Lilah did the same thing.
“He smiles too much. Kai Wilder has always been a smirker, not a smiler. He only smiles when he’s done something evil, which means he’s playing pretend really hard. Those two are depressing the shit out of me, if I’m being honest,” she finally confesses on a weary sigh, as though she was doing all she could not to be that honest.
It didn’t take much to make her fold like a cheap table, and for that, I’m grateful.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can get a flight out,” I tell her, pausing. “Thank you for calling, Lilah.”
She squeals in my ear, and I pull the phone away, hanging up so I can focus on packing.
My hands are trembling as I bounce around on one foot, throwing things toward my suitcase, while multitasking and ordering my plane ticket.
It’s all chaos.
Reese comes in, eyeing me as I drop an armload of my best underwear into the next suitcase.
“How long are you going to be gone?” she asks as she gawks at the five suitcases I’ve somehow almost filled full.
I pause, just now realizing I’m packing this much.
“Apparently a while,” I tell her, even as my stomach clenches.
“A while or forever? You’ve almost emptied out the entire room, and we’re supposed to live here for the next two weeks…”
She pauses, her eyes darting to mine and widening. I chew on my bottom lip as nervous butterflies start ruffling through my stomach.
Her look softens, and she gives me a sad smile.
“Don’t let me hold you back,” she says when she finally rolls her eyes. “If you’re sticking around for me, I’ll punch you in the tit. I’m perfectly capable of being on my own. We don’t have to be side by side to run our business or our pages. Go be happy.”
I start to speak and stop. Then start and stop.
Sucking in a deep breath, I try to ignore the pounding in my chest that is making me impatient and focus on my sister.
“You could go be happy too, you know. It’s not guaranteed this is going to work out, but I’ve spent a month regretting how safe I played it, and—”
“And you should go,” she cuts in very calmly, talking over my excited chatter, as she grabs both of my shoulders and stares me in the eyes. “But I belong here. Besides, Hale and I were hot and fun, but we would have teetered out eventually. We have absolutely nothing in common, and he’s way too sweet for a bitch like me.”
She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
“Lilah Vincent said I was in love like it was a common, easy observation. I think she’s right,” I blurt, immediately regretting it because it sounds so insensitive when she’s forcing a smile for my sake.
Her lips stretch in a genuine, wide grin that does meet her eyes.
“Then you really don’t need to be here. I can handle the rest on my own. We can work out a schedule in the future, and you can go to the events you want to go to. You won’t have so much free time on your hands if you’ve got a man waiting for you at home, so there will have to be some cuts in our scheduling. It’s an easy fix, though.”
She shoves me toward the suitcases.
“I’ll pack the rest of your shit when I get home, and I’ll even ship it out to you. Come on. I’ll help you get the rest of this shoved in a suitcase, and then I’ll give you a ride to the airport.”
I hate that I’m leaving her on her own, but the excitement of seeing Kai again seems to drown it all. He misses me.
Lilah Vincent better not be wrong about that, or this is going to be devastating.
Wild Ones Tip #508
If you break it, you fix it. That’s just a common courtesy.
Chapter 22
KAI
*******
The lost and found box still hasn’t been touched, so all those dishes that were delivered to Piper when the shit-tastic fuckers in town thought Piper wasn’t mine anymore are still piled up.
Cowards.
I shove my half-eaten food aside, my stomach souring. I need to stop coming to the diner for a bit if I’m ever going to get Ma off my back.
She’s worried I’m sinking into a depression and cries every damn time I don’t act like myself.
She’s driving me out of my motherfucking mind so much that I’m actively avoiding my mother for the first time in my life. I feel like an asshole, but she really does have boundary issues.
Vick comes walking up to my table, and takes a seat across from me as he orders a cup of coffee, shaking out his paper while getting comfy.
“Why are you sitting with me?” I ask him dryly, arching an eyebrow.
“Because your fucking cat is outside and she growled at me. I figured it must have been a while since she saw us friendly. If you’re going to be a tense asshole, the least you could do is leave your cat at home,” he answers like he had that rehearsed and ready to fly, never looking up from his paper.