Wanted (8 page)

“Ell’s maybe you should plan on staying the night at my place. If mom is home she is going to ask
you a million questions and I’
m not sure if you want to talk to her about that douche bag Ryan. You always keep a b
ag of clothes and stuff in Ari’s jeep
right?” Jefferson asked as he pulled in
to the high school parking lot.

“Oh, hum, yeah I didn’t e
ven think about mom or anything
. Last thing
I need is to hear her
saying I told you so.”
I practically whispered as I thought about my mother and how I will nev
er hear the end of it when she f
inds out about Ryan.

Jefferson wants me to stay at his house…..Gunner’s house……..

Oh holy hell…..this is going to be bad. Please, please,
ple
eee
ase
say that Gunner is going out all night or has some big thing he has to leave town for.
Please
don’t let him say he is going to be there. I mean Jefferson has never even let me
meet
any of his college friends, even his BEST friend, and now he is wanting me to spend the night in th
e same house with
the guy who practically just has to lo
ok
at me and I’
m ready to jump him???!!

Shit! Shit! Shit!

“I mean if that’
s
okay
with you Gunner?
Ellie
can take my room and I will sleep on the sofa.” Jefferson said has he jumped out of his truck to help get my things.

“Of course
, it’s
cool with me!
Ellie
can stay over
anytime
she
like
s
. Our
place is her place as far as I’
m concerned.”
Gunner said as he
turned back and
lo
ok
ed over at me
winked and then gave me that
fr
eaking ass panty melting smile.

Bastard! He knew what he was doing. He cannot fool me any. He know
s he has an effect on me and I’
m probably nothing more
than a game to him. HUMPH. I’
ll show him!

Giving him back a
very
seductive smile, well at least very seductive for me anyway, I purred back
in a very loving
ly
sisterly way
.

“
Ahhh
, Gunner how very
sweet
of you. Now I feel like I have
TWO
big brothers lo
ok
ing out for me. You are
such
a good
friend
.” His smiled fad
ed quicker than a Texas sunset.

HAH! Take that you bastard. I’m sure that just threw a
bout a
gallon of cold water on his libido.
Huh…made me feel pretty damn good too! I h
ad to smile at my small victory and do a little mind fist pumping.

Jefferson
had opened my door waiting for me to get out of the truck. He
lo
ok
ed between Gunner an
d me and frowned slightly as
he helped me out of the truck.

Ari
came up behind me and whispered in my ear, “I am SO lo
ok
ing forward to that C
oach purse.” I quickly turned to lo
ok
at her and gave her the
most angry
lo
ok I could manage
.

“NEVER, going to happen
’
Arianna
….EVER!”
I hissed through my teeth at her.
Ari
just
threw her head back,
laughed and handed Jefferson
my
overnight bag I kept in her jeep
.

“Whatever you say sweets!”

“When you two are done talking in riddles can we get going? Gunner has some place he needs to be.” Jefferson said as he walked over to his truck and threw my bag in the backseat.
Gunner gave Jefferson a strange lo
ok.

“Have fun Ell
s
!!!
I will give you a ca
ll later tonight to see
how your night went!” Ari
said with a
laugh as she got into her Jeep
ready to head off to work.
She had the top off of her jeep and she was throwing her hair in a pony tail. She truly was beautiful. Hard to believe she did not have a boyfriend. I lo
ok
ed over at Jefferson who was staring at her before he seeme
d to get his wits about him and started to walk over to
the driver’s side of his truck. Ari honked her horn and all I saw was her pink spare tire cover as she drove off.

I stood there and watched my bitch of a best friend drive off and leave me to fend for myself.
Pesh
, I will remember this. I turned and headed to climb into the back seat and Gunner to
ok
my arm. My breat
h instantly caught
and if I didn’t know better I would have th
ought he had the same reaction.

“Why don’t you sit up front with your
brother
Ellie
.
I’
ll sit back here.”

Boy did he stress brother!
Ooops
wonder if I made him
mad.
The thought of making him m
ad or upset seemed to unsettle
me. My stomach started to feel sick. What the fuck? May
be it was just my hand hurting.

“Oh,
okay
,
um thanks
. I mean,
I’m
sorry if I kept you from something you had to do this afternoon. Thank you for all your help
by the way
. I
really do appreciate it.” Good L
ord I somehow managed to get that all out without sounding like an idiot.

“It was no problem at al
l
Ellie
. Besides the fact you have a
hurt hand, I’
ve rather enjoyed my afternoon
.
A lot
.”
Gunner said with the sweetest smile.
Okay
, this guy really knew how to confuse me already.

I lo
ok
ed down to where he still had his hand on my arm. He quickly dropped his hand and opened the truck door for me.
I turned to smile at him right as he was shutting my door. Once Gunner was in
,
Jefferson fired up his truck and started to head
to their place. He reached over and
messed around
lo
ok
ing for a song
before “Truck Yeah”
started up again.

“NOOO!”
Gunner and I shouted at the same time. Jefferson just
threw his head back and laughed. He lo
ok
ed over at me and
gave me a wink and pulled out onto the main road.

I am
so
going
to delete that
song from his iPod the first chance I get!

My heart was pounding and I felt like I was fighting for every breath.
What was wrong with me?
I had been to Jefferson’s place plenty of times.
It was a cute house and I loved going there.
The house was a two bedroom house with a
huge backyard in Hyde Park
.
It was a white house with blue trim. The front porch had a porch swing on it and I always thought how nice it would be to just sit on that swing and read a bo
ok
.
I’
m sure Gunner’s grandfather paid a small fortune for it
but Jefferson said it was a good investment
.

Gunner has never once asked for rent from Jefferson. They just split the rest of the bills. The only problem with this place was…..it was for sure a bachelor’s pad.
The few times I had been there
I noticed all the football
and Arc
hitectural stuff everywhere. I’
m still amazed that both Gunner and Jefferson had decided to major in th
e same field. It’
s no
wonder they became best friends. They both loved football and Architecture and football
.

We turned down Avenue F and my heart started to pound so loud and fast I was sure Jefferso
n and Gunner could hear it.
Je
fferson pulle
d up and parked next to what I’
m guessing was Gunner’s
truck
.
It was an older model F250 beige truck.
What was it wi
th Texas boys and their trucks?

“Is that your truck Gunner?” Regretting it the minute it came out of my mouth. I mean come on
Ellie
, who else’s truck would it be?

“Yep!
That’
s my girl! My
G
ramps
gave her to me when I got accepte
d into UT. S
he’
s a 1998 F250
that was
used on the ranch but
,
she has never failed me yet.
”
Gunner said jumping out of the truck and opening my door for me.

Hmm
, manners, good lo
ok
ing and a
rocking body. Yeah this guy is too good to be true. I would do go
od to keep telling myself that.

“You refer to your truck as a girl?” I lo
ok
ed over at the truck and back at Gunner. OHHH mistake…there was that damn smile
again
.
Wait?
When did it go
cro
ok
ed
? Maybe it was just the way he was smiling right now. I don’t think I wou
ld have missed that….would I?
My head was spinning and my hand was throbbin
g. Good lord I’
m so fucked with this guy.

Gunner let out another one of those
laughs that made me go all
J
ello
on the inside
. SHIT! I should have just taken my cha
nces with my mother.

“Yes,
Ellie
I refer to her as my girl. This way I know the only way my heart will
ever
get br
ok
en is if she breaks down on the side of the road
and leaves me stranded
.
” He said as he gave me a wink.

Holy hell
this guy was killing me
, what a flirt
!
Okay
….I can
play this game!
I dug down deep and pulled out my
sexiest
voice……

“Well……
I’
m sure your heart is safe then….aren’t Fords pretty
reliable
?
I mean
,
I would hate to think of your heart being br
ok
en
. It would just make me all sad.
” I said
as I lo
ok
ed up at him through my eye lashes.
His
cro
ok
ed
smile got even bigger and for a moment he lo
ok
ed like he wanted to kiss me.

My heart started to pound even harder
…holy fuck…was eighteen
too
young to be having a heart attack? I mean what the hell else was this?!

“Gunner!”
Jefferson
called out and
snapped me out of my moment of weakness and I spun around to lo
ok
at my brother who was holding my overnight bag
and giving both of us a curious lo
ok
.

“Dude
,
can I talk to you for a minute?”

OH
.
MY
.
GOD…what was I doing? I just flirted with my brother’s best friend
, in
FRONT
of my brother
and now he was going to chew his ass out
. O
r worse….beat the shit out of him!

Oh great! T
here goes my party Saturday night.
FUCK ME!