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“You would have kept us all out in the barn with the horses,” Jasper adds with a grin.
“I should have. House would have been a hell of a lot cleaner without all of you messing it up every day and jerking off constantly like you did when you were teenagers.”
“Oh, my god!” Selena bursts out laughing. “I really do not want to think about what these feral teenage monsters did to the house I live in six months a year, Dad! Gross!”
“You really don’t, Selly. The whole upstairs used to just smell like gross boy smell,” Lily shakes her head as she comes out of the back of the shop, but then she catches my eye, smirking at me. “They were so disgusting.”
Narrowing my eyes at her, I want to walk over to her and prove exactly how not disgusting she thinks I am. But I can’t do anything with everyone here.
After setting out the paper plates and napkins for us, Lily walks over to my dad, and he wraps his arms around her in a bear hug.
“Thanks for coming, Mr. W.”
“What do I have to do to get you to start calling me dad like Selena is?”
“Selena’s going to be your daughter-in-law,” Lily grins up at him.
“Yeah, she is,” Jacks mutters, grabbing Selena and hugging her to him again. He can’t keep his hands off her. Just like I couldn’t keep my hands off Lily if I was actually allowed to touch her with other people around. “And she doesn’t think I’m all that gross. Even with all the messes and jerking off.”
“Nugget!” Selena looks like she wants to kill my brother, but that usually just ends with them making out in front of everyone.
Lily apparently isn’t done talking about this. “I’m just some random girl who keeps on showing up at your house.”
And that pisses me right off. She’s not just some random girl. She’s not just a friend. Not to Jacks, or any of the rest of us. She never has been. And it pisses me off that it doesn’t even cross her mind that she could be my dad’s daughter-in-law one day. Because she could be my wife.
“Never. You’re the daughter June always wanted,” Dad tells her. Then he jerks his head at the rest of us. “Instead of these idiots.”
Lily grins. “They’re okay. They did spend the entire day clearing out my shop. This would have taken me weeks to do by myself.”
“I never would have let you do this by yourself, Lil,” Gunnar says, bumping his arm into her shoulder.
My fists clench at my sides at the sight of him touching her, so I grab another big-ass slice of pizza and shove it into my mouth. I haven’t even washed my hands yet. But I’ve been wearing heavy work gloves all day, so hopefully that counts for something.
My whole mood changes as I watch Lily flash a smile at Gunnar and then sidestep away from him. “Thanks. Okay, let’s eat before all this pizza gets cold. And who needs another beer? Sink’s in the back if you want to wash up. Or you can just be disgusting, like Jameson here.”
The way Lily grins at me, I’m pretty sure disgusting means something different from what it usually means.
We’re all sitting around on whatever we can find—boxes, crates, a couple of mismatched chairs Lily kept from the junk pile—eating pizza, drinking beers, and shooting the shit, when the front doorbell chimes as the door opens again and Lily’s mom walks inside. Lily’s mom doesn’t look that much like her, aside from the same light brown eyes and button nose. She’s taller and slimmer than Lily, with light brown hair that has a lot of grays streaked through it.
“Hey, Mom! What are you doing here?”
“I heard about this little work party, and I wanted to come on over and check out the progress.” When Lily stands up and walks over to her mom, Mrs. Wilson pulls her into a tight hug. Her mom looks around at the shop over her shoulder. “Lilybear, I’m so proud of you! This place is looking so great.”
“Thanks, Mom. I know it looks like bit of a hot mess, but it’s going to be great. I promise.”
“It’s going to be amazing, Lil,” Gunnar says, smiling at her.
Because he’s her best friend. He gets to smile at her and support her in public. I only get to love on her in private.
“That bakery next door is dangerous, though.”
Lily freezes and the big smile on her face turns fake. Forced. I don’t know what this is. Lily is always in motion. Sassing me. Fucking me. She’s always doing something. She always has something smart-mouthed to say. I’m not sure anyone else notices, but I sure as hell do. I’ve never seen her like this before.
“That’s my bakery, actually.” Selena says. “You should stop in. Life’s way too short not to eat the damn brownie, right?”
“That’s for damn sure,” I mutter. Life’s definitely too short not to eat the apple pie. I want to eat every last bite. After I figure out what’s going on with my Lemon.
After Lily shows her mom around the shop, I’m getting my seventh enormous slice of pizza when I notice her mom standing near the counter, eyeing the boxes.
