by M. S. Willis
Hunter
She couldn’t be serious. However, the expression on her face told me that under no uncertain terms, she was, in fact, serious.
“I’m not taking off my clothes. That’s ridiculous!”
The expression on her face didn’t change; except for the minute curl at the corner of her lips. “Strip. Then we will both have the advantage of knowing what the other looks like without clothes. It’ll give us an even playing field.”
I stood dumbfounded, not believing that she was telling me to take off my clothes. Since the moment I’d met her, she’d acted like a raging bull, tackling me over dogs and throwing out insults as fast as her tongue could form the sound. A spitting cat would have been more malleable than the headstrong blonde staring me down.
Her eyebrow was cocked teasingly over her eye and her mouth puckered up as she attempted to keep from laughing. Annoyance mixed thickly with my shock and I stood silent waiting for her to finally laugh and tell me she was joking.
She didn’t.
Although the situation was odd, I couldn’t help but inquire as to just how naked she wanted me. “You want me to take everything off?”
“No, just the pants and shirt. There’s nobody here that’s interested in seeing anything beyond that.”
My ego took a small hit on that comment, but I pressed forward anyway. “So, let me get this straight. You decided to take a shower in your front yard after basically assaulting me yesterday over the fact that your dogs ruined my wall, and now you think that the only way we’re going to be even is if I remove my clothes? I’m not exactly seeing how me being naked is going to solve anything.”
Stepping back, she shook her head and finally let out the chuckle I knew she’d been holding in since the moment she told me to undress. “It’s actually quite simple, Hunter. I feel embarrassed and ashamed that you’ve seen me practically naked and the only way I’m going to feel better about having been seen in that condition is to know that you feel equally as embarrassed to be seen that way as well. The dog incident has nothing to do with this, so that’s just a dead issue.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and her little foot popped out in front of her as she waited. Her words finally seeped their way through my shock and I noticed what she’d said.
“You think I’d be embarrassed to get naked in front of you?” I laughed. “Back home, I had hundreds of girls swooning over me daily. I work hard for the body I have.”
Okay, not hard, because, thankfully, nature was kind and giving with my genetics.
“Well, yeah I think that.” She walked towards me and motioned towards my shirt. “If you weren’t embarrassed you’d have already taken off your clothes.”
“I haven’t taken off my clothes, because I think it’s stupid!”
After tucking her towel into itself to ensure it wouldn’t fall off, she stepped towards me and reached out to grip the bottom of my shirt. “Listen, I just want to get this asinine conversation over with, so take off the damn shirt and your pants and we’ll call it even.”
Her hands quickly pulled the sweat sodden material up my body and I stepped back in shock at her brazen behavior. Unfortunately, my foot caught on the paint can and I tumbled backwards, pulling Ellison down on top of me. Once again we found ourselves in a tangled mess of arms and legs and her wet hair fell down into my face, practically blinding me — which was unfortunate given the fact that the towel fell open and her barely covered chest and abdomen were front and center. I brushed the hair out of my face in time to see her wide-open blue eyes staring down at me just before she pushed herself up and fixed her towel.
Laughing, I said, “We’ve got to stop ending up like this.”
She turned her face back toward mine and time stopped. I’m not kidding. I know it’s the cheesiest way to describe what happened at that moment, but for a split second there, I was completely captivated by the beauty of the girl straddling my midsection. The sunlight peeked through the wet tangles of her golden hair and the glint in her eye sparkled … just before she scowled.
“You know it’s really creepy when you stare like that.”
Standing up, she gripped the towel around herself tighter and walked towards her house. “Whatever, Hunter, I don’t have all day to deal with you.” She stopped and looked over her shoulder at me, just in time to catch me staring at her ass. A knowing expression fell over her face. “The way I figure it, you’re too damn embarrassed to show some skin, so I’ll leave you alone to deal with your insecurity issue. However, do me a favor and stop staring at me like some stalker. Let’s just get through the summer and try to avoid each other from here on out.”
My jaw dropped as she spun back towards her house and made her way inside. I could hear the two little fur balls barking as she entered and the distinct sound of the door slamming behind her. I stood motionless for a moment attempting to come to terms with meeting the strangest person I think I’d ever met in my life. I’m not sure how long I continued staring at her house, but at one point, the window curtain was pulled aside and her face came into view. She opened the window just enough so she could say, “See what I mean about you being creepy? Stop standing around staring at people and we might get along better.” She closed the window and dramatically pulled the curtain back into place.
Sonofabitch! This girl was a nightmare.
I spent the rest of the afternoon painting primer on the exterior of the house. There may have been some choice expletives voiced the entire time I was redoing one side because that area of primer had been destroyed by Ellison’s dogs. I was in shock that she didn’t feel like she owed me anything for all those extra hours her mutts had cost me in doing this monotonous chore. I wanted to hate her. She’d done nothing but yell at me and call me “creepy” since the minute we’d met. But, unfortunately, every time I got close to convincing myself to forget her, my mind would reflect on that one day: those piercing blue eyes and the view of her supple, barely dressed body under that showerhead ... those images flicker in my mind’s eye and I’ve caught myself smiling a time or two.
I was coming around the corner after scraping the rest of the ruined primer off the wall and there she was: the sun glinted off the water that trailed down her tan skin. Her head was leaning back and her chest and stomach were the first things I saw. I didn’t lie to her when I told her I’d been in shock. By the time my eyes had traveled down the full length of her legs and back up again, she was staring back at me like she wanted to murder me. I noticed that I’d started to run out of room in my pants from the view and I was nervous she would look down and see it too, so I turned around quick. Thankfully, she didn’t and I was spared that train wreck of embarrassment. The time it took her to yell at me, and the disbelief I was feeling by what she was saying, helped my body calm down (quickly).
Squirt, Squirt, scrape, scrape …
It was a mantra I repeated in my mind to cure the absolute boredom I had with the job I was doing. It was also a failed attempt at keeping thoughts of Ellison out of my head. Her body was insane and no matter what I did, or what I thought about, I couldn’t keep the image of her smooth tanned skin from flashing itself in my mind. I wouldn’t have minded considering her for a little summer fling if I could just find a way to keep her from talking and screwing up the mood.
Not able to stand the silence any longer, I stood up from my crouched position at the back of the house and went up onto the porch in search of a radio. Buried beneath all the greasy car parts and other odds and ends, I located a small radio and flicked it on before scrolling through countless country stations in search for some decent music. Eventually I found a station that was playing some industrial music and I carried the radio out with me to finish my job.
Having settled back into the routine, I picked up my speed and was finishing up the last part when I heard Ellison’s front door open and the unmistakable sound of the little terrors being let outside. They instantly barked in appreciation and tore across the lot in my direc
tion. I flinched immediately and stood up to protect the house at all costs.
“Sasha! Bear! You stop right there, you two!” Ellison’s voice carried over the yard loudly and both dogs stopped instantly, kicking up little dust clouds with their feet. I looked up from the dogs to Ellison and she stared over at me with a crooked smile on her face. She patted her leg to call the dogs back to her. The dogs hesitated and looked at me, but eventually moved to stand at her feet.
“You got bacon in your pocket? They seem to like you — although I’m not sure why.”
I smiled in response to her stab and responded, “I believe it’s my shining disposition.”
She laughed. “Somehow, I doubt that. Could you do me a favor and turn off the death metal? I can’t even hear myself think.”
I took her request as an affront. One of my favorite bands was playing at that moment and the way her expression soured when she heard it was insulting. I prided myself on my taste of music and her disapproval irritated me — although I couldn’t immediately understand why.
Reaching over I flicked off the radio. “What’s the matter? There’s not enough twang to make it interesting to you country folk?” Okay — there was a little too much sarcasm in my tone on that comment, but Ellison seemed to bring it out in me.
“You must have an issue with silence. You know — that’s a problem for a lot of people nowadays. They’ve always got to have something blasting in their ear or something to stare at. It’s probably why so many of you are as miserable as you are. You don’t know how to just enjoy the world around you.”
I blinked up at her and it took me a second to absorb what she was saying. It must have taken me too long to respond because she spun on her heel and tapped against her leg to tell the dogs to follow. My eyes followed her as she walked towards a red, beat-up Jeep that I’d thought was broken down considering the terrible condition it was in. She turned to look at me again before climbing up into the driver’s seat. The dogs happily climbed up into the Jeep with her and she placed them in the back. Looking over at me, she laughed.
“I’ve never known anybody who stares as much as you. Is there something on your mind that you need to say, or can you just not help yourself from looking at me?”
I blinked again and shook myself from my shocked silence. “No! You just keep saying weird shit and I’m not completely sure what to think about you.”
“Then don’t think about me. Just get back to your chore because it looks like it might take you a bit longer than you thought to finish it.”
I turned to look back at the house to see what she was talking about. It looked perfect and all that I needed to do was let the primer dry before I painted it. Turning back to her, I asked, “Why do you say that?”
She smirked. “No reason.”
After she turned away from me, the engine roared to life and smoke shot out of the muffler at the rear of the Jeep. She revved the engine a few times and pulled out quick enough to cause a cloud of dust and dirt to blow out from behind her. She looked at me in the rear view mirror as she drove off and raised her hand to wave out of the top before she turned and drove out of view. The cloud caused me to cough, but I still laughed and turned back to look at the house. Instantly I noticed that the dirt her Jeep had kicked up was now embedded in the tacky paint.
“Sonofabitch!”
She had to have known her Jeep would do that. Flicking my radio back on and turning it up louder, I marched over to fix the area her car had messed up and decided that when it came to Ellison James, the gloves were now off.
~ ~ ~
Well, she was correct. It did take me a few more hours to fix the area she’d messed up in her hasty departure and after scraping and re-priming again, I stood back to admire my work. I was packing up my tools when I heard a small bicycle bell chime behind me. Turning around I found Lily riding an old-fashioned blue bike that was equipped with a small brown basket in the front and streamers flying out the sides of the handles. I didn’t even realize they made those for bikes large enough to be ridden by a person over the age of five.
“Hey, Cuz!” She stopped within feet of me and climbed off before kicking down the stand. “How’s the painting going? Looks like you just finished.”
One thing that amazed me about Lily was her ability to speak at least three times faster than any other human being I knew, but yet clearly pronounce each word with only the smallest amount of southern accent. Her blond hair bounced around her head as she approached me and I was instantly swept up into a large hug. Stepping back, she tucked her bangs behind her ears and smiled. “You did a good job; although, you could have been finished hours ago if you weren’t such an obvious perfectionist. You do realize this is just primer, right?”
“It’s the foundation for ….” I stopped before diving into my solid foundation speech and moved to continue gathering up the tools. “Never mind, but thanks. I would have been done a few hours ago if I didn’t have to fix the front wall — AGAIN — after my run-in this afternoon with your friend.”
I heard a small snicker behind me and I turned to glare at the little pixie of girl that she was. Her blue eyes were too big for her small head and her broad smile took up the rest of the room. Luckily, her nose was a perfect button and the combination gave her a cute innocent look.
“Ah … you and Ellison had it out again, I presume. She’s really not as bad as she seems, she’s just extremely overprotective of animals, nature, friends, and family. As long as you don’t litter, or try to hurt anything she cares about, she’s an awesome person.”
I laughed. “Well, does she have to be so irritatingly snarky all of the time? I believe she’s called me a creepy stalker at least five times since I’ve been here. I’m starting to get a complex.”
Lily looped her arm through mine and took one of the cans from me as we walked towards the back porch. “She must like you. If she really thought you were a jerk, she wouldn’t give you the time of day. She’s really good at not noticing someone if she doesn’t want to.”
“Well, I guess it’s hard to ignore a person when he’s staring at you taking a shower.”
Lily stopped in her tracks and pulled me out of step with her. “What?”
I urged her to continue walking forward as I explained what happened between Ellison and me earlier that day. Lily laughed so hard when she heard the story that she snorted three times and her face was turning an interesting shade of blue. When she was finally able to breathe again, she removed her arm from mine and used it to slap me on the back.
“I can’t believe you didn’t just strip down. It would have saved you a few hours of re-priming this afternoon and, by my count, she still has to get even with you one more time. I hate to think what she’ll come up with. I’d be nervous if I were you, Hunter.” She climbed the steps giggling to herself after serving me her ominous warning.
I stopped at the base of the stairs watching her as she climbed up. “What is she capable of?”
Lily turned around and put her hands on her hip. After kicking a rock off the porch, she looked back at me and laughed.
“That’s the thing with Ellison. You never really know. That girl is capable of anything.”
Chapter Five
I spent the early part of the evening watching television with Lily and Uncle Bill. Every time I saw headlights coming down the dirt path that led to the houses, I peeked out the window to see if it was Ellison arriving home. I couldn’t get her out of my head and I was a little annoyed that she’d gotten under my skin. By the time night had fallen, I’d gotten a good look at her freakishly large brother as he meandered home with an older gentleman I’d not met.
“That’s El’s daddy. He’s never around during the day and leaves for work before the sun even comes up. You’ll rarely see him around.” Lily commented when she noticed how intently I was watching out the window.
Uncle Bill gave me a funny look. “Are you looking for anyone in particular, Hunter?”
Lilly lau
ghed at his question and took the liberty of answering for me. “He and Ellison got into it again today. Apparently, he saw her in her skivvies when she was getting a shower after a hike.”
“Oh dear. I wouldn’t let her daddy find out about that. He’ll remove your eyes if he knew you was looking at his little girl.” Uncle Bill laughed and clapped me on the shoulder.
What was with these people and smacking me?
“It wasn’t my fault! She was showering in the front yard for fuck’s sake! How was I supposed to know she’d be naked out where anyone could see her? And from what I could see, she’s not a little girl anymore.”
Bill’s face wrinkled from his scowl. “First off, son, there are rules in this house and one of them is to watch your language. I don’t know about you kids these days, but when I was brought up, you’d get smacked upside the head for cussing in front of a lady. I’da thought your momma would have taught you better than that.”
I smiled at the thought. In truth, my mother cussed like a sailor. Hell, she was the one that taught me the best words — most of the time, after I’d done something really stupid.
“And secondly, Ellison’s not used to having extra people ‘round here and normally she’s got the place to herself during the day. Except for Lily, most of us are at work. I’m sure she realizes that now and will be more careful. What’d she do when you saw her?”
“She told me to strip so that we were even.”
“Did you do it?”
“No! I see no reason why I had to remove my clothes just because I’d walked in on her. It wasn’t my fault.”
Bill laughed a deep belly laugh. “Well, son, if Ellison was trying to make you two square and you refused, you’ve got something coming. That girl will find a way to make sure she gets even. Her poor daddy had to put up with all sorts of pranks gone wrong between El and her brother through the years. Most of the time, it’s entertaining as hell, just as long as you’re not her intended target. I’d sleep with one eye open if I were you.” He kept chuckling after giving me information that didn’t really help out with the nagging obsession I was starting to have with her.
