Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(62)
“So I’m supposed to let her break the law because she’s got a walker?” Keegan asked, snorting. “That’s some crap. These people want to be treated like everyone else until they can get the advantage on something. You think that’s right?”
“Are you serious?” Lauren asked, her face going blotchy.
I sat up straight, sensing this conversation was about to get out of hand. Lauren’s mother had a bad case of multiple sclerosis and had needed a wheelchair to get around since we were ten, so she was particularly in tune with the special-needs community. I would have thought that, being a future physical therapist, Keegan might have been more sensitive to people with disabilities or injuries, but maybe it’s one of those things—until you live with it, you can’t really know. Anyway, the last thing I wanted was for my best friend and my new boyfriend to hate each other. And to express that hatred in front of everyone in the jam-packed cupcake store.
Plus, Keegan had been totally cool when I’d asked if Lauren could come along today. Did she have to be so ungrateful?
“I think what Keegan is trying to say is, the law is black and white and it’s supposed to apply to everyone,” I explained.
Lauren stared at me. “So let’s say grandma is trying to get up a flight of stairs and she starts to have a heart attack, are you not going to help her because she once told you she was perfectly able to do it herself?”
My cheeks burned. “No—I just—Can we talk about something else?”
“I’m gonna go get another cupcake,” Lauren said, standing.
“You sure about that? There were about a thousand calories in the one you just ate,” Keegan told her, eyeing her plate.
I pressed my lips together. If Keegan had said that to any of my other friends, he would have been in for a world of hurt. At least Lauren didn’t care about her weight and knew how to take a joke. She always appreciated honesty and a good sense of humor. That was why I had figured she’d get along so well with Keegan.
Still, I held my breath when she didn’t immediately respond. The quicker the comeback, the more fine she was. A slow burn from Lauren was never pretty. She looked me in the eye, and I tried as hard as I could to get across a silent plea.
“Gee, thanks so much for your input, Keegan,” she said finally, with false sweetness. “But I can assure you, I know what I want.”
With a flip of her curls, she strode over to the counter, where she grabbed True and practically dragged her into the corner for a chat. True. I needed to talk to her too. To thank her for hooking me up with Keegan in the first place. And to tell her that Peter and I were not going to happen. After everything she’d done for me—heaven knew why—I figured she deserved to know what was going on.
Over in the corner, Lauren was gesturing wildly along with her rant. Maybe I’d talk to True later.
“I don’t think she likes me,” Keegan said matter-of-factly, sipping his water.
“Lauren? You have to give her some time to get to know you,” I suggested, cuddling closer to him. “She’s probably still adjusting to me being with someone other than Peter. She was a big fan.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I caught my breath. What was I doing mentioning my ex in front of him?
“Oh yeah?” he said, leaning back to look me in the eye. “And what was so great about Peter?”
I shifted, picking up my empty cupcake wrapper just to have something to focus on. I started to tear it into little strips, raining crumbs over the plate. “We don’t have to talk about him.”
“No, really. I want to know. Is he as perfect as everyone says he is?”
I blinked, but kept tearing. I couldn’t have looked Keegan in the eye right then if I’d tried. “People say he’s perfect?”
“You hear things,” he said, sniffing and looking across the room. “Like how polite he is, how he goes to church every week, volunteers, had a sixty-seven percent completion rating last year. . . .”
I glanced at Keegan’s profile as he rattled off Peter’s attributes, and suddenly it dawned on me. He was jealous of Peter. It was so ironic I almost wanted to laugh. The only reason I’d gotten together with Keegan in the first place was to make Peter jealous, and now Keegan was the one with the envy problem.
My heart swelled, flattered that he could ever be jealous over me. But did he really think I was going to dump him and go running back to Peter because he had a better QB rating?
He was so sweet it killed me.
I dropped the shredded cupcake wrapper and reached up to touch his face, turning him to look at me.
“Peter Marrott is no Keegan Traylor,” I said.
Something caught in my throat as I said it, but I chose to ignore whatever it was as Keegan’s wide grin spread across his face.
“Damn straight,” he said.
And this time, I kissed him.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
True
I’d gotten everything wrong. Everything. As I walked home from work on Sunday afternoon, I couldn’t even see straight, because my brain was having a hard time keeping up with the list of mistakes I’d made. Peter hadn’t broken up with Claudia because he needed space and wanted to date other girls; he’d done it because he couldn’t take the dread of losing her anymore, so he’d gotten it over with. Hooking her up with another guy would have been a perfect strategy if he’d simply gotten distracted by the idea of a hotter girl, but he’d been afraid of her moving on, and I’d talked her into doing just that. My jealousy plan had made the situation worse instead of better. And the kicker? Claudia was now falling for Keegan, who from every account would do nothing but break her heart, stomp on the pieces, and skip merrily away.