I stare at the picture, mesmerized by his talent. He actually did that. Drew that. It looks just like me.

“Wilder, you lied to me.”

“What?” His brow genuinely creases. “No, I didn’t. I told you you’re more beautiful than this, and you are. I haven’t done caricature art in a long time, so I struggled a bit with it. I think I could have done a much better job if I was using charcoal or even a pencil. This paint, it was hard to work with.”

“Hard to work with. You added shading. You mixed colors so you could do shading.”

“I had to make sure people knew I included your hard nipples. That’s a very important feature of yours.”

I shake my head. “You tricked me.”

“What? No. Babe, yours is way better.”

“Wilder, if you ever want to be inside me again, I suggest you don’t lie.”

He winces and then runs his teeth over his lip ring. “Shit, when you say it like that.” He leans in close and whispers. “Pips, I can’t be certain if you put a nose on my face or a mini golf course with two holes.”

I gasp, but he keeps going.

“The eyebrows look like leeches. The eyes have zero dimension. And the hair looks like a dead raccoon.”

“Hey, I thought I did a good job on the hair.”

He shakes his head. “Terrible, Pips. Real bad. The only redeeming quality about the entire thing is my lip ring.”

I sit taller, because I thought the same thing. I smirk and say, “I did do a good job on the lip ring, didn’t I?”

“Very. Honestly, brings the whole thing together.”

“Yikes, who is that supposed to be?” Chad asks from behind me.

I look over my shoulder and stare up at him. “Your mother. Did I not capture her correctly?”

His face falls flat, and Wilder lets out a bark of a laugh while I sit there stunned, because where the hell did that come from? I don’t think I’ve ever been that quick on my feet.

Ever.

Yet I oddly feel really proud.

“Cute,” Chad says, moving away from me.

“Let me know her address so I can send it to her.”

He ignores me and walks over to where his wife is sitting while Wilder still laughs, trying to catch his breath.

“Oh fuck, that was good. Did you see the look on his smarmy face? Shit.” He wipes under his eyes. “I think you’re finally coming into your own, Scottie.”

I smile. Yeah, I think I am.

Chapter Twenty-Five

WILDER

“Welcome to our evening activities,” Sanders says as he struts around in a pair of basketball shorts and a construction vest with nothing underneath.

It’s a look, that’s for sure.