My eyebrow arches and I huff a little indignantly. “Are you saying no one from here would ever—”
“I’m saying,” he interrupts, a small, mocking grin on his face, “it’s a rare thing to find someone from anywhere who can truly embrace a girl like you. Benson was a gem in a pile of rubble, and Lilah snatched him up for that reason. But Liam? Liam is the kind of guy who doesn’t just embrace this life; he enjoys it.”
He starts straightening up, but I remain on my stool, just staring idly at nothing.
How did this conversation get so sidetracked? And how do I make him start threatening Liam? Because Lilah’s a little smug about the fact they’ve already accepted Liam as one of their own without a single noogie.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” is the answer I decide to go with to get us back on track.
A rumble of laughter shakes him as he looks at me like he’s amused.
“You want me to tell you that Liam is never going anywhere. You want me to tell you that, even though he’s not from Tomahawk, he’s always going to stick around. You want me to make promises that no one can make, because no one can see the future.”
No, I want you to threaten him just one little tiny time.
I heave out a breath and roll my eyes, and then have a flashback to being sixteen, so I sit a little straighter and show off my adult posture to compensate. This is not at all the correct conversation.
I’m past this. Lilah’s married advice has already pushed me beyond this hurdle, damn it. Why is Dad making this so complicated? Just one limb. He just has to threaten one limb—or organ—on Liam’s body.
“But,” he says dramatically, bringing my gaze back to meet his eyes that are dancing with mirth, “I’ve never seen someone fit so well so soon in this crazy town.”
He comes closer, towering over me as I remain seated on the small milking stool, hating the fact I’m stuck here for this weird speech he thinks is empowering.
His hands go to his sides, making him look like a superhero, sort of like he always looked when he was raising me and my unruly cousins on his own. But why is he actually posing right now?
“Your mother never tried to fit in, Kylie. Neither did the boys’ parents. They saw themselves somewhere else the entire time they were here. Liam loves this town. He may have moved here for you, but he’s stayed because he found his unusual tribe in the most unusual of places.”
His grin grows as I stare at him like he’s getting a little too theatrical.
“You’re starting make all this less of a father/daughter conversation and more of an after-school special,” I point out dryly. “My question is, are you cool with some unknown guy who stalked me here stripping me out of my clothes every night?” I ask, helping put him on the path to Threatsville.
I bet the Malones will be twice as brutal as the Vincents when they finally get unleashed.
Then I can rub it in Lilah’s face.
He continues on like he has all the answers to the universe, while I sit silently and regret coming here. He picks now to practice his Dad-of-the-Year-Award speech, it seems.
While doing the superhero pose again…
“Most people believe it’s a phase. I’ll be honest, I worried as much as well. Then I saw the way he held his own with the Vincents. They’re not easy to impress, and you know that.”
Kill. Me. Now.
He squats down in front of me and snatches my hand, pulling it into his as he pats the back of it. Doing that Brady Bunch, good-dad thing that is sort of freaking me out, because he’s usually all growly and yelling.
I prefer growly and yelling. It’s like chicken noodle soup.
This is just…terrifyingly anticlimactic.
“Is this reverse psychology?” I ask him. “You know, where you try to convince me Liam is perfect for me by overly selling him, so that I’ll be less Juliette and more Julie-hell-no?”
He blinks at me.
“I couldn’t come up with someone the opposite of Juliette, so just go with it,” I prompt.
He holds my gaze, his expression so…sweet. Are there cameras here? I dart a gaze around the corners of the barn, looking for the cameras I can’t find.
Is he doing this just to piss me off? Because it’s really freaking working.
“I can’t give you assurances you seek, my darling child. But I can remind you that you’re a Wild One. Chester Perkins will never take the risks my girl will, because he doesn’t have a reckless bone in his body.”
My darling child? Seriously?
There are cameras; I just don’t see them. I bet he signed up for some reality show and this is his audition tape or something.
He stands, and I groan when I finally let the rest of his speech play over in my head. “Did you really just give that entire speech so you could make a dig at Chester?”