by Amanda Rose
"Shit on a cracker! You’re them!" Donna said with excitement when she made it to the table.
"This is Tobi, Ezra and Jasper,” I pointed each of them out to her, not really understanding what she meant by that. “They rented out Stanley’s half of the cabin and are renovating it during the holiday."
They each gave a little wave or a smile. The lustful look on her face at the sight of their smiles almost made me laugh. I felt sorry for her, really. Who in their right mind could deny the bastards anything when they threw out their charm like that?
“Oh, trust me! I know who they are!” Donna said, patting my shoulder like it was completely stupid of me to introduce them. “They run that sexy holiday strip show every year in the city! I missed last year’s event, but I may have to make an exception this year,” she purred, eyeing the guys like she just discovered a juicy steak.
“Strip show? What strip show?” I looked back and forth between them. “Why do I not know about this?” I questioned them mercilessly. Why had I lived in this place my whole damn life and never heard of a sexy holiday strip show? This definitely explained the dancing I walked in on.
"Well, I'll have to let Miss Tammy Sue know that she has new customers. She likes introducing her cooking to newbies. What will you three have?" Donna said, completely ignoring my last question.
"Ladies first," Ezra said with a smile to her.
Was nobody going to answer me?
Donna let out a loud boisterous laugh. "She's been coming in here since she was a kid. Everyone here knows what she orders, so they’ve stopped asking her what she wants, because it will always be the same. I only came over here to actually take an order because of you gentleman."
“Actually,” I held up a finger to get her attention. “I’m getting one extra pancake and a shit ton of bacon. And these guys are paying so don’t hold back. Like seriously, just throw a whole pig’s worth of it onto a plate”
Donna gave me a look like I’d lost my mind, but wrote down what I wanted anyways.
Ezra nudged me while Tobi and Jasper gave Donna their orders. I looked over and he gave me a soft smile.
"I think it's cute that they know you so well,” he said to me softly. “And, we like the fact you have no idea who we are. It gets annoying being fawned over like we’re celebrities when were just some average guys doing what we love to do."
"Don’t think I give two shits about you guys being celebrities. I’m more concerned about this strip show I had no clue about, so you guys better fill me in. Oh, and one thing I'm definitely not in this world, is cute. You will agree with me when you see how fast I put away these pancakes and bacon. It won't be pretty."
Ezra laughed then gave his order to Donna. She excused herself to get our drinks and the guys immediately set all their attention on me.
"Okay, spill. We wanna know more about the girl next door," Jasper demanded playfully.
"Uh, why?" I asked in confusion. "Wasn't this supposed to be about me getting to know all of you so I won't try to murder you in your sleep one of these nights because you snored too loud? Oh, and the strip show. Seriously, someone better spill."
They all chuckled.
"We’ll get to that, but first we want to know more about you. Like your last name, what you do for a living, and any family nearby?" Tobi explained.
I simmered a little beneath the surface that they were going to set aside the strip show explanation. If it took answering a few questions about myself though, I guess I could wait a little longer.
"Westmon is my last name and I'm an interior designer. Though, work has been on the downside lately. And as far as family, it’s just my best friend Sarah. I lost my dad last year and I’d rather not talk about it."
Donna came back and set down coffee in front of all of us and a large bowl with creamer packages inside. I immediately fixed my coffee, knowing I was going to need to suck this down if this became an interrogation. I'd discuss anything with them except the intricate details of my family.
"Well, what do ya know? Her last name is Westmon." Jasper said with rapt interest as he looked back and forth between the guys.
My eyebrows shot up in confusion. "What? What’s wrong with my last name?"
"Nothing. It’s just, coincidently enough, our last names all have a directional point of a compass in it," Tobi responded. "My last name is North, Jasper's is Southwick, and Ezra's is Eastmon. You have West in yours, which is the direction we’ve been missing in our little group. And, you are an interior designer, which just makes this even more interesting."
I stared in shock at them for a second then picked up and sipped my coffee, averting my eyes to look anywhere but them. While it wasn't really a big deal, it was a one in a million chance that this type of thing would happen. How could my life be so damn ironic?
"We became friends because of it,” Ezra said after a moment of silence. “All of us kind of gravitated towards each other naturally when we met in foster care. Then as we got older, we realized we were all interested in the same type of things."
"Like construction?" I asked. I left the foster care thing alone. I’d heard stories from a friend who’d been in foster care. Most of the reasons behind kids ending up there weren’t good.
Did they have pasts as bad or worse than mine?
"We own the construction company. It’s called Compass Construction and Renovation," Jasper said proudly. "I’m the architect that draws up the designs for the house, or business, or whatever project were working on. Ezra makes sure all the wiring, insulation and structure of the buildings are up to code with the best materials when we bring the subcontractors in. And then Tobi is the one that actually builds the building. We all take part a little in the building, but that’s definitely Tobi’s expertise."
I was completely blown away. My last name matched theirs and my job was like the icing on the cake. They built the buildings, I decorated the inside. Houses were my specialty, but I'd done a few offices and restaurants around town. The only reason the cabin had no flair whatsoever, was because my dad always thought it had enough character and didn't want to add anything more. I never had the heart to touch it after he died. It was all I really had left of him and the thought of changing that terrified me.
"I'm officially weirded out," I replied, putting my head in my hands.
"I think it's pretty damn cool, actually. What are the chances?" Tobi responded.
“What made you decided on interior design?” Ezra asked me.
I tried to think of the best way to respond without sounding pathetic. “Well, I never really had a nice house growing up. I knew there was no way I’d be building houses, but I could decorate them in a way that made the people who owned them feel proud about where they lived or worked. Just was an easy passion for me to fall into.”
Donna finally arrived with food as I finished my brief explanation. I quickly started stuffing my face to avoid any more involvement in this conversation.
"You were right," I heard Ezra say next to me.
"I'm usually right about a lot of things, so you're going to have to be specific," I mumbled, half my mouth filled with delicious, sugary pancakes.
He chuckled and reached for a napkin, bringing it up and wiping the corner of my mouth. I tried not to gape at him doing that. It was oddly affectionate how gentle he was about it and I didn't like the warm and fuzzies it gave me.
"You absolutely are not cute when you eat."
I scrunched my brows at him in offense, only to burst into laughter not a second later.
He winked at me and nudged me to keep eating, the others smiled as they ate.
I hated to admit it, but they were slowly growing on me; even with all the weird coincidences and annoying tendencies.
“Hey! You didn’t answer my question about the strip show!” I remembered halfway through finishing my food.
“We’ll tell you later. Finish your food that you demanded,” Tobi insisted, pointing his butter knife at my pile of bacon.
It took a good bit of time for us to leave. Donna had to get a little more flirting out of her system. There was no telling when or if they’d ever come back here, so I didn’t bother breaking up her fun. Then again, I was oddly irritated by her flirting with them and had no idea why.
After I finally managed to pry them away from Donna, I drove us all to the local market to get all my snack cravings. I was one of those abnormal females that craved some sort of food all the time – whether I was PMSing or not. If I didn’t get the craving, I turned into a bit of a raving bitch that even I couldn’t tolerate to be around.
I grabbed a shopping cart and quickly made my way through the aisles, letting the guys go off to find whatever they wanted to get. It gave me a minute to collect myself from the strangeness of the morning. I just needed to get home, have a small glass of wine or some shots of Jack, and take a hot bath. At least, I hoped it’d be a hot one. I’d figure out everything else after that.
As I was going down the aisle with all the chips and cookies, one of my favorite Christmas songs played over the intercoms. Baby It’s Cold Outside was always mine and Dad’s favorite to dance around like idiots too; especially the one sung by Idina Menzel and Michael Bublé. Something about a sultry male singing voice just did seriously dangerous things to my body.
I wasn’t a terrible singer or dancer, but I usually kept that stuff to myself. Now, however, the song felt like a soothing balm on my chaotic mind. I began to softly sing the song as I perused the snacks, moving my body in my own little world. I swayed my shopping cart back and forth, picking up a can of Pringles to sing into.
An elderly man walked by me as I put on a shameless little show, waving my finger at him playfully and winking as I sang, “I really can’t stay…”
He smiled and shook his head at me, continuing away from the crazy chick singing into a can of chips. I couldn’t help it. I really loved this song and it was do easy to get lost in the uplifting spirit of it.
Unfortunately for me, he wasn’t the only one on this aisle.
I was just getting to a part where the song picks up, when I turned to grab a package of chocolate chip cookies. I stopped immediately, the can/microphone falling from my hand into my basket. All three of the guys were watching me from the other end of the aisle with matching smirks. They started to slowly clap as the words died from my lips.
My cheeks burned with embarrassment and I shoved the cookies into the cart, then quickly exited the aisle in the opposite direction. I couldn’t believe I’d just done that. I hadn’t even been thinking when I started doing it. With strangers, I had absolutely no shame in being a little ridiculous and letting loose. But with it being them and all their hot glory, just added that extra layer of humiliation on top.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up there, Low,” Ezra used the nickname my friends used as he came up behind me, snagging me around the waist with his arm and hauling me to a stop.
“Dude!” I yelped in shock, not prepared for him to grab me like that.
“You need to calm down,” he said with a chuckle and let me go, turning me by my shoulders to face him as the other two caught up with us.
“I am calm. You just surprised me,” I argued with a huff.
By the look he leveled me with, I knew he figured I was lying.
“Damn girl! Where’d you learn to dance like that?” Jasper asked excitedly as he and Tobi approached.
“Uh, I can’t dance. That was just like … wiggling …” It was the best explanation I could come up with, but saying the word ‘wiggling’ didn’t exactly make it sound appealing.
“That was pretty hot,” Tobi added, the other two nodded enthusiastically in agreement.
“Would you be able to repeat that?” Jasper asked curiously.
I bit my lip, not sure if I liked where this was going. “Um. Well, I guess I could. Why?” I squinted my eyes at him with suspicion.
“Okay, so you know that strip show that was mentioned?” Tobi asked me.
I nodded enthusiastically, ecstatic they were finally going to give me an explanation.
“Well, we sponsor the event every year around the holidays. It takes place in the city and we participate in it as the final act every year. It’s uh … well, it’s …” Ezra paused and looked at the other two as if he didn’t know how to finish that sentence.
“It’s an all-male Christmas themed strip show,” Jasper supplied unashamed. “We’ve never done one with a female before, but we’ve been thinking about trying it. A bunch of different teams come in to perform and the money raised goes to whatever charities we pick out each year. The teams get to keep a small portion of what they make for helping, but the rest is given away to those who need it. We believe if we added a female in our performance, we could make the finale ten times better. You fit the role perfectly. Your name fits with ours. You know how to move your body. And, of course, you’re hot as hell.”
And here I thought the morning couldn’t get any weirder; I was sadly mistaken.
I looked back and forth between all of them. “You’re serious?” I asked.
They all nodded.
“Dead serious,” replied Tobi.
After a few moments of just standing there staring at them, I finally replied with, “I need a drink.” And then headed to the checkout counter.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Stripper Material”
The drive back to the cabin was a bit awkward. While I drove, I continued replaying what the guys were asking me to do over and over in my head.
I’d never done anything like this before and wasn’t sure if I could hack it. Sara would get a massive kick out of this and would probably think I was making it all up. But this wasn’t the kind of shit you could just make up on a whim. Even I wasn’t this creative.
When we got back to the cabin, I tried going back to my side of it, but Jasper grabbed my shoulders and steered me in the opposite directions towards theirs.
“Nope! You’re not getting away that easy. Nice try, though,” he said with a laugh, pushing me inside.
“I wasn’t trying to get away. I was just going to go start drinking and hope this was all some weird dream,” I replied as he pushed me down to sit on the couch.
I hadn’t really gotten a good look at their side of the place the last time I was here; half-naked men tended to win against interior design when both were placed in front of my face.
It had dark, wood flooring like mine, and the setup of the place was like the mirror image of mine. The walls were primed with a fresh coat of primer and the furniture was a bit nicer than the tattered ones my dad left. The kitchen cabinets were all unscrewed and set to the side and the counter was being torn up. An array of tools were scattered along a table with one of those large lights that construction workers usually used sitting next to it. Tarp was laid out along the floor in the kitchen and some in the hallway leading to the bathroom and laundry area at the back. The stairway leading up to the second floor seemed to be the only part that was untouched.
These guys were moving fast for only having been here a few days. I was kind of jealous this place would have all new, shiny shit and I still couldn’t bring myself to replace a few simple loose floorboards on my side. My side was almost a mirror image as far as placement of everything, but my furniture was pretty jacked up and I’m pretty sure the doors on my kitchen cabinets were mere days away from falling off should I blow on them too hard. It was a wreck to say the least.
Tobi and Ezra sat on either side of me while Jasper stood in front of us, looking like he was about to make a speech of some sort. Ezra grabbed the bottle of jack from my hands that I’d bought at the liquor store on our way back, and unscrewed it, taking a sip then passing it back to me. I gave him an affronted look and yanked it from his grasp, hiding it on the other side of me while glaring at him.
> “Now, you are going to do this with us. There's no way we're letting you out of it after what we just saw,” Jasper explained.
I rolled my eyes. “You saw nothing. There's no way I can repeat that on stage, nor strip all my clothes off. I'm not modest or anything, but I'm definitely not stripper material, either. Besides, this is supposed to be an all-male show, isn’t it?”
“Exceptions are made for us, since we sponsor the event. We can do what we want.” Tobi explained next to me, snatching my bottle and taking a swig before handing it back.
I gave him a nasty glare, too. What the hell was up with them stealing my booze? I was starting to get a little annoyed that they weren't just asking for my alcohol. I’d share if they did. Maybe.
I thrust the bottle towards Jasper, inviting him to some of the whiskey since apparently it had turned into the community beverage and I wasn’t wanting to deal with another snatch and chug from them. “You wanna steal some from me too?” I snapped out at him.
He just smiled and shook his head. “No thanks. You keep it,” he replied.
I pulled it back to me and shrugged. At least one person didn’t want to steal it.
“Besides,” Tobi continued, ignoring the quick exchange between me and Jasper. “I think adding a woman could be beneficial. It gives the men that get dragged there by their wives or girlfriends something to look at, and could possibly help get donations from their pockets.”
“Okay, I see where you’re going, but this event is what, a bit over a week from now? How on earth do you expect me to go from a little hip shaking, to full on sexy dancing without falling flat on my face? And don’t think I didn't catch that none of you answered my question about getting naked.” I pointed an accusatory finger at all of them.
