Page 3 of Keegan: The Murphy Family
When I returned to Chicago, I’d hoped I might see him…just a glimpse, just to know he was doing fine. But I hadn’t expected to be thinking about him constantly this way.
He’d walked me to the bus station that night ten years ago. We’d held hands. I knew he was holding me because he wanted to console me, to make me feel better. But I couldn’t help but hope it was also because he wanted to remember the touch of my hand.
He didn’t want to know where I was going, so I didn’t tell him. Secretly, I’d hoped that he would look for me soon. That in a few months, we would be reunited again.
But Keegan never came looking for me.
I took the bus to Nashville, where I knew my aunt Lisa lived with her family. When I showed up at their door the next afternoon, she was shocked. But I knew they wouldn’t turn me away.
All I told them was that dad was dead. He’d suffered a sudden heart attack and died in the hospital. They knew I had nowhere else to go, that I had nobody besides them. I told them I’d already buried him…that his work colleagues had taken care of the burial. I was sure that aunt Lisa and her family didn’t buy that excuse. But they also knew better than to ask me many questions.
It was an open secret who my father worked for. They had their suspicions, but they kept it to themselves. All these years that aunt Lisa and her family looked after me, gave me a roof over my head and made sure I had as normal a life as they could manage—I would be grateful to them for.
But I had to leave. Nashville was never home. Chicago was where my heart was, where I’d left my old life behind. Over the years, I hoped and wished that some day, Keegan would find me but eventually I realized he didn’t want to.
We led separate lives now and that was how he wanted it to stay.
I sat on the bench, drinking my juice. It was aunt Lisa and her family I was thinking about. I called them a few times since my arrival in Chicago. I knew they were worried for me. But they couldn’t stop me from returning to Chicago, they knew I was going to go back some day.
I was still lost in thought; when a muscle car pulled into the parking lot. It wasn’t until I heard the driver’s door bang shut, that I looked up—being snapped out of my thoughts.
For a few moments, I just stared ahead…looking at the man who’d climbed out of the car. I blinked. The realization hit me like a jolt.
Keegan. It was Keegan walking towards me now. I thought I was dreaming. It couldn’t be him. More than a month later, was it really him who’d appeared out of the blue?
He looked quite the same, only taller and more muscular. His reddish brown hair was cut short, close to his skull. His eyes were as green as always. His face was angular and chiseled, like his wide shoulders and his muscular chest.
The juice box dropped to the ground from my hand. I was stunned into silence. Ten years later, and seeing Keegan again had the same effect on me. I was speechless with my feelings for him. They’d gone nowhere. Only now, they weren’t just giddy teenage feelings, they were hot womanly emotions. I wanted him, from the first moment I saw him. I felt a tightness in my belly that I couldn’t describe.
5
Keegan
The first thing I did when I got out of prison, was get in my car and drive to Billy’s Diner. The place O’Leary said Fallon worked. I hoped I’d see her there, that she’d be on her shift.
After I’d parked my car in the lot, I got out and walked towards the diner. She was on my mind. I was feeling jittery with anxiety. I wanted to see her, as much as I wished she hadn’t come back.
As I walked towards the doors of the diner, I didn’t even notice the girl sitting on the bench at the side. She was looking straight at me, while my mind remained occupied.
It was only when she made a movement, to tuck some of her stray curls behind her ears—that my eyes adjusted to her presence. I stopped in my tracks, literally. I was too in shock to say anything or move. She was sitting on that bench just a few feet away from me. I thought I was going to explode.
It was Fallon. She was in the diner uniform, and she looked absolutely delicious in it. The truth was, that I would have recognized her anywhere. Her face looked the same, but she was taller now, just by a few inches. And she’d filled out. The Fallon I remembered, was a teenager and the person sitting in front of me was a woman.
Her hair was still the same length. Long and full of delicate waves and curls. She’d tied it up in a loose braid today and it lay plump on her left shoulder. Fallon didn’t need makeup. Her cheeks were a bright pink, to match her bulbous kissable pink lips. Her blue eyes were wide in surprise and she was staring at me like she’d seen a ghost.
I’d stopped in my tracks and said nothing, and neither had she.
My gaze travelled from her face, down to her full breasts underneath the flimsy uniform shirt she was wearing. Her long pale smooth legs under that short skirt…she’d developed curves. In all the right places. Even though she was sitting down, and I hadn’t seen her in full; I knew she had the kind of body that made my mouth water.
Fallon Donovan was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever set my eyes on.
“Keegan…” she whispered my name, low enough for me to nearly miss hearing her voice.
“Fallon!” I exclaimed. She stood up from the bench with a jerk, her hands clasped together in nervousness. I wondered if she was going through the same thing I was—an utter helplessness.
I wanted to pull her into my arms and kiss her. I wanted to tell her exactly how much I’d missed her. That I thought of her every night.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, breaking the cold silence between us.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied.
“I work here,” she said. I could see that Fallon was struggling to meet my eyes. Her cheeks were ruddy and flushed. She was standing in a nervous stance…was she afraid of me? Was she upset to see me? I didn’t know what she wanted.
“You know what I mean, Fallon. What are you doing in Chicago?” I asked, stepping closer to her.
She kept her chin up, trying to look up at me with a strong gaze.
“Thank you for the warm welcome, Keegan. It’s great seeing you again too,” she said.
I watched her for a few moments, breathing heavily as I drank her in. Nothing about my feelings for Fallon had changed. She was still the only girl who could make me weak in the knees like this. I wanted to pin her to the wall and ravage her body—what I’d always wanted to do.
“It’s good seeing you again as well, Fallon. I hoped that I wouldn’t have to say it to prove it to you,” I said.
She rolled her eyes, smirking mockingly at me as she looked away from me now.
“You didn’t write to me once, Keegan! You never came looking for me. You had no idea where I was. How do you think I was supposed to know you’d be glad to see me?” she snapped.
I could see that her nostrils were flared now. She was glaring at me threateningly. I knew she had every right to be mad at me. Essentially, she wasn’t wrong in thinking that I’d totally abandoned her. But she had to have known I’d done it because I cared for her, right?
“I couldn’t go looking for you, Fallon, because I wanted you to be safe,” I said.
“Yeah, right, I was very safe. Too safe. I hope you’re happy,” she snapped again.
“Yes, I was happy. I was relieved that you were.
But now you’re here,” I continued. She looked at me again, our eyes met and she looked like she was in a daze.
“And now I’m here…”
“Why? Why did you come back, Fallon?” I asked, stepping closer to her. She gulped, but held my gaze. She looked determined not to blink or look away.
“Because it’s been ten years. It’s been too long and I thought it would be safe. Because this is my home and I have every right to be here!”
Fallon’s voice was high-pitched and firm. I could see that she’d made up her mind. She was determined to stand her ground on her decision.
“Fallon…” I tried to protest, looking over my shoulder to make sure nobody was watching us. It made me furious to know that she had gone one month here in Chicago without any protection.
“Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do, Keegan. I’m not a fifteen year old kid anymore. I can take care of myself. My father…” she dropped her voice now. “My father died here. He was my family, the man who was supposed to look after me. I watched him die!”
Her eyes were widened and angry. I stared back at her, letting her vent if that was what she needed.
“And I needed to come back here, to feel close to him. Don’t tell me I can’t be here. I don’t even know why I ran away!”
She whipped away from me, running a hand exhaustedly through her curls. I watched her delicate tender frame. The way her hips curved and how tight and big her butt looked in that mini-skirt.
“Besides,” she continued, throwing me a look over her shoulder. “I don’t go by Donovan anymore. I took my aunt’s surname…I go by Fallon Moran now,” she added.
I took in a deep breath, squaring my shoulder.
