Thin Love (Thin Love, #1)(38)

They stayed there, challenging him, taunting him. But the venom in her voice, the anger in her expression did not shift in the slightest. “I wouldn’t be jealous of Tonya Lucas if you paid me, Kona. I know what she is. I know what you are. I knew that before we were assigned this project.” Kona could smell the hint of caramel and coffee on her breath. He watched her expression, the small curl of her mouth, the tremor that bumped a tiny pulse on her cheek as she pushed him back, still standing too close with that tempting mouth just inches from him. Lips that were sweet, words that were poison. “People like you never f*cking change.”





Five… six… seven rings before Leann pulled Keira’s phone off of the charger and silenced it.

“You know she’s going to keep calling until you answer.”

But Keira didn’t want to hear her mother’s voice. She didn’t want to do anything but lay on her bed and make herself sick on Doritos. She had a meet in the morning, one she knew she wasn’t prepared for, but her temper had not waned much since she left Kona, and carb loading in the worst possible way was the only thing that helped mollify her anger. Her guitar was less than four feet from her and she couldn’t even bother to reach for it, to make those strings and her father’s finger grooves work their magic on her temper.

“Why isn’t your voice mail picking up?” Keira’s cousin moved around the room, digging through her clothes, slinging pumps and wedges across the floor. When the dorm phone started to chime, she threw it onto Keira’s bed, barely missing her temple. “It’s her. Answer the freaking phone, Keira.”

“No. She’s just going to bitch at me.”

Keira heard her cousin’s curse; low, vicious little words that should have made her blush, and she smiled, thinking of her mother’s reaction if she could somehow hear her niece. “Fine, be a little shit.” And then the smile moved off Keira’s face as Leann took the call. “Hello, Aunt Cora, how are you?” The saccharine tone was rude and Keira was sure her mother was telling Leann not to be glib. “Oh, yes, she’s right here, stuffing her face with—”

“Are you stupid?” Keira said, jerking the phone out of her cousin’s hand. “You know you know what a psycho she is about junk food.” Leann gave Keira the finger, then returned to her digging before the girl had a second enough to clear her throat. “Mother?”

“Keira, what in God’s name are you eating?”

She pulled the phone against her chest and growled at her cousin. “I am going to kick your scrawny little ass.” She knew her mother was still talking, likely asking questions and, sure enough, when she returned the receiver to her ear, the lecture hadn’t even slowed.

“… irresponsible. With your hips, you have to be extra cautious of what you eat and your skin, Keira… how often have we been to see the dermatologist? You know what junk food does to your…?”

“Mother. Please. Leann was joking. I’m not eating anything.” Her cousin’s glare was ridiculous—tightened eyes and a severe line pulling her mouth that made Leann look old. Keira ignored her, then cringed when she heard her mother’s long breath on the other end of the phone.

“Well, that’s good at least. You can tell Leann I don’t appreciate her little joke.”

“Oh, I’m sure she knows that.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” There was something off in her mother’s voice, as though she was waiting for Keira to fill the small beats of quiet that generally were never allowed in their conversations. “Awkward silences are rude, Keira,” she’d always told her. Her mother was waiting, expecting and with her head still muddled by Kona and Tonya Lucas, Keira couldn’t remember what her mother wanted.

“Um, so, why did you call?”

Another long exhale told Keira she’d already made a mistake. Slumping against the bed, she curled her knees to her chest and watched Leann flutter around the room like a bee. “Keira, really? Have you forgotten? Mark was so looking forward to seeing you. He called, of course? I knew he would when Steven told me he gave the boy your number.”

The only comfort came to her behind her closed eyelids. Her mother was meddlesome, nosy, and Steven seemed to agree that Mark was a perfect match for her. He’d apologized when he called three nights before, said he didn’t want her to think he was falling in line with her mother’s plan, and after the awkwardness passed, Keira had shuffled around her discomfort until his laughter relaxed her, until she had half-heartedly agreed to a date. She’d already put it out of her head, too consumed by distracting her thoughts from Kona.

“He called. We’re supposed to be meeting up tonight.”

“What do you mean ‘meeting up’? Isn’t he taking you out on a proper date?”

“Mother, it’s not like that. It’s casual.”

There was a brief pause and Keira could almost hear her mother’s thoughts, the interworkings of agendas, calculating ways in which Keira could make Mark helpless to her “female charms.” Her mother’s term, definitely not hers.

“Hmm, casual isn’t terrible, I suppose.” It took her mother three full seconds to switch tactics and then she was off with a litany of demands and questions. “What will you wear? Make certain your hair is off your neck. It’s one of your better attributes. Men like necks and a lot of skin, but don’t dress like a whore…”