“Uh, sure,” I finally answered, clearing my throat.
She hopped off the chair before I could move from the couch and carefully came around the coffee table, making sure not to bump into anything. As soon as I’d leaned forward in my seat, she was in front of me, her hands raised in front of her chest.
“Which side?” she asked, tilting her head. “Show me where it is.”
My heart thumped hard and I took a deep breath as I grabbed one of her hands and brought it to my face. No one had touched the scar except me and the doctor who’d sewn me up. Even Cecilia was banned from putting her hands on my face. It felt too fucking weird when the numb skin was touched. That shit made me nauseous.
It was also ugly as fuck. I was still coming to terms with that, no joke. Before I’d been shot, I’d been swimming in pussy, even though I’d rarely partaken. After? Only the freaks with fetishes and daddy issues came calling.
And Cecilia. But I swear to Christ, the bitch always sat on the opposite side of my scar so she didn’t have to look at it.
“It’s…” Lily paused as she lifted her other hand and ran her fingers down both sides of my face. Then she ran just one down the jagged line of the still slightly raised skin. “It’s barely anything!” she said in annoyance. “You act like you’re the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and this is all there is?”
I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut in surprise as she lightly slapped my scarred cheek. “Don’t be such a pussy, Leo.”
I barked out a surprised laugh just as footsteps came thumping down the stairs.
“What are you guys doing?” Cecilia asked suspiciously.
“Say what?” I said ominously. She’d better not be implying what it sounded like.
“N-Nothing,” Lily stammered, dropping her hands and sidestepping the coffee table. Her cheeks went beet red as she carefully scooted away.
Her awkwardly measured steps moved her into the kitchen and I looked at Cecilia in disgust when I found her laughing.
“Someone’s got a crush,” she sang, pointing her thumb at where Lily had just gone. Her little sweetheart of a sister that could sure as shit still hear her, and was probably dying of embarrassment.
I ground my teeth together as I got to my feet.
“Sometimes, you’re a fuckin’ bitch, you know that?” I shook my head as I walked past her and out the front door.
I had no fucking clue why Cecilia treated her baby sister the way she did. I’d done plenty of shit to bother my older sister, Trix, when I was a kid, but I’d fucking cut my arm off before I hurt her on purpose. It made no sense to me that Cecilia couldn’t stop herself from the little digs against Lily that she made constantly.
I was livid as I climbed on my motorcycle, but couldn’t help but chuckle at the little shit’s last words to me. Damn, I hoped she wasn’t upset about Cecilia being an asshole.
Just to make sure she was fine, I jogged back up the porch stairs and stuck my head in the front door.
“Girls aren’t supposed to have such dirty mouths, Dandelion!” I yelled through the opening.
I didn’t have to wait long for her reply.
“Bullshit! Have you met my mother?”
I grinned as I closed the door again and headed to my bike.
Lily would be fine. The kid had a thick skin.
Chapter 2
Lily
Four years later
“What about Molly and Will’s?” Rose asked, rushing around the room and stuffing things into a backpack.
“Nah.” I shook my head. “Charlie’s over playing with Reb. They’d be all up in our shit. Plus, Will’s probably home. I thought the whole idea was to have our dates pick us up somewhere that they wouldn’t get the crap scared out of them.”
“Good point. I’d like to actually date during high school, and you know Jayden would spread it around if one of the guys threatened him. Pussy.”
“Why’d you even say yes to him?” I asked, flopping backward on her bed.
“No one else asked,” she answered pragmatically. “I wasn’t about to go to prom without a date.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled. “Same.”
“You were dreaming of going with Leo, huh? You kind of hit the jackpot with Brent, though,” she replied, dropping down next to me on the bed.
“Yeah? He seems nice. Good hands.” I ignored her comment about Leo. That was a conversation that I didn’t want to have again.
“Jesus.” Rose laughed. “Brent looks like a model. I’ll take a picture for you. That way, if your sight doesn’t come back until after he’s old and fat, you can see what he looks like now. Total jackpot.”
“A model?” I tried to picture what that could mean, but drew a blank. The men I knew were rough around the edges. I really only remembered clearly how the men in my family looked. They were more mugshot than model material.