Craving Lily (The Aces' Sons 4)

I smiled huge as I slipped my socks and boots on. The girl had finally gotten her sight back after all that time. It was goddamn miracle. The doctors had told her parents that it would come back at some point, but I think all of us had started to assume that the blindness was going to be a permanent thing.

I hurried through my doorway and out into the main room, then stopped dead when I realized Lily had bailed.

“You bein’ an asshole?” my Gramps asked from his place at the bar. “Little Lily went running out of here like her arse was on fire.”

“No,” I replied, walking to the front door just to make sure that she wasn’t waiting for me outside on a picnic table.

“Well, you did something,” he grumbled.

“I told her to wait for me so I could get dressed,” I snapped, frustration pounding at my temples.

“Opened the door in your birthday suit, eh?” He laughed. “No wonder she went running.”

“Can it, old man,” I joked, my lips twitching even though I was irritated as hell. “I had boxers on.”

“That girl’s always carried a torch for you,” he said as I grabbed a beer and sat down next to him. “Even when you were with her sister.”

“I know,” I mumbled.

“Better not go there.”

“Wasn’t plannin’ on it.”

“Oh, you’re plannin’ on it,” Gramps said knowingly. “I know the look.”

I just shook my head. There was no use arguing with him when he got into one of his moods. He was going to school me no matter what I said. The man had seen and done everything at least twice.

“Got with Amy when she was just a kid,” Gramps said, like he was telling me a secret, even though I’d heard it a million times. Their story was practically Aces folklore. “She had a crush just like Lily does.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Thing about crushes, boyo, is they aren’t based in reality.”

“What?”

“That girl’s been moonin’ after you for years, yeah?” He bumped the back of his hand against mine. “But she ain’t in any type of love with the man ya are. Just the man she sees.”

“You’re not makin’ sense, old timer.”

“Lovin’ a man like a woman does is different than lovin’ a boy like a girl does. Lily’s still in the girl stage, ya see? Ain’t old enough or seen enough of the world to love all the different sides of ya.”

“I’m aware,” I replied flatly.

“Just warnin’ ya, is all.” He took a drink of his beer and sighed. “Amy wasn’t ready for a husband when I married her. Oh, she thought she was. I thought she was. But lookin’ back, no way in hell. Give the girl some time, is all I’m sayin’.”

“I wasn’t plannin’ on doin’ anything.”

“Not to mention her pop,” Gramps continued like I hadn’t even spoken. “He’d kill ya and we’d never find your body.”

“She’s too fuckin’ young,” I said. I took a long drink of my beer, and then another. “That ain’t gonna change any time soon.”

“It’ll happen if it’s supposed to,” Gramps said, slapping me on the back. “Patience, boyo.”

I nodded and stepped away from the counter, exhaustion pulling at me. I was going to sleep for a few hours and then I’d figure out what to do about Lily.

* * *

I wasn’t going to do anything about Lily. After waking up to someone pounding on my door and getting roped into helping my mom carry groceries in for a party I hadn’t known was happening that night, I’d come to the conclusion that there was nothing I could do. Bottom line? She was seventeen. Clearly, I wasn’t going to start anything up with her. I just needed to find a distraction for a while, and eventually she’d get the message.

She’d probably hate me. I knew that. I’d crossed a line with her and we both knew it. The careful distance I’d kept between us for the last year had been completely annihilated. Treating her like a kid the way I always had wouldn’t work anymore. She’d see right through me.

I realized that the party we were having wasn’t just a normal get together to blow off steam when my mom handed me a cake with Lily’s name on it. Of course it was a party for her. I couldn’t catch a fucking break, and the minute I decided to stay as far away from her as I could, the universe decided it was time to practically drop her in my lap.

“Did she come talk to you today?” my mom asked as she followed me inside, carrying a bag full of streamers.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I saw her when I got back.”

“Pretty cool, right?” she asked, smiling. “I can’t believe she can see again after all this time.”

“Doctors said her sight would come back,” I reminded her.