“Oh fuck.” It’s Hud. Does he know? Did Lily tell him what happened the other night? What if she called when she was drunk and told him we kissed? My heart hammers in my chest and I’m suddenly light-headed. Okay, breathe. There’s no way it would take him this long to contact me if that was the case.
I tap into the message.
Hud: I need you to do me a favor.
Me: What is it?
Hud: Family dinner with Lily. I feel bad I’m not going to be back tonight.
If he knew what happened between us he wouldn’t be asking me to spend the evening with Lily. That eases my panic. If he knew, he’d be here in person pummelling my stupid ass for not stopping it before it got to her sweet mouth sucking mustard off my finger.
My dick twitches, and I grimace. I don’t want to be anywhere near Lily. I shouldn’t be anywhere near her. She might not be Hud’s version of innocent, but she’s sweet and unguarded and full of sunshine. And I’m not.
Thank Christ, he doesn’t know and Lily doesn’t remember.
It’s in my best interest to put some space between her and I. For a little while. At least when it’s only the two of us.
Me: I’m sure she doesn’t mind.
Hud: I mind. This’ll be the last family dinner until she comes home from L.A. And I can’t be there. So you’ve got to be. Do it for your best pal?
I rest against the brick side of the building, prop my foot on the wall. Normally I’d do this favor for him because it’s Lily. Beautiful, untouchable Lily. Who normally looks at me like I’m one of the good guys. But that is exactly why I should give her the space to get over her crush.
Me: I’m at work.
Hud: So get her to meet you at the bar. Take her for a burger. Just do it.
How am I going to get out of this? There has to be something that will get him off my back about his sister.
Me: What about Jane? Can’t she have dinner with Lily?
Hud: She’s staying with her parents until I get back. And her grandma is in town. Do you not want to spend time with Lily?
Me: It’s not that.
Hud: Did something happen? Are you keeping shit from me?
I rub the back of my neck. Exhale. Of course now he’s suspicious. Good job, dumb ass.
Hud’s not going to drop this, and I don’t think she remembers much from that night so maybe if I’m the only one with the problem here it would be easier to agree. Perhaps it isn’t even the big deal I’m making it out to be.
It’s not like we’re going to have a repeat of the other night, so it should be okay to spend some time with her. Especially with her heading to L.A. to work on that hotel refurb she landed. By the time she comes back, what happened—that entire evening—will be long forgotten.
Me: Fine. I’ll cancel my dinner date and take your sister instead.
Hud: You had a dinner date?
Of course not. What possessed me to come up with such an implausible lie? If he wasn’t suspicious before that was a great way to make him think something is up. I need a cover for my lie, quick.
Me: Well, it was going to be more of a storeroom thing.
Hud: Ha! Of course it was.
Me: Jackass.
Hud: Thanks for doing this. I owe you one.
Me: Damn right, you do.
That’s better. Crisis averted. Hud probably suspects I’m irritated because I need a release. He has no idea that I’ve one-handedly wrung so much fluid out of the Captain this week that I should be starting to chafe. And every time it starts with recalling Lily asking me if I want to see her naked.
Hud: One thing…
I roll my gaze at the screen. This is where he reminds me of what I’m already too aware. That I can’t want his sister. Not for one single minute.
Me: Rule three-sixty-six?
Hud: That and rule eighty-two.
Me: What’s eighty-two?
Hud: Don’t touch my fucking sister.
“Trust me, I don’t plan to,” I mutter as I shut our chat bubble and pull up Lily’s number. “I’ve had enough drama in my life to last a lifetime.”
Plus, I kind of like life, you know? And the Kellys are more my family these days than my own.
Lily answers as I head back into the bar. “You don’t have to.”
“Hud told you?”
“He practically begged,” she says. “He feels guilty that I’m leaving next week, but it’s not necessary. I’m a big girl with her big girl panties on. And I’ll only be away for two months.”
I don’t want to think about her panties. They’re probably nice. Purple satin maybe. Or those ones with invisible lines that allow us guys to imagine women aren’t wearing panties at all. They’d be pale violet and skim high on her hips. They’d slide down her smooth, tanned skin…
And that doesn’t matter because we’re talking about dinner. “How do burgers sound?”
“What, no comment about how my panties probably have cartoon characters on them and come from the kid’s department?” Her voice drifts away.
I didn’t notice the easy mark she left me to tease her with. Shit. Apparently things are awkward between us.
“Nope. I was distracted,” I admit. By her. That part is best kept to myself. My usual defense mechanism of antagonizing her is failing me. “I have a new idea for my next app.”
“Really?” She perks up. Probably because she knows how one-track minded I am when I’m developing a program, so there’s no way I could be acting weird about the night she doesn’t remember all the details to. “What is it?”
“It’s too early to tell,” I say because I haven’t had an idea since I came up with Icebreaker. And I didn’t tell her or anyone else about this project because I didn’t want them to get the wrong idea about why I’ve decided to invest my time on something like this.
“Well, I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
“So dinner?”
“You don’t have to,” she says. “I’m still packing. I have a huge list of shit to do before I fly out. We could tell him we went to dinner.”
We could do that.
“No. I want to take you to dinner.” I clear my throat. Seriously, I want to argue about this? “It’s going to be weird without you here, kid.”
She groans. I can practically hear her rolling her gaze at her phone. “That didn’t take long.”
Teasing her is familiar. Safe. Grounding. “Want to meet me at the bar at eight? I’ll buy you a burger and fries. If you’re really lucky I might even buy you an ice cream after.”
“Or I might buy you one,” she says. “Since you’re running out of time to save for your retirement.”
“Ha.” I chuckle. “Okay, deal. I’ll see you tonight.”
Chapter Eight
Vale
“You look a little young to be drinking in a bar.” I press my palms into the bar in front of Lily. She looks great tonight. Her hair is a deeper shade of purple than usual. Freshly done. It makes her green eyes pop. Especially with the carefully applied liner rimming them and her lashes the color of midnight.