Page 46 of Big & Lily

I glare at the actor, knowing full well how his appetite got “worked up.”

“I’ll go tell Lily,” he adds.

“No, I’ll tell my sister,” I say and walk off before he can.First, I deal withher, then you,I think.

I stomp back to where Lily and Xavier where goofing around, the gravel crunching under my feet, but all I find is the teenager, sitting on the ground, his head bent to this phone. “We have service!” he says.

“Xavier, where is Lily?”

The boy shrugs but doesn’t look up. “Gone.”

Of course she is.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Gone where?”

Xavier squints up at me, seeming exasperated. I’m clearly interrupting his precious screen time. “Over there,” he says, hiking a thumb behind him before bending his head again.

He’s indicating the woods beyond the tall growth. I can see a faint trail of trodden-upon grass where my sister bushwhacked her way toward the pines. What was she thinking? Over at the van, the men are still crowded around the open hood. In the other direction, Luna and Mimi are small in the distance, a couple of hundred feet down on the shoulder of the road. Brick had said don’t go far. Brick had said stick together. I am in no position to start trouble with Brick right now. But I need to find Lily.

I follow her path until I arrive at the tree line. The air becomes colder as I step into the tightly packed woods. The ground is soft and covered with large, feather-shape ferns. Before I lose the view of the van and my group completely, I glance back again. They are busy, chatting, laughing, exploring, turning their faces to the sun. No one has noticed me leave. I’ll find Lily—how far could she have gone?—and get back before anyone is the wiser.

This clump of forest looks like every other so far. Same evergreens over and over again. Same ground cover. Same sky barely peeking through the treetops. I could easily get lost if I don’t catch up with my sister soon.

“Lily!” No response. “Come on, Lily. We need to go back. If you’re peeing, hurry up.” Again, nothing. “Lily! I get you aren’t talking to me. Though I can’t for the life of me figure out why,” I say into the open air. “I didn’t lock myself out of the cabin. I didn’t do something I’m going to live to regret.”

I start to realize this is not the way to encourage her out of hiding, but my frustration has risen and reached my mouth, so it’s coming out whether it’s a smart idea or not. “Really, it’s hysterical,youbeing mad atmeright now. I can’t believe I’m the bad guy in this scenario.”

“You’re not, Big.”

Lily steps out from behind a stand of pines, looking contrite when I was expecting defiance. My aggravation turns into clay and reshapes itself. “Lil, what are you doing out here by yourself?” I ask quietly, rant over.

“I needed a minute alone.”

“You should have told me. I would have come with you.”

“What part ofalonewould that have been?”

“Well, you shouldn’t be out here by yourself. What if I lose you?”

“Would that be so bad?” Lily sinks onto the soft ground like a kindergartner in circle time. Legs crisscross applesauce. She lets out a huge groan and cradles her head in her arms.

I sit next to her, my thigh pressed against hers, and wrap my arm around her. “Yes, hon. It would. For one, Mom would kill me.”

She lifts her head and snort-laughs. But only for a second.

“Oh, Big. I fucked up. Really fucked up.” A bird squawks overhead, and we both crane our necks, but the branches above are too tightly meshed for us to see anything. “I guess we’re even now, me and Eric.”

“Are you?” I ask. “Even?”

Lily snaps off a piece of fern. “Not even close.”

“What were you thinking?” I ask.

My sister tosses the fern and grabs for another one. “I wasn’t. Or maybe I was. Maybe I was thinking I was someone else. Not Lily Ackerman whose life crashed and burned in a day with one stupid CVS receipt. I was ‘Lily on an Adventure,’ free, daring, bon vivant.”

“So, is this going to be a thing now? Are you and Dane an... item?”