Hale sniffs, shoulders straightening. “It’s a man thing, Lilah. Step aside.”
My eyes narrow, but a hand clamps around my mouth before I can say anything. Benson’s body presses up behind me, and I struggle to remove his damn hand.
“Even you two assholes can’t possibly think your sister is always going to be single,” he tells them. They exchange a look as he continues. “She’s beautiful, smart, independent, and she’s honest.”
Okay, I admit I stop struggling to remove his hand for a minute so I can swoon. But it’s brief. I go back to trying to pry that hand off again, realizing just how strong Benson is when it’s a vain attempt.
“And you can’t be oblivious to the fact I care about her. And I’m never leaving Tomahawk. Until now, she’s never been intimate with anyone from Tomahawk. Would you rather her find someone not in this town? Someone who might take her away from it permanently?”
To this, they both pale, as if they hadn’t considered the fact I might ever leave them. Which I wouldn’t. They drive me crazy ninety-nine percent of the time, but they’re still my brothers, and they love me in their own unusual way, just as I love them. I’d never abandon them.
However, Benson is making a point, and my brothers are less aggressive and more passive in the moment. Which is a first.
“That’s what I thought,” Benson says, his lips twitching as he removes his hand. “So are we going to have any more problems?”
Again, the duo exchange a look, doing that silent communication thing they do. Sometimes I’m in on it with them, but usually it’s me silently shouting no at whatever destructive plan I can see brewing.
They look back at Benson, and their eyes creepily narrow in unison. “We’ll have a big problem if you hurt her,” Killian says.
Hale makes a point of slashing a finger across his neck. Benson’s lips twitch.
“Understood.”
They both toss me a glare before walking back to their cabin, but Hale turns around and points at us before he fully retreats.
“No more sex in your cabin. And we’re not fixing that bed again. He broke it this time.”
Then they turn around and leave us in peace.
“Well, that went better than expected,” I say in surprise.
“I cheated by playing on their worst fear,” he says, smirking as he rests his elbows on my porch railing.
He looks sexy on my porch.
Benson Nolans is actually the epitome of sexy, by my definition.
I lean up against him.
“I’d never leave them.”
“I know that now. I didn’t used to, but I do now. You’re true to Tomahawk until you die.”
He flashes a grin at me.
“You too?”
He nods, wrapping an arm around me.
“The worst is yet to come,” I say on a sigh, and his eyebrows furrow. “Aunt Penny is going to find out about this. Then…the pressure begins.”
He rolls his eyes. “It can’t possibly be that bad.”
Chapter 12
Wild Ones Tip #369
A Wild One is always right. Unless they’re wrong.
LILAH
“Oh, the wedding should be here. At the house. It’s where you two met, after all,” Aunt Penny is saying, while I force a straight face.
Benson is surprisingly not ruffled by the thousand and one wedding details Aunt Penny has been rattling off for the past hour. We’ve literally been dating for two days, and she has our wedding planned.
Told you.
“I bet all of Tomahawk would come out to see these two tie the knot,” my uncle chimes in before taking another drag off his pipe.
The pipe tobacco is permeating the air, even though we’re outside. At our picnic table. I’m leaning against Benson as I’ve done for years, but it means something different than it used to.
And his arm is around me, because we can’t stop touching. It’s even worse than when we were just friends. I don’t think we’ve stopped touching each other in some way unless bathroom breaks were required.
Benson’s lips find my forehead, and I close my eyes, soaking it in. Until there’s a terrifying squeal.
We both look at my aunt, who is clutching her hands together and staring at us with hearts in her eyes. That weird sound was apparently her vocalizing her excitement and not the sound of a cat losing its tail.
“You’re so beautiful together. It’s just lovely. It takes me back to when Bill and I first got together. I can’t wait to see you in your mother’s dress.”
My heart thumps, and I tense, but Aunt Penny keeps on talking.
“I can alter it, if you want. But I don’t think we should make any major changes. It would look so beautiful on you just as it is.”
I offer her a tight smile in response. This pressure is only going to get more suffocating.
“I think we’re just going to take it one day at a time for a while,” Benson says, trying to keep the wedding planner at bay. “We’ve only just started dating,” he reminds her, like a sane, rational person would.
She bats a hand. “You two love each other. You’ve been friends for years. You wouldn’t be in a relationship now if it wasn’t the real thing. I never thought it’d happen unless I kept trying to fix her up with guys.”
To this, Benson and I look at each other, confused, before glancing back at her.
“Say what now?” I ask.
Her mischievous smile spreads, and my uncle laughs under his breath before he answers that question.
“She knew you weren’t interested in anyone she brought out. She kept picking all those pretty boys for a reason. Benson wasn’t making a move, but you two would practically be in each other’s pockets when a potential suitor was involved. Your aunt figured she’d push Benson along, hoping he’d finally break.”
Benson frowns. “That’s not what happened.”
“In a way it was,” Aunt Penny says, delighted with herself.
“Actually, it was my brothers wrecking my bed that did it.”
Her face falls, and I feel like I’ve stolen something from her.
“That was what did it for her. For me, it was Liam coming into the picture,” Benson lies. He’s already told me the real moment he started having feelings for me that crossed the friendship line.
But it perks my aunt right up, and I want to kiss him for giving her that. My uncle winks at him like he knows what just happened too.
And I want Benson to myself for a while now so I can reward him properly.
“We need to go. I have some jobs to finish up,” I tell her, tugging at Benson’s hand.
He’s quick to leap to his feet, ready to get out of here too.
“Oh, I’ll make some wedding cake samples to see which is your favorite!” Aunt Penny calls out as we hurriedly make our way to the boat.
“Sounds good,” I say over my shoulder, not slowing down.
As soon as we’re pulling away from the dock, I look over at Benson. “Told you.”
He laughs under his breath. “It wasn’t as bad as you made it sound.”
“I’ll remind you of that when we come over for dinner one night, only to realize it’s a surprise wedding and she’s shoving us both down the aisle.”
He laughs, but I’m not kidding. It’s totally something she would do.