Going Wild (The Wild Ones Book 2)(21)

Lilah’s eyes are beguiled even as her mouth is twisted in shock. The more I say, the more stupid I feel about the entire situation.

Why was I so naïve?

To her stunned expression, I say, “Yeah. Tell me about it. I never had sex with him—at least not in the traditional sense. He and I were so different that it was laughable. I knew this. I left before I invested any more of myself in him. Yet he’s still in my head, because for three weeks, I got to have a guy no one else in the world ever saw. I was going to stay a fourth week just to be with him. Even lied and told him I had a showcase that I didn’t have—since it was canceled—knowing he’d never know the truth.”

“What if he’d gone to that showcase?” she points out.

“He couldn’t. He was bedded down with his entire leg in a cast. His ribs were jacked up, and it was hard for him to use the crutches. He was in a lot of pain those first few weeks. I always had to be the nine to his six because of that.”

“What? I’m usually hard to confuse, Kylie,” Lilah says incredulously.

“Maybe it’s the six to his nine now that I think about—”

“That’s not the confusing part,” she states dryly.

I laugh under my breath. “We went skydiving, and his chute malfunctioned. He’s lucky he got it deployed long enough to break his fall and land in water. But he still hit hard enough to break his leg in a several places and had to have emergency surgery, and he also messed up some ribs. I had to pull him out before he drowned, and when I realized no one else was helping him through it, I stayed at his house until…the girlfriend. Yeah.”

She stops walking, and I turn to see her gawking at me.

“I know, right? Crazy town stuff,” I grumble.

She shakes her head slowly as a bright, wondrous smile comes over her lips.

“Son of a bitch. I should have known,” she says randomly.

“Should have known what?” I ask, worried. Does she know why I’ve led her out here on this trail? We still have at least half a mile to go before the ambush.

Damn it!

I told them she’d never walk through the thick woods with me. Lilah Vincent is too suspicious.

She laughs. “I just realized something. Never mind.”

She loops her arm back through mine, smiling wickedly. That, admittedly, has me worried. My cousins would never hit her. So obviously she’d kick their asses if they can’t get the drop on her.

Unless she and I fought. We’ve fought before. It never works out so well for me.

In my defense, she’s always fighting with her hellion brothers. My cousins run from me, never letting me practice on them because they’re massive and worried I’ll hurt myself if I hit them too hard.

It’s really not fair. My size leaves everyone underestimating me all the time.

“I should introduce you to my neighbor. He’s been living here for over a month, but he’s mostly stuck to our corner,” she says with a secretive smile on her lips.

I wiggle my eyebrows. “The freakishly gorgeous neighbor?” I muse. “The one your aunt tried to set you up with, but you thought he was just too pretty?”

She nods, her smile growing ever so steadily.

“I heard he gets a lot of visitors to his cabin. Half the singles are taking him food daily. He’s probably gained fifty pounds,” I go on, laughing quietly to myself. “You can tell we don’t get too many new ones out here.”

“You’ve never heard his name?” she asks curiously.

I turn my head, looking at her with a raised brow. “Why would I care what his name is? If he was too pretty for you, then I doubt he’d be my type. I go for understated sexy, remember? Like me.”

I tug one of my springy curls, letting it bounce into place, then shake my very small ladies. Yes, I know I’m not a vixen like Lilah. Still doesn’t mean I don’t know how to work what I have.

“Right,” she drawls. “Guess it wouldn’t matter anyway. He moved all the way out here for some girl he barely knew.”

My eyebrows knit together.

“What?”

She toys with the ends of her hair, keeping her arm looped through mine.

“Says he sold his place in the city and moved out here because some girl got in his head. He came here to find her, even though he barely knew her or anything about her, as it turns out. He’s waiting for the right moment to let her know he stalked her all the way to Tomahawk.”

My lips purse. “I’m not sure if that’s creepy or romantic.”

“Can’t be one without running the risk of being the other,” she says matter-of-factly. “Perception is key.”