Page 40 of Watercolor Skulls

Grunting, I don’t take my eyes off Lily.

“She really has caught your eye, huh?” she asks.

“She’s more than caught my eye, she stolen my heart,” I admit.

Candice walks over and puts her hand on my shoulder. “I’ve seen the way the women in the club treat you. You deserve more than that.” She looks out the window as Lily and Jackson approach. “Lily isn’t one of them, remember that.”

I nod in understanding as the door swings opens.

“Uncle Dan.” Jackson barrels into me, climbing up my legs like a goddamn spider monkey. “Look what I made.” He shoves a wooden box with a screen covering it in my face. “Do you know what it is?”

“Hm, a cage for trolls that like to come out at night and nibble on your toes.” I grab his feet, flipping him upside down, pretending to eat his toes.

He giggles, struggling to catch his breath. “No, Uncle Dan, stop,” he gasps.

Lily grabs him under his arms and pulls him upright, so she is holding his torso while I still bite at his feet.

He starts to kick so I let go.

Jesse helps him to stand. “Uncle Dan. It’s a bug catcher,” he says, exasperated with me.

“Oh, I see it now.” I get down on one knee to inspect his creation. “Where are the bugs?”

“Lily and I are going on a bug hunt after lunch. She promised.”

I glance up at Lily and she smiles at me. “Do you want to go with us?”

“Yes.” I pull myself to my feet and reach out to take her hand but Jackson steps between us, grabbing it first. He pulls her away from me. She grins over her shoulder as they head out the front door.

That little shit.

The food is set up on a long table. Some of the guys are pulling picnic tables out of a few pickup trucks. The club always comes prepared. Jackson breaks away from Lily to show off his new bug catcher. Jackson is a handful but everyone in the club loves him.

Without Jackson by her side, Lily looks a little uncomfortable. I grab her from behind, making her yelp.

“Dan, you scared me,” she scolds.

“I thought I better make my move before your little sidekick comes back and steals you away from me.”

She laughs up at me. “He’s a really great kid. I had fun with him this morning.”

“Hungry?” I ask, wrapping my arms around her waist and walking us to the food table.

“Yes, everything smells divine.”

I chuckle at her choice of words. She’s definitely grown up in a different culture than the rest of us but it’s refreshing. We load up our plates then find an empty spot at the end of one of the tables. I sit down and swing my knee out, patting it for her to sit down.

She glances around nervously. Her face is an open book. She’s worried about how this will look but when she sees Candice sitting between Bill’s legs on the steps she visibly relaxes and carefully perches herself on my knee.

“So, I was thinking, why don’t you let me buy you some nicer things for your place. Some of that furniture looked pretty rough.”

Lily pops a chip in her mouth shaking her head. “No thank you. I like the stuff I picked out. I’m going to fix it up.”

Jeremy and JD are sitting across from us. They both fidget nervously. No one has ever had the balls to tell me no.

“Lily, the dresser is missing knobs and one drawer is about to completely fall apart.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “I’m going to fix it.”

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