They didn’t have any faith in her?
She would show them just how wrong they were to underestimate the Lilah Moore.
She sniffed, then shook her head and pursed her lips.
“I can so totally do this,” she said and meant it with every fiber of her being.
Chapter Two
Lilah
“I so totally can’t do this.” Lilah gaped at the dingy walls in her brand-new box of an apartment.
Why had she ever agreed to her brothers’ stupid bet?
Because I’m a Moore and Moores are stubborn, that’s why.
She plopped down on the couch—one of the few pieces of furniture she’d been allowed to bring—and dropped her head into her hands.
Maybe she’d had more to drink that night than she thought. Maybe the wine had gone straight to her head and that was why she’d been so gung-ho about the whole thing. Whatever the reason, she was screwed. Utterly and completely screwed.
As if to prove her point, Lilah wandered into the kitchen. “I didn’t even know countertops could peel,” she muttered to the wall.
As soon as her brothers realized she was determined to prove she could make it on her own, they drafted an official Moore Brother Bet. The stakes? Lilah had to make it six months, supporting herself, completely on her own. To make matters worse, they placed limits on what she could bring with her. And because she’d been in the middle of being a stubborn ass, she agreed with everything they said.
When they stipulated she could only bring basic pieces of furniture like the couch, her bed, and her dresser, she just nodded her head like that made total sense. Easy peezy!
When they decreed she could only bring a week’s worth of clothes and only one pair of pajamas—nothing from a designer label, of course—she accepted that horrible limitation without thinking. No big deal!
That night, Lilah learned that when she set her mind on winning, she lost the ability to think more than ten minutes ahead. Not only did she concede to the furniture and clothing, but she also agreed her car was too luxurious. From that point forward, she’d drive Ellie’s old junker in order to get the full, out-on-her-own experience. The thing had to be a million years old and smelled a little funny…
Okay…
It smelled a lot funny.
Ellie warned her not to trust it on long trips, but that didn’t faze Lilah. Oh no!
All the better, was her motto.
Bring it on, she declared boldly and at every opportunity.
“What was I thinking?” she asked the empty apartment.
Her brothers gave her a starting fund of a thousand dollars. The rest of her money was off limits because she hadn’t earned it.
Which led them to her favorite part of the bet.
The super-duper, extra fun part. According to the rules, she was responsible for supporting herself. By getting a job. You know, with all her vast and extensive experience in...
…she had no experience in anything employers were interested in.
She brought one pot. One pan. A chipped plate set they found at Goodwill and some flatware she picked up at Walmart. Her brothers gleefully deducted every cent of the money she spent on supplies from the starter money in her account and for whatever reason, at the time, that made her all the more determined not to buy more than the absolute essentials.
The result? Her apartment was an exercise in minimalism.
On the topic of apartments, she wasn’t allowed to rent one in Bliss, her hometown in South Carolina. For some reason, having people know that she was the Lilah Moore, the youngest daughter of local royalty, would make things too easy on her. For some reason that seemed really important to her brothers, she had to be anonymous.
So, there she was, four days into living on her own and she hated every fucking second of it. She was almost out of clean clothes and since she wasn’t allowed to bring her washer and dryer, it meant she was going to have to find a laundromat. Dishes filled the sink and were starting to pile up on the counter because it turned out doing dishes was the worst. And cooking sucked too. And then there was job situation.
When the topic of jobs came up, Lilah proudly proclaimed she’d make money waiting tables. In her mind, she’d be a shoo-in at a higher end restaurant in one of the large cities nearby. Not only would she fit in better with the clientele, but she would make bigger tips.
So, she’d need to drive a little farther to get there? That wasn’t such a big deal, if it meant earning more money.
But…surprise!
The higher end restaurants wanted waitresses with experience and since Lilah had none, in any job of any kind, they’d all pretty much laughed her out of the interview. And, as if to prove a point, Ellie’s junker broke down on the way home from the last interview, forcing Lilah to call a tow truck and pay to get it fixed.
Which sucked, because car repair shops smelled bad. It had taken her days to get the stink out of her hair.
“I don’t have a job,” Lilah said as she peered into her empty fridge. “I have a car that barely works. This is so not fun.”
She closed the fridge with a thwack and folded her arms, totally ready to move back into the comfort of her parents’ guesthouse. Luxurious pajamas. Meals cooked by people who knew what they were doing. A closetful of gorgeous clothes that she would never have to wash herself. And good God…her car.
But that would mean admitting she was wrong. Even worse, it would mean admitting her brothers were right. She couldn’t handle life out in the ‘real world’—whatever that meant. And she just couldn’t bring herself to do
