Blame it on the supposed concussion or on clarity finally entering my life, but I opened my mouth before I could stop myself, not caring who heard me, only that I said what I had to say. “You know I’m sorry, don’t you?”
Taking a step closer, Lillie placed her hand on top of my free one that rested on my thigh. “Stop apologising. There’s no need.”
I scowled, confused at the woman standing in front of me. She seemed stronger somehow. More resolute.
“Don’t look at me like that, either.” She huffed out a small laugh. “I’m not as fragile as you think I am.”
“I never thought you were.”
“And I need you to know that it’s okay that you’ve moved on.”
Despite the pain throbbing in my head, I raised my brows and simply… stared at her.
She thumbed over her shoulder. “Big mouth over there filled us in on everything that’s happened on your holiday while he was frantically trying to explain his own remorse when he thought you weren’t going to make it out of the car in one piece.”
I glanced over at Andy, who toed the ground and sheepishly turned back to Jace to avoid my silent accusations.
“He gave you a lot of shit by the sounds of it,” Lillie said, pulling my attention back to her. “You know it was unjustified, don’t you?”
“Lillie, I…” had no clue what the hell to say to any of that. The fact Andy had confessed everything to her, probably Nina and James, too, was enough of a surprise to render me speechless.
What alternate universe had I stepped into?
“He loves you, Cohen. We all do,” she said sweetly, making that once-frozen heart of mine grow that little bit more than it already had thanks to Phoebe.
Phoebe.
God, even the thought of her made that same heart race a little too wildly.
“I just hope this is a wakeup call for you,” Lillie said, making me blink up at her again.
“Wakeup call?”
“To remember life is for living, right? So, stop being so down and out all the time, and go live it for once.”
I had no idea how we’d got here or who had orchestrated this lifechanging incident in the first place, but as I looked up at Lillie, who stared back at me as though giving me permission for something I hadn’t even known I needed it for, I realised what I needed to do and where I needed to go.
Everything fell into place.
“Consider me woken up,” I told her.
Standing slowly shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, but I did my best to hide the pain from all the prying, concerned eyes that suddenly turned my way as though I was a timebomb ready to go off at any given moment. Then I pulled Lillie into a hug that said everything my mouth couldn’t.
Because we were family. Not the conventional one, no, but family all the same.
When I pulled back, her cheeks were flushed, and tears lined her eyes, but her small smile seemed real. Her intentions pure.
I turned to Andy, pulling his sister into my side with my arm wrapped around her shoulder as she held me up. “You owe me a favour,” I told him. “And I’m calling it in now.”
“Anything? What is it?”
My plan fell from my lips far too easily, and by the time I’d finished, Andy, Jace, James and Nina all stared at me like I’d grown three heads and sprouted wings. Only Lillie smiled up at me, fuelling me on. I hadn’t realised how much I’d needed her forgiveness as well as her brother’s. As well as all of theirs.
“You sure about this?” Andy asked.
“Not a single doubt.”
“It’s risky,” he warned.
