Coastal Runaway (Coast to Coast #1)

Nine

nine

Luke

Nolan

Happy end of sylly week, brother! Get ready, we’re going out tonight.

No.

Nolan

Come on! I need my wingman and you are in need of a beautiful woman to turn that grumpy frown upside down.

What happened to Lindsay?

Nolan

She got attached and you know how I feel about that.

I stared down at my phone as I left my last class of the day. It was Friday and I had successfully survived my first week of classes. One day Nolan was going to have to face the reason why he was allergic to commitment, but I knew today was not that day. I considered his offer for a few minutes before texting back.

Okay, fine, but only because classes have barely started and there’s no work yet.

Don’t make me regret this.

Nolan

You’re most likely going to regret this.

I totally regretted this.

Nolan scouted out a few options for us tonight and landed on a house party being thrown by one of his teammates in West Hollywood. We pulled up in an Uber to a house that was bursting out the front door with people. Nolan introduced me to some friends and we decided to congregate at the beer pong table in the backyard.

“Next up, Team Brews Brothers against Team Beerleaders!” Shouted the guy who I thought was named Jay. He lived here and had been running the beer pong tournament with an iron fist.

Nolan and I, Team Brews Brothers, walked to our end of the table waiting to see who we were about to dominate in this game. Little did everyone here know, Nolan and I were undefeated.

We planned to keep it that way.

Nolan smirked at me and nodded his head towards the backdoor of the house where I saw the ice queen herself walking up to the table with the brunette girl that I remembered sitting next to Keegan when I first arrived at the Malibu house.

The crowd seemed to part as Keegan walked in with confidence, like no one would dare step in her way.

“We got this in the bag,” Nolan said confidently as he gestured to the girls.

While Nolan and I ran every pong table that we played on in high school, Keegan usually gave up after one game because she was so bad. That girl was competitive; she didn’t like playing games that she wasn’t the best at.

Keegan’s friend whispered something in her ear that made Keegan glance at me quickly before looking back at her friend with a scowl. The two of them very confidently walked to the opposite side of the table and placed their hands on their hips, clearly not messing around.

“Ladies first,” Nolan said as he bowed and gestured his arm towards the table, “do you girls need a handicap? What do you say, Mags? Two cups?” Nolan winked, twirling the two ping pong balls between his fingers before rolling them across the table.

Keegan’s friend gave him a flirty smile, “It’s probably only fair since we really don’t play this game a lot.” She fluttered her eyelashes towards Nolan before she added, “but also we like to play fair, and don’t want any special treatment just because we’re two inexperienced girls.” Then she sent the first ball sailing through the air; it landed with an audible plop in the front cup.

Nolan’s face dropped and Maggie gave him a devious smirk. Keegan burst into a fit of giggles before turning towards the cups, focused on the game. She immediately sank her ball, turning to Maggie and raising her hand up for a high-five. The few spectators that started to gather when Keegan walked up to the table cheered for the girls. Loudly.

We sent both balls back to them as Nolan mumbled, “beginners luck.”

Maggie and Keegan managed to get the balls back again before missing their shots on their third turn, which left Nolan and I behind by four cups in just the first round.

“I thought Keegan sucked at this game,” I whispered to Nolan who looked concerned.

“So did I,” he said, glancing at his sister, “she’s refused to play every time I’ve asked.”

“Well, clearly she's been practicing,” I said before sinking a ball in our first cup of the game. I shot Keegan a wink which made her roll her eyes.

This was going to be fun .

The game continued until we were down to one cup on each side of the table. The girls were giving us a run for our money and they were openly enjoying it. I was playing well but I also had to work hard not to be distracted by the girl across the table.

She was wearing a cropped, long sleeve, black top that went straight across her chest. It was so low cut that you could see the black lace cups of her bra, showing off glorious cleavage. It made my mind go wild as I remembered what’s hidden underneath. She paired it with black jeans that were practically painted on and black thigh-high boots that made my mouth water.

I couldn’t help but picture her in my bed—wearing those boots, and nothing else.

I glanced up to see Keegan looking back at me. She definitely caught me checking her out but didn’t shrink away from it. Instead, she held her head high as if to say “you can look, but you can’t touch.”

Yes, I was brutally aware.

Keegan leaned over to whisper in Maggie's ear. Maggie covered her mouth with her hand, stifling a laugh, and then she nodded. Turning back to the table, Keegan raised a finger and tapped her lip, “let’s make a little wager, shall we?”

“What do you have in mind, baby sister?” Nolan smirked, trying to get a rise out of her because he knew that Keegan hated when he called her that.

Keegan looked bored. She removed an invisible piece of lint from her clothing, seemingly unfazed by Nolan's negging, before she locked eyes with him and said “If we win, then you two are on dish duty for two weeks.”

Nolan contemplated that for a moment. He looked downright devious when he answered, “Fine, and if we win, you girls have to clean our rooms for two weeks.”

Maggie gave him a look of disgust, gagging for dramatic effect, before she agreed, “Fine. Take your shot.”

Nolan was up first.

“You got this, bro,” I said before he aimed the ball and sent it flying.

It sank in the remaining cup.

“Let’s go!” I slapped both hands on Nolan’s shoulders and gave them a tight squeeze, shaking him slightly until his signature booming laugh rang loudly over the crowd. When I turned back to the table, I locked eyes with Keegan before aiming my shot. Just as I was about to shoot, her hand shifted slightly, sending her drink to the ground .

“Oops,” she giggled before turning around and bending over, painfully slowly, leaving her ass in the air. Completely distracted, I tossed the ball, and it completely overshot the table. She sprang back up, and Maggie tackled her in a hug with a cheer.

“That’s cheating!” Nolan yelled, pointing at the girls who couldn’t stop laughing. Nolan turned to me shoving my chest playfully, “dude, come on! How could you let them play you like that! It’s not even a hot girl,” he scrunched his face looking over his shoulder, “it’s Keegan.” He gagged.

I shrugged, “I’m only human… She’s not my sister.”

Maggie shot first for their team and sank the ball; the girl was on fire tonight. Keegan stepped up to the table. If she made this shot they would win; if she missed we would go into overtime.

Keegan held her hand up to aim the ball, “you’ll look good in some rubber gloves.” Then without breaking eye contact with me, she sent the ball flying and it landed with so much force that water came up over the edges of the cup.

The crowd that had congregated around our very intense game of beer pong burst into cheers. The girls jumped up and down screaming as random onlookers offered high-fives and congratulations. Something I couldn’t help but notice was that no one bothered to watch the beer pong games before Keegan showed up.

Maggie and Keegan walked up to us with the confidence of champions before offering us their hands.

“Good game.” Maggie said, looking directly at Nolan. Keegan stood in front of me and gestured down to her extended hand. I shook it without looking away from her face; the moment our hands connected, I felt warm all over.

Maggie and Nolan were distracted, talking to some friends who had approached after the game ended. I leaned down into Keegan’s space and whispered in her ear, “you played dirty Tig,” she sucked in a breath, “don’t tell me you forget what happens to girls who are bad.”

I chuckled, riling up Keegan was my favorite pastime.

I swore that I heard a very subtle moan leave her mouth before she snatched her hand away and scurried in the opposite direction towards the house.

Always the runner.