My Beloved: A Thin Love Novella by Eden Butler Page A

Mom is pissed, she stays up.” He sat back, rubbing the back of his neck. “If there isn’t a piano or guitar in this place, then she’ll be walking. No way she’ll be asleep.”
    “Let’s go find out.”
    It was a beautiful place, secluded and surrounded by untouched foliage, a reserve just beyond the property line that guaranteed this little spot would never be taken over by a corporate resort.
    Kona’s gaze went to the shoes next to the door and he grunted low in his throat. Mark Burke’s loafers were next to Keira’s smaller, delicate ballet slippers by the door and Kona walked in without knocking, not sure what would greet him, not sure if he should be there at all. Maybe he should have given her some time. Maybe she’d still be too damn mad at him to do much more than throw heavy and cumbersome things at his head. But Kona wasn’t one to back down. He didn’t run, and he’d have followed Keira to the moon if that’s where she’d gone to hide from him.
    “Kona?” Mark called from the sofa, yawning and rubbing his eyes when Ransom led his father further into the living room.
    “Where is she?” Kona didn’t like the way Mark clenched his jaw, how the man folded his arms as though he was guarding Keira from a dangerous sociopath. Kona didn’t care what Mark was doing. He wanted to know where Keira was. He wanted to make sure she was safe. When Kona stepped forward, got a little too close to Mark, Ransom interceded, holding his father’s shoulder.
    “Mark, please. We just wanna make sure she’s alright.”
    Mark’s expression changed when he looked at Ransom and Kona understood. He’d help raise Ransom. He had stepped in like a man and raised his boy because he loved Keira, because, like Kona, he knew she’d never ask for help even when she really needed it. This was all logical and reasonable information that Kona stored in his brain. But he couldn’t shake that stupid jealous voice that resented Mark for the time he’d had with his boy. With his Wildcat.
    “She won’t come inside. I tried everything.” This information Mark passed to Ransom, not Kona. “She’s out on the rocks, drinking champagne.”
    Kona rushed to the glass doors, squinting against the darkness to see the faintest outline of white against the midnight of the lava rocks. “You left her out there all by herself?”
    “You know what, Hale? Shut the hell up.”
    Kona lifted an eyebrow, impressed, but Mark didn’t back down. Not when Ransom pushed on his chest, not when Kona met him in the middle of the room glaring down at the man. His eyes were hard, steely and Kona knew there was something Mark wanted to say to him. Likely something he’d been wanting to say for years.
    “Go on. Get it out there. I know you want to.”
    Mark breathed hard through his nose and moved Ransom’s hand from his chest. “Fine. I’ll say it. You never fucking deserved her. Not ever. You still don’t deserve her.”
    Arms folded, shoulders tight, Kona could only stare at Mark, face dispassionate, neutral. Finally, Kona closed his eyes, seeing that twenty year old he had been and the stupid shit he had done in the name of what he thought was honor and love. It was all bullshit, nothing to what he was willing to do now for Keira. What he hoped she’d still let him do. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t know.”
    Mark didn’t expect that, Kona could tell by the way the hard glare on his face relaxed. “Well,” he started, seemingly at a loss for anything to say.
    “Man, listen, I know I fucked up then. I know I fucked up today. I know that there are a million reasons you could give me to stay away from her, but I can’t do that. I won’t. She deserves everything and I want to give that to her. I want to be the person she needs. I just fucking suck at it.”
    Kona thought that was as close to poetic truth that he could muster but both Mark and Ransom, held back, glancing away, unwilling to meet his eyes. Then, they laughed,