Thin Love (31 page)

Silently, Keira started to count. Small numbers that were meant to help her control her anger, but as she watched the professor’s eyebrows extend and the stark dip of her mouth, Keira let her concentration from each number slip.

She leaned against the woman’s desk brimming with irritation. “My performance improved from the 3.95 average to the 4.12 average when the cross country season ended and I had more time to study. That freed up at least seventeen hours a week and I was able to devote more time to all of my classes.” She stood up, smiling when some of the professor’s conviction waned. “I carry twenty-one hours, Professor Alana, which means I have to find some way to study for a huge course load and yet, by some miracle, this stupid
haole
is able to maintain a 4.0, same as I did in high school when I graduated as Valedictorian. If you’re going to make assumptions and accuse me of cheating, then maybe you should have actual proof first.”

She didn’t wait for whatever was threatening to leave the woman’s mouth. Keira knew what this was about and she knew fighting with Kona’s mother because the woman wasn’t getting all his attention would only cause drama between them. Things had been great for the past three weeks and other than the occasional moody comment each of them made when practice and classes had them snapping at each other, she and Kona hadn’t fought once. She didn’t want his mother to change that.

She was almost to the door when she heard the professor’s chair scratch against the floor. “How do you know I don’t have proof? I’m a professor, Ms. Riley. Proof is fairly easy to come by.” There was a threat in that statement, one that made Keira pause, one that had her balling her hands into fists until her nails bit against her palm. There was no way she was going to let this woman screw with her grade.

Keira turned around, took the steps slowly, tilting her head to watch Professor Alana. “Why not discuss the thing that’s really pissing you off?” When the professor’s expression remained blank, Keira shook her head, finding it difficult not to laugh at how the woman seemed to force herself not to frown. “You want to know about me and Kona?”

“I want you to realize this won’t have a happy ending.” She left her chair, movements elegant, easy, before she sat on the edge of her desk. “What do you imagine will happen? You and Kona date through college and then what? You get married?” The women brushed her long, black braid off her shoulder and a weird flush colored her dark complexion. “Have children? Struggle when the pressures of his career and your lack of one chip away at something that should have never happened to begin with? I know what your intentions are, but I can promise you I won’t let you or anyone else threaten my son’s future.”

It took Keira a few seconds to let the professor’s words sink in. She and Kona had known each other for two months and had only been officially dating for less than half of that time. His mother had never liked her, even before she met Kona. Keira didn’t know or care why, but now she had them married with children in something that resembled a bitter, loveless union. Keira hadn’t even slept with him yet, much to her frustration, so why would she even be thinking about their future?

What the hell is this woman’s problem?

“Lady, get one thing straight about me right now.” She stepped forward and the professor’s easy lean against her desk became straight, uncomfortable. “I don’t give a shit about money and fame and all that bullshit. I don’t believe in marriage and I’ve known for a long damn time that happily ever afters only exist in Disney films. If you’d get your nose out of the air for five minutes, you’d realize I’m not some football groupie and I’m nothing like most of the girls on this campus. My plans are my business and if they concern a life with Kona, then great. Right now I like being with him and whether you believe it or not, he likes being with me.”

When the woman’s eyes slipped to narrow slits that barely revealed the whites of her eyes, Keira let her anger go, realizing that arguing with this lunatic was pointless. “This whole Oedipus vibe you’re giving off is stupid and pointless. I’m not trying to steal your boy from you and I have no ideas about the potential wealth he might have one day. I’ll make my own way. I always have. That won’t change just because Kona is in my life now.”

She was done with this woman. Done with the territorial claim she wanted to make over Kona. Keira turned on her heel, took three steps toward the door before the woman’s voice stopped her.

“You are an insulting, disrespectful brat, Keira Riley and I promise I can make things very difficult for you.” Keira looked over her shoulder, watching Alana as she stepped away from her desk. “Starting with your academic standing.”

It was rare that Keira used her “rich bitch” card, but this woman was trying to use her teaching position as a tactical advantage, trying to scare Keira with the flagrant threat of claiming she was a cheater. Instead, Keira let a wide, lethal smile pull her mouth until her cheeks ached. The Cheshire smile, as Kona called it.

“Oh, you can try it. It might actually be funny to watch you accuse me, of all people, of something I would never do.” She turned around and dropped down one step. “I can imagine you going to the dean, or as my mom calls him, Mikey. They’re second cousins. Did you know that? Or,” she said, taking another step, “maybe the Chancellor, you know, Uncle Bobby. He was my dad’s best friend in college. They were frat brothers and he made sure that I landed the room I wanted when I applied here and that my cousin and I didn’t get stuck in the smallest freshman dorm.”

Keira’s smile lowered but it wasn’t because she felt less confident or was no longer amused by the ridiculous way Professor Alana seemed to have been completely deflated as she fell back against her desk.

“You’re on a tenure track, right? I’m sure you’ve been working your ass off jumping through all those little hoops you academic types have to navigate to make sure you’re approved for the whole ‘job for life’ gig.” Keira used her fingers to air quote the phrase. “Let’s see, History Department… the head of the tenure committee would be Sarah Broussard. Nice lady who also works with the Alumni Services, specifically the fundraising board, an organization that my mother and her husband… you know, the cardiologist who saved your father’s life? Yeah, that’s him, well, they both donate substantially to the university.”

Professor Alana’s face had gone pale, but the shock didn’t make Keira feel good. She wouldn’t mention to the woman that Keira had nothing more than passing acquaintances with the people she mentioned.

“I want you out of my class.”

“Not a problem.” Keira had planned on heading to the History Department office for a drop slip just as soon as she left Professor Alana’s classroom, anyway. Keira jogged up the steps, but before she opened the door, she leveled one last warning at Kona’s mother.

“One more thing. If you ever threaten me again, make sure you’re ready for a fight. I might be a kid, I might even be a trust fund brat, but lady, I’m not a coward. I’m a CPU Legacy with a very bored mother who likes to start shit. I promise you, you don’t wanna mess with either of us.”

Keira was going to do something for love. Well, not love, she didn’t
think
. Not yet anyway, but she was going to do something she never thought she would because her boyfriend—she was still getting used to the term—asked her to.

She was going to a Blue Devils game.

Kona had been giddy, mildly ridiculous when she agreed and he promised her a great seat, two of them since Keira bribed Leann into going with her. She was fifty bucks poorer, and somewhat surprised at how excited she was to watch Kona play. Not that she’d tell him that. His ego was too inflated already.

The temperature was frigid for November, especially this early in the month and Keira pulled her scarf closer to her neck, leaning back when Leann slipped her hand in the pocket of Keira’s wool pea coat.

“Where are the tickets?”

She slapped her cousin’s hand away and reached inside her pocket to hand Leann her ticket. “Take this. I’m gonna go wish Kona luck. He said the team would be lining up a half hour before the game and the girlfriends usually come by for good luck kisses.” Leann looked at her like Keira was sporting horns
and
a halo. “What?”

“You. Oh my God. Are you turning into one of those sports groupies?” She stepped closer, grabbing Keira’s hand. “Are you gonna start following the team to all the games and then steal Kona’s sweaty, stinky jersey so you can wear it while you get off?”

“Shut up.” Keira looked around them, hoping no one had overheard her cousin and then decided she didn’t care if they had. Leann’s smile and high laugh had her returning the grin. She started to step away, but then pulled her cousin close, whispering in her ear. “FYI, I don’t need to jerk off. Kona does it for me.”

Keira loved the open-mouth, wind-knocked-out-of-her expression that crossed Leann’s face. It made her laugh and when her cousin called after her as she walked toward the locker room, that laugh only got louder. “Who are you? What have you done with my sweet, innocent cousin?”

“Some big Hawaiian corrupted her!” she shouted over her shoulder.

She was still smiling when she walked down the corridor leading to the player’s locker room, ignoring the looks she got the closer she came to the doors. There were girls sporting team jerseys, blue and white scarves and hats that made them look like everyone else in the stadium.

A few girls Keira recognized from the two times she’d gone back to the team house while Kona grabbed a book or changed his clothes before they went out. She’d never been in his room, never wanted to be in the place where he’d defiled one girl after another, but she had waited on the den sofa, sometimes with Luka, sometimes with a few of these girls staring her down in the corridor.

Feeling a little excited and still giggling to herself about Leann’s reaction, Keira wiggled her fingers to a particularly gawky girl as she passed the bathrooms. The brunette with tiny, hooded eyes rolled them at Keira and then she leaned next to her friend, hurriedly saying something that Keira thought sounded like “crazy bitch.” She didn’t care. Her time with Kona, their relationship, his rough kisses, his tender, sweet touches had transformed Keira so that the looks she got didn’t matter. She had Kona. He was all she needed.

There was a wave of blue and white, more girls, some blatantly gawking at her that filled around the locker room doorway, waiting for their men, or who they hoped would be their men. Keira hated leaning against the wall, hated that she was among the same vapid, eager girls who congregated at the team house hoping for an empty bed, but she kept her eyes on the line of players as the doors opened, ignoring the high screams and the grabbing hands, moving her head and gaze over each body, looking for Kona.

When the last of the players—Nathan and Brian who winked at her in between quick kisses—filed down the corridor and Kona still hadn’t emerged, Keira frowned, worried that she’d missed him. Gazing back toward the players and their following groupies, Keira was about to leave, to try and see if she could spot Kona before the players took the field, but the door opened again and Luka emerged, stopping short when he saw her.

“Keira.” He said her name like a point of fact, not a question that told her he was surprised to see her. Then, sounding oddly relieved, he said it again. “Keira.”

“Hey.” She met him just in front of the door worried when Luka’s expression read hard and anxious. “Where’s Kona?”

Keira had never seen Luka when he didn’t have a wide, welcoming smile on his face. But he stood in front her, head moving between her and the door behind him with his mouth set in a harsh line. There was something in his eyes, some small glint that Keira understood to be concern, perhaps indecision. He finally exhaled and closed his eyes as though what he was about to say pained him. Instantly, Keira’s thoughts went back to Lucy’s and the angry scowl Luka carried on his face when he pointed Kona out across the bar. When Kona took a shot from the redhead’s cleavage.

“Tell me.” When Luka didn’t quite meet her eyes, she jerked on his arm, bringing his attention back to her. “Who is she?”

His fingers went through his hair. It was longer, wavier than Kona’s and Keira absently wondered if Luka kept his hair long to stand out from his brother.

“It’s not a girl.” He took Keira’s hand, threaded his fingers with hers and sighed. “You need to know and, Keira,” he looked at her then, eyes glassy. Luka’s voice shook, like he could keep control of his emotion. “I just…” he released her hand and rubbed his palms into his eyes and Keira caught his desperation, the weakened way his shoulders slumped. “I just can’t do this alone anymore. I need your help.”