“What’s this?” Lilah asks as she reads the address.
“Just drive, Lilah.”
“To an address? I don’t even know my own address.”
I blink at her. “It’s about a mile away from my dad’s. Just drive.”
***
“So he’s building this?” Lilah asks as we both stare—gawk, really—at the cabin in the making.
There’s a lot more progress than Liam alluded to.
He must have paid a small fortune to get a cabin almost completely built—especially one this size—in such a small amount of time. He’d need half an army to do this, and tons of material. All the electrical even seems to be done.
The inside is still raw, which means it’ll still be a while before it’s done, and there aren’t any doors or windows, but…the outside is almost finished.
And I can’t even…
“And he’s modeled it off your painting?”
“Yeah.”
“And you still wonder if he’s in Tomahawk to stay?”
“This is pocket change to him. No monetary amount can be considered a commitment from him. You should have seen his home in LA. If he can leave that—”
“I get it, Kylie,” Lilah says, interrupting me quietly as we both walk into Liam’s cabin.
My hand goes over the polished cedar, smiling softly as I move inside.
“Your mom left. Your cousins’ parents both left. You have trust issues. Understandably so. But—”
“So help me, if you say I need to follow my heart, I will punch you in the tit,” I warn her.
“Which tit?” she asks seriously.
“The left one, of course. I know you favor the right.”
She nods like that’s acceptable.
“Anyway, I was going to say—”
“He’s moving fast, Lilah,” I state quietly, looking around at the large rooms as I take a deep breath.
“Which is perfect, because you move fast,” she reminds me. “You and I were best friends immediately. However, you struggle to even attempt to make friends outside of the Wild Ones. You keep your circle too tight because you don’t want to risk getting attached too fast. You won’t even get another pet since that hamster died.”
“Because I become painfully invested and attached,” I remind her.
“And Liam is the first guy to ever get too close, and he did it way quicker than you planned for,” she goes on. “Which should tell you something. Aunt Penny said she was stuck to Uncle Bill after meeting him once.”
I say nothing as I sit down in what I assume is going to be the living room, avoiding the lumber piles and haphazard tools lying around with no particular order.
Lilah sits down beside me, nudging my shoulder with hers, and I hold my silence.
“Give it a few weeks, Kylie. See if what’s between the two of you is what you’ve built it up to be in your heads. What can it really hurt?”
“It can hurt everything,” I point out dryly, trying not to show any emotion.
She lost her parents, and moved forward. My mother walked away, but she’s still alive. Even if she did move on to another family and another life before writing us off like we didn’t even exist.
Our losses have different consequences. And I’m starting to think Lilah is more badass than me. Not that I’d ever tell her that.
“He had a girlfriend he forgot about,” I remind her softly.
“And he had a crazy girl with an unhealthy addiction to boots for less than a month, and hasn’t been interested in another vagina since,” she’s quick to retort. “I’ve witnessed that first hand.”
My smile spreads before I can stop it, because now that I think back to her questioning whether or not her neighbor was into guys and wondering if she could watch the show, and it of course makes me feel good to know he showed zero interest in anyone else.
“Everyone always called my parents reckless. I mean, they started an entirely new corner of crazy just to toss my dad in. Then my mom joined him, and it was…magically insane,” Lilah states randomly.
I laugh, thinking back to how wild her parents were. And how they were always together.
“She always said he was the biggest risk she ever took, because he consumed her. Dad said the same thing about her,” Lilah goes on, a sad smile on her lips as she leans back on her hands and stares out the hole where the window will be.
After a beat, she turns her head to face me again, eyes serious for a change.
“You can’t be reckless in every aspect of your life because you enjoy the adrenaline and the rush life gives you, then be overly cautious in the one section of your life that could give you the biggest rush you’ve ever had. It’s hypocritical, for one, and you hate hypocrisy. Trust me when I say it’s more fun to have someone always in your corner and at your back. You’re not a coward, Kylie Malone. Don’t use your mother as an excuse to wall yourself off. Otherwise, how are you any different from the people who always point out we’re going to die young?”