Taking Shots (Assassins)

by Toni Aleo

  She nodded before closing her eyes. He slowly moved from the bed and shut the door quietly as he walked out. When he entered the living room, he looked around and then he slapped his hands together.

  Off to work.

  It took almost three hours to get the house spotless. He kept checking on Elli, making sure she was fine between cleaning, and she mostly was. She was moving a lot as she slept which wasn’t really new, but she kept kicking the blankets off and he was afraid she would get cold, so he would cover her back up, just to come back to find the sheets on the floor. He checked on her one last time before heading to the dump and then the local store for food.

  When he got back and unloaded everything, he made his way to the bedroom, where Elli still laid with her face in the pillow. He was really worried about her, but she seemed to know what was wrong, so he didn’t push the hospital. Plus, Harper said this happen sometimes, which bothered him because when he asked her about it a while back. She said she was fine as long as she took her meds. Shea moved into the bathroom and saw that her bathroom was just as bad as the house had been. She must have been really sick because there was vomit all over the toilet and some in the bath and on the floor.

  Jesus, why didn’t she call him?

  He looked under the cabinet and pulled out all her cleaning supplies before getting started. When he was done, the damn bathroom sparkled. His mother would be proud. Shea moved back into the bedroom before sitting on Elli’s bed, running his hand up her bare back. She had taken off her bra while he was cleaning the bathroom, he guessed. The good thing was that she wasn’t hot, her skin felt warm, normal.

  “Baby, how you feeling?”

  “Crappy.”

  “Okay, you wanna take a shower or a bath? Wash the sickness off, as my mom would say?”

  “I can’t stand and sitting upwards hurts my stomach, so I’ll just lay here.”

  He didn’t like the whole her stomach hurt thing, but then again she probably hadn’t eaten in a while. There was so much puke in that bathroom that he was surprised it came from her. She had to take a shower, she smelled, and he couldn’t let her stay like that. He got out of the bed gently, and headed into the bathroom, starting the shower, getting it just right before stripping off his clothes. When he went back into her bedroom, she was basically hanging off the bed, she must have tried to moved on her own.

  He slowly removed her panties, and then slowly picked her up as she groaned. She let out a little whimper as he turned her, wrapping her body around his as he carried her into the bathroom. When he stepped into the shower, her grip on him became tighter as he fully immersed them into the shower.

  “Can you put a little weight on your legs, baby?”

  Elli unwrapped her legs, letting them fall to the shower floor, but still leaned heavily against him, which was fine. He just needed to grab the shampoo so he could wash her. As he washed her, she kept her eyes closed. She didn’t say anything, even when he would say something, she would just nod or shake her head. He washed every part of her before shutting the water off and grabbing the towels he had set out for them. He dried her off before taking her into the bedroom, laying her on the bed. He took the shirt and panties he had laid out for her, and started getting her dressed. He laid her down before getting the brush and throwing on some boxers. He leaned her against his body, brushing her hair slowly, making sure he didn’t hurt her. When he was done, he moved her to the couch that sat in the corner, so he could change her sheets.

  Not surprisingly, the only color of sheets the girl owned was pink. So he grabbed what he swore was the exact same sheets and changed her bed. When he looked over at her, she was watching him, her green eyes as dull as her skin, something he never thought would happen. He went over to her, picking her up, bringing her to her bed.

  “Do you feel better, baby?” She nodded, but then a tear ran down over her nose, onto her top puffy lip. “Then why are you crying?”

  More tears began to fall before she opened her eyes, “I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

  “Oh, honey, don’t worry about that, you’re beautiful even when you’re sick, you’re always beautiful to me.”

  “I’m disgusting,” she said as more tears fell from her eyes. He shook his head, moving his fingers to catch every tear.

  “That is not the D word I was thinking,” he said with a grin.

  Elli blinked before asking, “What?”

  “I was thinking delicious, maybe delectable. In other words, Elli, I want to eat you up, always.”

  “But I’m-”

  “Perfect.”

  “Shea, I’m far from it. You should leave while you have the chance, these kinds of things can happen. One minute I’m pissed as hell at you, the next I’m on the floor and can’t move. Get out while you can,” she pleaded as she looked up at him.

  “While I can, huh? Who said I could?”

  “You should.”

  “I’m not going. Don’t you know that by now? Don’t you understand that I’m here, and there is no way I’m leaving? I love you, Elli. I don’t know how you were loved before, but I’m going to love you more than anybody ever will or ever has. I’m here for you because I love you, not your money. Not because your uncle owns the team, or because you have a successful business. That’s not what drew me to you, it was your eyes….and your ass.” When she smiled, his heart filled with all the love in the world, he loved making her smiled, “but mostly your eyes. I’m so sorry about what happen with them females in Florida.”

  “I’m not mad, I just didn’t understand why you didn’t pull back.”

  “She was sucking my face, Elli! I’m surprised I have lips still!” She smiled again, moving deeper into the bed, closing her eyes. “I’m not gonna hurt you, Elli, I promise.”

  She opened her eyes again, looking deep into his before saying, “I believe you.”

  When Elli woke up the next morning, she felt five times better, which was how it usually happened. The first day she would puke her brains out, the second, she couldn’t move because the fever set in, and then the third she was finally able to move but still needed to stay in bed. The next couple days she would be bed ridden, but at least she would be able to use the bathroom and take a shower by herself.

  She hated that Shea saw her like that, she hated that he had cleaned her house, her bathroom, and she hated that he had given her a bath. She would be forever embarrassed and hated that, too! He really was the most amazing man in the world and she couldn’t believe that not six months ago, he was sleeping with anything with legs. That his idea of having a good time was drinking and sleeping with a random female, but now, lying in bed feeding her soup was what he was doing and he seemed to enjoy it.

  “I can feed myself,” she said with a glare as he held the spoon to her mouth, a smirk came across his face.

  “Don’t be angry; just let me take care of you.”

  “You’re always taking care of me,” she countered before she opened her mouth, swallowing the hot, yummy liquid. It was her favorite soup, and it warmed her whole body as it went down her throat.

  “Because that’s what you do for your girlfriend. You know if I got sick, or if I drunk myself into a stupor, I know you would take care of me and I wouldn’t be embarrassed at all.”

  “How’d you know I was embarrassed?”

  He smiled, feeding her another spoonful of the most amazing soup on earth. God, she was starving. “I know you, Elli. Now that I know the extent of your sickness, I’m pretty sure I know everything.”

  “You do not.”

  “I do, too.”

  “You don’t know about Justin,” she don’t know why she said it because Lord knew she didn’t want to talk about him but when Shea started laughed, it pissed her off as she raised her eyebrows.

  “Actually, I do.”

  “Huh?”

  He laughed, before handing her a glass of hot tea, “You told me all about asshat the night you got trashed.”

  A heavy f
eeling filled her stomach as she incredulously stared at him. She knew that she had diarrhea of the mouth when she was drunk, but come on! She told him about Justin! “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope, I know all about you now, Ms. Eleanor Rey Fisher.”

  “You ass,” she sneered playfully as he chuckled, feeding her some more. They sat in silence as he finished feeding her, she didn’t know what to say because he did know her insides and outs now, and for some reason, she felt good.

  Happy even.

  “You wanna try to get up? Walk around a little?”

  “No, maybe tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” he said standing, taking her dishes in his hands, “I’m going to go clean up the mess I made, do you need anything?”

  “Not right now. Thank you, Shea.”

  He smiled, then leaned down kissing her lips softly before leaving. God, she needed to thank his momma. She raised herself an amazing man. Elli reached for the remote and turned on the TV, waiting for Shea to come back. It was crazy how much she got used to having him around her and, honestly, she was glad that Harper had called him. Harper hated taking care of Elli because it scared her really bad, but even though Elli was sure Shea was scared, he still took amazing care of her. Way better than Justin ever did. Justin would just leave her to die basically. He would clean up after her, but he would never shower her, or feed her like Shea had.

  So why didn’t she loved him?

  “Hey.” Elli looked over, pushing that question way to the back of her mind, to see Shea standing only halfway in the room, “Okay, so I’ve been working on something…for you. I was going to do it for your birthday but I think you could use it now.”

  “What is it? Come in here.” He looked down at the ground, clearing his throat, and for the first time he was acting shy. “Come on.”

  He looked over at her, taking a deep breath, and then came into the room with his arms behind his back, but nothing could hide the beauty of the Gibson Hummingbird guitar that was peeking out from behind his legs. Her eyes lit up as he sat down, placing the beautiful guitar across his lap. He tapped his fingers against the base before looking up at her.

  “You have to promise you won’t tell anyone I did this, because I swear I’m like the biggest girl in the world for this, but when I heard this song after dating you, I had to learn it…for you.” Elli took in a breath, covering her mouth as her eyes became bright with excitement. He was gonna play for her! “And then I started singing along with it and knew I had to do both because hopefully it would express how I feel, but you can’t tell anyone!”

  “I won’t!” she gushed through her hands that still covered her mouth.

  “Especially not Grace. I swear you tell her, I’ll…I’ll call your daddy and tell him you’ve been sleeping with me, and you’re naughty as hell!”

  Elli giggled uncontrollably as he grinned bashfully. She was falling for this guy. She knew it now, it was happening and damn it, she was gonna let it! Because he was wonderful, he was gonna sing to her! He shook his head, and then moved his hands to the strings of the guitar. He stayed there for a moment, not moving his fingers. Shea then looked up at her, and she smiled, hoping to encourage him to go ahead. He didn’t smile back, but he looked down at the guitar and slowly started moving his fingers against the cords.

  Elli was so impressed to see his large hands move so easily over each cord, creating the most beautiful melody, but then he started to sing, “Oh, her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like they're not shining,” she recognized the song immediately, and she couldn’t help the little gasp or the “Oh, Shea” that left her lips. Bless his heart. He wasn’t the best singer, but it didn’t matter, he was singing for her. A song that every girl wants sang to them, because being told that “you’re amazing, just the way you are” would making any girl melt into a puddle of goo.

  She couldn’t believe this was happening. Things like this didn’t happen in real life, only in books and movies. But there he was, playing the most romantic song in the world to her. He wouldn’t look at her as he sung, but a small smile would cross his beautiful mouth when he hit a note he knew he couldn’t, or when the lyrics really didn’t apply to her, because hello, her hair didn’t lay flat.

  He came to the end of the song, and stopped, moving the guitar off his lap, he looked up at her, and said, “Okay now really, don’t laugh.” He had the sweetest, most adorable sheepish grin on his face as he took her hands in his, looking deep in her eyes as he sung the chorus again.

  That’s when Elli started to cry.

  The tears came quick, rolling down her cheeks, onto their hands. He stopped singing, laughing nervously as he moved his hand up to her cheek, catching some of her tears. “Elli, don’t cry!”

  “I’m sorry,” she said sniffing as she tried to stop crying, “You’re like a dream, Shea, no one does that anymore.”

  “Sure they do, come here.” She went into his arms willing, rubbing her nose against his shirt, taking in his heavenly scent. “I meant every word, Elli, you’re amazing.”

  How in the world did she get so lucky?

  And why couldn’t she believe him?

  Elli was getting stronger and Shea hoped embarrassing himself for her was helping with her recovery. When he had first heard “Just the way you are” he was convinced it was for guys that needed to get laid, but then he met Elli and every single word in the song describe what he was feeling for her, what he thought, so he had to learn the cords, then he started singing as he played. Shea knew he wasn’t the best singer, but it seemed Elli loved it, hell she even started crying good tears, making his embarrassment worth it.

  Since he hadn’t left in four days, he hadn’t been working out, which was the longest he had ever went without working out. He tried to get Adler to run with him the other day, but the damn dog made it to the mailbox then just laid down. It was as if he was saying “I’ll be here when you get back,” Damn lazy dog. So while Elli slept after lunch, Shea went into the living room, looking for the P90x DVD set she had mention having. He looked through the racks, but it wasn’t there, so he opened the drawers of the TV stand, seeing if they were in there.

  They weren’t but there was a drawer full of DVDs, on was marked ‘Elli in: Funny Girl’ and then a lot of other musicals. He pulled them all out, forgetting about his workout and fumbling with the DVD case to get the DVD out. He put the disc in, then slowly back up, sitting on the couch as the DVD started. It started with a title screen and then went into the movie. It must have been one of her high school plays because the stage was big but not Broadway big. The curtains opened but the lights didn’t come on the four girls that sat at a table. The spot line came down on a girl sitting in the front row in a leopard outfit. When the camera zoomed in and Shea saw that it was Elli, he smiled.

  She was a baby.

  A girl came out on the stage and the show started. It was amazing, Elli was captivating, and that’s not because he knew her and loved her so much, it was because she was absolutely amazing. Her voice was angelic, just as her dad had said. When she would open her mouth, everyone looked at her, even the people on stage. It was breathtaking.

  So breathtaking that when Elli came shuffling into the room, Shea didn’t even look up at her. He kept watching the show as she came over and cuddled up on the couch with him. Neither of them said anything as the DVD went black, then the spotlight came back on Elli in the middle of the stage in a black dress.

  “This is my favorite part,” she said beside him. On the DVD, Elli started singing again, the song was about the man she had lost, Shea guessed, but he didn’t care. Elli was compelling. She killed the performance, you believed she had just lost the love of her life, you believed she was hurting, but you didn’t care, all you wanted was more of her voice, more of her.

  The show ended with her standing there, no music playing, just big, shiny tears falling down her cheeks. Shea wanted to get up and clap and scream like the people were doing in the video, but instead he wrapped his
arms around Elli, holding her close to him as the credits ran.

  “I trained for a months to do that song, it was so hard.”

  “It was amazing, you’re fascinating Elli, truly.”

  Elli shook her head against his, turning her head up to look at him, “I was, not no more. I couldn’t sing that song if my life depended on it.”

  “Sure you could and you still are, Elli. You fascinate me, every day.”

  A dazzling smile came across her face, causing his heart to pound and his skin to tingle. This was the moment, the moment for her to say it. It was all over her face, she loved him, she had too, he saw it in her eyes.

  “I never loved myself until I met you,” she said before snuggling closer to him, rubbing her nose against his neck.

  She didn’t love him, but she loved herself.

  Great.

  Now when the hell was she gonna love him!

  Chapter 25

  Elli opened her eyes slowly. She felt like someone was staring at her, and not to her surprise, someone was.

  Shea.

  He gave her a cheeky grin, kissing her lips loudly. “Happy birthday, baby.”

  “Mmm…thanks,” she said as she stretched her arms above her head, “What time is it?”

  “Seven, we need to get back to Nashville.”

  “Why?” she asked rolling to her side to cuddle against his naked chest, “Why on earth would we leave this warm bed?”

  Shea chuckled, “Baby, it’s your birthday; things are planned for today, you know.”

  “Like?”

  He smacked her butt playfully, pushing her out of bed. “Not telling! Now get up, Harper will be at the condo by nine to pick you up.”

  Elli moaned as Shea continued to push her out of bed, “Fine, fine, I’m going,” she complained as she threw the blankets off her and headed for the shower. “You’re mean,” she spat back at him as he just laughed.

  “I bet you won’t be saying that later!” he countered as she went into the bathroom. A grin covered her face, he was probably right. She was so excited for today, she could hardly contain it. It was weird for her to be excited about her birthday, but she was. Another thing Shea had made happen.