“But if I ask her to come and she agrees, is it okay?”
It was a bad idea for me to be spending any time outside of what I had to with Elodie. Though, I had to admit, she had a special connection with Hailey and would know better than me how to handle things if she got upset.
I sighed. “If you want her to come and she’s able to, yes, we can take Elodie.”
“Dope.”
Yeah, I am. You can say that again.
Chapter 19
* * *
Hollis
We wound up booking a Saturday afternoon flight and planned to see my brother on Sunday morning before flying back that evening. I’d considered sending a car for Elodie, so she could meet us at the airport, but then decided the least I could do was pick her up since she was coming with us on her day off.
Hailey and I left the city early, in case we hit traffic anywhere. Plus, parking at LaGuardia with all the construction was going to be a bitch. We pulled up at Elodie’s house almost a full forty-five minutes earlier than planned.
Hailey started to get out of the car and noticed I hadn’t moved. “Aren’t you coming in?”
After the shit I pulled last time, I wasn’t risking it. “I have to answer a few emails, so I’ll wait here. You go ahead, and let her know we’re early. Tell her she doesn’t need to rush.”
“Okay.”
I watched Hailey skip up to the door and Elodie open it. They talked for a minute, and then the two of them looked over at the car. I waved and held up my phone. Even from the curb, I could see the smirk on Elodie’s face—no doubt she knew why I wasn’t coming inside. But whatever… Better safe than sorry.
About ten minutes went by. I was in the middle of answering a long email when a black BMW pulled to the curb in front of me. A man got out and started to walk toward Elodie’s door.
Who’s this douche?
He didn’t have anything in his hands like he was delivering something, and he was dressed pretty nice. He also walked up to the door without any hesitation about where he was going. I watched from the car like a hawk.
The man knocked, and Elodie opened the front door with a smile on her face. Seeing who was there, it immediately wilted. I reached for the car door handle, but managed to stop myself from opening it.
Elodie put her hands on her hips and said something. The guy then took a turn speaking, and whatever he said pissed her off. She started to wave her hands around, and I heard her voice rise, even though my windows were up.
Fuck this. I got out of the car and was at her front door in five long strides.
“Is there a problem here?”
The guy turned and looked me up and down. “Who are you?”
“Hollis LaCroix. And you are?”
“Elodie’s husband.”
Elodie’s lips twisted. “Ex-husband. And he was just leaving. You can ignore him, Hollis.”
Her ex thumbed his finger at me. “Who the hell is this guy?”
“He’s none of your business, that’s who he is. And I have nothing to say to you. So go home, Tobias.”
I folded my arms over my chest and widened my stance. “You heard the lady.”
He scoffed at me. “What are you going to do, punch me?”
My hands were already balled into fists. Sure, why not? Give me a reason, asshole. “Why don’t you just listen to what your ex-wife is saying and take off? Obviously you’re not welcome here.”
Hailey came to the door. “Who’s this?”
Elodie answered. “This is Tobias. My ex-husband. Would you mind rolling my suitcase out from the bedroom, Hailey?”
My niece shrugged. “Sure.”
Elodie stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind her. “As you can see, we’re on our way out. So why don’t you send me an email if you need to talk to me.”
He sighed. “It’s about Bree.”
“What about her?”
“My mother asked me to speak to you.” The douchebag glanced over at me. “Can we speak in private, please? It’s a family matter.”
Elodie blew out a deep breath. “Fine. But we need to get on the road.” She turned to me. “Would you mind waiting five more minutes, Hollis?”
I didn’t want to leave her alone with this guy, but Elodie obviously didn’t feel she would be in danger. I nodded. “Hailey and I will wait in the car.”
“Thank you.”
Hailey brought the suitcase to the door, and I picked it up and loaded it into my trunk. Elodie’s ex-husband seemed like a real dick. Rather than wait inside the car, I leaned against the driver’s side door, keeping my eye on the house. Hailey did the same thing right next to me. Looking over at her protective stance, I realized how comical we probably looked, both standing guard with our arms folded across our chests. Though I didn’t give a shit.
“Did you see that?” Hailey said.
“What?” My eyes had been glued to the front door. I couldn’t have missed something.
“Next door. The blinds moved, and I saw a woman. I think she’s watching us or something.”
“Oh. That’s probably Elodie’s friend Bree. She lives next door. I’m sure she’s just keeping an eye out, making sure everything is okay.”
Two minutes later, I saw the blinds move next door. Her friend was definitely watching us. But not long after, Elodie’s front door opened, and her ex walked out. I stretched my spine straight.
He gave me the evil eye as he passed, but said nothing while he walked back to his car and got in.
Elodie walked down the front path with her purse. “Sorry about that.”
“Is everything okay?”
She looked back at her friend’s house and frowned. “Not really. Would you mind if I took five more minutes?”
“Not at all. Go do whatever you need to do. We were early.”
“Thank you.”
I gave Elodie privacy this time and got into the car while she went next door to her friend’s. Fifteen minutes later, she opened the passenger door to my car. Her face was puffy with tears.
“Elodie?”
She shook her head and looked forward. “Not now.”
“You want to take a few more minutes? Go inside and wash up?”
“No. I just want to go.”
I nodded and started the car.
***
Hailey went to the newsstand across from the gate to look at magazines. Elodie had been quiet the entire trip to the airport.
“You want to talk about it?” I said softly.
“About Tobias? No. But about Bree? Maybe.”
I shifted in my seat to give her my attention, while still keeping an eye on the newsstand. “Whatever you want.”
“I’ve told you my best friend is sick. Bree had been part of an experimental treatment for her condition. She has lymphangioleiomyomatosis.”
“That’s a mouthful.”
She nodded. “It’s an incurable lung disease. She doesn’t talk about it much, doesn’t want to burden me with the details. Which I think is stupid, but that’s who she is. It’s important to her to not disrupt my life—so she plays down how she’s feeling. Tobias’s mother, Mariah, is married to Bree’s father, and yesterday Bree told her father that she’d stopped the experimental treatment. It’s making her really sick and dizzy, more out of breath than usual. But the new drugs were basically a last hope. Bree won’t listen to her dad, so Tobias came to talk to me to see if I could intervene. His family doesn’t know our marriage ended poorly. We told them we jumped into things too fast and realized we were better off as friends.”
I nodded. “I understand. And I’m sorry about your friend. Did your talking with her help any?”
She shook her head. “She promised she’d think about going back to the treatments. But I know her, it was just to get me out the door.”
I thought about what I’d gone through with my mom at the end. The treatments had made her so sick. “My mom had cancer. She died when I was nineteen after multiple rounds of chemo. A
t the end, she chose to stop all treatments and enjoy the days she had left. It was really hard to accept. There’re just some things in life we can’t change. So we need to change to deal with them. And that’s much easier said than done.”
Elodie looked over at me and nodded. “Thanks, Hollis. And thank you for coming to check on me when you saw Tobias at my door.”
Her eyes were glassy, and I knew she was fighting back tears. I put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed her. “Of course. Anytime. We’re friends, remember? That’s what friends do for each other. Well, that and sniff each other’s panties and leave obscene selfies.”
Elodie laughed and wiped a tear from her eye. “We have a fucked-up friendship, Hollis.”
I smiled. “We have from the very start. I don’t think we can do it any other way.”
***
The flight to Ohio was uneventful, and I’d booked us adjacent rooms at a hotel in downtown Cleveland. Hailey and Elodie were in one room, and I was in the other, only a door separating us.
The three of us went to dinner at a five-star seafood restaurant within walking distance of where we were staying and opted to return to the hotel right after.
While Elodie and I were keen to relax, Hailey seemed to have different plans.
“The pool is open till ten!” she announced just as we were approaching our rooms.
“Guess we’re going swimming?” Elodie said.
I lingered at my door. “You two brought bathing suits?”
“Of course. What fun is a hotel without swimming in the pool?” Hailey asked, as if my question was stupid.
“I sort of like just lying in the bed, watching TV with some snacks myself,” I said.
“That’s cuz you’re old, Uncle Hollis.”
That made me chuckle.
“Apparently, everyone came prepared but you, Hollsy.” Elodie winked.
Something about that wink made me wish I could smack her on the ass.
They retreated to their room to change. My plan was to hang out and watch some HBO while they were gone. That is, until they came over to say they were heading downstairs.
Elodie’s tight stomach and ample breasts peeking out from her bikini taunted me. I would be crazy to stay in my room when I could spend the next hour gawking at her. I couldn’t touch, but I could still look, right? That sounded a hell of a lot better than HBO.
“Maybe I’ll join you.”
Hailey was confused. “You’re gonna swim?”
“No. But I’ll hang out, maybe read the paper.”
Once downstairs, we used the room key to access the indoor pool area. It was heated and felt like a sauna. I’d purchased a USA TODAY down in the lobby and threw it on one of the tables before settling into a white plastic chair.
Elodie removed her shorts and dove into the pool. Hailey jumped in right after her.
It was hard not to watch the way Elodie’s breasts bounced as she played with Hailey in the water. I had my paper in front of my face, but I did more peeking over it than reading.
The other day, I’d made the mistake of looking through the photos in her phone when she’d left it at my apartment. I came across a selfie she’d taken of herself in a bra and undies and must have gazed at it for a half hour straight. I felt guilty afterward. That’s when I’d snapped that photo of myself, right before destroying her panties by jerking off with them.
Despite the immense fun I’d had with our game, I was still certain we couldn’t take things any further. Nevertheless, I grew increasingly sexually frustrated by the day.
Elodie emerged from the pool and took a seat next to me. Her blond hair was wet and slicked back off her face. She ran her hands through it to remove some of the tangles.
She looked out at Hailey, still swimming away. “I’m really glad she’s having a good time tonight. I’m sure tomorrow is going to be stressful for her.”
“Well, thanks to you, she’s having a good time. Not sure she’d be having so much fun if it were just the two of us. Thank you again for agreeing to come.”
“You’re welcome.” She was quiet, then turned to me. “It’s been good for me, too. I didn’t exactly have wild plans this weekend.”
“Are you feeling better than you were this morning?”
“Definitely.”
I smiled. “Good.”
She looked away, almost seeming uncomfortable with our eye contact, a little bashful, which was uncharacteristic—but adorable.
“Thank you for dinner. It was really good,” she said.
“If I’m counting, I probably owe you a hundred dinners by now.”
“Until I stopped making them for two.”
“Yeah, that sucked, by the way. But I understand.”
“You deserved it.”
“I know.”
We shared a smile then sat in comfortable silence while we continued to watch Hailey in the pool.
After about an hour, Hailey was shivering with a towel wrapped around her when she announced that she wanted to go back upstairs.
Back in our rooms, I could hear the shower running next door and decided to take my own. Gazing for so long at Elodie’s body had gotten me more worked up than usual. My orgasm was intense in the shower. And yet, it wasn’t enough. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do with this crazy attraction to her. I wished I could rid myself of it or bottle it up, put it away, and lose the key. But it wasn’t that simple when she was around almost every day. It felt like I had all of this sexual energy and nowhere to put it.
After my shower, I threw on a clean black T-shirt and some gym pants. I normally slept in my boxer briefs, but I wasn’t sure if I would see Elodie again tonight. I turned on the TV and grabbed some pretzels I’d bought at the airport. I was just starting to get into a movie when Elodie sent me a text.
Elodie: Hailey is out like a light. Wish I could fall asleep, too. She totally crashed. That swimming did her in.
It did me in, too, just in a different way.
Was she hinting for me to invite her to hang out in my room, or was she just giving me an update?
Without thinking it through, I typed.
Hollis: I’m awake if you want some company.
Chapter 20
* * *
Elodie
I wasn’t expecting him to invite me next door. Don’t get me wrong—I was hoping he would, but Hollis rarely put himself in a position to be alone with me. So this was surprising. Although, Hailey was sleeping just over the wall, so I suppose he knew nothing could happen.
I quietly creaked open the door that connected our rooms before closing it.
Hollis stood by the window, looking down at the evening traffic on the street below. He turned around, seeming a bit tense.
“Hey.” I grinned.
He rubbed his hands together. “Hi.”
I looked over at the television. “Did I interrupt your movie?”
“Nah. I hadn’t gotten into it yet.”
I took a seat in the corner chair. I didn’t dare lie on the bed.
His eyes glossed over my legs, and his jaw ticked. I was wearing short sleep shorts and a T-shirt. I’d caught him checking me out numerous times at the pool, too. I loved catching him looking at me.
At this particular moment, he looked hotter than ever with his hair wet from the shower. He smelled like the aftershave I remembered from my panties. Just the thought of our game made my pulse race.
But it was like foreplay that had led to nothing. That whole experience was the polar opposite of what I encountered when I was with him—a relationship that was friendly at best.
Hollis moved over to the bed and kicked his legs up. He lowered the volume on the TV and said, “Your ex-husband seemed like a real douche.”
The fact that he’d brought up Tobias right now sort of surprised me.
“I didn’t think he was a douche for many years. I was quite smitten. He was my professor, after all. I had a lot of respect for him at one time. The whole person-of-a
uthority thing can be very alluring. Student-teacher. Employee-boss. You know how it is.”
Hollis cracked a slight smile, but he didn’t touch my comment as it might have related to him.
He cleared his throat. “How often does he show up at your house unannounced?”
“He does it from time to time. A part of him still looks at it as his house. I try not to let him get to me anymore, though.”
“Shouldn’t he give you more privacy than that?”
“Well, there isn’t much to see lately. It’s not like he’s going to find me in any compromising situations.”
Hollis stared for a bit then asked, “Why has it been so long since you’ve been with anyone?”
My eyes widened. “Have you tried online dating, Hollis? It’s bad. I don’t want someone who’s just after a quick fuck, even if that’s all I need sometimes. It’s frightening out there. There are diseases and scary people. I don’t know. Sometimes I just don’t think I was made for this.”
“You were made to be with one man...”
“Yes. I have a lot to give someone, the right person. But I’m too apprehensive to take the necessary steps to find him, I guess. I suppose I thought I had found him in Tobias. But I was wrong. So now it’s like starting from square one.”
I decided to move the focus off me and satisfy some curiosity of my own. “You don’t think you’ll ever settle down?”
He blew out a breath. “No. I’ve made the decision to remain single. I had a bad experience in the one serious relationship of my life, and I haven’t had the desire to put myself in that position again.”
Wow. There was definitely a story there.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“I’d prefer not to.”
“Okay. I understand.”
God, I was so curious. Seeing that vulnerability peek through made me more attracted to Hollis. He wasn’t as cold as I’d originally thought; he was likely just protecting his heart.
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