"I think you should bring some flowers."

Keeley poked her head out of kitchen. "Mom, I'm not bringing flowers."

"What about a pie? I can make your favorite." She walked into the pantry and began rummaging through the shelves. "We have peaches and pecans. Or what about a cobbler? I can make a nice streusel to go over some blueberries and apple."

"Mom," she repeated, exchanging a look with Nicky who was polishing off the last spoonful of ice cream. "I have to be at Talon's house in fifteen minutes. I don't have time for a pie."

"Well, you should bring something. When he came over for family game night he brought that nice hostess gift."

"I'm sure it's fine," she protested, but her mother was already pulling out the scissors she used for cutting flowers. She quickly added, "Besides, I've met his parents before." Talon officially introduced her to them a month ago at a football game. To say it was awkward would be an understatement.

She'd been hanging out by the field, watching as the team went through their pre-game drills when Talon spotted her. Waving, she assumed he would wave back and resume his warm up, but that wasn't the case. He left his position on the field and jogged over, smiling as he picked her up and gave her a huge bear hug. Then he threw an arm over her shoulder and ushered her toward his parents who were hovering nearby.

His dad was clearly unhappy about the situation, barely acknowledging her except for a sharp nod. He even frowned a little at the word "girlfriend." His mother, however, was the complete opposite. She gushed over Keeley, linking their arms together and chatting as if they were old friends. When Talon finally left to finish his warm ups-much to his father's relief-his mother insisted she sit with them.

The game was extremely uncomfortable. She didn't know what to say or how to act around them. His father ignored her, his attention solely on the game. There was a fierce intensity about him, especially when Talon was playing. His muscles would tighten as he sat at the edge of his seat, cataloguing every movement. He would occasionally mutter things under his breathe like, "Go, go, go," or "Throw it now," or "To the left-he's open on the left."

His mother, on the other hand, was loud and boisterous. Waving her hands in the air like an excited fan, she yelled out encouragements to her son like, "Come on, sugar pie," or "You can do it, pumpkin." Personally, she thought it was adorable, but then again she wasn't being called my precious honey bunches of oats in front of the entire school.

"We met Talon before and he still brought something," her mother argued, placing the scissors on the counter and propping a hand on a hip.

"He did that so you would like him."

"And it worked. Don't you want his parents to like you?"

"Darlene already likes me." She told her that multiple times during the game. "And his dad doesn't think Talon should date during football season and I don't see that changing anytime soon." She was afraid if she brought something it would appear as if she was desperate for his approval. And okay, yes, it bothered her that he didn't like her, but what could she do? From what Talon told her, his dad wouldn't approve of any girl.

"Well, it doesn't matter. You're bringing something," she ordered. "I don't want his mother thinking I raised a bad mannered, ungrateful child."

"So this is really about you."

"Of course," her mother sniffed.

"Now we know where Zach gets it from," Nicky muttered.

Her mother turned towards her and cupped her ear. "What was that? Because I thought I heard you say you don't want any of my homemade chili and cornbread tonight."

Nicky picked up the scissors and forced it in Keeley's hand. "Listen to your mother. Bring them flowers."

Keeley resisted the urge to roll her eyes and headed to the yard where the rose bushes grew. By the time she was done, she only had five minutes to get there. Rushing out the door, she scrambled into her car and pushed the speed limit.

When she arrived, Talon and his dad were standing in the driveway having what looked like a heated argument. She took the flowers and approached slowly, not wanting to interrupt. His dad looked up, glowered upon seeing her and then nudged his son. It was a relief when Talon came forward to meet her, but that feeling quickly evaporated when his dad followed.

"We have a problem," Talon stated without preamble.

The alarm in both of their eyes made her panic. Had there been an accident? Was someone in the hospital? Should she offer to drive?

Talon took a deep breath and exhaled, "Mom's cooking."

That was it? Surely, some cooking didn't command this much fear. Or maybe it does, she thought as his dad's face turned white. "I thought she was ordering in."

Talon wrinkled his nose. "So did we, but apparently she changed her mind."

His dad crossed his arms. "Only because someone," he threw Talon a glare, "mentioned how good of a cook Keeley's mom is."

"That is not my fault! She was grilling me about my night over there. How was I supposed to know it would set her off into a cooking frenzy?"

His dad threw up a hand. "Telling her you had the best cupcakes of your life should have been your first clue."

"Maybe I got a little carried away," Talon grudgingly admitted.

"I'm blaming you if we end up in the emergency room again." His dad angled his head and looked at Keeley. "You're insured, right?"

"Dad!" Talon yelled.

"You should be happy. I'm making sure she'll get the proper medical care."

"Stop scaring her away."

"I'm not. Your mother's cooking will do that."

"Not. Helping," he grounded out through clenched teeth. He glanced at her and rushed to add, "It won't be that bad. A roll of Tums and you'll be as good as new."

"Your words aren't exactly inciting confidence," she replied.

His dad snorted. "This is how you reassure your girlfriend? It's a wonder you have one at all." He gave her an apologetic look. "I swear he didn't learn that from me. I was much smoother when I was his age."

"That's not what Ma told me," Talon shot back with a wicked gleam in his eye.

His dad thrust his chin forward. "That's because she has a faulty memory."

"I'll be sure to let her know you said that."

"Tell her and I'll keep dropping hints that she should be louder during your games."

Talon snapped his mouth shut and pretended to zip his lips together.

"We need a plan of attack," his dad went on, rubbing his hands together. "Something that forces your mother to stop cooking and call for take-out."

"We could sabotage the food again," Talon suggested.

His dad shook his head. "I think she's starting to get suspicious of that. We've done it one too many times."

"What about allergies," Keeley piped in. Both turned with questions in their eyes. "I could pretend to be allergic to something."

"It would work except you're a horrible liar," Talon told her. "Besides, would you really be comfortable lying to my mom?"

She grimaced. "Not really."

His dad's eyes turned shrewd as he studied her. She expected him to say something, but after a couple moments he turned away and addressed his son. "Any other ideas?"

"We could get Aunt Marie to say there's an emergency at her house and reschedule the dinner."

His dad thought for a moment and then shook his head. "She's really looking forward to this. It's all she could talk about last night."

Feeling guilty, Keeley decided to step in. "It's fine. She put a lot of work into this dinner and I don't want to hurt her feelings."

Talon touched her arm. "You sure?"

She gave a firm nod. "If my stomach can handle Diablo's Inferno Hot Sauce, then it can handle just about anything."

"Famous last words," Talon muttered, but his face were filled with gratitude. Squeezing her hand, he led her through the side gate and into the backyard. Talon's dad held open the door and motioned for her to enter. As she passed, he nodded and she swore she saw him giving her a small smile.

***

Keeley let out a laugh as Darlene told her about the time she found Talon passed out in a field lying on a bed of Peeps.

"Dear Lord, that boy smelled like burnt sugar for weeks," she lamented. "And he refused to throw away his clothes because it was his favorite outfit. I had to scrub those overalls till my hands bled to get them clean.

"You were so cute," she teased, pinching his cheeks.

"What's with the past tense? I'm still adorable."

"Have some more, sweetie," his mother said, scooping another huge helping of chicken, or at least what resembled a chicken, onto her plate. "There's plenty of food."

She forced a smile. "Thanks, Mrs. Harrington. Everything is so good."

"I'm just glad you like it," she beamed, dipping a ladle into the fizzing gravy and pouring it over the chicken. Then she looked at her husband and scowled. "I told you I could cook."

"I never lost faith," he said with a straight face.

"Mom, can I have another glass of water?" Talon interjected before his mother could respond.

"Sure, pumpkin. You feeling alright? You've been drinking a lot of water tonight."

A pained expression crossed his face. "Just thirsty."

As soon as she left, his dad reached over and shoveled Keeley's food onto his plate while Talon searched for one of the few non-burnt biscuit and plopped it in her hands. They'd been pulling that maneuver all night, alternating who ate her portion and who gave her edible food.

"Thanks," she said softly, taking a bite of the hard bread. How his mother messed up pre-made biscuits she didn't know, but somehow the woman managed. "I don't think I could have eaten that."

"You ate more than I thought you would," his dad said, sounding impressed. He eyed the food on his plate and took a deep breath before forcing it down. Guzzling water, he held out his hand. "Hit me," he croaked.

Talon reached into his pocket where he was hiding his stash and dropped two Tums into his dad's palm and then offered some to Keeley.

"I'm good." She already had three.

She watched as Talon throw back his head, open his mouth and pop a couple in. It was sort of cute how far these big, tall males would go to protect Darlene's feelings. And in a way, they were protecting her as well.

They heard Darlene start to walk back and everyone scrambled to hide the evidence of their deception.

"So Keeley," his mother started, setting down Talon's glass, "JT tells me you're traveling through Europe this summer."

"Yes, ma'am. My best friend, Nicky, and I plan on spending three weeks there."

"That's wonderful. I bet you'll have so many adventures, so many great stories to tell when you get back." With a wistful sigh, she leaned back and played with her napkin. "I always wanted to go to Europe. See the Colosseum, walk up the Eiffel Tower, tour Buckingham Palace, go on a gondola ride...with a handsome boy of course."

"It doesn't sound that great to me," Talon snapped, throwing his fork down.

"Me either," his dad growled.

Winking, his mom took a sip from her glass. "I don't know, two best friends all alone in Europe? Sounds like a whole lot of fun."

"We won't be alone," Keeley corrected.

"Yeah," Talon chimed in. "Because I'm coming with."

She did a double take. "What?"

He pushed away from the table and draped his arms over the back of his chair. "I'm coming with. It's not safe to be in a foreign country by yourself."

"First of all, I'm not going to be by myself and secondly, my brother and his friends are coming." The friends part hadn't been her idea. Once Zach learned he would be going with he invited two of his friends.

Talon lost his smug look. Then he shrugged. "The more, the merrier."

She laughed in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

"Why don't you want me to come?" he asked, peering at her through tiny slits.

"Because you and my brother will be in the same place for three weeks. You'll kill each other before we even leave the airport."

"I can control my murderous thoughts if your brother can."

She glanced at where his mom and dad had been sitting, seeing if they would object, but they had left and were in the kitchen cleaning. Tucking hair behind her ear, she leaned in. "You really want to go?"

"It would be nice to explore the world a little before college starts. And I have some money saved up. My grandpa left it to me when he died. I think he would want me to use to for something like this."

She sat back in her chair. "Well," she said hesitantly, "I would need to talk to Nicky."

The ends of his mouth lifted. "She'll say yes. Deep down, she likes me."

"Very, very deep down. Buried-in-the-center-of-the-Earth deep down."

He picked up his fork and sniffed arrogantly. "Doesn't matter. The point is that she likes me."

Reluctantly, she admitted he was right. Pleased with himself, he took a bite of food, forgetting what he was eating. Immediately, he started choking and Keeley handed him a glass of water while pounding his back.

"Karma, my dear," she teased after he stopped coughing.

He gave her an intimate look, his eyes heavy with emotion. "Yes, it is. And I couldn't be happier."

Putting her hand on the table, she reached over and kissed him. "Me too."

"Keeley?"

She jumped back and flushed when she saw his mom walking into the dining room with her purse dangling in hand.

"Sorry to interrupt sweetie, but I think you're phone is ringing."

Grabbing her purse, she pulled out her phone and frowned. "It's an unknown number."

Talon rolled his eyes. "It's probably your brother pulling some kind of prank."

She didn't think so. He'd been oddly quiet the past week, barely saying hi before going up to his room and not emerging till the next morning.

"Hello?" she said into the phone. There was loud music in the background, making it impossible to hear the caller. "You're going to have to speak up. I can't hear you," she yelled. Talon drew a question mark in the air and Keeley lifted a shoulder. She didn't know who it was. A few moments later, the music became muted as if the person on the other end had closed a door.

A girl's voice floated over the line. "Is this Keeley? Zach's sister?"

She tapped a finger against her leg, trying to recognize the caller but the voice wasn't familiar. "Yeah, I'm Keeley. Who's this?"

"Your brother is in trouble. You need to get down here. Pronto."

Immediately, she stood up and Talon copied her, taking her hand in his. "Down where?" she asked, her heart racing.

The mysterious caller paused. "You don't even know, do you?"

"Know what?"

"Your brother is up to his neck in gambling debt."

***

A big thank you to everyone who has read and supported TCPS. Your words of encouragement have meant EVERYTHING to me. It's the reason I continued to write this story when I got frustrated with my characters or hated the direction of the plot. You guys are seriously awesome and I couldn't have done this without you.

If you like my writing please follow me and check out my other stories on my Wattpad profile.  The one I'm currently uploading is Colors of Us.

After months of therapy, Garrett Delko is still struggling to cope with his brother's suicide. The only time he finds peace is on the pitching mound and with a mysterious girl he's been obsessed with since the first week of college. One night, he sees her jumping off a bridge and it leads to an unexpected connection neither can deny. Garrett resolves to stay away, but as their paths intersect, he wonders if she's the answer he's looking for.

Arianne Zhang is no one's magic remedy. She has her own troubles and doesn't need an adorable baseball player messing up her hard-earned anonymity. However, as they confide in each other, she begins falling for him. Then Arianne's secrets are exposed, and both must face tough choices. Can they find the strength to let go of their insecurities to help each other? Or will the colors of their past blind them to the truth?