, Kennedy. Friends do that-hell, strangers do it. So why can't we?"

"Because you and I both know your real reason for wanting to know. You know just as much about me as you do about Kira, and probably more than your other friends know, at least the ones I've met. You asking for more is just-"

"It's just a request as a friend, Kennedy. Nothing more, nothing less."

I watched his expression carefully, and knew that it was anything but a friendly request. Before I could come up with another reason not to tell him more about myself, he leaned closer, and the movement had my dismissal getting caught in my throat.

"You already know where I went to school and what I majored in; why don't you start there for me?"

I released a heavy breath and began shaking my head again, but found myself saying, "I went to Florida State, and majored in psychology."