Because of Ellison (7 page)

I laughed and rubbed at the back of my neck. I could feel
the embarrassment of admitting defeat burn along my cheeks and I smiled down at
the gorgeous girl in front of me. “Well, yeah, I spoke to her this afternoon
and she warned me that you can be creative when you’re mad. I just don’t want
any hard feelings between us. I think we got off on the wrong foot and both did
and said things that were stupid.”

My skin tingled when her eyes narrowed and she stepped back
to look me up and down. After a few seconds she finally replied, “Yeah, I don’t
know about that, Hunter. From what I can see under that shirt, I might enjoy
looking at you without clothes. You know, you can still strip down and we’ll
call this over.”

I looked around. “What? Here?”

Laughing, she answered, “Yeah. Why not? I know the owner’s
son, he won’t care, and he’s the only one working tonight.”

Holding my hands up, I stepped away from her. “No. That’s
insane. We’re out in public and I’m not stripping down to my underwear in the
middle of a bar parking lot. I think that’s illegal anyway. There has to be
some other way we can handle this.”

She thought about it for a moment. “I tell you what … why
don’t we head inside and have a few cold ones and I’ll let you know later on
what we can do to solve this. Sound good?”

I eyed her suspiciously. “Can I trust that you won’t do
something to embarrass me or in any way torture me?”

She walked towards the door, but stopped to look over her
shoulder and responded, “Not really, but what other choice do you have?”

Dammit, she had a point.

I hurried to the door and reached around El to open it for
her. She looked up at me and grinned, but didn’t say anything as she moved
inside. Walking in behind her, I immediately noticed that the smoke in the
place was so thick you could barely see the back of the building from the
front. Towards our right stood an old oak bar that took up the entire side of
the room. Lily was on her knees on a barstool, leaned over the top with her
arms around a guy that had the typical country look like my Uncle Bill. He
broke from kissing her long enough to look over in our direction. Ellison waved
and I followed her through the clusters of tables until she finally sat down in
a booth on the left side of the room.

An old Southern Rock anthem blasted from the jukebox next to
the bar and there was a couple in the middle of the room, drunkenly dancing to
the song.

“What do you want to drink?”

I turned my attention away from the dancing couple and
answered Ellison’s question. “Doesn’t matter. Why don’t we order a pitcher of
whatever you want?”

Ellison shrugged and waved over the waitress to order two
pitchers. The waitress smacked her gum loudly while eyeing me, but then turned
to go to the bar and fetch our order. I felt awkward sitting alone with Ellison
and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out a damn thing to say. It was weird.
Never in my life had I been tongue-tied around a girl, but somehow her mere
presence shut down my ability to formulate words. Her hair was windblown from
the drive over and the look only made her hotter. The collar of her black shirt
hung low enough that I could make out just a hint of cleavage, but it was
enough to force memories of her mid-day shower back through my mind. I groaned
at the imagery and forced myself to look away from her in search of Lily.

“So, did Lily bring us here just to ditch us or what?” I
located my cousin sitting at the bar making
googly
eyes at the man I assumed was her boyfriend.

“Yep. That’s why I tried to decline coming along tonight.
Ever since she started seeing Ryan, she pretty much remains glued to those
barstools every time we’re here.

Great.

I turned back to Ellison. “So, this is it?”

“This is what?” Her expression remained blank, but the gleam
in her eye let me know she knew exactly what I was asking.

“This is what people around here do for fun?”

“You could say that.” She laughed. “I have other things I
consider ‘fun’ but I come here for Lily’s sake. Your uncle doesn’t like Ryan
too much. He was the bad boy of our high school class and hasn’t been able to
live down the string of women and wild parties of his past. He’s calmed down,
though, and he’s been good to her, so I tag along to give her an excuse to come
see him.”

“So, what do you do for fun?” I couldn’t help but inquire. I
was intrigued to talk to a girl whose life didn’t revolve around socializing
and partying. Back home, that’s all the girls did and Tiffany was their
ringleader.

“A lot of stuff. Mainly, hiking, but I also ride my bike
through the trails sometimes and fishing, swimming, camping, stuff like that. I
enjoy being outside if you couldn’t tell by that list.”

Crap. She was a nature lover. I’d already suspected, but to
have her openly admit that she and my arch nemesis were tight? That put a kink
in my sail. As I’d mentioned earlier, nature and I didn’t get along. I’d
attempted her aforementioned activities at least once in my life — each
time returning home with scrapes and bruises, odd itchy rashes, and enough bug
bites to drive any sane man mad. I wasn’t sure how I was going to find anything
in common with her, but I was too damn stubborn not to try.

“Sounds like a good time.” Really it didn’t, but I had to
play along. Well, maybe fishing. I’d seen it on television once and it didn’t
look all that difficult. I mean, how much trouble could a fish give someone my
size?

“I also read a lot, and play guitar … stuff like that.”

Okay, now we were getting somewhere. I continued my
interrogation and about three pitchers later, I’d somehow agreed to go hiking
with Ellison the following day. She mentioned something about starting me off
on the “easy” trail, but I had to act like a badass and insist on taking
whatever trail it was that she normally walked. There was too much alcohol in
my system to concern myself with what that would entail, but I had a sneaking
suspicion I would be kicking myself for it the next morning.

Ellison and I didn’t have much to talk about and I was
putting away tall ones faster than I wanted to admit. With the liquid courage
running through my system, I decided to break up the boredom by asking Ellison
to dance. Lily was still sitting with Ryan and I was dying to get up and move
around. Ellison accepted my offer and we made our way out onto the dance floor.

“I have to warn you that I don’t dance all that well. I can
get through the basic steps but I wouldn’t attempt anything fancy.” Her cheeks
reddened with her admission and I couldn’t help but grin.

“You don’t dance? How is that even possible? Pretty girl
like you, I’m shocked you don’t have guys hanging all over you.”

“You can stop with the cheesy lines, and, no, I don’t dance.
As for guys, I’ve only really dated Finn and we’ve been off and on for a little
over two years.”

I stopped moving almost instantly. “Wait, Finn? That guy
with your brother yesterday was your boyfriend?” I wasn’t quite sure why I was
so bothered by it. I was only going to know this girl for the summer and then I
was heading back to real life — but for some damn reason I had the
overwhelming urge to escort Finn to a boat and send him on his way to his own
little island in the Caribbean — far away from Ellison.

She shook her head. “No. We broke up over a year ago, but he
still hangs around because of his friendship with my brother.” She rolled her
eyes and I chuckled at the look of dismay plastered across her face.

“Judging by the look he was giving me yesterday, things aren’t
completely over between you and him — at least in his head, it isn’t. He
looked like he wanted to smash my face in after he caught us down in the mud.”

Ellison laughed a deep belly laugh and her head fell
backwards. My eyes ran down the smooth stretched skin on her neck and then
lower to her chest before lifting again to catch her twinkling blue eyes as she
straightened. I couldn’t help but smile and I knew the two dimples on my cheeks
were standing front and center due to my beaming grin. Her laughter was
infectious.

“Finn? Smash your face in? Hardly. He may be a redneck, but
he’s not a hot head. If anything, he would diffuse a fight before he would join
one. That’s what I liked about him at first. He didn’t feel the need to puff
out his chest at every insult. He just let shit roll off his back and kept
doing his thing.”

She looked up at me and the light bounced off her golden
hair, making it look like she was glowing. I should have been paying attention
as she sized up the competition for me, but I was too damn distracted by the
beauty of the woman in my arms. My hands brushed down her back and I
instinctively pulled her closer in to me. I stared down at her silently and my
eyes focused on the pout of her lips and the way the lip-gloss she wore glistened.
I wanted nothing more but to reach down and taste her lips to find out what
flavor she’d chosen. Her eyebrow cocked over her eye in question after I’d been
staring for too long and she placed her hands on my chest to push me away.

“Think we’ve danced enough, big guy. You want to split
another pitcher?”

“Sure do.” I wanted to get her drunk. I know it’s awful and,
under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t attempt to get a girl wasted, but
Ellison seemed to have opened up some and I figured it had to do with the
alcohol. I wasn’t planning on doing anything with her; I just wanted to keep
her talking.

And that’s when I realized that something was definitely the
fuck wrong with me. Never before had I given a shit what a girl had to say.
Typically, I would lose interest after the first few sentences they uttered and
focus my attention on what their body could offer me. But Ellison was
different. She didn’t talk about normal shit like clothes and celebrities and
the next opportunity she had to get fucked up. We were on opposite sides of the
line when it came to our lifestyles, but I was damn interested to find out more
about her.

We made our way to the booth and I sat down hoping she would
slide in beside me. My body already missed the heat I felt rolling off of her
when we’d been dancing. My feet were killing me because she was right —
she was a horrible dancer. Every time we rotated, her heel found the arch of my
foot and I wondered how it was possible for her to hit the same spot every
single time. But I didn’t care. If she’d been kicking me in the shins, I would
have bit my tongue and endured it just to hold her for a few minutes longer.

El slid in the seat facing me and waved over at the waitress
to indicate we needed a refill. Looking towards me, she smiled. “How much can
you drink, big guy?”

I smiled. Now we were in my area of expertise: Drinking,
partying and drugs. I’d built up quite a tolerance through the years and I
chuckled to myself when she appeared to be challenging me to a drinking
contest.

“You think you can drink more than me?”

She smiled. “No. Drinking contests are dangerous. You can
poison yourself that way. I just want to make sure you walk out of here with a
pretty good buzz.”

I returned her smile because I liked where this was going.
Clenching my cheeks to present my dimples, I pulled out all the stops to
attract her attention. Girls always loved my dimples and I wasn’t ashamed to
admit I used them to my advantage. “Why? Do you want me buzzed?”

She looked over to the bar and grinned as she considered
some inner thought. Turning back to me she winked when she said, “No reason.”

Oh yeah. This was going to be a good night.

“Boy! Can you explain to me why, exactly, you are laid up in
my driveway naked as a jaybird?”

I felt a boot kick me softly in the side and I startled
instantly. My eyes peeked open and I saw a strange man standing above me. I sat
up quickly, but instantly regretted it when a headache started pounding against
my skull. Holding my head in my hands, I attempted to block out the floodlights
that were glaring down at me from the porch of Ellison’s house.

What the fuck
?!

Laughter erupted behind me, just before another voice said,
“Holy shit! What the fuck is wrong with you, man? You are covered head to toe in
mosquito bites. That shit is going to suck as soon as you start moving around.”
When I turned to look behind me, I spied Ellison’s brother standing there.

“Like I asked, boy, what are you doing naked in front of my
house? Who the hell are you? Why I shouldn’t shoot you for being naked outside
of my little girl’s window.”

That got my attention.

I looked down to see just how naked I was and I breathed a
sigh of relief to find that I still had boxers covering my nether regions.
Looking up at who I presumed was Ellison’s father, I opened my mouth to talk,
but was interrupted by Jake.

“This is Lily’s cousin from up north. He’s staying with her
and Bill for the summer.”

El’s dad eyed me warily. I sat up straighter, groaning from
the blood pounding through my head, and pulled my legs up to my chest. My skin
started itching like a motherfucker and I tried desperately to remember how I
ended up naked in the dirt. The last thing I remembered was drinking with El at
the bar and … fuck.

Ellison. I knew she had something to do with this.

Holding my hands up in surrender, I looked up at Mr. James.
“I’m really, really sorry, sir, but I have no fucking clue how I ended up here.
I went out with Lil last night and I don’t remember much of what happened. If
it’s okay, I’d like to just stand up and go inside and we can talk about this
when I have some clothes on.”

Speaking of which
— where the fuck were my clothes?

Mr. James snorted in response. “Well, yeah, we’ll be talking
about this all right. Just as soon as Bill is up, I’ll be having some words
with him about ya. I don’t much appreciate strange naked men lurking around my
daughter.” He
uncocked
the gun I hadn’t notice he’d
been holding and replaced it in a holster at his side. “Now get inside before I
change my mind and take care of your sorry ass myself.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I was still stuck on the
fact that the man had been holding a gun and I almost pissed myself wondering
what could have happened if Jake hadn’t been around to identify me. Pushing up
from the ground, I resisted the temptation to move quickly and start itching
the shit out of the bites on my chest and legs. I didn’t know if this guy had a
quick trigger finger when it came to his daughter and I sure as hell didn’t
want to stick around much longer to find out.

Not even bothering to brush the dirt off the back of me, I
backed up to my uncle’s house — slowly — while still holding my
hands out in surrender. “I’m just going to go inside now and get dressed and
talk to Lil, I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why I’m
sleeping in the driveway naked. I’ll be happy to explain it to you once she
tells me what happened last night.”

Mr. James scowled and took a step toward me. “Boy! It is two
o’clock in the fucking morning. Don’t you dare go waking that girl up in the
middle of the night! Now, get your sorry ass inside, put on some clothes and
crawl your ass underneath your blankets. I’ll talk to Lily myself when I return
home this evening.”

“Yes sir.” I nodded my head while continuing to slowly back
away. When my foot finally hit the stairs to the front door, I turned quickly
and hoofed up three steps at a time just to get away. Quickly opening the door,
entering and slamming it behind me, I groaned when the entire house shook and
hoped I didn’t wake up Bill and Lily. No lights turned on and I figured they’d
slept through it. I made my way to the bathroom and grimaced when I caught
sight of myself in the mirror. I was c-o-v-e-r-e-d in mosquito bites. My skin
looked like I’d just gotten over a bad case of chicken pox and my skin itched
so badly, I wanted to rip it off my body. I flung open the toiletry closet and
located a bottle of calamine lotion. I looked between the bottle and the tub
and when I determined it wasn’t enough to fill the tub for me to soak in the
shit, I opened it and start pouring it over my skin. By the time I emptied the
bottle, I looked like I’d been thrown up on by a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. Pink
was not my color, but the itching had stopped and I was going to have to sleep
in this shit.

Finally hightailing it to my room, I carefully shut the door
climbed beneath the covers. I laid on my back for a few minutes completely
freaked out over what had transpired and annoyed as shit that I didn’t remember
how I’d ended up naked in the front yard. I knew Ellison did this and I kicked
myself for having trusted her at the bar. I made a mental note that when
Ellison James uttered the words “no reason,” I needed to get the hell out of
Dodge before she had the chance to follow that phrase up with whatever
fuckedupery
she was planning.

But damned if I wasn’t impressed with her execution. I had
no fucking clue it was coming even after Lily and Uncle Bill had warned me. All
that girl had to do was smile and wink and I was putty in her hands. The
realization was unnerving. She’d somehow crawled under my skin and implanted
herself in my head and the only thing I could think about was how I was going
to plant myself in hers.

~
    
~
    
~

The mattress dipping down at my feet woke me up later in the
morning. I peeled my eyes open to find a smiling Lily at the foot of my bed.
Her hand reached out and tugged the covers down off my chest. After looking me
over, the corners of her mouth curled and she snorted while trying not to
laugh. She gave up the fight within seconds and started laughing her ass off at
the sight of me.

“What the fuck, Lil? It isn’t funny.”

She was balled over herself and I could see her back shaking
from her laughter. Finally looking up, she laughed again, but then wiped the
tears from her eyes as she said, “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone with
El in the driveway last night.”

“Yeah! About that! What the hell happened
?!
”
I didn’t mean to sound as pissed off as I was feeling, but my anger was boiling
out of me.

“Calm down, pink boy, the bites have probably already
stopped itching considering you slept in a blanket of calamine.” She smiled
brightly at me and I turned my attention to the window. It was still dark
outside.

“What the hell time is it, anyway?” I sat up straight and
the blankets puddled around my hips revealing even more of the pink shit
smeared down my abdomen.

Lily giggled when she looked at me. “It’s five in the
morning.”

“What the fuck
?!
Do any of you
sleep?” I was annoyed that the sun hadn’t even come up and I was being awoken
yet again. My circadian rhythm was taking a beating and I was seriously fucking
exhausted.

“What do you mean any of us? I was just waking you up
because you told El you’d be hiking with her today and she usually leaves just
before the sun comes up. I wanted to give you time to get a shower and get
dressed. If you’re not ready by the time she heads out, she’ll leave you
behind.”

I groaned at her reminder that I’d acted like a bad ass and
signed up for a hike, which I was sure would count as military training.

“But, seriously, what do you mean ‘any of us’?”

I scowled at her. “Well, at TWO o’clock this morning I woke
up NAKED in the driveway with El’s dad and her brother standing over me.”

Lily
bust
out laughing again.

“It isn’t funny! Her dad had a gun. He’d could’ve shot me if
it wasn’t for Jake telling him that I wasn’t some freak.” My jaw dropped as I
watched her work diligently to get herself back under control. By the time she
looked back up at me, her eyes were bloodshot from laughing tears.

“I’m sorry, Hunter. El must have left you out there. I told
you to be careful with that girl. She’s real serious about getting even.” Her
words were broken up by her continued chortles.

Balking at the fact that she was blaming
me,
I let out a resigned sigh. “Can you just tell me what happened and how I ended
up ALONE with a girl who was out to get me? We’re family, you should have
looked out for me better than that.”

Lily’s eyes grew wide. “I tried. When we left the bar, you
were shitfaced and Ryan had to help El and I drag you to the truck. We rode
home and all you kept doing is telling El how
beautiful
she was and calling her an angel. By the time we made it
home, you begged me to leave you in the driveway with her so you could
continue to work your love magic
.” She
made the little air quote signs with her hands as she spoke.

“I didn’t really say that, did I?” Oh God. I was dying
inside.
Absolutely, 100 percent dying if I really said those
things to El.

“Uh, yeah, you did. You’re so damn big, I couldn’t just drag
your
drunk
ass in and Daddy would have killed me if I
stayed outside much longer. I had no choice but to leave you.”

I couldn’t believe it. I had not been able to drink to the
point of blacking out for the last few years. How did it happen last night? I
didn’t understand how I got so drunk splitting a couple of pitchers with
Ellison. “Was Ellison drunk too?”

Lily snickered. “No. She doesn’t drink that much so she
takes it easy when we go out. She was pretty much normal by the time we left
the bar. I don’t know what she did to you after I went inside. You’re going to
have to ask her that yourself.”

“Lily! You up
?!
” Uncle Bill’s voice
boomed through the house and the volume did nothing for the massive hangover
headache that was creeping back into my skull.

Lily turned towards the door. “Yeah, Daddy, I’ll be out
there in a second!”

I cradled my pounding head in my hands and tried to cover my
ears to mute the volume of her voice.

“I
gotta
go check on Daddy. You
should get ready. El will be heading out within the next 20 minutes or so. She
said she’d stop by before leaving.” Lily stood up to head into the hallway, but
turned back to me. “If you want, I can whip you up some breakfast. Might help
you with that hangover you’re sporting.”

My burning eyes peered out at her through my fingers. “Is it
that obvious?”

“Just a little.” She had a sympathetic look on her face for
about a split second before it was replaced with a smile. “I’d wash off all
that lotion if I were you. Pink is not your color.”

I flipped her off and she laughed while walking out towards
the living room. Peeling myself off the mattress, I immediately made my way
into the bathroom and washed off the inch thick layer of lotion I had over my
skin. When the water finally ran clear again, I climbed out, dried off and
threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Walking into the living room, I
smelled eggs and bacon being fried up in the kitchen and my mouth watered. My
stomach growled loudly and I sat down next to Uncle Bill at the kitchen table
and watched Lily cook up the goods. Uncle Bill folded down the newspaper and
eyed me suspiciously.

“What’s this I hear about you streaking in our front yard? I
received a voicemail from a really pissed off Henry this morning letting me know
he found you sprawled out in the driveway, naked and smelling like you’d just
returned home from a brewery. I know you’re not legal drinking age, son, so I
think you need to give me a really good explanation that doesn’t cause me to
whip your ass from here to next Wednesday.” He was yelling at me as Ellison
entered through the front door. My eyes immediately went to hers and she
chuckled to see how miserable I was at that moment.

“Hey, all! How’s everyone
doin
’
this
mornin
’?” Ellison waltzed in looking absolutely
stunning in a pair of khaki shorts and a black tank top. Her hair was pulled
back in a braid and she held several bags in her hands. The little furry demons
followed in at her heels. They must have smelled the bacon, because within
seconds, they were at Lily’s feet
sitting
pretty
as they begged for the food. Lily smiled down at them and threw them
each a small piece of bacon.

“Now, Lily, don’t you be feeding those mutts before the
human members of this family have had a chance to eat,” Uncle Bill scolded.

Lily nodded, but then rolled her eyes and kept feeding them
when Bill wasn’t looking — which was when his eyes had returned to me.
“So, are you going to tell me what happened, Hunter?”

“Oh! That was my fault, Bill.” Ellison spoke up quickly when
Bill started giving me the third degree. “It was just a harmless prank and I’ll
explain everything to Daddy when he gets home tonight. No worries.” She smiled
sweetly and I could literally see Bill melt. I had to admit: the girl had
charm.

“Well, okay, Ellison, but you know you three shouldn’t be
out drinking. I have a real problem with that and you know why. I don’t see the
need to get into it now, but cut out the bullshit until you’re legal, at least.
Maybe by then, you’ll have enough sense to stay away from alcohol.”

We ate breakfast in silence and every once in a while the
three of them would crack up after getting a good look at the bites along my
arms. I was itching like a madman and I resembled a hyperactive toddler with
the amount of squirming I was doing in my chair. I eyed Ellison across the
table and I was balling my hands up trying to keep from demanding she tell me
what happened the night before. It wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have in
front of Bill, so it took everything I had not to grab her and force the
information out of her right where she sat. She must have known what I thinking
too, because the whole damn time we were eating, she kept smiling at me across
the table just before laughing at some unshared thought. After we’d finally finished
eating, Ellison stood up and walked to the front door.