Chapter 13

Tuesday night – Luke

Ellie asked for dinner to be sent up to her room. After the debacle at lunch, I didn't blame her. I could see by the look on her face after that girl busted into the private dining room that Ellie had been freaked out. She actually had no idea. Since the album hit number one, I'd had groupies camped outside of my house some nights. Now that I had installed the gates and hired security, they were mostly gone from my neighborhood. But they were always waiting for the tour bus outside the venues, and we'd even had more than one try to sneak backstage. One even tried to climb in through a window. It was nuts.

I definitely couldn't say I'd gotten used to it, but I wasn't surprised any more. Ellie had never been around it before. It probably felt pretty scary to her.

I ate at the kitchen island alone, watching the sports channel, and thinking about everything that had happened at lunch. On one hand, I'd finally made it out of the house. That was a win. On the other, one burger in a private dining room didn't mean I'd learned to trust again.

I needed to do more and do it more often. The tour would be starting back up after summer, and I refused to carry this emotional baggage around with me when it did.

I'd been stressed out all day thinking about all of it. I needed to chill out. To that end, I decided to head down to the basement to hop in the hot tub.

After stopping by my bedroom to toss on some trunks and grab a towel, I made my way down to the basement. The moment I stepped inside the post-workout room, I froze. Because the hot tub wasn't empty. Ellie was standing in it, her back to me, her smoking hot ass barely covered by tiny white bikini bottoms on display. I was rooted to the spot.

Should I leave?

Yes, you should leave, you idiot.

But my feet wouldn't move.

Ellie turned quickly and gave a little gasp when she saw me before dunking into the water. Only her head was left bobbing above. Her eyes were wide. "Luke?"

"Sorry. I didn't know you were down here." I was about to turn and go, but some little devil on my shoulder spouted the words "Do you mind if I join you?" instead.

Ellie's clear green eyes remained wide for a minute and then she blinked and finally said, "Sure. Yeah. Yes." She cleared her throat and shook her head a little.

"Are you sure?" I didn't want to force an awkward situation on her. We'd already had too many of those. Damn it. I should have left when I'd had the chance.

"Don't be silly, come on in. But watch out, I might splash." She gave me a sly grin.

Well, that sounded like fun. I tossed my towel on the back of a nearby chair and peeled off my sling before climbing in. I was only wearing aqua board shorts. My chest was entirely bare, and my plan was to sit up high enough to keep the water from touching the shoulder dressing.

I climbed in on the side I knew had the highest seat.

Ellie crinkled her nose. "I forgot to tell you that I also bought myself a bikini when Meg and I went shopping."

I blew air into my cheeks. "From what I can see of it, I wholeheartedly approve."

Her cheeks flamed and I wondered if I should have kept that particular remark to myself. Smooth move, Knightley.

"How's your shoulder?" Ellie asked, still only a head floating in the water.

Okay, cool. She clearly had changed the subject. Good boundaries. Good boundaries. "My shoulder feels okay. The doctor told me the hot water might be good for my arm too."

"That's true," she agreed.

"This is the first time I've been in the hot tub though. I usually just take off the splint when I shower."

"I can help if you want," Ellie offered.

"Help me shower?"

Oh, damn. Her cheeks got even more pink, if that was possible.

"No, help you put the splint back on."

"Oh, yeah. Of course. Yep. Thanks." Now I was just mumbling. Real smooth. But the thought of Ellie helping me shower had made me trip over my tongue.

We sat there for a few minutes, the bubbling of the hot water the only sound while I tried to reject every single vision in my head of Ellie in a shower with me.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to change the subject. "What happened at lunch," I blurted. "Did that freak you out?"

"I'm fine," she replied. "Though I guess it takes some getting used to. What about you? How did it feel to go on your first official outing?"

I released a long sigh and leaned back against the plastic seat, keeping the bandage well above water level, letting the water swirl around me. "I wish I could say that it was nothing. But I am better now that I'm in here."

Ellie moved to sit on the plastic seat across from me, which meant she was no longer just a bobbing head. She was now a set of slick shoulders and… I did my damnedest not to look at her boobs. I swear I did, but they were right there in a bikini top, and I am only human.

"You know what might make you feel even better?" she asked.

Her grin went straight to my?—

"What?" I choked. She couldn't possibly be thinking the same thing I was thinking. Because what I was thinking was both inappropriate and indecent. "What?" I repeated like an idiot.

Her eyes sparkled. "A couple more shots of tequila."

Damn. I'd never seen the mischievous side of Ellie before. I was much more accustomed to the Ellie who judged me for sleeping on my sister's couch and leaving a mess of pizza boxes on the coffee table. But I liked mischievous Ellie. She was fun.

"I have a bottle over there," I admitted, nodding toward the next room where the bar was.

"I know." She was fully grinning at me now.

"Want me to get it?"

"Let's do it!"

She didn't have to tell me twice. I climbed back out of the hot tub, hastily wrapped the towel around my waist, and booked it to the bar in the other room.

I quickly returned with a bottle of tequila. "Sorry, no lime or salt."

Ellie shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to make do."

"Ladies first," I said, offering her the bottle. I didn't have any shot glasses either. How fun was Ellie?

I soon found out when she took the bottle from me, unscrewed it, and tipped it back to her lips. She came partially out of the water to do so, and I nearly stopped breathing when her bikini revealed so much skin that I considered looking away. Fuck. And she'd told me I had a nice body. The girl was bangin'.

She closed her eyes and shook her head at the bitter taste as she pulled the bottle from her lips. She wiped her mouth with the back of her arm. I was jealous of the bottle. "Whoa. Now that's a tequila shot."

She handed me the bottle, and I took it from her with my right arm and tipped it back to my own throat, savoring it as the liquid hit my taste buds. After I'd done my shot, I sat the bottle on the top ledge of the hot tub and leaned back on my underwater seat.

I arched a brow at Ellie. "Okay. Now that we're drinking. It's time for some real truths."

"Shoot," she said, treading the water with her arms.

"So, what happened?" I ventured.

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"What happened with the guy? The fiancé who cheated on you?"

A scowl immediately covered her face. "Ugh. There's not much to tell. It's the same old story." She lifted a wet hand in the air and waved it. "I thought we were in love and gonna spend the rest of our lives together. He never met a pretty woman he didn't want to take to bed. Yadda, yadda, yadda, I found out and we broke up."

I nodded. "Okay, but how did you find out?"

The hint of a smile touched her lips as she side-eyed me. "You're really gonna make me go there, aren't you, Rockabilly?" She shook her head at me.

I tried not to glance at the cleavage barely visible above the water line, but my mouth was watering thinking about it. "Tequila is for truth telling."

"Fine." She shook her head. "Let's see. We were sitting at dinner one night. He went to the bathroom. His phone lit up. I glanced at it." She took a long, deep breath. "I believe it said something like, ‘Can't wait to see you later. In bed.'"

"No shit?" I asked, my eyes widening.

"Yep. Pretty bad. Like a bad fortune cookie joke." Her shoulders fell and she leaned her neck back against the side of the hot tub.

"What did you say when he came back to the table?" I had to know.

"I told him I thought he'd gotten a text he might want to take a look at."

Oh, damn. "And?" I couldn't help myself. I had to know the gritty details.

"And he took a look and then slowly raised his head to meet my eyes."

"That asshole. Tell me he didn't try to deny it." My fist was itching to punch the guy in the face.

"If I remember correctly, he said something like, ‘Any chance you didn't see the text?'"

"No, he didn't! What an ass!"

"I said, nope. Then I stood up, dropped my napkin on my seat, and said, ‘Lose my number. We're through.'"

"Good for you." But I saw her throat work as she swallowed. It was obviously still a painful memory for her. And why wouldn't it be? "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you dwell on bad memories."

"No. It's okay. I think I need to dwell on it a little. Hearing you talk about therapy today made me think that maybe I've been dragging this around with me for too long now." She grabbed the tequila bottle and took another long swig.

"Want some more?" she asked after she lowered the bottle.

"Sure." Warning bells sounded in my head. I mean, tequila shots with a gorgeous woman in a bikini would normally be right on the menu, but this was Ellie, and hadn't I already told myself a hundred times in the last few days that we were only friends? Tequila and hot friends seemed like a possibly combustible situation…but truth? Wild horses couldn't have dragged me away from that hot tub. Or that tequila.

I grabbed the bottle and took another long swig too.

"So, what do you think you need?" I asked after setting the bottle back on the nearby table. "To get over it? More therapy?"

"Honestly," she said, meeting my gaze, "I think I just need to get under somebody else."

The sultry look in her eyes made me gulp.

"Tequila is for truth telling, right?" she asked, a wicked smile on her lips. She was up to something.

"Yep," I replied, ninety-nine percent sure I was gonna end up regretting that word.

"Then tell me." She leaned back against the hot tub, crossed her arms over her chest, and stared at me down the length of her nose. "Why did you pull away that time I tried to kiss you after college?"

Oh, damn. She was gonna go there?

All right. It was true. She and I had been in Meg's kitchen one night when I'd come home for a visit. We'd all been playing cards, and Meg was seeing the last of her guests to the front door. Ellie had had three glasses of wine, and I'd had one too many beers but not enough to completely fuck up my whole life. She'd swayed toward me, her lips clearly headed for mine, and I'd quickly stepped back and grabbed her elbows to steady her. I think I'd said something dumb like, "Whoa there."

Ellie's face had turned to stone, and she'd pulled roughly out of my arms and left the room. She'd slept upstairs in the guest room while I crashed on the couch as usual. We'd never spoken of it again. I would have assumed she hadn't even remembered it, but her sarcastic comments toward me had been more pointed afterward. The air of good-natured ribbing we'd once had turned a little darker. She remembered all right.

But that had been a long time ago. And there had been no tequila that night. I took a deep breath. Tequila was for truth telling, right? "Clearly, because I'm a fucking idiot."