Page 8 of Last First Love
Because yeah, I guess he'd better not do any more stupid things. Including me, apparently.
Ken
Why is the extra sexy Lily with mouth full of sex talk stomping toward the front door instead of sitting on my lap? Or my face? You know, whichever seems more like her thing.
Also, why is her big galoot of a brother now aggressively manhandling me toward the front door? He's acting like I sexed up his little sister midway through the photoshoot and now he's going to take me outside and beat me into next week.
"Hey, loosen up there, Ell. Whatever beef you have going on with Lily, leave me out of it." I shake him off and turn to go.
But he grabs my shoulder. A little too hard to be just a friendly move, or even roughhousing. No, he's definitely pissed and I'm willing to bet it has absolutely everything to do with the filthy words that recently came spilling out of little Lily's pretty mouth.
Speaking of which, I don't think I can ever look at a hamburger the same way again. Next time I head to Riddles for lunch, I'll probably get an awkward boner and then K.T. will throw me out on my ass.
"No way. We're going to have a talk." Elliott sounds like he's planning to dismember me, so I throw my hands up, palms out, in a gesture that clearly indicates surrender.
"Hey, let's pick somewhere well-lit and very public for this talk. Definitely not an alleyway, a secluded riverbank, or a meat freezer." I give him my best megawatt smile. "I may have been flirting with Lily, but I swear I didn't even recognize her. If I'd known she was your sister, I'd definitely have worked harder to keep the other guys away from her."
Elliott snorts and steers me forcefully toward the door. "I'm not worried about the other guys, Danimal. You're the only real lady killer in this group, and we both know that Lily's had a crush on you since she was a kid."
I stop, hearing his words ringing in my ears over and over again. "Wait, what? She was only a little kid last time she saw me. And today didn't mean anything real. You know how I am with pretty girls."
Elliott shoves me hard, so that I stumble backwards and have to regain my footing. "You're an idiot, Daniels. Didn't you ever notice how she was always "accidentally" around whenever you came over to my place?" He makes those little finger quotes around the word, in case I couldn’t hear the sarcasm dripping all over that sentence.
I'm wracking my brain but keep coming up blank, even after I close my eyes and puzzle it out for a minute or two. I shrug. "No. Not really. Look, she was seriously a little kid. If she was hanging around, I figured it had more to do with you than me. She never even talked to me back then."
He shakes his head roughly. "Cut the crap and let's get out of here. This is apparently going to be a long talk best held over a cold beer."
I bat my eyelashes at him. "You had me at cold beer, you sweet talker."
He snorts, but shoves me a little less roughly this time as we head out into the street. The silence stretches out between us, tense and awful until he finally bumps me with his shoulder.
"You were flirting with her, weren't you?" His words leave a trail of sweat slicking down my spine, but I'm probably not stupid enough to admit to anything like the full on filth that has been running through my mind since I laid eyes on her.
"C'mon Ell. She's super pretty. I can't resist a girl who's a knockout, even if she is your little sister." I'm praying that I can sell it to him as nothing more than me being a harmless flirt. If Elliott suspects that I was actually looking at his sister with very depraved, lustful dirty schoolgirl fantasies in mind, he will definitely squash me like a bug before the lunch hour is over.
Overprotective doesn't even scratch the surface. Ever since his jackass father left to go "find himself" or whatever, apparently by moving to a nudist colony on the other side of the country with a girl who was barely old enough to buy liquor, Elliott has been the self-appointed man of the house for both his mother and baby sister. And I completely approve of him stepping up and running a tight ship over there.
I even helped out sometimes when we first became friends, back when he was still burning with rage over his father's abandonment. I'd mow the lawn occasionally or do the other guy chores, and that was part of how we ended up being friends. I was always there to help without making it into a big deal.
Just like this isn’t a big deal. I can definitely act that way as much as I need to in front of Elliott at least.
We finally make it to Riddles and the cool air conditioning makes the sweat pouring off me turn to ice against my skin. I shiver at the temperature change, and then bow theatrically to K.T., the meanest bartender in town.
"You just got here and you're already going to piss me off, aren't you?" She juts out one hip and her lips tighten into a snarl.
I swear I don't know how an easy-going people person like Reed Harrington IV ever ended up in love with this woman. She's totally hot, don't get me wrong. But even on her good days, she's mean. And on her bad days, I suspect she's murdered some schmuck when he crossed her, at least once. She has a way about her that is intimidating to a man like me, and the only way to play this is to play it the fuck up.
"But K.T., you love it when I make an ass of myself. And look, I brought you a human sacrifice. As you may recall, this meathead right here is Elliott, my very best friend. Feel free to take out your aggression on him instead of me."
Her lips curl up into something almost like a smile. Yeah, I can charm almost any woman by acting stupid enough. They line up to laugh at me, and then next thing I know, their underwear is on my floor somewhere and they're not laughing anymore.
Not K.T. though. She would definitely rather disembowel me than bang me, even if we could both set aside her whole love affair with Valentine's own Prince Charming mayor.
And I've seen the way she and Reed are with each other. They couldn't be more opposite types of people, but somehow, they absolutely fit together. It's like they were made for one another. Sickening, isn't it? I've never felt quite as lonely as I do when I have to see people who are in love.
And if I think too hard about that, it's going to depress the living hell out of me when I need to be clowning it up. It's one hundred percent my job to act like a fool for Elliott and show him that whatever was going on with his delicious, dirty-minded sister earlier is definitely not my fault.
Even if I'd like it to be. Even if I'd like nothing more than to skate out of this lunch intimidation session and find Lily and kiss her until she uses her spicy little mouth for good instead of evil.
