Heart's Reflection Read Online Free

blahing droned on about some
subject...I didn't even know what. My ears were blocked by the locomotion of
the freight train in my brain. Ways to try to convince Liam not to play in the
football game, now less than forty-eight hours away, kept turning over and
nothing seemed likely to succeed. Oh well, I had to try.
    "Liam."
I interrupted him mid-blah. "Don't play in the game on Friday."
    "What?"
His expression went from relaxed to wide-eyed shock. "Why would you say
that?"
    'Cause I'm a
banshee and I know you're gonna die if you play in that game. Na. Saying that
was my last resort. The one I'd take just before they had me drug tested. The
one I'd take right before the men in white coats came to put me into the
straightjacket.
    "Ummm.
I—" The argument I'd planned suddenly didn't seem that good an idea
but I went with it. "I think you shouldn't fight with your brother. This
game is escalating the war between you two."
    "Who
cares," he scoffed.
    "I do. You
have the power to convince your dad to change his mind and send Keagan back to
school at the Academy. Then you wouldn't be on opposite teams."
    He released my
hand and it dropped in a thud on the seat of the swing as he jumped up to move
to the edge of the porch. "Why are you so concerned about my brother? You
into him or something?"
    "Of course
not."
    "You
are," he accused. "Just like every other girl. You think he's
hot."
    "Nnnnnno,"
I sputtered. "He gives me the creeps. I wouldn't let him touch
me—" I stopped myself mid cliché. What was that quote about
protesting too much? Keagan gave me the shivers but not the creeps. However,
saying that wouldn't help my cause.
    "I'm
concerned about you, not him." I got up, crossed to Liam, and then placed
a hand on his arm. "All this with your brother—It's making you into
a person I don't recognize. You aren't you."
    He jerked his arm
out of my light grasp. "Because I won't let Keagan get away with his bull?
Because I stand up to him?"
    "No." I
shook my head. "You don't just stand up to him, you gang up on him."
    "Gang
up?"
    "With your
parents. Yes. The three of you gang up on him."
    Liam's face
reflected a shocked kind of betrayal that made me cringe inside.
    "Nice, Tara.
Real nice," he mumbled.
    "I'm sorry,
but it's true," I defended. "And you can stop it right now by not
playing that game on Friday."
    "I've gotta
play. You heard Dad. There'll be a scout there."
    "Is that the
most important thing in your life?" I shouted. "What if I said I'd go
to the reserve with you on Friday?"
    The meaning of my
words dawned and a slow smile turned to a grin. "Really?"
    "But only if
you don't play."
    "I'm not
gonna be manipulated into giving up a chance for a scholarship to UGA."
Shaking his head as if to clear it, Liam said, "This makes no sense.
What's the real reason you don't want me to play on Friday?"
    Time for the last resort , I thought.
    "I had a
vision that you're going to...going to get...get hurt if you play."
    "Now you're
just being ridiculous."
    "Are you
saying I'm lying?"
    "Either that
or crazy."
    Now it was my turn
to be hurt. "Is that what you really think?"
    "No."
His jaw moved with the clenching and unclenching of his teeth. "I think
you enjoy teasing. I think you enjoy trying to wrap me around your little
finger. And I've let you do it. But no more. I'm not gonna be whipped."
    "Whipped! By
me?"
    "That's what
the guys on the team said and they were right."
    "Yeah. Billy
and his band of jerkwads are real authorities on women," I said with more
than a dollop of sarcasm. "If that's who you want to listen to, then I
can't stop you."
    "Good,"
Liam shouted. "I will."
    "Fine,"
I shouted back.
    With one last
glare at me, Liam marched to the front door, tugged it open and stormed inside
the house. The slam of the door behind his departing back caused the porch to
shake under my feet.
    That went well.
    Long seconds
later, I acknowledged to myself Liam wasn't coming back out. I trudged my way
down the steps to the sidewalk before