“Why?” I ask her.
She rolls her eyes. “Because you’re going to be in the Dead Chipmunk corner for a few weeks or more, until Liam’s fancy cabin gets built.”
Ah. Gotcha.
Tomahawk problems.
Chapter 19
Wild Ones Tip #109
We’re the reason the gene pool needs a lifeguard.
KYLIE
A bag on my back and a lot of worry in my stomach, I walk briskly toward Liam’s cabin. Figures I’d finally commit to jumping in head first on the deep end, only to have my destructive cousins show up and finally try to scare the sexy prick off.
What are they doing here?!
“Good luck,” Lilah calls out, laughing as she drives away and leaves me to deal with this madness on my own.
Walking much faster than normal, I step inside, and see…all my cousins eating steaks with two Vincents and one half-drunk Liam as he sips a beer at his kitchen island.
It’s a massive three-room, open-floor plan, so the dining room is open and visible next to the kitchen, where Liam is hanging by himself, just enough distance from them to prove he needs distance.
That’s not a good sign.
The guys don’t even look up from their food, as Liam pushes off from the island, leaving the beer behind. I hurry to meet him halfway so I can get him alone and away from them. He’s about to let me know how pissed he is, and then my cousins are going to flip out.
He really needs to wait until we’re alone before he bitches at me for—
He lifts me and presses his lips to mine before I can even process what’s going on, and my arms go around his neck as I melt into him.
“Told you she’d be back. You owe me fifty,” Killian drawls.
“You still owe me seventy-five from our last bet,” I hear Jason grumbling.
“And you owed me two hundred from the bet before that,” Killian reminds him dryly.
Since Liam’s tongue starts making me stupid as he presses me back against the wall and continues to kiss me, I can’t understand the rest of the words they’re saying.
It all melts to background noise as I smile against Liam’s lips. This is definitely not the silent treatment or angry outburst I was expecting, since I didn’t even bother to leave a note when I snuck out.
He lowers me to my feet, blowing out a breath of what I think is relief. Then…the background noise volume cranks up.
“Me? Your uncle is the one who blew up Chester’s tractor when he was twenty. Chester was like forty then, and he still hasn’t forgotten it. He’s the reason they couldn’t get challenges passed.”
“Do I want to know?” I muse, staring up at Liam as he drops his head back.
“I made the mistake of asking why Chester Perkins—who could second as Santa—hates George Malone. They’ve been arguing over it for three hours now.”
He says the three hours way louder than anything else.
I stifle a smile.
“Because it had nothing to do with the tractor. It was the barn getting knocked down by your daddy that one time some idiot gave him the keys to a backhoe. It was the same year, and Chester believed it was Uncle George again, and your daddy wouldn’t tell the truth, because he got in trouble for something else Uncle George had done. That’s why he hates Uncle George.”
“That was a terrible question,” I decide to point out.
“Bullshit!” Jason shouts at the table, not at us.
Liam arches an eyebrow. “You think? It led to them following me home, talking about all the ways multiple men somehow pissed off Chester, and had me cooking enough steaks to feed a small village. I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll just ask you from now on, even if you do struggle to provide knowledge to non-locals who really are local because they now own two properties in Tomahawk.”
He holds up two fingers and mouths the word, “Two,” again, before grinning.
“You’re okay with all the kissing?” I hear Hale Vincent asking.
I roll my eyes as Liam turns to face my heathen cousins, who are crowded around Liam’s massive table that now looks small amongst giants.
Jason shrugs. “Uncle George said we couldn’t break anything yet.”
“So Dad did make a threat?” I ask, a smug sense of satisfaction rising.
Eric shakes his head. “Nah. Just said we couldn’t do anything unless he fucks up hard. We just wanted to haze him into the family, but since he’s sort of scrawny, we’re worried we’ll break something, which will break the rules.”
My smugness flits away like ash.
Liam turns away, shaking his head. He’s not scrawny at all. Well, next to normal people.
Jared, who is usually my quietest and most unpredictable cousin, and who is marginally smaller than the rest of them as far as bulk goes, just toys with his trimmed beard, not speaking.
Liam breaks up the silence by saying, “I tried to get your father out of jail, by the way, but Vick said they weren’t under arrest, just in a ‘time out’ until they could both calm down. Chester also got arrested and was locked in a bathroom.”