Simple Beginnings

by Janelle Stalder

  He smiled, the food in his mouth showing through his teeth. “Where’s the fun in that?” he said, his words muffled.

  “You’re going to choke,” Dad said absently, never once lifting his eyes from the newspaper.

  “One can only hope,” Chris muttered.

  I just rolled my eyes, looking back at the plate of food in front of me I’d barely touched.

  “All joking aside, what’s wrong?” Cam said after actually chewing and swallowing what was in his mouth. “Why aren’t you eating? Are you sick?” He leaned over and felt my forehead. I jerked away, giving him a ‘back off’ look.

  “What are you, his mother?” Chris said with a chuckle.

  “Look at him! I’ve never seen him not eat everything on his plate in two point five seconds.”

  “Nothing is wrong,” I said with a sigh. “Maybe I’m just not hungry.”

  “Bullshit, you’re always hungry.” I could feel Cam watching me closely as I kept my eyes away from him. Say what you will about my older brother, but Cam wasn’t stupid, nor was he unobservant. “This is about Ella, isn’t it?” he finally said making me sigh loudly again.

  “No, this is not about Ella. There is no this. I’m just not hungry.”

  I saw my father glance up at me from the corner of my eye. It was the first time he’d looked up since we all sat down together. I met his stare, waiting for him to say anything. After a moment he looked back down, but not before I caught his lips twitching slightly like he was fighting back a smile.

  “That Ella Page sure looks good now, doesn’t she?” Chris said casually. I wasn’t fooled.

  “That she does,” Cam said. “I’m thinking that girl needs to be taken out for a night on the town.”

  Chris laughed. “A night on the town? Are you forgetting where we live? Where exactly are you going to take her, the gas station?”

  “They have some pretty good slushies there.”

  “Wow. What a lucky girl,” Chris said with a shake of his head.

  “First of all,” I interrupted, standing up with my still full plate in hand, “Ella always looked good. And secondly, I’m pretty sure she has a boyfriend, who just happened to show up at the farm today, so both of you can just give it a rest. If anyone is taking her anywhere, it’s going to be him.” I dropped the plate in the sink, not bothering to look at any of them as I made my way out of the kitchen and up to my room to get some sleep before my next job started.

  Seventeen

  Ella

  “This is the best damn thing I’ve ever tasted.” Rannon’s voice filtered up the stairs to my bedroom as I swiped a coat of lip gloss over my bottom lip. I shook my head, knowing my Nan was seconds away from giving him heck for cursing. That being said, her apple pie really was the best damn thing anyone’s ever tasted.

  “Those two are going to gain ten pounds each before we leave here tomorrow,” Olivia muttered, pulling her long brown hair back into a ponytail.

  “The magical nature of Nan’s cooking can be denied by no man,” I replied. Stepping back, I took a quick look at myself in the mirror, making sure the flowery dress I wore wasn’t showing too much skin. Now that there were boys in the house, Nan was bound to be more critical of me before we left for the bar. Not that she knew we were going to a bar. I shuddered to think what she’d say if she knew we all had fake IDs.

  “Speaking of men,” Olivia hedged, walking up behind me so her reflection appeared beside mine. “Want to tell me just who that was when we got here?”

  Gage had left without saying goodbye, something that was still bothering me for some reason. He had looked pretty pissed when I got to the house to see my friends had come for a surprise visit, I just couldn’t figure out why. His eyes had practically burned into me when Rannon swung me around. Was he jealous? I doubted it. We were just friends, even if we did dance a little closer than friends normally would the other night.

  I was surprised Olivia had lasted all throughout dinner without asking me about him. Gage was the type of guy a girl couldn’t help but ask about. He was just too good looking for anyone to really pass over.

  “What about him?” I said with a shrug.

  Her eyebrows rose slowly. Okay, I needed to be careful. I forgot who I was dealing with here for a second. Olivia knew me far too well for me to brush off talking about boys so easily. Especially someone like him. Her eyes narrowed as I glanced away from her reflection and started uselessly playing with my hair to add a bit of volume to the wavy tresses.

  “What about him?” she finally repeated. “Uh, how about he looked like the poster boy for sexy young farmers?”

  I didn’t reply.

  “Or,” she continued after a pause, “how about the way he stood there like he not only owned this place, but everything in it? Including a little blonde girl that he clearly did not like being in another man’s arms.”

  I scoffed, finally meeting her knowing gaze again. “You don’t know that,” I argued.

  One side of her mouth lifted in a smirk. “I’d have to be blind not to have noticed the way he looked when Rannon hugged you. The guy was about to rip Rannon’s arms off. And by the looks of his, I’m thinking he could do just that – easily. The man has more muscles than anyone else I’ve ever seen. So who is he?”

  I sighed. “Gage Hunter.”

  “Uh huh. And?”

  I shrugged. “And nothing. He lives in the house next door and is helping Nan out this summer too.”

  “He said you two have been friends since kindergarten.”

  “We were …” I trailed off, turning to grab one of the small clutches I had thought to pack.

  “But you’re not friends now?”

  Flopping down on the bed, I let my head fall forward, bracing my forehead on my palms. I felt the bed dip as Olivia sat down beside me.

  “Hey,” she said, nudging me. “What’s going on? Why don’t you want to talk about this Gage Hunter?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered honestly, keeping my head down. Why didn’t I want to talk about Gage? Why hadn’t I ever wanted to talk about him to Olivia? What the heck was wrong with me? I looked up at her, taking a deep breath. “We were best friends until I moved to Bloomfield. I mean, like the kind of friends that did everything together. We were practically siblings. His family was my family and vice versa.”

  Her mouth dropped open slightly. “How come you never mentioned him before? I don’t remember you ever talking about anyone named Gage.” Her brows puckered in confusion.

  “I don’t know, okay? We moved away and I was so bummed, and then I met you and I just got caught up in us becoming friends, and then …I don’t know. Gage and I just never talked again until this summer.”

  “Well that’s …sad,” she finally said. “But at least you’re friends now.”

  I laughed humourlessly. “Yeah, friends.”

  Her eyes widened. “Are you more than friends?” Suddenly her mouth dropped open and her eyes, if possible, widened even further. “Oh. My. God.”

  “What?” I asked, looking around. What was I missing?

  “He’s the reason, isn’t he?”

  “The reason for what?”

  “The reason why you never really dated anyone in school. He’s your Colt.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Ella,” she warned. “You’re forgetting that I know you better than I know myself most of the time. I always knew there had to be someone that you were judging everyone else against, I just couldn’t figure out who it could be. But now it makes sense. You grew up with someone and obviously never really got over him.”

  I stood up, pacing the small area beside my bed. “I think you’re nuts,” I said, shaking my head. “I did not compare anyone to Gage because I hardly even ever thought of him. I had plenty of crushes.”

  “Yeah but you never dated any of them,” she pointed out.

  “Well that had nothing to do with Gage. He’s just a friend.”

  “S
ure he is.”

  “He is,” I insisted. “I would never go for him. He’s just so ….he’s so …” I struggled for words to describe him.

  “Gorgeous? Clearly in love with you?”

  I barked a laugh. “He is not in love with me, trust me. Gage can get, and has gotten, any and every girl around here. I doubt he is even capable of love.”

  Olivia nodded slowly like she suddenly understood. Ugh, maybe she did. I hated being an open book.

  “Fine,” she said, standing up. “You’re not in love with Gage Hunter, and he’s not in love with you. Forget I even suggested it.”

  I stopped pacing, my eyes now narrowing on her. What was she up to? Since when did Olivia just back down like that?

  “Come on,” she continued, not waiting for me to say anything. “The guys are probably itching to get out of here. It’s better not to make them wait too long, otherwise they’re bound to eat every piece of food in Nan’s kitchen.”

  My head was still spinning from her sudden mood shift as I followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen. Nan was watching the two boys with a smile on her face that instantly told me she liked how much they enjoyed her cooking. If Nan could fatten up every person that stepped foot into her house, she would.

  “You guys ready to go?” Olivia said as we walked in.

  Both boys groaned.

  “I’m about to go into a food coma,” Rannon complained, leaning back in his chair as he rubbed his belly.

  “Me too,” Colt said. “Best coma – ever.”

  Rannon grumbled something that sounded like an agreement.

  The bar was something straight out of some honky-tonk movie. Country music blared from inside, while the parking lot was filled with nothing but beat-up looking pick-up trucks. This was not the kind of place we would have gone to had we been in the city, but beggars can’t be choosers. It was the best we were going to get unless we drove over two hours to somewhere else.

  Colt and Rannon actually seemed excited by the run-down exterior. Olivia and I, on the other hand, scooted a bit closer to them as we approached the door. There wasn’t even a bouncer standing there to check IDs. I guess there wasn’t likely to be a long line waiting to get in, I reasoned.

  Rannon’s arm dropped around my shoulders. “You just stick close to me, good looking. I’ll make sure no one bothers you,” he said, giving me a cheeky wink.

  “What if you’re the one bothering me?” I replied with a sweet smile.

  He laughed, pulling me closer. “We both know that’s a lie.”

  I just rolled my eyes. Rannon was innocent, and in reality I probably did need him there to buffer any of the more aggressive guys inside. These country boys could be pretty forward once they had too much alcohol in their system. Well, any boy could be like that, I admitted. I wasn’t in much of a mood to be hit on so having Rannon there would be a good thing for once.

  We walked into the bar and were met with a wall of sound, hitting us as soon as the door shut out the outside. People shouted, music thumped, and the balls over at the pool tables clanked loudly. It was hard for me to even think, never mind hear what the others were saying just beside me. Following Colt, we all headed toward the back of the bar where some booths were, and grabbed an empty one.

  “What do you want to drink?” Rannon asked, shouting in my ear.

  I cringed away, rubbing at it. “Just a beer,” I said, hoping he’d hear me because there was no way I was going to shout all night. He nodded, leaving Olivia and I there as he and Colt made their way to the bar.

  “This place is packed,” Olivia said, bringing her head closer to me.

  “I bet it’s the only place in town, so I’m not surprised,” I replied.

  She nodded. “I feel out of place, like everyone will take one look at us and know we’re not from around there.”

  I looked around, catching quite a few glances our way. Oh yeah, they knew we weren’t locals. There was no hiding that fact in this kind of crowd. My eyes got stuck on a familiar face who nodded their head in acknowledgement. I nodded back just as my vision of him was blocked by the return of Rannon and Colt.

  “Who’s that?” Olivia asked.

  “Jake,” I said. “We went to school together. He’s friends with Gage.”

  “Is Gage here?”

  I looked around again, trying my best not to seem too hopeful. Not that I was. Okay, maybe I was. Why? I didn’t know. I’d just spent all afternoon with him and yet a big part of me still hoped he was here tonight so I could see him again. After looking at every blonde head I could find I shook my head at her. As per usual Gage was God knows where during the evening. He probably had some hot date, I thought miserably.

  “What’s with the frown?” Rannon asked, leaning in.

  “I’m not frowning,” I denied, plastering a smile on my face before taking a gulp of the cold beer.

  “Did they card you?” Olivia asked.

  Both boys shook their heads. “I don’t think they really care,” Colt said. “Most of the guys in here look like they’re about our age, or even younger.”

  I nodded. There were quite a few people from the party the other night, so I knew a lot of them were underage like we were. Small town, small problems, I guessed. It wasn’t like the local police were going to raid the place for underage drinking. Half the people in here were their own kids.

  My eyes met Jake’s again. He was watching our table with interest, his gaze taking stock of Rannon beside me.

  “That guy bothering you?” Rannon asked.

  I didn’t even realize he’d noticed, his face turned away from where Jake stood.

  I shook my head. The last thing I needed was my friends getting in a fight with my old friends. “I know him. He’s innocent,” I said with a wave of my hand.

  Rannon’s eyebrows shot up. “No guy is innocent, Ella. Don’t be fooled.”

  “It’s not like that,” I insisted. “He’s probably just wondering who you guys are. Jake and I are just friends, and he knows that.”

  “Uh huh.” Rannon took a long, slow drink of his beer. “What about the guy at the farm today? Does he know you two are just friends?”

  I sat up straighter, my defenses perking up for some reason. “Yes, yes he does. Why?”

  He hummed under his breath as though he was unconvinced. “Didn’t seem like it the way he was eyeing me up and down.”

  “I doubt he was eyeing you over.”

  Rannon laughed. “Sweet Ella, I know when another guy is thinking of all the ways he could tear me apart. Especially when you got there. He couldn’t have made it any clearer that he thinks of you as his if he’d pissed circles around you.”

  I scrunched up my nose. “That’s nasty,” I said, adding, “and completely not true.”

  “Sure, Ella. You keep telling yourself that. I don’t know who he is or what the deal is with you two, but that guy did not like me being near you. And I’d bet my left nut he feels the same for just about every other guy that comes around you. I know possessiveness when I see it.”

  “Then why did you insist on picking me up and spinning me around like that?” I asked. I’d wondered about that at the time too, since Rannon had never greeted me that way. I highly doubted he’d missed me that much since I’d been here.

  A slow, mischievous smile spread across his face. “Because any guy that looks at a girl the way he looks at you, but hasn’t claimed her, needs a little reminder once in a while that there are plenty of other guys out there waiting for their chance. Sometimes a little competition is just the right amount of push a guy needs to get his head out of his ass.” He winked at me, taking a big gulp. I didn’t know how to reply to that – if I should thank him or admonish him for being such a Neanderthal, so instead I took his cue and gulped down a mouthful as well.

  Eighteen

  Gage

  My feet hurt, my back ached, and I had the beginning of a killer headache. So when Cam pulled into the packed parking lot of Gill’s, I was ins
tantly pissed – more so than I’d already been all night. No matter what I did, or what I tried to think about, my mood had been miserable from the moment I’d left the farm earlier. Even brainless work couldn’t distract me from the memory of that punk kid swinging around my Ella.

  “What the hell are we doing here?” I asked tiredly, not bothering to undo my seatbelt.

  Cam was already pulling his door open. He glanced over his shoulder as though my question was the most confusing thing he’d ever heard.

  “Grabbing a beer,” he answered in an obvious tone. “What else would we be doing here?”

  I scanned the parking lot, recognizing a few trucks. A lot of my friends were inside, which meant I couldn’t just sit there and nurse a cold one like I wanted to. I’d have to put on a game face and socialize, something I really wasn’t up for.

  “Come on, cranky pants,” Cam said, getting out of the truck and staring at me from his open door. “You can’t pout all night.”

  “I’m not pouting.”

  “Yes you are, and I’m getting sick of it. Let’s go grab a quick beer and then we’ll head home.”

  “Some of us have to work in the morning,” I pointed out. It was damn late and I was beat.

  “Yeah, yeah. Half an hour, that’s all I’m asking for. Then I will get you back home and to bed.”

  We stared at each other, silently arguing. It was the Hunter way. Sometimes words were needless when you could convey everything with one withering look.

  “One beer, Gage,” Cam pleaded. “That’s it. Just one beer.”

  “One,” I said. “And then we’re out of there.”

  He saluted me with a triumphant grin. “Yes, sir. One beer and we’re gone.”

  A loud cheer rang out as we entered. Cam, of course, made a spectacle of himself, soaking up the attention as I made a beeline for the bar. I was in a horrible mood and all I wanted to do was grab a crisp cold one and get the hell out of there. Jake leaned against the bar watching me as I made my way over.