His Little Secret by Aubree Valentine
Chapter Six
Brooke
I’ve never felt so free.
Now that I’m no longer taking English 208, we don’t have to hide anymore.
That means exploring Rocky Cove together, eating wherever we want and hanging out with our friends.
Friends like Constance and Lawson who have seemed to hit it off. Maybe a little too much.
Constance looks up from her laptop while I’m reading and clears her throat. “So, Lawson told me about the first time he formerly met you.”
I laugh out loud. “Oh, did he?”
“He mentioned something about a sock?” she goes on.
“Keegan wanted to kill him,” I add.
“Well,” she blushes. “It wasn’t a sock at all.”
“What?” I sputter.
“Brooke. He’s…” she makes a demonstration with her hand, leaving me gagging.
“Constance, some things I don’t need to know.”
“Whatever. It’s not like we can’t hear you and Keegan having sex all the time.”
My eyes widen, “You cannot!”
“Yes. Yes, we can,” she giggled. “The walls in that apartment are thin.”
I grab a pillow off my bed and bury my face in it. “I’m mortified.”
“Shit, girl. Don’t be. You needed to get laid,” she teases.
I toss the same pillow at her head. “I hate you, Constance.”
“You do not,” Constance laughs.
It’s good to see her happy. Not that she wasn’t a happy person before, but now that she’s with Lawson – she’s lighter and more relaxed.
“We’re going to Pizza My Heart later. Do you and Keegan want to come?”
“I appreciate the offer but, he’s coming to pick me up soon. He’s introducing me to his parents this weekend.”
“WOW! That’s like next level stuff right there. Are you ready for that?”
Her question catches me off guard and I have to ponder it for a moment. “You know, everything about our relationship has been unconventional, this feels like the most normal thing we’ve done.”
Constance reaches into our mini fridge and grabs her stash of chocolate. She tosses one to me then pops another in her mouth. “You have a point there. I guess I’ll just stay with Lawson tonight since we’ll have the whole place to ourselves,” she winks, and I pretend to gag again.
The pillow I threw at her earlier comes barreling back at my head.
* * *
When Constance asked if I was ready to meet Keegan’s parents, I thought I was.
Nothing could have prepared me for the Fuller’s though.
Keegan’s mom, Tracey, is waiting for us the moment we pull into their driveway. I barely have time to take in everything before she’s wrapping me in a hug. At five-foot-two- I’ve got a few inches on her but she’s quite adorable and quirky.
“Brooke, I am so happy to finally meet you. It’s been such a long time since Keegan’s brought a woman home to meet us and well, from what he’s told me, you are just too prefect.”
Keegan shakes his head and hugs his mother. “Laying it on a little thick, aren’t you Ma?”
“I promise, Mrs. Fuller, I am far from perfect, but I do love your son.”
“Please, don’t call me Mrs. Fuller. Mrs. Fuller is my late mother-in-law, God rest her soul. I’m just Tracey or Mom. Whichever you prefer.”
“Let the kids get in the door Trace,” a man who looks like he could be Keegan’s twin opens the screen door and steps onto the porch.
“Hey, Dad,” Keegan nods and guides me up the steps with his hand on the small of my back. “This is Brooke.”
“Nice to meet you, Brooke. I’m glad you could join us.”
“I’m excited to see where Keegan grew up. He talks a lot about this place.”
“Well, come on in and let us show you around,” Mr. Fuller says as he holds the door open for us.
The cottage house that Keegan grew up in is so cozy. And the view from the back porch is breath taking. I can literally picture a much younger Keegan playing in the front yard with his friends or running around on the beach in the summer.
It’s a stark difference from the urban townhouse that I grew up in and I can see why Keegan has always wanted to stay in Rocky Cove.
“See that old light house over there,” Keegan walks up behind me and points to a light house to the left.
“Mhm,” I reply, leaning back into his arms.
“We used to play hide and seek there all the time. There were rumors that it was haunted by a lost sailor and the light housekeeper who found his body washed ashore.
A cold chill runs up my spine. “Okay, that’s kinda creepy. Did you ever see a ghost there?”
“I didn’t. Lawson swears he did.”
“What is Lawson’s deal anyway? He moved in with you closer to campus but he’s not going to Thackery.”
Keegan shrugs. “For as funny and outgoing as Lawson can be, he’s a bit of a loner. His sister died in a car accident right before we graduated high school and he lost his way for a bit. He was actually enrolled at Thackery but got kicked out for partying too much.”
“Oh, wow.”
“He’s a good guy. I know Constance is your friend and neither of us want to see her get hurt. Lawson’s not that type. He’ll treat her right.”
“He better,” I reply.
“His parents used to live next door. They moved to another state after Laurel died. Lawson refused to go, so he moved in with me. He never comes back here though.”
“I can’t imagine how hard that must have been.”
“Yeah, we all took it pretty hard. Lauren was a force to be reckoned with. Fun, outgoing, loved hard.”
Something in Keegan’s voice tells me there’s a lot more to it than that.
“How old was she?”
“Lawson and Laurel were twins. Lawson’s a year older than me.”
Realization creeps in and I think I know why Keegan’s been so somber about this visit to his parents. “Were you and Laurel ever, you know, together?”
Keegan’s head drops to my shoulder and his voice softens. “For the sake of being honest, yes. I thought I was going to marry her one day.”
I turn around and cup his face in mine. “I’m so sorry that you lost her.”
He swallows hard and wraps his arms around me. “I lost my way for a while there too. My parents were really worried that I was going to blow everything.”
“That’s why you’ve worked so hard for the last few years, and why you were so adamant about things between us. Because you could afford to mess things up again.” I ramble out loud.
“Yup,” he admits. “It’s not something I really like to talk about.”
“I understand. Thank you for being honest with me though.”
“Everything with you has caught me so off guard. I never thought I’d fall in love like that again, and then you came walking into my classroom that day. For the first time in my life, I thought there was hope.”
I hug him even tighter, “I love you.”
“I love you too, Brooke. And I really don’t mean that lightly.”
“I know.”
Keegan blows out a heavy breath. “I was supposed to be coming to tell you dinner’s ready,” he laughs, trying to lighten the mood.
“Then we’d better go eat,” I tell him. “Are you okay?”
“Perfect,” he says back, like he means it.
