Craving Lily (The Aces' Sons 4)

I wondered how Lily was dealing with Cecilia showing up. They’d always had such a weird fucking relationship. Lily had idolized her sister, and Cecilia had been so damn jealous of Lily that it was hard to understand the fascination. Sure, Cecila could be sweet. I knew that firsthand. But she could also be a viper with little or no provocation. You just never knew with her. God, I hoped she’d mellowed while she’d been gone, at least for Lily’s sake.

After Cecilia took off, it seemed like Lily’s blinders when it came to her sister disappeared, but I didn’t know what their relationship was like anymore. Maybe they’d kept in touch and gotten closer over the years.

I grunted. It didn’t seem possible that anyone could get close to Cecilia. It had always amazed me how two kids from the same parents could turn out so differently. I couldn’t imagine Cecilia treating Gray with the same reverence and tenderness that Lily had. That shit had turned me inside out. Half of me had wanted to beat my chest and yell mine and the other half had wanted to jerk him out of her sleeping arms and tell her to stay the fuck away from him. Because I knew how Lily’s tenderness felt and I also knew how fucking bad it stung when it was snatched away.

I caught my hand on a piece of metal and cursed. I needed to get my head straight before I fucked up and did any real damage. Shifting my attention to the work in front of me, I deliberately forgot about the Butler sisters.

I forgot about them, that is, until a few hours later when Lily dropped down beside me on the picnic bench where I was eating my lunch.

“My sister’s back,” she said, slapping her hands down on the table.

“I heard.”

“Did you also hear that they’re having a party in her honor?”

“Heard somethin’ about that, too.”

“I’m not going,” she said mulishly, reminding me of when she was a kid. “This is fucking prodigal son bullshit.”

“They’re just happy to see her—”

“You know my dad can’t even go, right?” she asked, ignoring me. “He’s stuck in bed and they’re having a party for Cecilia. Like, awesome Ceecee, you came home when your dad was in a major car accident and could’ve died. Good job. Have a party.”

“You’re workin’ yourself up over nothin’,” I pointed out, trying to calm her ranting. “You know the boys’ll use any excuse to have a party.”

“I bet you’re super stoked she’s here,” she said, her voice almost a hiss. “Bet you can’t wait to catch up. Or have you guys been talking all this time? Once I left, just started all of it back up again?”

She shoved to her feet before I could answer and stormed inside the clubhouse, pissing me off. That, what she’d done right there? That was Cecilia bullshit. Making accusations and then running away before a person could say anything back. Jesus, that shit got under my skin.

I followed her inside, leaving my food sitting on the bench, and as soon as I got to the bar, Poet pointed over his shoulder with a thumb to tell me where she’d gone.

“Nope,” I growled as she started into her dad’s room. I grabbed her around the waist and threw her over my shoulder.

As soon as we hit my room, she was pinching me with the knuckles of her first two fingers, making bruises I was sure would be the size of quarters on my back.

“Knock it off,” I barked, tossing her onto the bed. “You’re acting like a brat.”

“I hate that she’s here,” she replied. Her words were filled with venom, but her eyes told another story completely as she pushed herself to her feet.

“She’s your sister, Dandelion.”

“She’s—” Lily shook her head in defeat. “How can everyone just forget that she took off?”

“Same way they did with you, I’d imagine,” I said gently. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but if she was expecting her sister to get some kind of cold shoulder from the club, she’d be waiting a long time. I had a lot of issues with how shit with Cecilia had gone down when we were kids, and I didn’t particularly want anything to do with her, but to the rest of the club, she was just another kid home visiting. She hadn’t done anything to earn their contempt.

“It wasn’t the same,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “Why do people keep saying that?”

“Guess it depends on who you ask.”

“I went to college.”

“And Cecilia went to California and got a job.”

“I—” Her voice faded and her eyes filled with tears. “She left me. She left and she didn’t even come back when I started to see again.”

“I’ve never been able to understand your sister, baby,” I said softly, reaching for her. “And I doubt you ever will, either.”