No anger.
No hurt.
Nothing at all.
A small smile forms on my lips, and she takes it wrong, smiling back widely at me.
Shit. No bad beard. She’s looking at me like she used to, and I’m smiling about the fact I’m in deeper than I even realized for Lilah. I’m not smiling at my ex. But she is smiling at me.
I break eye contact, clearing my throat as I look back down at my mother.
“How was the trip?” I ask her.
“Long. As always.”
My nephew comes zipping in, his face glued to his phone. Absently I start wishing Lilah had a phone so I could text her right now…tell her I miss her already.
Because I’m so fucking far gone for her that I can’t think straight without her.
For a solid year, I went over the pros and cons of going after her. The cons mostly being her family—in the event things didn’t work out. They’d definitely make my life hell.
But the biggest con was losing her completely, when she’d somehow become the best part of my day. Now I wish I had just gone for it sooner, because the pros far outweigh the cons, and I could never go back to just being her friend.
I check to see if she’s online as my mother and stepfather start walking their things in and telling Ryder—my nephew—to get his things too. She’s not online anywhere, unfortunately.
My brother reemerges just as the doorbell rings, and he opens the door on the road’s side.
“Hello?” he says, sounding confused.
“Hey, I’m here to see Benson,” a familiar voice says.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I round the corner to see Lindy beaming at me with a covered dish in her hand, while Deacon—my brother—stares at me with an arched eyebrow.
Lindy looks like a stripper on her way to work. She normally doesn’t dress like this. What’s going on? She hasn’t bothered me since the night of the beardless celebration.
After she thought Lilah was staking her claim, she backed off. As all the women did. Because…it’s Lilah. She’s a Vincent. You don’t mess with a Vincent and expect to walk away unscathed.
“Hey,” she says, smiling happily at me. “I heard about you and Lilah, and thought I’d bring you something to cheer you up.”
My eyebrows have to hit my hairline.
“Heard about me and Lilah? What about us?”
“Who’s Lilah?” my mother asks from somewhere behind me.
Lindy’s eyes widen when my mother approaches, and I pinch the bridge of my nose. Now Lindy looks uncomfortable, since she didn’t expect to be wearing a see-through top over a red bra, and daisy dukes in front of my mom.
Obviously.
She’s usually fairly conservative…in groups.
“I…uh…I’ll just give you a call later. What’s your number?” she asks, as I start closing the door, not accepting the covered dish.
“Nothing happened between me and Lilah,” I tell her as I shut the door on her protests.
When I turn around, everyone is looking at me.
“That’s the first time anyone has ever come to your house when we’ve been here,” Deacon decides to point out.
I pull out my phone, seeing Lilah still isn’t online anywhere.
“I need to make a call,” I grumble, moving away from them and not answering any questions.
“Who’s Lilah?” my mother asks again.
“Yeah, Benson, who’s Lilah?” Sadie drawls, but I ignore them all.
“Anyone want some wine?” I hear my brother asking.
Penny picks up on the first ring. “Hello,” she says calmly, almost sounding a little eerie.
“Lindy just showed up at my house, presumably thinking Lilah and I broke up, and Lilah isn’t online. Anyway, can you take your phone to her?”
“I’m afraid not. Her brothers are over there right now, and I’d fear for your safety if they learned you broke her heart. She hasn’t even told me yet, but I heard from Jillian who heard from Karen who heard from Janice that she’s been crying nonstop. I’m just waiting on those two knuckleheads to leave before I go over there.”
What the fucking hell?
“I didn’t break up with Lilah,” I tell her. “And I can’t picture Lilah crying. She’d be beating my head in with a frying pan, but not crying.”
She makes a disgruntled sound. “She never wanted to date,” she says on a sigh. “This is all my fault. I kept pushing her into it. Now you’ve gone and ruined her. I doubt she’ll ever date again.”
A long, sad sigh follows that, with a dramatic huff tacked on for good measure, letting me know she’s truly disappointed in me.
“Penny, I swear to you, I haven’t broken up with Lilah. And I don’t want to,” I growl, making sure no one can hear me as I go outside, eyeing Lilah’s red flag that is waving in the air with a dead chipmunk on it.
An image of a dead chipmunk, that is. Not an actual dead chipmunk.
Why a chipmunk? Because the Wilders have raccoons on their yellow flags, and the Vincents are a tier or two below on the crazy corner scale from them.