Free Keeping the Beat: An Adrenaline Novel by Morgan O'Hara Page B

before plopping down into the recliner next to mine with a loud sigh.
                  “I’m bored,” he complained giving me a pathetic look. “Reece and Simon are in school. Lucas and Garret are fishing. Kenzie is in town. Wyatt is God knows where and Mrs. Cooper is packing for her vacation.”
                  “So what you're saying is I’m your last resort?”              
                  My friend grinned and nodded his head. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
                  I nodded in acknowledgement and tried to relax in my seat. Declan and I hadn't spent much time together since we had gotten back home. Things had been tense between us since the night of Kenzie’s birthday party, even more so over the last few weeks.
                  “So I talked to Kenzie,” Declan spoke without taking his eyes off of the television. “She told me that you guys are back to being friends.”
                  I turned my head to look at him, feeling a huge smile take over my face. “She did?”
                  Flicking his eyes to me, Declan gave a curt nod.
                  I bit my tongue to keep myself from asking him if she had said anything else about me. If Kenzie had told Declan that we were on good terms again then it had to be for real. Those two were as close as any siblings could be. Hell, Declan was basically Kenzie’s father.
                  “She’s obviously forgiven you for however you fucked up.” Throwing the remote on the end table he focused his icy blue stare on me. “Just to be clear, I haven't.”               “Wouldn't expect you too.” I didn't bother denying that mine and Kenzie’s falling out was my fault. We both knew that it was. Kenzie was too kindhearted to ever hurt someone she loved. Unlike me who had done nothing but hurt the people I loved the most continuously over the past year.
                  The conversation I’d had with Garret had stuck with me long after it had ended. My cousin didn't think I was a bad guy, but if he knew what I came from then he wouldn't want me anywhere near Kenzie. If Declan knew, I doubted that I would ever see her again.
                  I didn't talk about my early childhood for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I liked to pretend that it had never happened. That everything I’d experienced living with my parent’s had happened to someone else and not to me. With Uncle Leonard gone, Aunt Lorraine was the only one left who knew what had actually happened to my family. Thankfully my aunt never brought it up. She never told her kids about it either even though I knew those nosey bastards had asked her endless questions about why their foreign cousin was coming to stay with them on a permanent basis.
                  A few days after moving from Australia
    when I had been getting settled in at the farm, I had heard the twins badgering Aunt Lorraine in the kitchen. They kept asking about why I had a black eye and a broken arm, wondering what had happened to me. The more she evaded their questions, the more curious they became.
                  I had sat in my new room with my ear to the door waiting for her to breakdown and tell them what had happened to her sister. When Uncle Leonard’s calm voice had spoken the twin’s questions slid back down their throats. I’d never asked what he’d said to make them shut up, but they had never asked about my parent’s again after that.
                  “You seem to be in a better mood,” Declan commented as he picked the remote back up. “Did you and Garret make up too?”
                  “You could say that,” I shrugged. “Glad everything is out in the open now.”
                  Declan gave me a look I couldn't decipher before shaking his head. “He seems a lot happier now.