“Hot damn,” he said. “Lilith! You haven’t aged a day.”
Lilith scoffed, then set the coffee she was holding on a side table. “Hardly. But you always were an even worse sweet talker than this one,” she said, gesturing to me. “Can’t say I’m happy to see you, though.”
Daryl and I both stopped. “What’s that?” Daryl asked.
Lilith pursed her lips, shooting him a skeptical glance. “What’s this I heard about the last job you pulled my brother along on? Guns fired at the car while he drove away?” She sighed, then tightened her robe as she turned to walk into the kitchen. “Anyway, come on in. You eat breakfast yet?”
Daryl turned to me with a glare.
“What?” I asked.
“You told her?” he whispered.
“Of course he told me!” Lilith yelled from the kitchen. “He had a fucking bullet hole in his rearview mirror.”
I shrugged. “I had a fucking bullet hole in my rearview mirror,” I repeated.
Daryl grumbled as we headed into the kitchen, where Lilith had tossed a pan on the stove and pulled out a carton of eggs. Daryl and I both took a seat the little table, and Lilith slid us a couple fresh mugs of black coffee.
“Just tell me this,” she said to Daryl. “You’re not trying to get him to do a job while you’re here, are you?”
“Fuck no,” Daryl said so fast I was pretty sure he was lying. “Wouldn’t think of it.”
Lilith arched an eyebrow at him, but when he didn’t say any more, she sighed. “What brings you back to town?’
“Just a side gig,” he said. “No big thing.”
“Seeing your family?” she asked.
Daryl barked a laugh. “You think I’m seeing my family?”
Lilith started cracking eggs into the sizzle of the pan. “No more than we’re seeing ours.”
“Hey,” I said, a memory jumping to mind as I started to wake up. “Lilith, did I tell you I tried to call Mom a couple of years ago?”
“What?” she gasped. “Are you serious?”
“A moment of weakness,” I said. “Anyway, her new husband answered the phone, and, once I explained who I was, he very awkwardly told me that she wasn’t available.”
“I guess it ruins the fantasy of a happy marriage,” she said. “When the children you abused and abandoned start ringing you up.”
“Maybe I should go visit my pops,” Daryl said. “I hear he’s married again. Probably wouldn’t take more than a knock on his door to turn his world upside down.”
“We could all go there together,” I joked. “Remind him of all the reasons he hates us.”
We kept laughing and joking about our pasts over breakfast, same as we always did. It probably seemed pretty dark to most people. I could only imagine what a couple of guys like Franklin and Rory would think, if they heard us trashing our parents over fried eggs and strong coffee. But joking about our shitty families was a way to remember we had escaped them. Even though the life we escaped to was fucked up in its own way, it was a hell of a lot better than living under the thumbs of our parents.
“How long are you around?” I asked Daryl as I gathered the plates to rinse and toss in the sink. “This gig keeping you in Seattle long?”
“A couple weeks, probably” he said. “My employer got me a hotel. I’m just waiting to pick up a delivery for the drive back.”
A part of me lit up when he said that. I missed my friend, and since moving back to Seattle, I’d really only spent time with Lilith and with Franklin and Rory. Lilith I could relax around, but when I was working with Franklin, I always felt like I had to keep some parts of my life secret, pretending to be a more upstanding citizen than I actually was.
Having another person I could be myself around was a relief. I just hoped Daryl would respect the person I was trying to become, too.
“What do you say?” he asked. “Drinks tonight? You free?”
“My best friend in town?” I replied. “How could I say no?”
