“Water cannon?” he asks, his voice going up an octave.
“There’s only one way to win back the heart of a Wild One. You have to prove you’re crazy enough to deserve it,” I explain.
“But a water cannon? What the hell, man?”
“You still with me? I won’t be able to execute the next part of my plan alone.”
He sighs harshly. “Hell, might as well. Just tell me your next plan won’t set my ass on fire.”
“Nah. But just abandon ship if they manage to almost blow us up.”
He pales as I walk over and grab my phone. I have some people to call.
“You’re kidding, right?” he asks.
My eyes come up. “What part of Wild Ones don’t you understand?”
Chapter 22
Wild Ones Tip #56
Chaos is not scary. It’s sexy.
LILAH
“You love him,” Aunt Penny says with no preamble.
She’s the only one I’ve told the truth to since Benson hurt me three days ago.
“I can’t love him. We’ve only been together for a little over two weeks,” I point out, even though it sounds like a lame attempt at a protest.
I finish setting up her website, and turn it around for her to look at. She gushes over it for a second, then I turn it back around to fix her screen so she can check her orders easily.
She’s officially selling her jams online.
“I was in love with Bill within a week of knowing him,” she sighs wistfully. “It took him longer, but not by much. You and Benson…you two have been falling in love for years. You just didn’t know it, because you never crossed that physical boundary until two weeks ago,” she says, moving over to put some of her jams on the new shelves my uncle built her.
“We were friends. Not in love,” I argue.
“How many days did you spend apart?” she muses.
I shrug, bristling a little.
“Not many.”
“You two couldn’t stop touching. Always leaning on each other, always laughing at your own inside jokes. And always, always seeking each other out first, no matter where you were.”
I swallow the knot in my throat as I dare to peek up at her. Her eyes water when she sees the unshed tears in my eyes.
“I realize you’ve always been the rock. Your brothers always leaned on you. You saw how much it hurt them when you left them so you could go get some schooling for this career you chose. But you’ve let that hold you back from ever considering settling down, because you thought that meant you’d have to leave them, even though you don’t. However, all along, Benson has been slowly taking over your heart. You just finally noticed it, kiddo. You’ve been in love for who knows how long. Having sex is just one small part of the relationship equation, and it has no effect on whether or not you’re in love.”
I try to shake my head again, but when that forces a tear to slip free, I freeze, worried I’ll sling more loose.
As I wipe it away, she sits down in front of me. “You haven’t been intimate with anyone in three years,” she says quietly.
“Not a whole lot of options,” I remind her.
She rolls her eyes. “I brought you all kinds of options from the lodge—very handsome men who were very interested. You never paid them any attention. Three years ago, something happened. You know what that is.”
I do, but saying it aloud is almost like confirming what she’s saying is true.
And if I’m in love with Benson, then my life is going to suck even more. Because it hurts to love someone you want to shoot a little.
And it’s not like he’s tried to get me back, other than sending his brother to me. Totally lame, by the way. And insulting. I’m a Vincent, and you send your brother to speak on your behalf?
“Say it,” she tells me, peering at me expectantly.
I groan. “Benson and I became real friends three years ago.”
Her smile spreads, even though it’s watery. “And what cemented that friendship?”
“I couldn’t get my boat to start, and he came over, tore it apart, spent the day working on it, even though it was cold. He finally just reassembled a new motor for me. After he was done, he went and threatened my brothers, told them to buy their own boat and never touch mine again, or they’d have to deal with him.”
She rolls her eyes. “Only a Vincent would find that a bonding experience,” she sighs. “And those wild brothers of yours respected him enough not to retaliate.”
I can’t help but smile, even as another tear trickles down my face.
“It was the first time someone else handled them, instead of cowering. I felt like I had some help to keep them in line. Also, I felt like I was no longer one-third. Killian and Hale have always been two-thirds together. Always together. Sometimes I think they share a brain.”
To this, my aunt laughs loudly, nodding like she agrees.
“And sometimes I feel like I’m right there with them. But most of the time, I felt like I was the odd man out, always cleaning up after them, and constantly left out because I didn’t always think like them. Then Benson…it’s like we shared something. He was on my level, or at least cool with my level. And he had my back even when it came to my brothers.”
I sigh, and she brushes a piece of hair behind my ear.
“That, my darling niece, is real love. It’s not always going to slap you in the face, though that kind is amazing too. I would know. But sometimes, it burns you so subtly, that you don’t realize you’re boiling until it’s too late. The water just took a while to heat up with you, kiddo.”
She takes a breath like she’s readying me for the grand finale.
“You’ve spent almost every day with him for three years. You’ve touched each other affectionately for three years. You’ve subconsciously sought each other out for three years. You’ve been in a steady burn for three long years. Now…the pot is boiling because you’re finally ready.”
“Except I’m not. He’s over there with his ex-fiancée, the girl he planned a future with nine years ago, and I’m—”
A loud boom rattles the air, and my aunt and I both exchange horrified looks before darting to the door to see what my brothers have blown up.
The second we’re outside, we freeze, staring as another boom rattles the air, and water sprays straight up. I cock my head, trying to figure out what’s going on. But the scene before me makes no sense at all.
My breath catches in my throat when the water sprays up again, and I see the two boats racing toward each other.
“Please tell me they’re not really throwing pipe bombs again,” my aunt says dryly.
My brothers are in one boat. And two other brothers are in another—Benson and Deacon.
Benson cuts the wheel, and Deacon sprays water from a water cannon, blasting Hale as my brother readies to launch another pipe bomb. Hale is thrown from the boat when the water pummels him in the chest.
“Where’d he get a water cannon?” I ask on a breath.
“They’re going to kill each other,” Aunt Penny hisses, running down the stairs. “Our boys are supposed to be the damn Wild Ones. They’re going to start a fifth corner if this shit keeps up.”