Waking up with Ella in my arms felt like a dream. The warmth of her skin against mine had me pulling her even closer, never wanting this feeling to end. I was so lost in my own sense of contentment that it took me a moment to realize that Ella had suddenly stiffened against me. It took me another second to realize we were no longer the only ones in the room.
Slowly, I turned my head to see Nan standing just inside the doorway, her eyes locked on us in a narrowed, scary look. I didn’t release my hold on Ells as I gave Nan my best smile. “Good morning,” I said.
Nan huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Better for some than others it looks like,” she replied. “You two are late for work. Get up,” she ordered, turning to leave. She kept the door open, something I’m sure was done purposely.
“Oh. My. God.” Ella groaned, burying her face in the pillow we shared. I couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling out of me.
“How can you be laughing at a time like this?” she asked, her voice muffled by feathers and fabric.
“Oh, come on,” I said, trying to turn her. She gave a good effort to stop me before I finally managed to get her on her back so I could see her face. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes barely able to meet my own. Gripping her chin, I forced her to look back at me, not wanting this morning to ruin everything that had happened between us the night before.
“Hey,” I said softly.
Her lips twitched as she fought back a smile. “Hey,” she said, somewhat reluctantly. I smiled at her, loving the way she looked first thing in the morning. Her hair was a mess, her face bare of make-up. Her lips were swollen from the night before, a few love bites coloured her neck and chest. Male pride and possessiveness swelled inside me. This girl was mine. She’d been mine since we were four, but now she was mine in all ways. I couldn’t stop the happiness racing through me even if I’d wanted to. The fact that we’d just been caught by Nan couldn’t even dampen this feeling.
I leaned down and kissed her slowly, drinking her in. If I thought having her grandma walk in on us would diminish her reaction to me this morning, I’d have been wrong. As soon as our lips touched, Ella moaned against me, her arms wrapping around my neck to pull me fully on top of her. The fact that we were both very naked didn’t escape me, or my body’s attention. Unfortunately, even though I wasn’t going to let Nan ruin this moment for us, I certainly wasn’t going to do more than kiss her knowing that Nan was up and waiting for us. Even I had my limits. That, and I respected Nan too much.
The lower half of me was not impressed as I pulled away. Seeing Ella’s desire radiating out of her bright blue eyes wasn’t making it any easier. “I should go home and change quickly,” I said, brushing her hair off her face. She just nodded, biting her lower lip as she visibly tried to get in control again. I liked Ella out of control. Not now, Gage, I reminded myself.
With a quick peck on the lips, I pushed myself out of the bed and began the process of trying to locate my discarded clothes that were scattered around the room. Ella stayed in bed, her eyes watching me the entire time.
“Like what you see?” I said teasingly as I pulled on my jeans.
“Very much,” she replied, wiggling her eyebrows. The grin on her face outshone the morning sun filtering through the curtains. Nothing on this earth could compare to Ella Page, in my opinion.
“Good,” I said, walking over to drop another kiss on her forehead. Grabbing my shirt, I walked to the door, giving her one last look before leaving. “I’ll see you at work,” I said with a wink. She saluted me from the comfort of her bed, the thin sheets covering what I knew was pure perfection beneath. Forcing myself to take the next step, I walked out, shutting her door behind me.
Nan was in the kitchen when I reached the main floor. She sat at the table, holding a paper in front of her as she bit at her thumb nail. Nan did not bite her nails. Her brows were pulled low over her eyes, telling me that whatever she was looking at wasn’t good. I had a pretty good idea what it was about.
“Everything okay?” I asked, breaking into the silence. She jumped, her eyes flying up to see me standing there watching her. Quickly she re-folded the paper, but not before I saw the yellow and blue colours of the bank’s logo.
“Other than catching my granddaughter in bed with a boy this morning?” she replied, eyebrows raised.
There was no way I could tell her I knew about her financial issues regarding the farm, even though I really wanted to, so I went along with it. Nan needed to talk to someone, ask for help. But she was old-school and full of pride, so I knew I couldn’t just come out and tell her I knew she was in financial trouble. And I definitely didn’t want to say anything where Ella could hear. Obviously she didn’t want her granddaughter to know, and I had to respect that.
Chuckling, I walked further into the kitchen to stand beside her, leaning down to kiss her on the cheek like I always did. “Now Nan,” I said reproachfully. “You know I’m a man, not a boy. Be nice.”
She harrumphed, rolling her eyes. “Man or boy, you’d better be careful when it comes to my girl.”
“You know you don’t have to warn me of that,” I said, looking at her seriously. “I’d never do anything to hurt that girl.”
“Better not. Because if you do, you’ll have me to worry about, and you don’t want that.”
I laughed, giving her another quick kiss before walking toward the back door. “I’d rather deal with a rabid dog than an angry Nan,” I said as I walked out.
Her shout followed me out, “And don’t you forget it!”
“Where are you coming home from?”
I looked up to see Dad standing just at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes roaming over the wrinkled clothes I’d been wearing the night before. The screen door slammed closed behind me as we just stared at each other.
He sighed loudly. “Do I need to have the talk with you?”
My eyes widened in shock. “What? No!”
“Oh man, please do,” Cam said, appearing in the kitchen doorway. “I’d love to witness that.”
“I haven’t needed you to have ‘the talk’ with me for a long time, Dad.”
Dad grunted before turning to walk past my brother into the kitchen.
“Party pooper,” Cam grumbled, disappearing into the kitchen behind him. I followed, heading to the fridge to grab a drink before I had to change and rush back out.
“Ella Page is not like the girls from your high school days, Gage,” Dad started saying. “You’d better do right by that girl. I won’t have her hurt or have Nan coming over here to beat your head in with one of her bats.”
Cam flinched as if he were picturing that exact thing. “She’d do it too,” he whispered, his face a mask of horror.
I shook my head at him. My brother could be so melodramatic sometimes. That, or he was just an idiot. Yeah, he was probably just an idiot. “Nan is not going to do anything to me, because I’m not going to screw this up. I’ve already made that clear to you guys. Would you please get off my back?”
Dad held both hands up in defeat. “I’m just making sure we’re on the same page.”
“We are, so drop it.”
“I have a lot of respect for that family. I just don’t want to see our relationship with them ruined. Nan is a good woman, and she doesn’t have too many people left around here to watch out for her. There ain’t no way I’m having one of my boys hurt her or anyone related to her.”
I waved him off, his speech unnecessary. Nan and Ella were family to me, and I would protect them the same way I would protect one of my brothers or my dad. Which was why I needed to seriously think of a way to help Nan out. With that thought, I reached for my cell, dialing a number I never thought I’d actually use when it had been given to me. It was time for me to repay all the kindness Nan had shown me since I was a trouble-making little boy. If there was anyone in this small-ass town who hadn’t looked at me like I was filth throughout all the stages of my life, it had been her. I was going to show her just how much
that meant to me.
Twenty-Five
Ella
“You didn’t!”
I rolled my eyes as I leaned back against the headboard, holding the phone slightly away from my ear as Olivia’s voice came screeching through the other line. “No, I’m lying. I just decided to call and tell you I lost my virginity last night for shits and giggles.”
Olivia made some strange growling noise. “Be serious, Ella. So how was it?”
Ugh. This was exactly the question I was afraid of. My mind and body were still trying to play catch up with last night’s events. Every time I thought about what happened between Gage and me, my heart started to race and my palms would sweat. I was so deliriously happy I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was also scared as hell that all my happiness would be ripped away from me.
“Ella?”
“Sorry,” I replied, giving myself a quick mental shake.
“That bad, huh?”
I laughed. “No, no, it wasn’t bad at all,” I said quickly. “It was actually, really good.”
“Wow, seriously? My first time was awful,” she said. I could practically hear her shudder.
“To be honest, it was exactly how I had always hoped it would be.”
“Aw,” she crooned. “That’s so cute it’s almost disgusting.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, well, it was pretty much perfect up until the moment my grandmother walked in on us this morning.”
She gasped loudly. “No! Tell me you’re joking.”
I half groaned, half laughed. “I wish I were,” I said miserably.
“What happened?”
“She came in to wake me up and found us cuddling – naked – in bed.”
“Oh man,” she laughed, “that’s horrible. What did Gage do?”
I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face as I remembered. Nothing ever rattled Gage Hunter. It was one of the things I had always loved about him. It gave me comfort to know that he would always keep a level head, even if I was freaking out.
“He said good morning to her like there was nothing wrong with the picture,” I answered.
Olivia started laughing. “That is amazing. I don’t know about you, but I think that boy is a keeper. Anyone that doesn’t crumble under Nan’s evil eye is a winner in my books.”
My smile stretched to epic proportions. Gage was definitely a keeper. As we finished off our conversation and I started to get ready for the day, I realized that I could honestly never remember being as happy as I was right now. Gage was finally in my life the way I had secretly dreamed of. This summer had suddenly taken a massive turn for the better.
I swiped at the sweat dripping down the side of my face for what felt like the millionth time in the last five minutes alone. It was a scorching day and I was dying for a cool, refreshing drink. Too bad I was doing all I could to avoid going into the kitchen while Nan was in there. I’d even skipped out on breakfast – unheard of when it came to me. I usually ate as soon as I woke up, but there was no way I could sit across from Nan while she shot daggers at me for daring to touch a person of the opposite sex.
Sex. God, I still couldn’t believe I had actually slept with Gage. A stupid grin stretched across my face before I could stop it. Man, I was in deep. It was scary. Giving myself a good mental shake, I bent down to continue working when an arm snaked around my middle, forcing me up and crushing me against a solid wall of muscle.
“If I have to watch you bend over in those tiny ass shorts one more time, I’m going to give Nan even more of a show than she already got this morning,” Gage said into my ear, his breath brushing against my heated skin in a way that made me shiver in his hold.
“No one asked you to watch,” I managed to reply, my voice coming out more breathy that I would have liked.
He chuckled as he ran his nose along the column of my neck. I could feel my body lose control, sinking fully into his embrace as though he owned it. “As if I could help myself,” he replied. He dropped a kiss just below my ear before releasing his tight hold on me. “How’s your morning going, beautiful?”
I turned to smile up at him, one hand swiping at the sweat already beading on my brow. I must look like a hot, sweaty mess, I thought sadly. “Hot,” I answered. “I’m melting, but I don’t want to go into the house just yet.”
He laughed. “Letting ol’ Nan cool down, are you?”
I nodded. “Definitely. I don’t need a lecture right now. And don’t let her hear you calling her old, or you’ll really be in trouble.”
He waved me off. “I thought maybe we could take a break and go have something to eat in the shade,” he suggested, gesturing to the tractor behind him.
The smile on my face stretched to epic proportions as I saw a basket and blanket sitting on the seat. He’d gone and made us a lunch to have. I didn’t think it was possible to fall even more under this man’s spell. How could I not when he did the sweetest things?
“I guess I could make some time for you,” I said with a shrug, my stomach rolling as his eyes narrowed on me. We both knew nothing would stop me from spending my lunch with him, but that didn’t mean I had to make it easy for him. We always gave each other a hard time, it’s what we did. Just because we were together now didn’t mean I was going to stop. Plus, from the way his eyes heated, I knew he loved it as much as I did. I fought back a giggle as he stepped closer to me, trying to appear menacing.
“Well, that’s awfully nice of you,” he said sarcastically.
I shrugged again. “I try,” I said, biting my lip. He leaned in closer, his arms reaching for me. “What? Are you going to sweep me into your arms like a gentleman?”
His eyebrows raised. “Maybe I am,” he said, right before his arms wrapped around me and I found my world turning upside down as he slung me unceremoniously over his shoulder. “Or,” he continued as I shrieked loudly, “I’ll just toss you over my shoulder like a caveman.”
My hands gripped his hips as he walked, my hair blocking my sight as all the blood rushed to my head. “Gage Hunter, you put me down!”
“You can’t tell me what to do, Ella Page,” he replied instantly.
I had to fight off my laughter. This was us. This was normal. This kind of exchange was so familiar, it was almost as though we were seven again, bickering back and forth. It felt as if all the years that had passed, the ones where our friendship had just stopped, all of it had never happened, and we were simply us again. My reply came to me as easily as my next breath.
“I can tell you if I want, otherwise I’ll tell my Nan.”
My mouth fell open in shock as his hand landed with a loud smack on my ass. The laugh that escaped me was a mixture of shock and mild outrage, and actual amusement that he’d had the nerve to do such a thing.
“You always were a brat,” he said. I could hear the smile in his voice, even though I couldn’t see his face.
“Yeah, and you always pretended not to like it,” I replied.
Gage had picked a spot under one of the willows at the back of the property. The long branches hung around us, hiding us from the rest of the world. We lay beside one another on the blanket he’d brought, both full after eating the huge lunch he’d packed.
“I feel like a cow,” I complained, rubbing my full stomach. “Now all I’m going to want to do is sleep.”
He laughed lightly. “That’s what happens when you don’t eat breakfast.”
I turned to look at him questioningly. “How did you know I didn’t eat breakfast?”
He gave me an incredulous look. “I know you, Ella. You were never one to like confrontation. There was no way you were going to have breakfast with Nan after this morning’s events.”
I turned my head to look above me again. “Yeah, well, you’d feel the same if she was your grandma.”
“She is like my grandma,” he pointed out. “But luckily for me, I have dimples so she can’t stay mad at me. Isn’t that right?”
I rolled my eyes even as I laughed. G
age’s smiling face was suddenly above mine as he braced himself over me.
“What about you? Think you could ever stay mad at me?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
I pretended to contemplate it, even though I knew I probably couldn’t. I mean, I’d tried to for years, and yet look at us now. Clearly my resolve had a weak spot, and its name was Gage Hunter.
“You planning on making me mad?” I asked, instead of answering his question.
His smile turned into the grin that always meant trouble. “Oh, I can almost guarantee it. I’m male, remember? It’s like second nature to us.”
I stroked my fingers through the soft strands of his hair, drinking him in. “In that case, you’d better be really good at sucking up afterward.”
He leaned down, dropping a tiny kiss to the corner of my mouth. “I’ll be the best, I promise.” Then his mouth covered mine, silencing any response I may have had. Not that I could really form any coherent thought when he kissed me like this. His tongue tangled with mine, making me moan as my body arched against his, wanting more.
He pulled back, despite my protest, his cheeks flushed and lips swollen. “You make me crazy,” he said, his breathing coming out quickly.
“Good,” I said, trying to pull him back to me.
“Do you think Nan will notice if we’re gone a bit longer?” he said against my mouth.
“Probably.”
“Do you care?”
“Nope.”
Twenty-Six
Gage
For the first time in a long time, everything in my life was perfect. I had the girl I’d always wanted, work was nothing I couldn’t handle, things at home were good, and I’d started to be able to look into the mirror without being disgusted at what I saw there. Ella kept me grounded, made me happy, and I finally was content to just be, rather than going out to look for trouble. I felt like I could breathe again.
The next week went by in a blur. I’d spend my days working on the farm, my nights at the factory, and then I’d crawl up into Ella’s bedroom and spend whatever time I had left before sunrise loving her. Waking up with her in my arms made everything better. There was an emptiness that had been there ever since my mother passed that was no longer hollow and aching.
Simple Beginnings Page 17
