Taking Shots (Assassins) (24 page)

“
True, so we’ll have to settle with Skype and phone calls?”

“
And texts,” Elli added with a grin, he grinned back, kissing her softly.

“
It’s just a week.”

“
But next month, it will be a month.”

“
True, but we’ll be fine. I promise.” Elli smiled at the grin on his face, then kissed him long and hard. He kissed her twice more before backing away, kissing her palms before walking away. She watched as he walked to his truck, got in, and started it. Without ‘goodbye’ leaving either their lips, he waved, and she waved back as he drove off. When she felt the single tear fall down her cheek, she became disgusted with herself and jumped in the truck. It wasn’t like he was crying, or anything. He was good, he was used to this. He was used to the goodbyes, but she wasn’t, and she didn’t know how she was going to deal with it.

Elli missed Shea.

She missed him a lot.

Shea called every chance he got, but she was only four days in, and she was lonely. Elli tried to stay busy with the weddings she had and the baby showers, but nothing seemed to take her mind off the fact that Shea was not in the same state as her. He couldn’t just walk in with that goofy smile on his face, bringing her food or just to give her a kiss. Nope, he was in another state, kicking ass.

The Assassins had won Tuesday’s night’s game. Elli had sat at the house, cheering them on, and she swore that Shea would look in the camera just for her, and when she told him that after the game, he laughed saying he had hoped she noticed. Things were so great between them, even with him gone; he was just as amazing as he was when he was home. Elli smiled at the thought of his grin as he laughed; it was always so big, so full of life. She missed seeing it.

God, she was pathetic.

She was sitting at her desk, returning phone calls for appointments, and to schedule consultations when her phone rang, she looked at the display seeing it was her daddy, Michael.

“
Daddy!” she gushed, moving some windows around on her computer, “How are you!”

“
Elli bug, I’m good darling, haven’t heard from you this week.”

“
I know, I’m sorry, I’ve been terribly busy.”

“
So I hear, the Adam’s wedding you just did, that was one of my old college friends’ daughter. She was the bride.”

“
Oh, really? Small world!”

“
It is. He had nothing but good to say about you. He went out of his way to call me.”

“
How nice, that makes my day brighter.” Michael chuckled as Elli finished with a couple of orders that were pending on her website.

“
So I was calling because your mother is on me like white on rice about this family dinner with this man you are dating.”

“
Oh God, really? I thought maybe she forgot,” Elli groaned.

Daddy laughed, “No honey, the grandbabies came home saying you were open mouth kissing with Shea Adler. Even if it wasn’t him, I’m pretty sure your mother would be on a mission. We haven’t met anyone since Justin.”

“
There hasn’t been anyone,” Elli added, as she pulled up her email, glancing at a few things, “No big deal, Shea comes home Friday, I’ll ask him.”

“
So it is Shea Adler?”

“
Yeah.”

“
How did y’all meet?”

“
When I did the team-shoot for Uncle Bryan.”

“
That’s nice, is it serious?”

“
Yeah, it’s been almost three weeks, he’s amazing, daddy, just amazing.”

“
I’m happy for you, Elli bug. After Justin I didn’t think you would recover.”

“
Me neither, daddy, but Shea, he’s just…” Elli thought for a moment, a contiguous grin going across her face, “He makes me feel…..”

“
Wonderful, so, I will expect to meet him sometime this month?”

“
Yes, daddy,” Elli said with a groan. He laughed, telling her how much he loved her before hanging up. Elli smiled down at the phone after she hung up. Harper walked in, falling face first into the couch that sat in her office. Elli looked over at her, noticing Harper’s hair was her normal brown this week, before raising an eyebrow.

“
What the hell is wrong with you?’ Elli asked, hanging up the phone and clicking a few things on her computer.

“
I miss sex!” Elli rolled her eyes, moving some paperwork around, fixing the pictures of her nieces and nephews on her desk.

“
What do you mean? You can have sex with anyone.”

Harper sat up quickly, looking over at Elli, her eyes looking crazed. Elli moved her chair back just a little, trying to put distance between them, “If you laugh, tell anyone, or even smile, I’ll throw something at you.”

“
Okay?”

“
I miss sex with Jakob, I miss….him.” Elli tried so hard not to smile, but her eyes lit up as she covered her mouth, trying to keep the “aw” in.

“
Oh,” she muttered through her hands.

“
I’ve never had this problem, but that damn Russian brought his big ole penis into bed with me and now no other man even measures up! I miss my Jakey!” And with that Harper started to cry. Elli pushed her chair back more, scared shitless. Was this for real? “I don’t know what my problem is. I never get like this with guys, but I just miss him, you know? Don’t you miss Shea?”

“
Oh, yeah,” Elli scoffed, “but I’m in a relationship with him.”

“
Well, yeah, but I mean, I don’t know! I just miss Jakob.”

Elli had to smile. She was so sweet and clueless. She was hopelessly in love with Jakob and she didn’t even know it.

“
You’re smiling,” Harper said, putting her face in the pillow. Elli just grinned, leaning back in her chair. She watched Harper hit the pillow a few times before hearing her computer ding, signaling an email. She leaned back up to the computer, hitting her mail, to see the message was from Shea. She smiled big, opening the email titled “thinking of you.”

Hey you,

So I’ve been listening to that music you like…country…and well I don’t know if you’ve heard this song, but it made me think of you, so here is the video.

I miss you, babe.

Shea.

Elli smiled, and clicked on the video, Lady Antebellum, ‘Just a Kiss’ video started playing. The song was about a kiss being enough, that they didn’t need anything else, they didn’t want to move too fast, keep things slow. She smiled as she watched the trio sing, she loved this song, but never thought of it in regard to their relationship. Gosh, he was amazing. She typed him back a little message, telling him thank you, then went to her phone carrier’s site, and downloaded the song for her ringtone when he called. She smiled as she thought that it was their song now.

She had a song, with Shea.

Elli debated with herself for over thirty minutes before just doing what she knew was best. That was going to Shea’s for the night, since Harper was at her moms, and it was almost Midnight. Elli just knew she couldn’t make it home. She pulled into Shea’s driveway and grabbed her bag from the back before locking the doors and heading up the stairs to his door. She dug his key out of her purse, and put it in the lock, unlocking the door. She made sure to lock the door, and turned on some lights as she made her way through the living room.

Elli headed back to his bedroom, where she laid her bag on the bench at the end of the bed. She looked around the large room as she undid the buckles on her heels. The room seemed so much bigger when Shea wasn’t there. Gosh, she missed him. She finished undressing before putting on her favorite shirt, his old AHL tee. After washing up in the bathroom, she went back out to the living room to get her movie so she could fall asleep. Since, apparently, the only time she didn’t need the movie was when she slept with Shea.

Pathetic, she knows.

Elli looked through his movie collection, which was massive, before grabbing the Pride and Prejudice movie she had gotten him. She shut the doors to the cabinet, and turned to go back to the Shea’s bedroom when she saw out the corner of her eye, some photo albums sitting under a wall table. She had never noticed the table before, so she stepped closer to see a picture of Shea and Grace when they were younger, then another when they had graduated high school, one of them at what appeared to be Grace’s wedding with James, and then the two of them, when the kids were born.

Shea loved Grace so much, it was sweet. There was a picture of him and Grace with two older people that Elli assumed were his parents. They all had the same smile, big and beautiful. His father was just as handsome as his son; his mother was beautiful, with the exact same dimple on the right side of her face. Elli smiled, looking closer at the picture before she noticed another picture; it was the one of her at the park that he had taken on their first date. She picked it up, looking at herself sipping on her Starbucks. The picture was classy, so pretty, and it just blew her mind that he had it framed and it was in his house.

Wow.

Elli put the picture down and got a bottle of water before heading back into the room to go to sleep. After putting the DVD on and shutting the door, she crawled onto her side of the bed and cuddled in. The bed was huge without a 6’3” man beside her. Shea would be home the next day, but it wasn’t coming quick enough in her opinion. The Assassins had lost that night. He was a little bummed when she talked to him, and she tried to cheer him up, but he said nothing would cheer him up until he was able to kiss her again.

Just the thought of his lips on hers made Elli warm from head to toe; she smiled as she cuddled into the bed that smelled just like Shea as she started the movie.

Elli was asleep before she knew it.

Elli figured that the next day was a thing of luck, or maybe fate. She had a wedding that night, so she wasn’t gonna be able to see Shea until afterwards, but the bride got cold feet and called the thing off. From what the maid of honor had said, the bride had a little more fun the night before then she should have. She had slept with the groom’s best man. Oops, Elli hated when that happened, but today she couldn’t be happier, since she stood in Shea’s kitchen, frying chicken for a welcome home dinner.

Shea wasn’t due back till around six, and it was 5:30. Elli kept an eye on the chicken as she started the mac and cheese. Shea had once said that he wasn’t very familiar with country cooking, and since Elli was an expert at it, she figured she’d educate him. She smoothed out the apron she had brought over, it was her Mamaw Ally’s and it was one of her prized possessions. Mamaw Ally was the one who had taught her to cook; she was also the one who had taught Elli to sing. A sad smile went across Elli’s face as she thought about the old woman that had given her so many good memories; she missed Mamaw Ally so much. She had died when Elli was twelve, so she never got to see Elli succeed in her career as a singer. Her daddy always told Elli that she reminded him of her, which made Elli feel good inside. Mamaw Ally was an amazing woman.

Since Elli was cooking country for Shea, she decided to dress the part. Since she had to run home to get her cast iron pan, she changed, putting on a white eyelet dress that had big flowy sleeves along with her black with white swirls cowboy boots. She had her hair up since Shea liked it like that; he had once said he liked her neck in plain view which was fine by her.

Elli was so excited to see him, she couldn’t see straight. The week had gone by so slowly. When she had done the books this morning and saw how much money she had made, she thought that would have meant that she was so super busy, and she was, but all she could think about was Shea and what he had been doing. He had been so busy; he hadn’t been able to talk to her much in the last couple of days. He had had so much promotional stuff to do and with all the baby showers and weddings she had, she had missed his calls a lot more then she would have liked.

But tonight was about them, Elli had gone out and bought new plates for him, to butter him up before asking him to go to dinner at her parents. Fate was working in her favor and she was gonna spend the night with her man.

Her man, she smiled at just the thought.

Elli was just starting to set the table, when she heard the doorknob rattling.

He was home!

Shea was hurting, badly.

His shoulder was aching; he had a cut along his collarbone, where that idiot,
Mattias Ohlund
,
had
slashed him with his stick. Asshole. But then again, Shea did hit him in the boards a little harder than necessary, but, oh well. Shea threw his bag on the ground as he looked for his keys. He was so happy to be home. Elli had a wedding tonight, but she promised she would come by afterwards, which was awesome. He had missed her so much.

He found his keys and put them in the door, looking forward to the hot shower that awaited him on the other side. When he pushed the door open, he was hit by the strong smell of fried chicken.

What the hell?

Shea threw his bag on the couch, walking towards the kitchen where he heard sizzling and movement. When he rounded the corner, his country cutie stood in front of the stove in a cute little apron, with her hair in a messy bun. Man, she was gorgeous. She turned with a big grin on her face before she squealed and ran to him, wrapping herself around him.