Matchplay A New Adult Romance - By Dakota Madison Page 0,64

like me?” she asked softly. Even though she was beautiful, she seemed so unsure of herself.

“I think he’d like you a lot. Can I get your phone number? I can have him call you. His name is Lucas.

He’s my roommate’s brother.”

When we got out to the bonfire, I froze when I saw the seating arrangements. There were four small benches set around the fire pit. Dan was seated by himself, obviously waiting for Autumn to sit next to him. Alex and Monica were seated together on a bench. Evan was by himself on a bench and Keira and Aaron were seated together. Keira looked very comfortable sitting extremely close to my boyfriend. At one point, she even placed a hand on his leg and he didn’t make a move to stop her. I felt sick. I thought my dinner would come right up out of my stomach.

I decided I was still going to fight the battle because I wasn’t ready for Keira to win the war. I

marched up to the space between Evan’s bench and Aaron and Keira’s bench.

I looked right at Aaron. “Any room for me?”

Aaron looked up at me and gulped. Keira gave me a cat-that-just-ate-the-canary smile. Bitch.

Aaron turned to Keira and said, “Why don’t you sit with Evan? He has room on his bench.”

She didn’t move a muscle. She didn’t even have the decency to remove her hand from Aaron’s thigh.

“Maybe I don’t want to sit with Evan,” she said coyly.

“Please,” Aaron said to Keira. “Rainy needs a place to sit.”

“She can sit with Evan,” Keira said eyeing me.

“Do I have some kind of disease?” Evan muttered. “Why doesn’t anyone want to sit with me?”

I glared at Aaron. He looked about as sick as I felt. It was obvious Keira had no intentions of moving.

I waited for Aaron to do something. He could have asked Evan to take his seat with Keira and we could have taken Evan’s bench. He should have never allowed her to sit with him in the first place. I would have even been willing to sit on the ground with him, if he’d had asked me. So many scenarios played in my mind but Aaron did nothing. He just sat there.

Finally, I composed myself, took a deep breath and said, “Okay, I’ll make this easier for everyone.

I’m tired anyway, so I’ll just go to bed.”

Before anyone could respond, I marched away, toward the house. I nearly made it into the cabin, when Aaron grabbed my elbow. “Rainy, wait.”

I turned to face him. He had sadness in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I never should have let Keira sit there.

She said she needed to tell me something. I thought she would tell me and then sit somewhere else. But she never left.”

I nodded. “Why did you let her put her hands all over you? You know how much I hate it when other girls touch you. We’ve talked about that, Aaron.”

“I guess I don’t see Keira as another girl. Our families have known each other for years. We grew up together.”

I drew in a deep breath. “You do realize that she thinks our relationship is just a fling and when you graduate, you’re going to move on and marry her.”

Aaron didn’t seem surprised by my statement. “I know what she thinks but she’s wrong. You’re the one I love, Sunshine. You’re the one I’ll always love.”

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to go back to it just being the two of us in a condo in Florida. I

didn’t want anyone else or anything else to interfere with our relationship. But I also realized that was probably unrealistic because we lived in a world with other people, all of whom had their own agendas and expectations.

“Please don’t let Keira come between us,” Aaron pleaded. “I don’t want to be with her. I want to be with you.”

I nodded and Aaron embraced me in a hug. Then we both went in and went to bed.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. Every awful thing that Keira said to me replayed in my mind. I didn’t want to believe that Aaron would eventually choose her over me but why wouldn’t he? It would make things so much easier. Keira had found my Achilles’ heel within seconds and knew how to kill me with it.

Maybe she would win the war in the end.

I got up as quietly as I could and threw on some sweat pants and a sweat shirt. I thought maybe I could clear my head in